n to ascertain and report to the President of
the United States the facts and circumstances therewith
connected.

These suggestions are called forth by certain statements
presented to the Commission, which, if true, affect the
interests of the United States as defined by section 20 of the
aforesaid act of Congress. These statements relate to the
specifications and instructions dated October 1, 1904, signed by
Mr. Isaac S. Taylor, director of works, under which bids were to
be received for wrecking buildings and structures on the
exposition grounds, together with a certain contract bearing
date November 30, 1904, between the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition Company and the Chicago House Wrecking Company, said
to be of record in the office of recorder of deeds in the city
of St. Louis, book 1811, page 195 and following pages.

There is obviously a marked variance between the property
referred to in the specifications and instructions and the
property enumerated in the recorded contract. The specifications
seemed to require that 50 per cent of the amount of the bid
should accompany the same in the form of a check certified by
some banking institution in the city of St. Louis, and that the
remainder of the amount bid should be paid upon the execution of
the contract.

Further, the specifications required that a bond should be filed
with the Exposition Company in an amount equal to the bid to
guarantee faithful execution of the terms of the contract by the
bidder. The specifications expressly reserved copper wire, the
intramural railway, the railroad tracks in the buildings, all
machinery, etc., whereas the contract executed on November 30
seems to include all the items referred to and many other pieces
of property not mentioned in the specifications.

The contract as executed seems to call for the payment of
$450,000, of which only the sum of $100,000 was to be paid in
cash and the remainder at stated periods in the future. Instead
of requiring a bond equal to the amount of the bid the bond
called for in the contract is less than 10 per cent of the
amount of the bid.

It is alleged:

First. That secrecy was observed in handling the bids for the
wrecking of buildings.

Second. That the Chicago House Wrecking Company was favored from
the beginning.

T