Chapter 1. To aid and encourage the holding of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at Nashville, Tennessee, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and making an appropriation therefor
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CHAP. 1.— An Act To aid and encourage the holding of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition at Nashville, Tennessee, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and making an appropriation therefor. December 22, 1896. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That there shall be exhibited Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Government exhibit.at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, to be held at Nashville, Tennessee, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, by the Government of the United States, from its Executive Departments, the Smithsonian institution and National Museum, and the United States Fish Commission, such articles and materials 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 adaptation to the wants of the people; and to Board to control exhibit.secure a complete and harmonious arrangement of said Government exhibit a board of management shall be created, to be charged with the selection, purchase, preparation, arrangement, safe-keeping, and exhibition of such articles and materials as the heads of said Departments and institutions of the Government may, respectively, decide shall be embraced in said Government exhibit.
The President may also designate additional articles for exhibition. Such board shall be composed Composition.of one member to be detailed by the head of each Executive Department, one by the head of the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum, and one by the head of the United States Fish Commission; and the President shall name one of said persons so detailed as chairman; and the members of said board shall have no compensation in addition to their regular salary and their actual and necessary expenses only shall be paid out of the sum hereinafter appropriated.
Sec. 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause a suitable Building for Government exhibit.building or buildings to be erected on the site selected for the Tennes see Centennial Exposition for the Government exhibit, and he is hereby *Post,* p. 698.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 thirty thousand dollars, and there is hereby appropriated Appropriation.for said building or buildings, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of thirty thousand dollars.
The Secretary Disposal at close of exposition.of the Treasury is authorized and required to dispose of such building or buildings, or the material composing the same, at the close 477478FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 1. 1896.of the exposition, giving preference to the city of Nashville or to the said Tennessee Centennial Exposition Company to purchase the same at an appraised value, to be ascertained in such manner as he may Proceeds.determine, and whatever sum may be realized on sale of said building shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States.
Appropriation for expenses. Sec. 3. That for the purpose of paying the expenses of the selection, purchase, preparation, transportation, installation, care, and return of said Government exhibit, and for the employment of proper persons as officers and assistants by the board of management created by this Act and for their expenses, and for the maintenance of the building hereinbefore provided for, and for other contingent expenses incidental to the Government exhibit, to be approved by the chairman of the board of management and by the Secretary of the Treasury upon itemized accounts and vouchers, there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be disbursed by the board of management hereinbefore created, of which not exceeding the sum of ten thousand dollars shall be expended for clerical service.
Free entry of articles for exhibition. Sec. 4. 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 regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe; but it shall be lawful at any Sales.time during the exhibition to sell, for delivery at the close of the exposition, any goods or property imported for and actually on exhibition in the exposition buildings or on its grounds, subject to such regulations for the security of the revenue and for the collection of import *Proviso.* Duty on articles sold.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 articles by the revenue laws in force at the date of importation, and all penalties prescribed by law shall be applied and enforced against such articles and against the persons who may be guilty of any illegal sale or withdrawal.
Medals to be prepared at mint. Sec. 5. That medals with appropriate devices, emblems, and inscriptions commemorative of said Tennessee Centennial Exposition and of the awards to be made to exhibitors thereat, be prepared at some mint of the United States for the board of directors thereof, subject to the Vol. 17. p. 432. R. S., sec. 3551, p. 702.provisions of the fifty-second section of the coinage Act of eighteen hundred and ninety-three, upon the payment by the Tennessee Centennial Exposition Company 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.
Nonliability of the United States. Sec. 6. That the United States shall in no manner and under no circumstances be liable for any bond, debt, contract, expenditure, expense, or liability of any kind whatever of the said Tennessee Centennial Exposition Company, its officers, agents, servants, or employees, or incident to or growing out of said exposition, nor for any amount whatever in excess of the one hundred and thirty thousand dollars herein Restriction on Commission, etc.authorized; and the heads of the Executive Departments, the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum, and the United States Fish Commission, and the board of management herein authorized, their officers, agents, servants, or employees, shall in no manner and under no circumstances expend or create any liability of any kind for any sum in excess of the appropriations herein made, or create any deficiency.
Availability of appropriation. Sec. 7. That the appropriation herein made shall take effect when the Secretary of the Treasury shall be satisfied that the solvent appropriations made by the State of Tennessee, its counties and cities, and by individuals or companies to said centennial exposition, together with solvent subscriptions to the stock of the Centennial Company FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Chs. 1–3. 1896.479made by the State, its counties and cities, and by private corporations and by individuals, shall amount to at least the sum of one-half million of dollars.
Approved, December 22, 1896.