[Trade Journal]
Publication: Twenty Seventh Annual Report of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
Cincinnati, OH, United States
p. I,31-35,187-196, col. 1
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
CINCINNATI
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
AND
MERCHANT'S EXCHANGE,
FOR THE
COMMERCIAL YEAR, ENDING AUGUST 31, 1875.
CINCINNATI:
CINCINNATI GAZETTE STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
MDCCCLXXV.
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CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Annual Report of the Board of Officers.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
CINCINNATI, SEPTEMBER 14, 1875.
To the Members of the Chamber of Commerce:
It is not desirable, in the estimation of your Board of Officers, to present in this connection, anything but a brief statement of the most important of the transactions of the Board, actions of the Chamber, and condition of the affairs of your organization, for the year now brought to a close.
The report of the Treasurer furnishes, in detail, an exhibit of the financial affairs of the Chamber. The receipts from membership dues are shown to have been $26,025, an increase of $355 over the previous year; for initiation fees, $1,220, an increase of $160; from Clerks' tickets, $330, an increase of $90. The aggregate increase in receipts from these sources is $505. At the commencement of the year, the Treasury held $8,000 of government bonds. Early in the past year, $10,000 of such bonds were added to the reserve fund, of which $5,000 were subsequently disposed of, thus leaving a net increase to this fund of $5,000 for the year. The expenditures, not reckoning the whole amount invested in the purchase of bonds, aggregated $31,702 55, or $269 35 less than the year previous. The largest item of expenditure is for salaries, which amounts to $10,523 70, or $801 70 more than the previous year, which difference is mostly accounted for in the increased amount paid to the Superintendent of the Merchants' Exchange, under the advance in salary instituted during the term of the preceding Board. The next largest item is that of Telegraphic Reports, amounting to $6,492 14, being $361 86 in excess of the previous year. The attendants at the Exchange have had abundant occasion for remarking the increase in the amount of important information of this kind furnished during the past year. This increase has been partly by voluntary offer of the Gold and Stock Telegraphic Company, and partly secured by special arrangements. Your Board has regarded it as one of the utmost importance to the interests of members to procure full and reliable reports from other markets, and to present them at the earliest moment possible.
The assessment this year against this body, by the National Board of Trade, was $566 40, or $122 in excess of last year. This includes no allowance to delegates for personal expenses incurred in the representation of this organization in the Annual Convention. The expenditures for compiling and publishing an annual statement of Pork Packing in the West, prepared by your Superintendent, amounted to $553 95, against which there is a credit of $144 50 for copies of the same sold, making the net cost $409 45, or $163 25 in excess of similar expenditures last year. The net cost of the Annual Report of the Chamber, for last year, was $1,417 40, or $77 09 in excess of similar expenditure the preceding year.
During the winter, a communication was received from the officers of the Pork Packers' Association, advising your Board that members of that association had decided, by unanimous vote, to instruct its Directors to petition your Board of Officers for additional accommodations, accompanied with which was a statement that the desired room could be secured at an annual rental of $600, and that the Pork Packers' Association would assume the amount in excess of $400 per annum, and would also assume of fitting up expenditures all above $500, the other sums to be assumed by the Chamber. The petition and propositions of the Pork Packers' Association were laid before the Chamber, and on the 13th of January, its members granted the request, and approved the propositions by a vote of 125 for and 84 against the same. Thus the expense account has been drawn upon to the amount of $500 for fitting up, and a small amount for rent of the additional room. The chief items of expenditure for the year are embraced in those now mentioned. Aside from the bond account, the receipts for the year exceed the expenditures by the sum of $3,987 02. The treasury account at the close of the year shows a balance of $1,320 50 in the general fund, and $13,000 of bonds, in the reserve fund, or a net increase in the treasury of $3,737 02 in money and bonds at par, as compared with the commencement of the year. By reckoning the present premium on the bonds added to the reserve fund, this sum would be further enhanced nearly $900 — thereby making the financial gain upwards of $4,600 for the year. Your Board regards this exhibit as satisfactory, showing that our organization is in a prosperous condition.
