The spirit of this whole movement from old-fashioned charity to coördinated social service was abundantly manifested at the Seattle Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1913. With the opening of the Panama Canal problems are arising along the Pacific coast in increased numbers. As preventive work, the Seattle Charity Organization Society was anxious to secure, and did secure, the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in order to arouse local interest in the impending situation. Of the Seattle Charities, Mr. Richard Hayter is director and Miss Virginia McMechan, widely known for her social work, is general secretary—never an insignificant office, and by no means a purely clerical one. For the sake of the whole Pacific coast the Seattle charity workers advertised this conference far and wide. Under the Central Council of Social Agencies, representing the fifty-six leading public and private social agencies of the city—from labor unions to the chamber of commerce, with the mayor at the head—active local committees were formed [consisting of men and women]. The Rotary Club, a business men’s body, raised the necessary $2,000, a corps of speakers was sent to organizations all over the city and state, even into Idaho, and a vigorous advertising campaign was conducted by means of billboards, 50,000 circulars, and columns of newspaper publicity. Country newspapers were reached by news-letter service. Letters sent out along the entire coast brought in three hundred new conference members. In the midst of this glowing setting the fortieth conference camped on July 5, registering at the close, July 12, an attendance of paid members numbering from outside the state of Washington over 450, and from Seattle and Washington 350 more. Seattle people fairly swarmed to the evening meetings, and the conference sermon drew a packed house of between 3,000 and 3,500. President Tucker estimated the total attendance at the thirty meetings during the week at between 25,000 and 30,000. Enthusiasm was no less remarkable. Through all the seven days the conference was “live.” The newspapers gave it practically unlimited space, one paper running two extra conference pages almost every day containing the important speeches in full. This was done, the editor said, “as a good business proposition.” When the conference got down to work, it was clearly evident that social welfare, not charity, was the spirit of the delegates and speakers. Preventive measures, standards of living and labor, the relation of commercial organizations to social welfare, and the distribution and assimilation of immigrants were predominant over talk of mere relief. Courts, city officials, lawyers, and teachers were drawn into the conference as an evidence of its wider appeal and public importance.