The Inspiring Displays of the States

By The World's Work Staff
The World's Work 8 (Aug. 1904)

Just beyond the Fisheries Building, its pointed top 100 feet from the ground, is a wooden building that looks like a Chinese pagoda stripped of ornate trimmings. Beams of wood 110 feet long rise from the ground like the poles of an Indian wigwam. In this building, which is the Washington State Building, they meet at a point and form the apex of a very striking piece of architecture. The wood was furnished by the Lumbermen's Association of Washington. Inside, Washington's resources and products are displayed: woods from the dense forests (Washington last year manufactured more shingles than any other State); fruit from her large orchards; wheat, corn, and hops from her ample fields; coal from her rich mines; and fish from her extensive salmon-canning industry. The office of the Washington State Commission is in the trunk of a fir-tree 12 feet in diameter. With the characteristic spirit of commercial achievement of the Northwest, Seattle and Spokane make effective displays. They show how thriving cities have grown from villages in less than a quarter-century, and how the spirit that makes this possible is the spirit that is developing the empire of the Northwest. It has linked our commerce with the commerce of the Orient, and it has opened up a great trade with Alaska.