The membership account for this year just closed, shows a total of 1,162, embracing 368 firms, and 283 individual memberships, being an increase, as compared with the preceding year, of 3 firms, and 15 individual memberships, and a total of 30 persons. The attendance at the daily sessions of the Exchange, we believe, have equaled or exceeded any previous year, and during the winter season, the capacity of the rooms now occupied, has been hardly adequate to the requirements without more or less inconvenience to members.
Additional bulletin board facilities for posting telegraphic reports, were inaugurated early in the year, and upon the opening of the new room for the provision trade, the reports relating to provisions, were posted upon the board in that room, other reports being placed upon the boards in the main hall. The previous practice of reading the telegraphic reports during the Exchange session has been discarded during the past year, and we have reason for believing that the change is approved by a large proportion, if not all of the attendants.
For the convenience of members, an instrument of the American District Telegraph Company has been introduced into the Exchange, by which messengers can be called at once. Connection has also been made with the wires of the Fire Alarm Telegraph, so that members maybe immediately advised of the locality of any fire alarm during Exchange hours.
At the beginning of the year, your Board was called upon to decide upon important cases, where charges against members for unmercantile conduct had been preferred before the previous Board, and before which Board, a trial of one of the series of cases similarly charged, had terminated. Entering upon the discharge of our duties, the question was raised as to what were the powers of the Board in such premises, whether to act as jurors, and consider only the evidence brought forward by the accusers, and decide upon the merits of the case accordingly, or whether the Board was permitted to go outside of such evidence, and the members themselves assume the position, not only of jurors but also that of prosecutors. It was decided that our duty, as established by previous custom, required us to act only upon evidence brought forward by the complainants. Thoughtful persons must see that it cannot, in propriety, be within the province of your Board of Officers to do otherwise in such cases. It transpired, however, that subsequently many members entertained the belief that the Board should seek evidence for the conviction of any member against whom charges of an unmercantile nature maybe preferred. The question of such trials isa grave one, and should receive the most dispassionate consideration. No act of injustice, irreparable in its results, must be committed against a fellow-member. At the same time the whole fabric by which we are bound as fellow-merchants, demands that mercantile honor and integrity shall be maintained, and that offenders must be made the subjects of our most hearty condemnation. If the Chamber entertains convictions upon the methods of trial of such cases as are under notice, different from what previous custom and a reasonable interpretation of your Constitution seems now to provide for, we earnestly recommend that it will, at a proper time, define its wishes for the intelligent guidance of your future Boards. We also recommend that the Chamber inquire into the workings of the Court of Arbitration, established last October by the Chamber of Commerce of New York, and ascertain whether the results are such as to justify the inauguration of such a Court in connection with this organization. The power of adjudication, promptly and fairly, of disputes between merchants, of whatever nature within the range of commercial character, is not an unimportant function of such a body as our Chamber of Commerce, and if there can possibly be effected any improvement upon the methods which now obtain in this Chamber, for the accomplishment of such work, we earnestly pray that it may be made available at an early day.
The Board decided to renew co-operation with the officers of the Mechanics' Institute and Board of Trade in support of the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition enterprise, and in addition to Mr. Benjamin Eggleston, holding over from 1874, the Board appointed William Means, Edmund H. Pendleton, Lewis Glenn and Samual V. Reid to represent the Chamber in the Board of Commissioners for 1875. The Board also instructed the President to subscribe to the guarantee fund of the Exposition for 1875,inthename of the Chamber of Commerce, in the sum of $2,500. Subsequently, the Board was petitioned by the Commissioners representing the Chamber, to offer a premium of $300 in gold, to be awarded to the best presentation of leaf tobacco at the Exposition this year, and the request, being referred to the Chamber for decision, was granted.
