REPORT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. To the Members of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago: GENTLEMEN-Herewith is respectfully submitted a statement of the receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year closing January 5th, 1891, together with an exhibit of the financial affairs of the Association. Statistical information from New York, Buffalo, Stock Yards, National Board of Trade delegates and assessment.. 710 75 105 50 66 to National Transportation Association, St. Louis... Expenses J. T. Healy, chairman, to Washington on account Edmunds' meat inspection bill. 22 75 210 00 Expenses H. F. Dousman to Washington as chairman Committee on Transportation 561 73 Expenses incident to visit of British Iron and Steel Association. 139 00 Printing and expenses of memorial to Congress on account But Your directory has during the year purchased and canceled $50,000 of the bonds of the Board, leaving a total indebtedness of $1,350,000, bearing interest at 5 per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually and due in 1933, at the option of the Board after 1893. This directory recommends the continuance of the policy of purchasing $50,000 of the bonds of the Board annually, thus, not only steadily and substantially reducing the bonded debt, but saving an annual interest expenditure of $2,500, and a corresponding insurance premium. In a few years this amount will have been so reduced that the indebtedness undoubtedly may be re funded at 4 per cent. per annum; thus will a substantial saving be secured to the Board. After the payment of all bills and the purchase of the $50,000 of bonds aforesaid, there remains a surplus of $21,969.31. Your directory has fixed the assessment for the fiscal year of 1891 at $65 per member, or $5 less than for the year now closing, and $25 less than for 1888. REAL ESTATE. It has been the object of your directors to so conduct this department as to secure the best class of tenants for all the office room, without an undue reduction of rents. Your Real Estate Committee has kept the building in excellent condition, and your directors recommend that their policy be adhered to in order that no excessive expenditures in any one year may be rendered necessary. In the management of great buildings in a large city, where architectural proficiency and business enterprise present great conveniences and inducements to tenants, there is no economy in withholding adequate expenditures. Every proper facility must be fully maintained, and all reasonable requests of tenants should receive prompt consideration. As may be seen in the financial statement, where the disbursements under this head are grouped, there has been no unusual expenditure in this department. The amount derived from rentals is $99,585.46. The expenditures in this department are as follows: The difference, amounting to $54,422.51, may be considered as the cost to the Board for the use of the Exchange Hall and all other rooms occupied by the Association. The evils caused by "bucket shops" had become alarming and their effect upon the prices of the chief cereals was so disastrous to the agriculturist and to the merchant, that your directors conceiving it to be their duty, under your instructions, withheld the quotations of the Board from those whom it was believed desired them for unlawful purposes. In order to accomplish this result it was necessary, under the decision of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, to entirely discontinue the collection and dissemination of your market quotations. The Market Quotation Department, therefore, was entirely dissolved, and all telegraphic instruments and appliances were summarily removed from the Exchange Hall. This also had the effect of relieving the Board from furnishing quotations to certain concerns which had enjoined the Board from withholding such quotations. From the time this policy, which you thoroughly supported, was inaugurated, the business of the Board revived, and a year of unwonted prosperity followed. In this connection it is strikingly significant that for the portion of the year when quotations were collected and disseminated, the accounts of the Board of Trade Clearing House showed a loss of $600, while from the date of the discontinuance of the quotations, viz.: April 1st, to the close of the year, the volume of trade increased to such an extent that they showed a gain of about $5,000. The total clearances for the year through the Board of Trade Clearing House amount to $86,627,157.25 showing an increase over those of the previous year of $31,164,076.50. The Market Report Committee has exercised special and unremitting vigilance that the policy of the Board might not be undermined by those who would surreptitiously obtain its quotations. A delegation was sent to represent the Board at the annual meeting of the National Board of Trade, held in New Orleans in December last. The resolutions presented by your delegation were important, and, save in one particular, were adopted. The meeting was one of the most successful ever held. Many important subjects were presented, and were profitably and thoroughly discussed. The membership of the National Board has considerably increased since its last annual meeting, and the value of that body to the diversified interests of the country was never before so generally acknowledged. The vital subject of transportation has received the special attention of your Board of Directors, and much good has been accomplished through the efficiency of your Transportation Committee. The so-called new uniform bill of lading, which the carriers sought to impose upon the merchants of the country, was strenuously objected to, and its adoption was indefinitely postponed. The Transportation Committee has succeeded in bringing to a successful issue the protest of the Board against unjust discrimination in making a lower rate on hog product than on live hogs. The Board has also given efficient support to the Inter-State Commerce law, insisting particularly that all facilities offered by common carriers should be enjoyed absolutely without discrimination as to persons or volume of business. Your Board of Directors took decisive action against the use by individuals or corporations of government piers situated on lake ports, notably with reference to the pier in the Chicago harbor and at the port of Buffalo, N. Y.; also favored by resolution reciprocity between the South American countries and the United States, and recommended that such reciprocity should also extend along parallels of latitude, with special reference to those articles which other countries could more economically furnish than could our own. Your Directors also favored the passage of the Torrey Bankruptcy Law; the consolidation of the United States Revenue and Naval Services; petitioned the Board of Aldermen of the City of Chicago to appropriate a sufficient amount of money to deepen the Chicago river; protested against the passage of the Butterworth bill; urged an early decision by the Inter-State Commerce Commission of the case brought before them by the Chicago Board of Trade, with reference to the discrimination in the rate of freight upon dressed meat as against that on live hogs; petitioned Congress to take such measures as would insure the unobstructed navigation of the Mississippi river; protested against amending the Inter-State Commerce Act so as to include lake vessels; protested against the passage of the bill known as the Conger Lard Bill (H. R. 11,568); protested against any further legislation by Congress in regard to silver. It has been the object of your Board of Directors to avoid all unnecessary litigation, and we are pleased to announce that the deliberations and proceedings of the Board have been so guarded that no new suits have been commenced. The present membership of the Board is 1,913. The number of transfers made during the year is 237, yielding a revenue of $5,925. The receipts of grain and flour in its grain equivalent aggregated during the year over 223,000,000 bushels, which are largely in excess of like receipts for any year in the history of the Board. |