The San Francisco call., 1896-02-04
BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR '9S.
The Hopeful Words Of the Pres
ident Of the Board Of
Trade.
Proceedings at the Annual Meeting
Officers Elected-As to Home
Industries.

The Board of Trade of San Francisco
will have for president until next Febru-
ary "A. A. Watkins, he having been re-
elected at the nineteenth annual meeting,
held yesterday afternoon.
The president read his annual report,
from which it appears that during the year
the association donated $1,000 to the Cali
fornia Miners Association, to be used in
defraying the expenses OF protest to the
Secretary of the Interior against issuing
patents to mineral lands claimed as agri-
cultural lands. The mining industry, he
declared, is undergoing great revival
and promises soon to resume its former
magnitude. The association also con-
tributed $3.50 to defray the expense of
printing an illustrated description of the
Nicaragua canal and 500 to defray part of
the expense of sending Mrs. Lucy McCann
ia the Atlanta Exposition and 500 to the
Manufacturers Association.
The membership of the association is
201, and during the year there were five
deaths = Adolph Glootz, Isaac Hecht,
Joseph A. Ford, G. NJ. Kutz and r. f.
Bunker.
He called attention to complaints about
settlements without sufficient investiga-
ton and said that while these settlements
were made through the Board of Trade
they were the acts of the creditors only
VINO directly interested. He expressed
himself in favor of being mercful to mer-
chants who have become embarrassed
from any cause beyond their control, but
that when failures are tainted with frauds
the parties should be pushed to the wall.
He deplored the system of indiscrim-
mate credits, and suggested careful
scrutinizatiou of the people asking 1t
and asked whether credits ought not
to be restricted, and if it would not be
in business by buying stock on credit
from wholesale dealers.
The custom of extending dates, he said,
is injurious alike to debtor and creditor.
He then spoke of home ind ndustries, and
declared that the Manufacturers and Pro-
ducers' Association is doing good work in
that line. He spoke of the work OF the
San Francisco committee on commerce
In closing he said:
The outlook for 1896 is certainly very en-.
coursging Greater employment for the in
dustrious, better wages Tor services rendered,
higher prices for our staples are among the
certainties, the only uncertainty clouding the
situation being the arrangement OF the Ma
tional finances At present it is i'm possible to
predict what the action of Congress will be in
regard to currency, the bond issue and. the
proposed change in the tariff. The questions
all have the greatest influence upon busi-
ness, anu III Will continue 10 0epeQQ upon
these subjects being handled intellfgently and
patriotically without regard to party or to
section.
The report of Secretary II. L. Smith
shows:
Receipts of the board for the year ending
February 1, 1896, SAT .770 3s, including bal
ance on hand February l, 1895, of $23, ,463 06.
OF these receipts $12,525 were derived from
members dues. $7o46 80 from non-members,
commissions, 1863 46 from interest on de posits
and $4076 So from law department fees. The
disbursements of the past year amounted to
$31 ,405 7S. including $23 911 % for salaries,
rents, insurance and other running expenses
1924 50 for furniture and renovations to the
rooms, $40 for the Manufacturers Convention,
$1,000 donated to the California Miners Asso-
citation, $3.50 for Nicaragua canal literature,
and 500 given to the State Development Com
mittee. There is a present cash balance of
SIG, ,364 go in the hands of the treasurer, and
sundry bills for the month of January due and
unpaid, amounting to 5000 75.
The total membership of the Board of Trade
February /, 1896, was 201. During the year
eleven new members were admitted, and six
teen members resigned and retired from busi-
ness.
The number of cases reported to the board