[Trade Journal]
Publication: Fortieth Annual Report of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
Cincinnati, OH, United States
p. I,47-50,77-79,252-253,276-285,Appendix 42-62, col. 1
FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
CINCINNATI
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
AND
MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE,
FOR THE
COMMERCIAL YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1888.
CINCINNATI:
THE OHIO VALLEY COMPANY, PRINTERS.
NOS. 137 to 143 RACE Street.
1889.
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CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
CINCINNATI, September 14, 1888.
To the Members of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce:
I have the honor to present herewith my report for the year ending September 14, 1888.
During the year closing with this date, the Board of Directors has held thirty-two meetings, regular and special, and the Association has been called together, for various purposes, during the same period, seventy times.
The Treasurer's report for the year ending August 31, 1888, shows the receipts from all sources to have been $60,335 92, and disbursements $37,949 46, leaving a cash surplus, over and above the necessary expenditures of the Association, of $22,386 46.
The statement of the Board of Real Estate Managers, dated August 31, 1888, shows an unexpended balance to the credit of the Real Estate and Building Fund of $70,414 89. The statement also shows the sum of $600,472 16 to have been expended upon the Chamber of Commerce Building, including the cost of the ground and architects' fees . The assets of the Chamber at the close of the year, August 31, 1888, were $544,887 05, as follows:
Expended on building and lot to date..........................................$600,472 16
Real Estate and Building Fund, unexpended balance.................... 70,414 89
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Total....................................................................................$670,887 05
Liabilities (bonded indebtedness to date)..................................... 126,000 00
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Assets..................................................................................$544,887 05
The liabilities of the Association on August 31, 1888, consisted of a bonded indebtedness of $126,000, being a part of the authorized issue of $150,000 of bonds referred to hereafter.
Following are the assets of the Association at the close of each year for the past eight years:
August 31, 1888..................................... $544,887 05
August 31, 1887....................................... 520,158 00
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
In pursuance of authority granted by the Chamber of Commerce in December, 1886, and with the concurrence and approval of the Board of Directors, given at a meeting on December 9, 1887, the Board of Real Estate Managers caused to be issued the sum of $150,000, Chamber of Commerce 4 per cent. bonds, which were sold at par, and accrued interest from their date. The bonds are dated January 1, 1888, issued in denominations of $500 each, are payable in twenty years, and redeemable at the option of the Chamber in ten years from date. The bonds are secured by a mortgage, executed to HENRY C. URNER, Trustee, on the Chamber of Commerce Building.
The membership of the Association on August 31, 1888, was composed of 2,177 certificate members, 38 non-certificate members, and 5 honorary life members, one of which is represented by a certificate, making a total membership of 2,219.
During the year ending August 31, 1888, the Board of Directors has elected 160 applicants to membership by transfer of certificate.
In accordance with Article XI. of the By-laws of the Chamber of Commerce, five certificates of membership have been forfeited for the non-payment of annual dues.
At the early meetings of the Board of Directors, regular standing committees of Arbitration, Appeals, Terminal Facilities, Transportation, Inspection, Prices Current, etc., were appointed from the membership of the Chamber, and to facilitate and simplify the routine business of the Board special committees were appointed on Finance, Law, Telegraph Market Reports, etc.
The following members were appointed delegates to the National Board of Trade: LEVI C. GOODALE, JOHN A. GANO, JOHN A. TOWNLEY, J. WALTER FREIBERG, CHARLES H. LAW, C. M. HOLLOWAY, EARL W. STIMSON, LEVI H. BROOKS, CHARLES B. MURRAY, LOWE EMERSON, and W. H. DOANE.
It was determined by the Board that all appointments of Inspectors, Gaugers and Weighers should be made to those applicants only who are members of the Chamber. Subsequently, all Inspectors, Gaugers and Weighers seeking appointments by the Board of Directors, who were not already members of the Association, were required to become so.
