REPORT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. To the Members of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago: GENTLEMEN:-Your Directory herewith submits the following report for the fiscal year ended January 5, 1903. FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE OF THE From rental and premiums on Telephones in Exchange Hall....... 150 00 6,276 85 5,170 57 274 84 From Quotation Department... 28,277 56 From Real Estate Department, for Rents, Janitor Service, and Electric Lights...... 129,253 59 From Real Estate Department, for sales Steam Pump and 1,505 00 From Real Estate Department, for sales old Metal, etc..... From Subscriptions for National Live Stock Association... Cash on hand January 7, 1902. EXPENDITURES. 366 12 8,138 22 435 00 $278,653 25 10,815 04 $289,468 29 Interest and expenses on bonded indebtedness $1,240,000.00.... $ 49,581 32 Interest coupons, paid on 5% bonds, former issue.. Taxes on Real Estate 1901.. 5 00 34,675 88 Taxes on Personal Property 1901.. Insurance on Glass, Real Estate Department.. Premiums on Casualty Insurance, Real Estate Department... Estate Department.. Repairs to Building, Real Estate Department.... 271 13 509 75 518 98 17,212 27 18,131 78 Wages of Employes, Fuel, Water, Gas, etc., Real Estate Expenses account Revenue law... Expenses attendant on examination of Grain Elevators. Janitors salary, including scrubbing... 808 25 1,230 70 539 85 3,860 00 Soap, towels and supplies for lavatory and exchange hall. 358 80 and St Louis... Market Department - Ticker service..... ...... Market Department-Salaries of Blackboard Clerks..... 4,838 97 2,932 02 3,630 06 1,643 50 Telegraphing... 1,237 05 National Board of Trade assessments and expenses... 213 80 Expenses of delegates to National Hay Dealers' Association, Expenses incident to Meetings of Directors and Committees... Miscellaneous expenses... Geo. F. Stone, balance from 1901 account...... National Live Stock Associations for subscriptions collected.. 98 54 60 43 435 00 NOTE-Moneys amounting to $16,808.29 stand to the credit of the Board on the books of Telegraph Companies. Chicago, January 6, 1903. To the President and B ard of Directors of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. GENTLEMEN-In accordance with your instructions of the Finance Committee we have completed a careful audit of the Financial Records of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago covering the period from January 8, 1902, to January 7, 1903. All the records in the cash book, journal and ledger were proven correct. The cash balances as shown in the hands of your Secretary and Treasurer were checked and proven correct. Vouchers were presented for all cash payments, properly approved by the Finance and Real Estate Committees. We also certify that the foregoing report is correct in accord ance with the records audited. Respectfully submitted, Chicago, January 9, 1903. EVERETT AUDIT CO., ERIC J. EVERETT, Secretary. At the close of the fiscal year ended January 5, 1903, there were no outstanding bills. Cash on hand $19,411.82, as against $10,815.04 at the corresponding date of 1902. Amount received from quotations during the year last passed $28,277.56 net, as against $4,842.73 for the year ended January 6, 1902. There is to the credit of the Board with the telegraph companies under contract $16,875. The bonded indebtedness of the Board is $1,240,000, due in the year 1927, bearing 4 per cent. interest, payable on the first day of June and the first day of December of each year. Disbursements on real estate account, exclusive of construction, interest and insurance, amounted to $66,506.65. Extensive repairs and important changes contributing to the comfort and convenience of the tenants of the building have been made during the past year. A new elevator has been installed in the building and has proved satisfactory. Amount paid for taxes on real estate and personal property is $34,947.01, as compared with $40,050.30 paid during the year immediately preceding. Amount received from rentals, janitor service and electric lights $129,253.59, as compared with $118,785.32 for the preceding year. Every room in the building is rented. The assessment for the fiscal year beginning January 6, 1903, is fixed, in manner as provided by the rules, at $50.00 per capita. The present membership in the association numbers 1793. The number of memberships transferred during the year was 175, yielding $4,375.00. The following persons during the year were expelled from membership: LEWIN A. WOOD, JOHN J. GARDNER, WILLIAM E. MCHENRY. The clearances of the Board of Trade Clearing House during the year amounted to $83,590,507.50 and the balances $27,668,595.95; during the year preceding, $74,476,955 and $25,341,536.87 respectively; and during the year 1900, $62,227,165 and $22,821,284 respectively; and during the year 1899; $58,366,800.51 and $20,597,677.54 respectively. It will be observed that the amount of clearances during the year last past amounted to over $25,000,000.00 more than during the year 1899. The above statements, dating from the time when a vigorous policy of this Board against bucketshops was forcefully inau. gurated, show a uniform and substantial increase in the business of our members and constitute one of the strongest evidences of the wisdom of that policy. Your directory is gratified that the undisputed right of the Board to its quotations is fully established, and that its right to enforce its rules is recognized by the courts. Your directory cannot doubt that the policy so consistently and vigorously pursued during the past three years will not only be upheld but prosecuted with an aggressive and uncompromising loyalty to the highest mercantile standards. The inviolability of a business contract and the maintenance of all our rules, both in letter and in spirit, must be always insisted upon if this organization shall continue to be what its founders designed that it should be—an organization for the promotion of commerce based upon fair dealing and mutual advantage; and for the inculcation of the principles of justice and equity in trade and for securing to its members the benefits of co-operation in the furtherance of their legitimate pursuits. Our legal department has been very busy during the year; fifty-three suits have been commenced in which the Board was involved; in forty-six the Board or its officers were defendants; forty-one of these related to margins upon July oats; three sought to prevent the Board from disciplining members, and the rest arose out of the Board's efforts to protect its property right in its quotations and keep them from bucketshops. Our right to maintain our commission rule was again emphasized by the decision of Judge Baker of the Circuit Court, who refused a mandamus to restore to membership Mr. John Dickinson, who was on February 6, 1901, expelled for violating it. A notable victory has been the decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, affirming that of Judge Tuley, and declaring unconstitutional the law of 1896 allowing public warehousemen to store their own grain. The Board's property right in its quotations, and its right to protect it by injunction, have been still more firmly established by the U. S Circuit Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit, which, in October, 1902, affirmed Judge Kohlsaat's previou s decision to that effect. This decision establishes the law for the Federal Courts of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. In a suit brought by the Board against the O'Dell Commission Company in the Federal Court at Cincinnati, Judge Thompson denied a temporary injunction upon the ground that the Board |