Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 25

As a landmark in the world's progress the Louisiana Purchase Exposition well deserves and will doubtless be accorded a conspicuous place in exposition history.

Portland, Oreg., June 30, 1905.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION COMMISSION, By JOHN M. THURSTON, _President._ The PRESIDENT.

APPENDIXES.

APPENDIX I.

REPORT ON ACCOUNTS AND STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURs.e.m.e.nTS

FROM INCORPORATION OF COMPANY TO APRIL 30, 1905.

The following is a copy of letter received from the firm of Messrs.

Jones, Caesar, d.i.c.kinson, Wilmot & Co.:

St. Louis, June 5, 1905.

DEAR SIR: We are duly in receipt of your telegram, reading as follows: "Send statement liabilities Exposition Company to June 1, showing cost of restoring grounds and approximate cost of matters in litigation," and beg to send you herewith a statement of the estimated financial position of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, made up as at May 3, 1905, which we have just received and which we understand has been approved by the president of the Exposition Company. In his statement are included the estimated future liabilities of the company, including $200,000 for the restoration of Forest Park, and after providing therefor there appears an estimated surplus of a.s.sets of $467,211.45, subject, however, to possible liabilities on suits and claims pending against the Exposition Company.

With regard to the estimate of $200,000 for the restoration of Forest Park, it may be well to mention that the company is under obligation to restore the park without any limit as to cost.

Moreover, the company has given the city of St. Louis two bonds aggregating $650,000, which we understand is the amount of an estimate made on behalf of the city of the probable cost of restoration. Of the bonds given, one is for $100,000, secured by guarantee of certain directors of the Exposition Company, and the second for $550,000, secured as to $100,000 by personal guarantees, and as to the balance by a mortgage on the Art Building. We understand that an effort is now being made to effect a settlement of the company's liability to the city, but we are of course unable to say whether the estimate of $200,000 now taken into account will eventually prove sufficient or, if not, by how much the estimate will be exceeded.

With regard to the suits now pending against the Exposition Company, it is of course impossible to make any estimate of the eventual liability to fall on the company.

We would call your attention to the note made in the statement as regards the cash in trustees' funds and would point out that, as the liability of the company as princ.i.p.al under the various bonds is included in the statement of liabilities, this cash may practically be regarded as an available a.s.set. In other words, if the cash is excluded from the a.s.sets, the liability falling on the company under the various bonds should be correspondingly reduced.

We should be glad to be advised whether there are any further points in connection with this statement with which you would desire us to deal, either by letter or in our final report, and would add that, on hearing from you, we are prepared to send in the signed report.

We are sending a copy of this letter to the secretary of the Commission, in case it should not reach you at Portland.

Yours, faithfully,

JONES, CAESAR, d.i.c.kINSON, WILMOT &, CO.

Hon. J.M. Thurston President Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission, Portland, Oreg.

STOCK EXCHANGE BUILDING, St. Louis, June 8, 1905.

GENTLEMEN: We beg to inclose herewith statement of receipts and disburs.e.m.e.nts of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company from the date of its incorporation to April 30, 1905, and to report as follows on the audits which we have from time to time made, and which together cover the whole of the period above mentioned. For your convenience we propose to deal in this report with the accounts for the whole period, and therefore to repeat some of the comments contained in our previous reports.

Receipts.

Collections on account of sales of capital stock: The total subscriptions to capital stock, as shown by the treasurer's record, amount to ................ $5,294,490.00 Of this sum there had been collected, in cash, to April 30, 1905 ................ $4,821,456.11

In a number of cases where the liability on subscriptions was disputed, compromises were effected, and under these compromises the company waived claims amounting to 48,952.09 ------------ 4,870,408.20

Which would leave a balance uncollected on April 30, 1905 of ............................. 424,081.80

We have been furnished with detailed statements of claims in the hands of attorneys for collection, amounting in the aggregate to about $25,000 more than the balance shown above as outstanding.

