Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 27

Miscellaneous Collections.

This total is made up as follows:

Insurance premiums refunded .................... $63,983.17 Refrigerating plant receipts ................... 20,178.99 Garbage coupon books ........................... 11,506.80 Miscellaneous revenues ......................... 31,230.52 Refund account, overpayments ................... 4,715.96 Personal damage account, receipts .............. 2,572.50 Uniform special fund ........................... 2,514.89 Damage to property, receipts ................... 72.50 ----------- Total ........................................ 136,775.33

We have checked the insurance receipts with the report of the agents of the policies canceled and of the amount of return premiums due the company thereon.

We have agreed the receipts from the refrigerating plant, which represent the company's proportion of the profits on the operation thereof, with the report of the manager. A final audit of the books of the plant is now being made by the Exposition Company, and it is possible that a small further sum will be received on this account.

We counted the garbage books remaining on hand and satisfied ourselves that the number thereof, together with the number reported as sold, made up the total number originally received.

The remainder of the receipts included under this head consists of various incidental receipts which it is not possible to verify completely.

Salvage.

This amount is made up as follows:

Contract price for salvage sold to Chicago House Wrecking Company ............................ $450,000.00 Less amount not yet due or paid ............... 150,000.00 ------------ 300,000.00 Resale of cars and motors under original purchase contract with St. Louis Car Company 158,667.25 Miscellaneous sales ........................... 4,198.03 ------------ Total ....................................... 462,865.28

We have verified the two large items with the original contracts.

Special Fund.

We have not been able to obtain a detailed statement of the badge fund, which represents deposits made by employees in respect of badges issued to them, and it is probable that the greater part of this sum has been refunded and charged through various departments to other accounts.

The pay-roll fund represents unclaimed wages and has been agreed with a detailed list submitted to us.

Disburs.e.m.e.nts.

Properly approved vouchers have been produced to us for all disburs.e.m.e.nts except as regards two payments aggregating $252.45, the vouchers for which have, we understand, been mislaid.

The only items calling for special comment are, we think, the following:

Special Installation of Exhibits.

This sum represents the purchase price of the whole of the capital stock of the General Service Company, which held a concession for hauling and storage. From a balance sheet of that company, recently prepared, it would appear that the amount to be realized by the Exposition Company in respect of this investment will be about $104,000. We are advised by the president that in spite of the apparent loss of $21,000 involved, this transaction is regarded by the Exposition Company as an advantageous one, inasmuch as, at the time it was effected, there were serious controversies and substantial claims in question between the two companies, and by the purchase these claims were, of course, completely disposed of; and, moreover, the installation of exhibits was much expedited and serious inconvenience to exhibitors avoided.

Money Advanced.

The princ.i.p.al item included under this head is an amount of $152,000 advanced to the emergency exploitation committee from time to time to meet the expenses incurred by that committee.

Practically the whole of this amount has been expended, but up to the date of our audit vouchers for the expenditures had not been turned in by the committee or put through the general books of the company. We understand that this is now being done.

Board of Lady Managers.

Included under this head is the full amount of $100,000 appropriated for the board out of the Government loan of $4,600,000. This sum was paid by the company into a special account, subject to the order of the board, and no details as to the disburs.e.m.e.nt thereof appear on the books, owing, as we are informed, to the fact that no report of such disburs.e.m.e.nts has yet been made by the board to the Exposition Company.

Cash Balances.

Certificates of deposit have been produced to us, and we have been furnished with a certificate from the bank as to the balance on current account.

The cash immediately available for the general purposes of the company amounts to $668,754.36, the remaining $182,846.41 being deposited in a special account to secure the sureties under various bonds given on behalf of the company.

Of this total of $182,846.41, the sum of $120,768.18 is derived from Pike rentals, as hereinbefore explained. The balance of $62,078.23 consists of receipts of the music bureau, which were originally paid into a separate fund because of a difference between the bureau of music and the division of concessions as to the policy in operating Festival Hall. Subsequently the president recommended that this fund be added to the fund held for the protection of the sureties, in accordance with the authority granted to the executive committee by the board of directors to make such provision as might be deemed advisable to protect these sureties, and the president informs us that this suggestion was approved by the executive committee.

It will of course be understood that the maintenance of the separate funds would become a matter of practical importance only in the event of the funds of the company proving insufficient to meet its liabilities, a condition which is not now deemed likely to arise.

General Financial Condition of the Company.

