Year: 1872

PHILADELPHIA, PA, May 29, 1872. The Act of Congress providing the

 initial steps for the celebration of the

 one hundredth year of American h.

 dependence, has no provision for

 funds to prepare for it, and expressly

 provided that the United States should

 not become liable for any expenses

 attending it, therefore at the March

 meeting of the Commissioners, they

 at once recognized the impossibility of

 executing the designs of Congress

 without additional legislation, local

 or national, whereby the requisite cash

 could be obtained- The city of Phil

 adelphia and the State of Pennsyl-

 vania, noting this condition of affairs,

 were anxious to meet the emergency

 and some months ago bill was pre-

 pared for enactment by the State, but

 the good Gothamites discovered where

 in under it, they could and probably

 would make money, and at once said

 the Quakerites were after cash rather

 than to exalt the nation, hence this scheme was abandoned. A bill for the

 purpose was then prepared and ap- proved by the proper committees of the Centennial Commission, and sub- mitted to Congress for enactment, which bill passed the House some days ago, and news of it's passage by the Senate to-day is this hour received. The bill creates Centennial Board of Finance and names certain men therefor in each State and Terri tory. They are made corporation with all the ordinary powers and responsi- bilities of corporations. The principal duty of this Board is to procure ten millions of dollars by issuing stock in shares of ten dollars each. Any corporate body may invest in this stock. The Secretary of the Treasury is to prepare the stock for issue, and the same penalties for counterfeiting it are affixed as apply to the uttering of bogus United States currency. The Centennial Commission is to open books and provide an opportunity dur ing Q period of one hundred days, to the citizens of each State and Ter ritory to subscribe for stock to an amount not exceeding its quota ac- cording to it's population, after which period of one hundred days, unsold stock may be taken by any person or This Board of Finance is to prepare the grounds and erect the buildings for the Exhibition in ao- cordance with plans adopted by the Centennial Commission, and, after the close of the affair, to convert all the property into cash, discharge its lia- bilities, and divide all its remaining assets among the stockholders, pro- rata, in full satisfaction of its capital stock.

 As the people of each State and Territory will be offered an oppor- tunity to subscribe to this stock, I have occupied some space in giving the more prominent features of the Act under which 1t will be issued. There is hardly doubt but the stock holders will receive their money back with large interest. Exhibitions in Europe conducted on this plan have proven profitable to the stockholders, and to prevent the possibility of this profit being made by any locality, the law in relation'to the Exhibition requires that each State and Terri tory, and the citizens and corporations within each, shall have one hundred days in which to subscribe for an amount equal to their proportion of population, and also each State and Territory has volce in the manage ment of the affairs of the Board of Finance, subject to the superior con- trol of the Centennial Commission which is composed of men of each State and Territory. In this matter, Congress has made the weakest Ter ritory equal in power to the most powerful State.

 Thus 1t will be seen that the utmost care has been taken at every steD of