Year: 1874



 abandoned all hope of securing financial assistance from Congress, and has reSolv- ed to proceed in the prosecution of tue en- terpriSe with such resources as it can ob- tain by private subscription. But not so the Centennial Commission. That body, which in theory is composed of represen- tatives from every State and Territory in the Union, does not yet despair of secur- ing large contribution from the taX-pay- CTS at large. We are glad to notice, how beginning to take @ more sensible view of the matter. The Philadelphia Evening Telegraph says that the Centennial as a national enterprise, to be conducted under the auspices of the central government, has fallen through; and it thinks it would be just as well to recognize this fact by abolishing the Centennial Commission and creating in it's stead body more To- cal in character Now that the scheme has proved a failure, The Telegraph is even willing to admit that there are some not very attractive features connected with the Com mission. It says that there are some members of it who are utterly repu- diated by the States which they claim to represent, and whose official connection with the enterprise has consisted solely in their drawing mileage as Commissioners, from the Centennial treasury. One man, resident of neighboring State, has reg ularly drawn mileage, not to and from his actual residence, but to and from the far distant Territory of which he sits as a rep resentative.

 There is nothing in these admissions to excite surprise. It was known from the first that Congress would be solicited to make a large appropriation in aid of the Centennial, and the class of politicians who are always on the lookout for public plcklngS were not slow to identify them selves with the enterprise and offer to bear hand in it's management. Both Tweed and Genet were original members of the Commission. If Congress had yielded to the request for national assistance on a large scale, the number of these vultures would have rapidly swollen, and there would have been great danger of the en- terprise being swamped in a slough of cor ruptiOn. But now that the friends of the Centennial are thrown back upon their own resources and compelled to give up the project of a national celebration, there will not be much difficulty in getting rid of these leeches. A local body of promi- nent and reliable citizens can doubtless be selected to manage the affair and make it a grand success. Philadelphia will have the good wishes of the whole country in her efforts 10 get up a celebration worthy of her history. No city in the country can so poorly afford to neglect to commemOr- ate our one Eundredth anniversary as a nation. And if she chooses to make a grand exposition the main feature of the occasion, we doubt not her invitation to the whole country to send it's products to her for exhibition will meet with a cordial ana prompt response.

 The foregoing Is from a late number of The San Francisco Bulletin, paper claiming to be governed by truth and some intelligence, and yet the article con- tains hardly a sentence of truth and nearly every line sets forth plain or covert falsehood. The whole of it is utterly con- temptible whether viewed as collection of deliberate falsehoods or as an exhibi- tion of astounding ignorance.

 The Board of Finance has not abandon ed all hope of Congressional assistance The Philadelphians are misrepresented by The Telegraph newspaper. As to abol- ishing the Commission, the Commission would be glad to have it abolished in view of the wholesale and inexcusable islanders heaped upon its members individually and as body. At the recent May session, the members from Arizona as well as from fivc-sixths of the States and Territories were in favor of a complete abandonment of the enterprise and setting forth the causes, and would have so acted but for the very fact that the people of Philadel- phia who have weight in that city and Pennsylvania, were decidedly opposed to such action. Philadelphia and Pennsyl- vania having so far contributed largely and liberally to promote the exposition, the members of the Commission believed it to be a just duty to defer to the people of the City and State, and did so rather than to the clamor of local journalists who could not control the expenditure ot funds to their own personal interests. Every large city and many small ones are cursed with black-mailing journalists and Philadelphia is no exception. Reduced to the lowest possible cent, we are of necessity financially damaged at least S7O0 by our connection with the Commission. But we expected to be. Nearly all other members are proportionately in jured. Probably one member is unjustly drawing expenses of travel, and likely one and possibly two are not acceptable to the States they represent. As a body, the Centennial Commission is composed of men who are sacrificing much time and money to creditably execute duties inn posed upon them by an Act of Congress