We have been furnished by the president of the Exposition Company with a statement of the estimated a.s.sets and liabilities of the company on May 3, 1905, a copy of which we append hereto.

From this statement it will be seen that, subject to whatever liability may eventually result in respect of suits and disputed claims now pending against the company, it is estimated that the a.s.sets will exceed the liabilities by $467,211.45.

In arriving at this figure, the liability of the company in respect of the restoration of Forest Park is estimated at $200,000. In this connection it may be well to point out that the company is under obligation to restore the park without any limit as to cost, and has, moreover, given the city of St. Louis two bonds aggregating $650,000, being 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.

Legislation is now pending looking to the acceptance by the city of a fixed sum in settlement of the company's liability and the carrying out of the work of restoration by the city itself, but it is not, of course, possible to say at the present time whether the estimate of $200,000 now taken into account will eventually prove sufficient.

It is not at present possible to estimate the liability on suits and claims pending.

In conclusion, we would state that every facility was extended to us by the officials of the company in the course of our audits.

Yours, faithfully, Jones, Caesar, d.i.c.kINSON, WILMOT & Co.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION COMMISSION, _Washington, D.C._

_Statement of receipts and disburs.e.m.e.nts from the incorporation of the company to April 30, 1906 (inclusive)._

RECEIPTS.

Capital liabilities: Collections on account of sales of capital stock ........................... $4,821,456.11 Proceeds of sale of city of St. Louis bonds .................................... 5,000,050.00 United States Government aid ............... 4,752,968.45 ------------ $14,574,474.56

Loans contracted: United States Government ................... 4,600,000.00 Loan on security of capital stock subscriptions, etc ....................... 438,000.00 ------------ 5,038,000.00 Revenue: Admissions collections (Exhibit A) ......... 6,240,480.90 Concessions collections (Exhibit B) ........ 3,076,958.69 Intramural railway receipts ................ 627,473.84 Service, power, light, and water receipts (Exhibit C) .............................. 655,684.00 Transportation collections (Exhibit D) ..... 218,207.20 Music Department collections ............... 146,538.48 Premium on souvenir gold coin (less expenses) .......................... 53,669.33 Photo pa.s.s receipts ........................ 51,469.00 Interest on deposits (Exhibit E) ........... 131,407.83 Miscellaneous collections (Exhibit F) ...... 136,775.33 Salvage .................................... 462,865.28 ------------ 11,801,529.88 Special funds Badge ...................................... 6,830.00 Pay roll ................................... 5,769.04 ----------- 12,599.04 ------------- 31,426,603.48

DISBURs.e.m.e.nTS.

Preliminary expenses ...................................... $37,418.78 Construction (Exhibit G) .................................. 16,729,755.48 Rent of grounds and buildings (Exhibit H) ................. 1,240,113.80 Maintenance and operating (Exhibit I) ..................... 1,070,537.51 Special installation of exhibits .......................... 125,000.00 Exhibits division (Exhibit J) ............................. 2,189,125.93 Exploitation division (Exhibit K) ......................... 1,327,337.11 Protection--Fire, police, insurance, etc. (Exhibit L) ..... 1,089.992.35 Concessions and admissions division (Exhibit M) ........... 564,112.28 Executive and administrative division (Exhibit N) ......... 440,874.46 Transportation bureau (Exhibit O) ......................... 321,074.58 Money advanced (Exhibit P) ................................ 167,350.14 Sundry disburs.e.m.e.nts (Exhibit Q) .......................... 114,920.78 Board of lady managers: Government appropriation .................... $100,000.00 Miscellaneous disburs.e.m.e.nts ................. 16,831.20 Furnishing rooms ............................ 2,558.31 ----------- 119,389.51 ------------- 25,537,002.71 Loans repaid .............................................. 5,038,000.00 Cash balances: Cash in bank, general fund .................. 5,067.22 Local treasurer's cash ...................... 24.58 Certificates of deposit ..................... 663,662.56 ----------- 668,754.36 Certificates of deposit, D.R. Francis and W.H. Thompson, trustees (Exposition Company sureties) ......................... 182,846.41 ----------- 851,600.77 ------------- 31,426,603.48

We have examined the above statement of receipts and disburs.e.m.e.nts, with the books of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, and certify the same to be correct.

Satisfactory evidence has been produced to us as to all payments made, and proper certificates have been furnished as to the balance of cash in bank, on deposit, and on current account.

JONES, CAESAR, d.i.c.kINSON, WILMOT & Co., _Certified Public Accountants_.

St. Louis, _June 9, 1905_.