Various matters of a public nature have been brought to the notice of the Board and of the Chamber during the year, some of which it may be proper to refer to in this connection. In October, appeals were made to this body for assistance to people in Nebraska, where great suffering was reported, as a consequence of destruction of agricultural products by grasshoppers. A committee was appointed, and liberal contributions were extended by our citizens, and your Board forwarded a special recommendation to the War Department that army clothing, stored at Jeffersonville, be turned over to the relief of these people, which recommendation was favorably acted upon, and a large amount of such clothing was thus distributed.
Early in December, an elaborate report was presented to the Chamber, by a committee, consisting of Charles W. Woolley, John Kyle, David Gibson, Thomas Sherlock and John Cochnower, who had been appoined [sic] appointed to examine and report on the damage, if any being done, to the navigation of the Ohio river, below the city Water-works, by means of the extension of a portion of the works into the channel of the river; also, as to a proper remedy for any such damage; and, further, the effect, present and prospective, of the Eggleston Avenue sewer, upon the river channel.
In January, incompliance with a petition signed by members of the Chamber, the President appointed a committee, consisting of S. Lester Taylor, Richard Mathers ,Florence Marmet, C. W. Woolley and James C. Crane, to give an expression of opinion respecting the aid from the government asked by the Texas Pacific Railroad, which committee presented two reports on the 25th of January, eliciting considerable debate. The majority report, favoring extension of aid by the government as asked for by the Railroad Company, was adopted by the Chamber.
A memorial was received from the Chamber of Commerce of Charleston, South Carolina, asking this body to lend its influence in support of a petition to Congress ,asking for an appropriation of $100,000 for the improvement of Charleston harbor. The matter was referred to a committee, consisting of S. F. Covington, Geo. F. Davis and C. W. Rowland, whose report recommended the approval of the memorial. The report was adopted by the Chamber.
On the 20th of January, the President called the attention of the Chamber to the fact, that there was before Congress a measure having in view the establishment of a branch United States mint, and he was authorized to appoint a committee to report upon the same. The committee appointed, consisted of Geo. M. Hord, Abner L. Frazer, Briggs Swift, Grove J. Penny and Chas. H. Kellogg, Jr. Their report was printed, and copies forwarded to our Congressional representatives, with requests that they urge upon Congress a favorable consideration of the advantages of Cincinnati as a location for the contemplated branch mint.
On the 13th of February, Mr. Edmund Dexter laid before the Chamber a protest against the proposition before Congress to increase the internal taxes on distilled spirits, which was adopted by the Chamber.
On the 27th of February, Mr. William Clifford Neff submitted to the Chamber a memorial to Congress, recommending that there be no delay in the appropriation for the Signal Service Bureau, and testifying to the great commercial importance of the work of the Bureau. The Chamber approved the memorial.
During the past year, the President has been called upon to announce the death of eleven of our members — Vanaken Wunder, Thomas J. Haldeman, Frank A. Walz, Frank D. S. Whetstone, Jacob Netter, George Dominick, A. L. Bramble, James Pearce, J. Findley Cunningham, James W. Bishop, and Robert A. McFarland.
The Constitution of the Chamber, provides that the Board of Officers may, by unanimous vote, admit to honorary membership any person who, from eminence, shall seem entitled to such consideration; but not more than one such person can be admitted in any one year. In pursuance of this provision, your Board has had the pleasure of electing our distinguished citizen, David Sinton, Esq., to such membership.
In concluding this report, and recurring to previous remarks as to the inadequacy of our present rooms, without frequent inconvenience or discomfort to members, we do respectfully but impressively recommend that the members of the Chamber keep in view the importance of taking steps at the earliest practicable day for the erection of a Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange building, which will reflect credit upon our city and its merchants, and afford such accommodations as should be commanded by a commercial body of the importance of our organization.
In behalf of the Board of Officers.
CHARLES B. MURRAY, Secretary.
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