Report of
GOVERNOR’S REPRESENTATIVES
for California at
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Sacramento, Cal., December 27, 1910.
To Hon. James N. Gillett,
Governor of California, and Ex-Officio Commissioner
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
Dear Sir:—
As your Representatives, charged with the details of California’s representation at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, held at Seattle, Washington, from June 1st to October 15th, 1909, inclusive, we take pleasure in submitting to you the following report of our work.
It was right that California should aid and participate in a Western Exposition, and it was wise to make the appropriation for the purpose sufficient to insure a creditable representation of the State’s resources. Accordingly, on your recommendation, the Legislature of 1907, set apart from the General Fund the sum of $100,000, and authorized you, as Commissioner for California, through such Representatives as it might be your pleasure to appoint, to supervise the general expenditure of the appropriation in the erection of a suitable building on the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition grounds, and the collection and installation therein of such an exhibit as would do credit to the State, and exemplify in as striking and effective manner as possible the great variety and superior quality of California’s products.
REPRESENTATIVES.
In accordance with the authority thus conferred it was your pleasure to appoint the undersigned to represent you in this work. You acted promptly and gave your Representatives ample time to take advantage of the seasons to secure samples of everything necessary for a complete display of the State’s resources. To this one fact is due largely the greater completeness of the Seattle exhibit than any California had previously made. You also relieved your Representatives of possible embarrassment by allowing them to appoint their own assistants and fix their compensation and term of service. In the exercise of this authority preference was given to those best qualified to perform the work required, and the term of employment depended on efficiency and good behavior. No help was hired that was not absolutely necessary, and no one was kept on the pay-roll a moment longer than his or her services were required. In short, it was our determined purpose from the start to try and secure maximum results at a minimum cost in every department of the work, to the end that the final outcome might be an improvement on any previous effort made by California of a similar character.