ALMOST READY PANAMA EXPOSITION EXHIBIT PALACES A YEAR IN ADVANCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1914, Page 3

ALMOST READY PANAMA EXPOSITION EXHIBIT PALACES A YEAR IN ADVANCE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, 3rd March. A •'one-year-before-the-opening" celebration was held on the grounds of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, in San Frair* cisco, last Monday. There is much to be done, of course, in the twelve, months remaining before opening day, but of all the world-expositions held in the United States, none ha^s been so far on the road to completion, in the matter of physical construction, with a year still available, as is this one. The one thing the Exposition managers have promised the world is that they will be ready by February, 1915, and the present aspect of the beautiful grounds lying alongside the Golden Gate., with a water frontage of two and a-half miles, i 6 warrant enough that they will keep their word. Some of the tjreat exhibition palaces already are completed, with the exception of stripping them of scaffolding. This is true of the machinery palace, the largest wooden structure in the world — so large, in fact, that recently an aeronaut took a flight in a flying machine within its walls. There are eleven main exhibit, palaces. Ry Ist June, or nine months before opening day, they will be finished to the last detail, with the possible exception of the Palace of Fine Arts. They will be ready for the reception of the world's displays, aud the Palace of Fine Arts, the last to be started, will be so far advanced that at least half of its area will be ready for the installation of the art treasures of which it- will be the home for nine months. «fe With the main exhibit palaces almost completed, chief work in the future will be concentrated upon the erection of the pavilions of the 34 foreign nations and the 35 States that have decided to participate in the Exposition. Canadian and New Zealand representative's are now on the grounds, attending to preliminaries in this connection. New York has started work on its building, which is to cost £60,000. PAINTING CANVASSES. What is described as "the greatpst collection of artists ever assembled in a common cause" is at work painting canvasses in the machinery palace, turned for the time being into a mammoth studio. These paintings are to decorate the palaces and courts of the Exposition. Some of the muv*l paintings are ninety feet in length Besides, a force of forty sculptors is working out in heroic size the. ideas of a staff of artists of international repute. Several warehouses have already been filled with finished work. Some of the sculptors engaged by the Exposition management aie working in Europe on their artistic creations. The appearance of the grounds to-day is one indication that the Exposition will surpass in magnificance and magnitude any heretofore held, but it is not the only one. The number of applications for space in the exhibit palaces is unprecedented. More than 60,000 displays from exhibitors all over the world will be installed in the main palaces on the opening day. These will be highly selective, and will represent the best of human achievement in arts, sciences, and industriev. San Francisco is preening herself to play the part of fiost to the world next jrear. New civic buildings, railways, pafSs, etc.. are in course of construction, and amongst others is a great auditorium costing £200,000. The chief purpose of this is to accommodate the many national and international congresses that are to meet in this city in 1915. Already 200 of these have been definitely arranged, and it is likely that this number will be swelled to 500. SPECIAL FEATURES. Some of the special features of the. Exposition are on a plane of splendid imagination. One of them is a race round the world for airships, for which the Exposition offers prizes aggregating £60,000. Ten years ago, when the last big Exposition, that at St. Louis, was opened, a prize of £20,000 was offered to anybody who could navigate the air over a course extending a mile 1 , but laid out in the figure eight. The prize was never won. Now, such is the progress made in aviation, a globe-circling race is planned. According ,to the route mapped out, the distance of the journey would be about 22,000 miles, and 90 days will be allowed the contestants to circum-aviate the globe. The same aviator must pilot his craft over the entire course. The race must also be made in the same machine in which the flyer starts, though it may be rebuilt along the route. As roughly scheduled, the route will strike across the United States to New York, then up the Atlantic coast ito Belle Isle, a small point between Newfoundland and Labrador. From Belle Isle to Cape Farewell (Greenland) is 610 miles, from Cape Farewell to Iceland 670 miles, and from Iceland to the Hebrides (off the coast of Scotland) 570 miles. These are the "long legs" of the course over water, but they are not considered impossible of achievement. The course will then be by way of Edinburgh, London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Moscow, over the route of the Trans-Siberian railway to Vladivostick, Tokio (Japan), to Kamchatka ; north to the point where Asia is separated from the American Continent by only 30 miles, and thence south through Alaska, and down the Pacific Coast to San Francisco. It is a daring conception, and aviators all over the world are keenly interested in the project. Appealing, perhaps, just ibs strongly to another class of people is the decision to instal in the Festival Hall of the Exposition an immense pipe organ, one of the five largest in the world. This organ' will be one of the permanent advantages accruing to San Francisco from the Exposition, as it will afterwards be installed in the auditorium.