[Trade Journal]
Publication: Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
Cincinnati, OH, United States
p. I,5,7,45-48,73-77,, col. 1
THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
CINCINNATI
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
AND
MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE,
FOR THE
COMMERCIAL YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1886.
CINCINNATI:
OHIO VALLEY PUBLISHING AND MANUFACTURING CO.
NO. 143 RACE STREET.
1887.
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CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
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COMMITTEES OF ARBITRATION AND APPEALS — 1885-86.
Arbitration:
Appeals:
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
CINCINNATI, September 13, 1886.
To the Members of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce:
Your Board of Directors have held thirty-seven meetings during the past year, including the twelve regular monthly sessions.
During the year there have been elected to membership 181 persons, and a corresponding number of certificates of retiring members have been transferred on the books of the Association. The membership list has been reduced by resignations, death, and non-payment of dues, to the number of 10 non-certificate memberships. The total active membership of the organization now stands at 2,232, composed of 2,183 certificate memberships, and 49 non-certificate memberships. There are, in addition, 6 honorary memberships.
Clerk's tickets to the number of 55 have been issued during the year, on each of which the yearly assessment of $25 has been paid, being the same as upon a membership.
The number of complaints filed before the Board of Directors for unmercantile conduct has been smaller than in any recent year, the total being seven. Of this number, but one was brought to trial, resulting in a verdict of indefinite suspension; the others were adjusted by either reference to the Arbitration Committee or other amicable arrangement, excepting one, on which the Board, after investigation by its committee, and failing to bring about an amicable adjustment, declined to take further action.
The report of the Treasurer in regard to the financial affairs of the Association for the year, shows the total receipts to have been $61,479 81; expenditures, $39,576 52 — leaving a net gain of $21,903 29. This surplus, with also $5,000 received from the JAMES A. FRAZER bequest, and $1,661 35 of accrued interest thereon — making an aggregate of $28,564 64 — has been transferred by the Board of Directors to the Board of Real Estate Managers. The fund held by the Board of Real Estate Managers was otherwise increased $24,636 58 during the year, by receipts for interest, premiums, dividends, etc. — which makes a grand total of $53,201 22 gain during the year in the assets of the Association.
Of the annual assessment of $25 for each membership, it is shown that about $15has been absorbed during the year in current expenditures, and $10 have applied to the enlargement of the assets of the Association. Of the expenditures, aggregating$39,576 52, about 42 per cent. has been for salaries, 22 per cent. for regular and special telegraphic market reports, 21 per cent. for rent, 5 per cent. for printing the annual report, and the remaining 10 per cent. for miscellaneous accounts.
The value of the assets of the Association at the close of the past fiscal year com-pares with previous years as follows:
August 31, 1886.......................................$491,649 99
August 31, 1885....................................... 438,448 77
August 31, 1884....................................... 407,477 34
August 31, 1883....................................... 375,935 23
August 31, 1882....................................... 229, 413 21
August 31, 1881....................................... 44,301 22
It is deemed proper, in this connection, to refer to some of the various matters that have been acted upon by the Board of Directors and the Chamber during the past year.
At a meeting held in October, a letter was laid before the Board of Directors from the Secretary of the Cincinnati Museum Association, stating that MR. DAVID SINTON, who had subscribed $25,000, in connection with a like subscription by the late MR. REUBEN R. SPRINGER, for the purpose of meeting the cost of removing the old Post-office building to Eden Park, for uses of the Museum Association and preservation of its unique architecture, had withdrawn his subscription, for reasons stated; and the Museum Association accordingly withdrew their proposition with reference to the building. This action annulled that previously taken, which contemplated the removal of the old Post-office building, now owned by the Chamber of Commerce.
In compliance with a request for the appointment of a delegation to represent the Chamber on the occasion of the opening of the new Board of Trade Buildings at Memphis, on October 15th, the following members were selected by the President: C. M. HOLLOWAY, S. LESTER TAYLOR, R. W. WISE.
In November, the Board authorized a subscription of$2,000 to the Guarantee Fund of the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition for 1886.
In December, the following members were selected to represent the Chamber at the opening of the new Board of Trade Building at Duluth : THEODORE COOK, GAZZAMGANO, H. WILSON BROWN, A. C. EDWARDS, L. C. GOODALE, JAMES HEEKIN.
The following-named members were selected as a committee to co-operate with one from the Order of Cincinnatus, and likewise from other organizations, in matters relating to a Centennial Celebration in this city in 1888: W. W. PEABODY, A. T. GOSHORN, W. N. HOBART, GEORGE N. STONE, H. C. EZEKIEL.
Delegates to the National Board of Trade were appointed as follows: S. F. COVINGTON, E. V. CHERRY, JOHN A. TOWNLEY, THEODORE COOK, LEVI C. GOODALE, JOHN A. GANO, LOWE EMERSON, W. H. DOANE, W. V. EBERSOLE, CHARLES B. MURRAY, J. W. FREIBERG.
The Grain Call was discontinued on February 1, by order of the Board of Directors, and, on request, was renewed on June 1.
The President of the Gallipolis Board of Trade personally submitted, in February, a petition, addressed to the Government, asking for the establishment of a Marine Hospital at Gallipolis. The Board of Directors authorized the indorsement of the petition on behalf of the Chamber.
The President of the City Council of Gallipolis personally presented to the Board, on behalf of that body and the Gallipolis Board of Trade, a petition, addressed to the Government, asking for the construction of an ice harbor for boats at or adjacent to Gallipolis. The petition was approved, subject to the provision that the City Council of Gallipolis should pass an ordinance that no wharfage charges should be made, and that adjacent property-holders agree to the same terms.
