Commission, the company elected to
decline agreement upon the matter to be arbitrated and to withhold all
of the awards from the Commission. At the time of writing this report
the Commission is not advised of any award made by the superior jury,
nor does any award seem to have been promulgated, except through the
Official Ribbon Company herein referred to, whose operations and whose
relations to the Exposition Company should be inquired into by some
competent authority.

At midnight on December 1, 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
closed, and thereafter the disposition of the salvage was called the
attention of the Commission by a communication from an attorney in St.
Louis, which set forth charges of irregularity and discrimination on the
part of the company in awarding a contract for the wrecking of the
exposition buildings and the sale of the salvage. The attention of the
Commission was called to statements from various contractors who had bid
on the salvage of the exposition, that their bids had been ignored, and
that favoritism had been shown to the wrecking concern which eventually
obtained the salvage contract. The Commission decided that in view of
the seriousness of the charges the subject required attention, and that
statements supported by affidavits should be received setting forth all
the facts in connection with the transaction. Prior to taking this step,
however, the president of the Commission addressed the following
communication to the president of the Exposition Company:

WASHINGTON, D.C., _February 28, 1905_.

SIR: I am directed to advise you that in the judgment of the
National Commission the interest of the United States in the
disposition of the property of the Exposition Company is
manifest from a perusal of section 20 of the act of Congress
approved March 3, 1901, making an appropriation for the
exposition and for other purposes.

In the proceeds of the sale and disposition of the property
purchased with the funds supplied by the General Government, the
city of St. Louis, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Company, the United States is interested to the extent of
one-third. Believing that this view of the law is correct, the
Commission feels called upon not only to report the amount
received from the sale or sales of the property of the
exposition, but likewise where the bona fides of transactions is
called in questio