SEC. 2. That all articles which shall be imported from foreign countries for the sole purpose of exhibition at said exposition upon which there shall be a tariff or customs duty shall be admitted free of payment of duty, customs fees, or charges, under such reguiation as the Secre tary of the Treasury shall prescribe; but it shall be lawful at any time during the exhibition to sell for delivery at the close thereof any goods or property imported for and actually on exhibition in the exhibition building, or on the grounds, subject to such regulation for the security of the revenue and for the collection of import duties as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe: Provided, That all such articles when sold or withdrawn for consumption in the United States shall be subject to the duty, if any, imposed upon such article by the revenue laws in force at the date of importation, and all penalties prescribed by law shall be applied and enforced against the persons who may be guilty of any illegal sale or withdrawal. SEC. 3. That there shall be exhibited at said exposition by the Government of the United States, from its Executive Departments, the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Fish Commission, and the National Museum, such articles and material as illustrate the function and administrative faculty of the Government in time of peace, and its resources as a war power, tending to demonstrate the nature of our institutions and their adaptions to the wants of the people; and to secure a complete and harmonious arrangement of such Government exhibit a board shall be created, to be charged with the selection, preparation, arrangement, safe keeping, and exhibition of such articles and materials as the heads of the several Departments and the directors of the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum may respectively decide shall be embraced in said Government exhibit. The President may also designate additional articles for exhibition. Such board shall be composed of one person to be named by the head of each Executive Department and Museum and by the President of the United States. The President shall name the chairman of said board, and the board itself shall select such other officers as it may deem necessary. SEC. 4. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause a suitable building or buildings to be erected on the site selected for the transmississippi and international exposition for the Government exhibits, and he is hereby authorized and directed to contract therefor, in the same manner and under the same regulations as for other public buildings of the United States; but the contract for said building or buildings shall not exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and required to dispose of such building or buildings, or the material composing the same, at the close of the exposition, giving preference to the city of Omaha, or to the said Transmississippi and International Exposition Association, to purchase the same at an appraised value to be ascertained in such manner as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. SM 96-IV SEC. 5. The United States shall not be liable on account of said exposition for any expense incident to, or growing out of same, except for the construction of the building or buildings herein before provided for, and for the purpose of paying the expense of transportation, care and custody of exhibits by the Government, and the maintenance of the said building or buildings, and the safe return of articles belonging to the said Government exhibit, and other contingent expenses to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury upon itemized accounts and vouchers, and the total cost of said building or buildings shall not exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars; nor shall the expenses of said Government exhibit for each and every purpose connected therewith, including the transportation of same to Omaha and from Omaha to Washington, exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, amounting in all to not exceeding the sum of two hundred thou sand dollars: Provided, That no liability against the Government shall be incurred, and no expenditure of money under this Act shall be made, until the officers of said exposition shall have furnished the Secretary of the Treasury proofs to his satisfaction that there has been obtained by said exposition corporation subscriptions of stock in good faith, contributions, donations, or appropriations from all sources for the purposes of said exposition a sum aggregating not less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. SEC. 6. That the commission appointed under this Act shall not be entitled to any compensation for their services out of the Treasury of the United States, except their actual expenses for transportation and a reasonable sum to be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury for subsistence for each day they are necessarily absent from home on the business of said commission. The officers of said commission shall receive such compensation as may be fixed by said commission, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, which shall be paid out of the sums appropriated by Congress in aid of such exposition. SEC. 7. That medals, with appropriate devices, emblems, and inscriptions commemorative of said transmississippi and international exposi tion and of the awards to be made to the exhibitors thereat, shall be prepared at some mint of the United States, for the board of directors thereof, subject to the provisions of the fifty-second section of the coinage Act of eighteen hundred and ninety-three, upon the payment of a sum not less than the cost thereof; and all the provisions, whether penal or otherwise, of said coinage Act against the counterfeiting or imitating of coins of the United States, shall apply to the medals struck and issued under this Act. SEC. 8. That the United States shall not in any manner, nor under and circunstances, be liable for any of the acts, doings, proceedings, or representations of said Transmississippi and International Exposition Association, its officers, agents, servants, or employees, or any of them, or for service, salaries, labor, or wages of said officers, agents, serv ants, or employees, or any of them, or for any subscriptions to the capital stock, or for any certificates of stock, bonds, mortgages, or obligations of any kind issued by said corporation, or for any debts, liabilities, or expenses of any kind whatever attending such corporation or accruing by reason of the same. That nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to create any liability of the United States, direct or indirect, for any debt or obligation incurred, nor for any claim for aid or pecuniary assistance from Congress or the Treasury of the United States in support or liquidation of any debts or obligations created by said commission in excess of appropriations made by Congress therefor. (Approved, June 10, 1896, Statutes of the Fifty-fourth Congress, first session, p. 382.) REPORT OF S. P. LANGLEY, SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1896. To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. · GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the operations of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June 30, 1896, including the work placed by Congress under its supervision in the National Museum, the Bureau of Ethnology, the Bureau of International Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, and the Astrophysical Observatory. I have, as is customary, given briefly in the body of the report an account of the affairs of the Institution and of its bureaus for the year, reserving for the appendix the more detailed reports from those in charge of the different branches of work. The full report upon the National Museum by the assistant secre. tary, Dr. G. Brown Goode, occupies a separate volume (Report of the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum, 1896). THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. THE ESTABLISHMENT. The Smithsonian Establishment, as organized at the end of the fiscal year, consisted of the following ex officio members: GROVER CLEVELAND, President of the United States. ADLAI E. STEVENSON, Vice President of the United States. MELVILLE W. FULLER, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. RICHARD OLNEY, Secretary of State. JOHN G. CARLISLE, Secretary of the Treasury. DANIEL S. LAMONT, Secretary of War. JUDSON HARMON, Attorney-General. WILLIAM L. WILSON, Postmaster-General. HOKE SMITH, Secretary of the Interior. J. STERLING MORTON, Secretary of Agriculture. SM 96 -1 1 |