With a view of making some needed changes in the system of weighing in vogue in this city, the Board of Directors, on September 29, 1887, appointed Messrs. J. R. BROWN, G. V. STEVENSON and SAM W. WEIDLER a special committee to investigate the processes of weighing practiced in other cities, to consider the subject in all of its bearings, and to report back to the Board, recommending rules for the regulation of public weighing in this city. After numerous meetings and conferences with the Local Freight Agents ' Association, and with members of the Chamber, grain dealers, and others closely interested, the committee submitted a series of rules for the regulation of track-weighing in this city, to be conducted under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce. The rules as recommended by the committee were received with some opposition, sufficient to discourage and defeat their adoption by the Board of Directors. The committee, having received a vote of thanks from the Board of Directors, was discharged September 4, 1888, after a laborious service of more than eleven months.
On the recommendation of the Grain Inspection Committee, the Board of Directors, on December 9, 1887, amended Section 1, Rule 11, of the Rules for the Regulation of the Grain Trade, to read as follows:
"SECTION 1, R. 11. — In sales of car lots of grain to arrive, unless otherwise stated, a car load of corn shall be 28,000 pounds, rye 28,000 pounds, oats 32,000 pounds, wheat 30,000 pounds, and barley 30,000 pounds, any excess or deficiency to be settled at the market ruling on the day of delivery."
The subject of "Lard Adulteration" was brought to the attention of the Board of Directors by the Pork Packers' Association of this city, which organization had prepared and adopted a memorial condemnatory of the processes of lard adulteration practiced by unscrupulous manufacturers of that product in various parts of the country. The Board of Directors endorsed the memorial and directed copies to be sent to our Representatives in Congress.
Owing to the threatened removal of the site of the Cincinnati Southern Railway shops from Ludlow, Kentucky, the buildings having been destroyed by fire, a resolution was adopted by the Board favoring the rebuilding, and establishment of the shops at this terminal of the railroad.
A committee was appointed in February, 1888, to prepare a list of the various commodities of trade sold by weight, together with a fixed weight of same, to be used in settlements in the absence of contracts. The committee subsequently submitted a full and detailed report, which was adopted by the Board.
The amendment to the Interstate Commerce Law, known as the " Blanchard Amendment," designed to correct the evil of underbilling of weights and misrepresentation of classes of merchandise shipped, received the endorsement of the Board of Directors at a meeting on March 13, 1888. The subject was referred to our Representatives in Congress, with the request to assist in its passage.
At a meeting on April 3, 1888, the Transportation Committee, to whom had been referred for consideration the proposed amendment to the Interstate Commerce Law making the practice of underbilling weights of shipments or misrepresentation of the character of merchandise shipped a misdemeanor, and punishable by fine, submitted its report. The committee endorsed the provisions of the amendment, and favored its passage by Congress. The report was received by the Board of Directors and spread on the minutes.
On March 6, 1888, AUGUSTUS H. HONSHELL was unanimously elected a Commissioner to the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of C. C. WAITE.
A special committee of five was appointed by the Board of Directors to revise the Tariff of Charges for Commissions, Storage, Tares, etc. The committee subsequently made its report, with a revised schedule of charges, which was unanimously adopted by the Board.
The Grain Call Board was discontinued by the Board of Directors, to take effect June 30, 1888.
At a meeting of the Board of Directors on September 14, 1888, HENRY C. URNER was unanimously elected an honorary life member of the Association.
On December 13, 1887, a memorial was adopted by the Association petitioning Congress to appropriate the sum of $20,000 for the improvement and preservation of the grave of GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, at North Bend, Ohio. Following is the language of the Memorial:
"The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce would respectfully and earnestly memorialize Congress to appropriate and arrange for the expenditure of $20,000 for the improvement and preservation of the mound on which is the almost neglected grave of GENERAL HARRISON, the hero of Tippecanoe, the Territorial Governor of Indiana, and the ninth President of the United States, and to erect a memorial shaft of granite worthy of the public services of the illustrious dead, and of the Nation he so long and faithfully served."