We are informed that this difference represents princ.i.p.ally receipts by the company which were credited as capital stock collections, but in respect of which no certificates were ever issued, though it is also due to some extent to clerical errors in the treasurer's books, which have not yet been located and adjusted.

The greater part of the balance now outstanding is expected to prove irrecoverable, owing to deaths, removals, etc., of subscribers, and to repudiations of liability in some cases. In this connection, it may be mentioned that the number of subscribers exceeded 20,000.

It should be added that it is not yet possible for the treasurer's department to prepare any final report and adjustment of the capital stock accounts, and that such a report will necessarily be deferred until the whole, or at any rate the greater part, of the suits now pending can be disposed of.

Proceeds of Sale of City of St. Louis Bonds.

In accordance with an amendment of the charter of the city of St. Louis, approved at a general election held on November 6, 1900, the city sold, in the month of June, 1902, its 3-1/4 per cent bonds to a par value of $5,000,000. The price realized for these bonds was $1,000.01 for each $1,000 bond, and the proceeds were turned over to the treasurer of the company on the following dates:

June 26, 1902 ............................... $1,800,018.00 July 2, 1902 ................................ 3,200,032.00 ------------- 5,000,050.00

A question arose whether the sale price included accrued interest on the bonds to the date of sale, and as the city officers and the purchasers of the bonds were unable to agree on this point, the company, in order to avoid the delay and loss that would have resulted from a second offering of the bonds, decided to pay the accrued interest, amounting to $35,901.34.

The net realization to the company from the issue of the bonds was therefore--

5,000 bonds, at $1,000.01 ................... $5,000,050.00 Less accrued interest paid .................. 35,901.34 ------------- 4,964,148.66

United States Government Aid.

Of the total sum of $5,000,000 appropriated by act of Congress approved March 3, 1901, there has been received by the company the sum of $4,752,968.45, of which sum $250,000 was in the form of souvenir gold coin. We understand, however, that amounts have also been paid by the United States Treasury out of this appropriation which have not been reported to, or included in the accounts of, the company.

United States Government Loan.

Pursuant to an act of Congress approved February 18, 1904, there was advanced to the company from the United States Treasury, by way of loan, the sum of $4,600,000, repayable by semimonthly installments, commencing June 15, 1904, and equivalent to 40 per cent of the receipts from admissions and concessions during the half month immediately preceding the date of payment, it being provided that each installment after July 1 should amount to not less than $500,000. The whole of this loan was duly repaid on the following dates:

June 16 ................................. $195,057.04 July 1 .................................. 213,092.15 July 15 ................................. 500,000.00 August 1 ................................ 500,000.00 August 15 ............................... 500,000.00 August 31 ............................... 500,000.00 September 14 ............................ 500,000.00 October 1 ............................... 500,000.00 October 15 .............................. 500,000.00 October 31 .............................. 500,000.00 November 15 ............................. 191,850.81 ------------ 4,600,000.00

Loan on Security of Capital Stock Subscriptions and Premium on Souvenir Coins.

On August 22, 1903, the company entered into a contract with the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, the Lincoln Trust Company, the Mercantile Trust Company, and the St. Louis Union Trust Company, as trustees, under which it a.s.signed all subscriptions which were at that date wholly or partly unpaid, together with all further subscriptions which might be received, and the premium to be received on the sale of $239,000 souvenir gold coin, in consideration of the sum of $600,000, with a provision that when the trustees should have received the full sum of $600,000, together with interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum and expenses of collection and management, they would rea.s.sign the subscriptions and rights to the company.

Prior to the completion of the loan there was received by the company from the sources a.s.signed upwards of $162,000, and this amount was deducted from the loan, making the net amount received by the company $438,000. Payments were subsequently made on account of this loan out of the receipts from the above-mentioned sources, and on March 15, 1904, the balance then outstanding of $92,515.25 was paid out of the general funds of the company, in antic.i.p.ation of receipts from the sources a.s.signed and with a view to effecting a saving of interest charges.

It should be added that the subsequent receipts from capital stock subscriptions have amounted to more than the amount temporarily advanced out of the general funds of the company.

Admissions.