MR. M. E. INGALLS, having resigned as a member of the Street-paving Advisory Board representing the Chamber, MR. W. P. ANDERSON was appointed to the vacancy. Subsequently, the Advisory Board having terminated its existence in its previous form, it was deemed advisable to appoint a new committee to confer with the Board of Public Affairs on street-paving matters, and the following selection was made: W. P. ANDERSON, DANIEL STONE, CHARLES G. KINGSBURY.
A communication from the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, in regard to undervaluation of merchandise entered for customs duty, was referred to the following-named committee, who subsequently submitted a report: EARL W. STIMSON, JAMES J. HOOKER, JOHN A. GANO, S. LESTER TAYLOR, LEVI C. GOODALE.
In April, the attention of the Board was called to a bill pending in the State Legislature (House Bill No. 459) for regulating public warehouses and the warehousing and inspection of grain, which contemplated placing grain inspection under State management, with features objectionable to grain interests. The Board selected the following members as a committee to go to Columbus to oppose the passage of the bill: B. W. WASSON, J. N. WOOLISCROFT, WILLIAM HARVEY.
Action was taken by the Board, in May, concerning proposed National legislation on oleomargarine and butterine, opposing the proposed tax often cents per pound, and favoring measures requiring imitation butter products to be sold on their merits, under State or local regulation.
The President of the St. Louis Merchants' Bridge Company, MR. S. W. COBB, asked approval of the plan of his company for a bridge across the Mississippi, which subject was referred to a committee — S. F. COVINGTON, Chairman and reported upon adversely, for reasons stated, which report was approved by the Board.
A committee of the Chamber was appointed, in September, to act for relief of sufferers from a cyclone at Washington C. H., Ohio, on behalf of this Association, as follows: W. V. EBERSOLE, J. H. STEWART, THOMAS G. SMITH, RALPH PETERS, H. WILSON BROWN, SIDNEY D. MAXWELL. This committee reported having raised and disbursed a fund of $3,220 84 for the object stated.
In August, four amendments to the By-laws were reported to the Association for adoption, one of which received the requisite two-thirds vote, as follows:
AMENDMENT TO SECTION 2, ARTICLE I, by addition of the following:
"In the event of an application for membership being rejected by the Board of Directors, a subsequent application from the same party shall not be entertained during a period of six months from the date of the first application of said party."
The Board has retained the services of MR. JAMES H. PERKINS as legal adviser during the year.
Twenty-seven members of the Association have been removed by death during the year, as follows:
JOSEPH HARGRAVE, MILES GREENWOOD, WILLIAM J. FOERSTER,
GEORGE WARD NICHOLS, JACOB BONNER, ALBERT P. SHINKLE,
THOMAS T. HAYDOCK, VINCENT SHINKLE, C. T. ADAMS,
FREDERICK HASSAUREK, ROBERT S. SEMPLE, JOHN BOYLE,
CHARLES I. POLAND, TIMOTHY E. SCOBEY, HUGH COLVILLE,
BENJAMIN F. BRANNAN, JOHN GOULD, WILLIAM BOETTGER,
CHARLES SCHMIDLAPP, JOHN KAUFFMAN, WILLIAM C. HURLEY,
ARTHUR GAINSFORD, RICHARD WITT, WILLIAM D. CREASEY,
J. HENRY EYER, JOHN H VOSSMEYER, ROBERT R. REYNOLDS.
Among the last acts of the Board of Directors was the election of an honorary member, as provided for by the By-laws, by which MR. GEORGE H. PENDLETON was unanimously chosen for this distinction.
The executive and clerical force of the Chamber has been unchanged during the year.
On behalf of the Board of Officers,
CHARLES B. MURRAY,
Secretary
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1886.
* Estimated
† Last year's report
†† 25,114,779 pounds. Hands included with provisions.
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POTTERY, ETC.
The business in pottery, in this city, has been well maintained , some of the dealers reporting increased sales, and all seeming to unite in the opinion that, in the generally improved condition to the business of the country, pottery was coming in for a share of the benefit. The very low prices which have prevailed , however, both in domestic and foreign goods, which , in standard wares, have been lower than ever before, have been a noticeable feature of the year. In many articles with the duties imposed, it seems difficult to realize how manufacturers can live, when so little remains to producers, the low prices being the more noticeable because of the universal demand for decorated goods, which necessarily involves materially increased expense. Domestic wares show improvement in both quality and decoration, which augurs well for the future of the business of this country, and which is steadily breaking down both the objections which have been urged, not without cause, to some extent, to our domestic goods, and the prejudice which always furnishes resistance to innovation. As to our own potteries, it maybe remarked, that they doubtless have made a firmer lodgment in public estimation than ever before in their wares, this being specially true of the higher grades of Cincinnati pottery, some of which is attracting general attention among art-loving people, in the old world as well as in the new. It seems an encouraging feature that every year is developing raw materials in various parts of the country, chiefly in the Southern States, which are doubtless destined to prove valuable to the potter.
The business in glassware has not undergone any particular change in the past year. So far as our local manufacturers are concerned, the usual volume of business has been maintained. Prices, however, have been very low, especially in all staple articles, and, with the tendency to an increase in wages, margins remain narrow. Nothing is, perhaps, more noticeable in this department of business than the multiplication of articles of glass, both for useful and ornamental purposes, the past few years especially having produced a multitude of things of great beauty at prices within the reach of all classes.
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MEMBERS
OF THE
CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE.
JANUARY 31, 1886.
(The first column indicates the number of the Certificate of Membership. Where a blank exists therein, the membership has no Certificate.)
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