In response to an appeal for aid from the Acting Mayor and Citizens' Executive Committee of Jacksonville, Florida, for the relief of the suffering and distress in that city and vicinity, occasioned by the yellow-fever epidemic, a relief fund was started September 7, 1888, under the auspices of the Chamber, the total subscriptions amounting to the sum of $3,237 08. Of this sum, there were forwarded to the Jacksonville Auxiliary Sanitary Association, Jacksonville, Florida (including $10 25 to be sent, if practicable, by that Association to Orange Park, Florida), $2,743 35; to Decatur, Alabama, $250 00; and to New Decatur, Alabama, $243 73, there being embraced in the last-named sum supplies of food, purchased here and forwarded, amounting to $133 73. It is worthy of remark, too, in this connection ,that this was a purely voluntary offering, no part of these contributions having been solicited by any agency of this Association.
During the year ending August 31, 1888, the Chamber of Commerce has lost by death thirty-nine members, as follows:
FRANK HEILE, GEORGE W. MARSHALL, A. L. KEBLER,
HIRAM W. DAVIS, ROBERT F. LEAMAN, C. L. GREENE,
JAMES F. TORRENCE, GEORGE RENNER, GEORGE S. HORNER,
GEORGE N. STEWART, WILLIAM REED, LEWIS GLENN,
CHARLES P. WILLIAMS, GEORGE A. SMITH, ALBERT F. BOHRER,
HENRY DEBUS, JOHN W. GERKE, WILLIAM H. BROADWELL,
WILLIAM YOUNG, AMMI BALDWIN, WILLIAM LEHRTER,
SAMUEL C. TATUM, JR., PETER SHOENBERGER, LOUIS P. SNIDER,
GEORGEW.WALMER, JOHN SIMONTON, S. V. MAYBERRY,
ISAAC STRAUSS, MAX HOFFHEIMER, JACOB DEBOOR,
FLORENCE MARMET, JOHN RYAN, JOSIAH WILDER,
JAMES R. BLAIR, JAMES P. WALLS, HERMAN DUHME,
FRANK SKINNER, SAMUEL D. LANGTREE, ISAAC GREENWALD.
Respectfully submitted,
WM. E. HUTTON,
Secretary
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POTTERY, ETC.
The business in pottery, in its general aspects, has varied little from 1886-87. During the late winter and early spring, there was considerable activity in pottery, and a material increase in sales, the year, however, closing with merchants buying sparingly. Prices have remained without noticeable change, and profits in general, as heretofore, have been slender. Our business covers about the same area with preceding years. Our manufacturers have proceeded much as formerly, endeavoring each year to improve the quality of their wares and to make them still more commendable to our own people. In the higher walks of pottery, in which Cincinnati occupies such a conspicuous position, there has been steady progress made in everything pertaining to its manufacture. The splendid exhibits which were made at the Centennial Exposition forcibly illustrated the attainment to which our local manufacturers have arrived. In styles, coloring and artistic qualities generally, the higher grades of pottery in this city bear testimony in all parts of this country, and to some extent in Europe, to our deservedly advanced position in this department of manufactures.
In glassware the output at this city has been quite equal to any previous year of recent date. The failure to adjust the differences between the manufacturers and blowers, in the flint glass department, resulted in suspension throughout almost the entire country in this line of ware during a number of months of the year. At Cincinnati, the troubles were overcome by the employment of non-union labor, which found constant and uninterrupted occupation during the entire period at regular union prices. Staples, which comprise the bulk of manufactured goods in this line in this city, have varied little in value during the year, while specialties, with merit enough to command the attention of the trade, have been firm in price and in good demand.
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MEMBERS
OF THE
CINCINNATI CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE.
JANUARY 31, 1889.
NOTE. — The first column indicates the number of the Certificate of Membership; where a blank exists therein, the membership has no certificate. Where an official title in italics is annexed to a name, in the column under the head of "Name," such title, with the title of the corporation following, may not express the present official relations of the member, inasmuch as this shows only the manner in which the name appears in the Certificate of Membership, which is not changed till transferred on the books of the Chamber of Commerce under the rules of the same, though the official relations of the member to the corporation may have previously changed or actually terminated.
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