Boston's interests are commercial rather than industrial, the factories owned by Boston capital being mostly out of town; the manufactures, however, are extensive and varied. According to the census of 1900, a total of nearly $145,000,000 was invested in the various manufacturing industries, which had a production valued at over $205,000,000. The city is the second wool market in the world, ranking next to London, and is second to New York only among American ports in the value of its foreign traded which amounts to about $200,000,000 annually. The exports, which represent five-eighths of the total, comprise provisions (including animals), breadstuffs, cotton and its manufactures, leather and its manufactures, iron and steel manufactures (the above-named classes constituting 90 per cent. of the whole amount), wood and its manufactures, and distilled spirits. The principal imports are wool and woolen manufactures, fibres, sugar, hides and skins, cotton and cotton manufactures, chemicals, manufactures of iron and steel, leather and manufactures of leather, wood and wooden products, fruits, fish, and paper-stock. The facilities for handling this great traffic are excellent: a system of freight terminals brings together the railroads and ships, deep-water terminals making accessible docking facilities for the largest vessels. In 1900 the internal revenue collections at Boston were about $8,000,000, and the post-office receipts $3,200,000. The fishing industry, which formerly was one of the chief sources of Boston's prosperity, is still of importance, the value of its products amounting annually to more than $500,000. Boston is the centre of immense mining, railroad, and insurance interests, which are operated all over the country, particularly in the West.
Administration, Municipal Activities. The government is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, a bicameral city council composed of 13 aldermen and 75 councilmen, and subordinate administrative officials, of whom the street commissioners are chosen by popular vote, the city clerk, the city messenger and clerk of committees elected by the council, the police board appointed by the State Governor and council, and all others appointed by the mayor, a number of the appointments, however, being made subject to the consent of the upper house of the municipal council. A prominent feature of the municipal government is the large number of public-spirited citizens who administer, without remuneration, important departments; among these may be mentioned the trustees of the Public Library, trustees of the City Hospital, overseers of the poor, Park Commission, boards governing the institutions for paupers, children, and insane; also the Board of Municipal Statistics, which published weekly, until 1900, the City Record, an official gazette.
There has been of recent years a great increase in the activities undertaken by the municipality, which is one of the most progressive in the United States. These now extend to a municipal printing plant, work in the repair and construction of city buildings, watering of the streets, municipal bath-houses, lectures and concerts, free excursions for children, a camp for boys, etc. Besides these, and the greatest of municipal enterprises, the new subway, there are the combined municipal works comprised in the metropolitan systems of parks (already mentioned), of sewerage, and of water supply. The metropolitan districts are not, however, coextensive. The sewerage system comprises a network of mains (550 miles in Boston) which discharge into deep water in Boston Bay. The water-supply is obtained from the Nashua River, each municipality controlling its distributing system; and the plan is arranged to include other sources in case the demand exceeds the capacity of the present source. The first water-works of the present system were completed in 1848. The entire system, including 715 miles of mains, has cost about $23,000,000.
The new subway, constructed in 1895-98 at a cost of $4,350,000, was the first example in the United States of municipal enterprise in this field—a notable work of engineering undertaken for the relief of the congested traffic in the business district and to afford rapid communication with the suburbs of the south and west. It was partly opened for traffic in 1897, when it was leased for operation to a private company for a term of 20 years. The subway is substantially constructed, is well lighted and ventilated, and is attractively finished at the stations with glazed white brick. Its immediate success has led to an extension of the system to the suburban districts on the east. With the facilities afforded by the subway, the Boston transit system has attained a high degree of efficiency; the elevated and electric roads supplement each other, and connect also with the steam-railway terminals. The elevated road system, opened in 1901, extends through the city, from Roxbury to Charlestown, and is connected with each end of the subway. The structure is of steel and the trains are operated by electricity.
The annual expenditures of the city for maintenance and operation amount to about $20,000,000 (including $1,500,000 by the county), the main items of expense being about $3,000,000 for schools, $2,000,000 for interest on debt, $1,750,000 for the police department, $1,500,000 for street expenditures (other than street cleaning and sprinkling, which amount to $500,000), $1,250,000 for the water-works, $1,250,000 for the fire department, $1,200,000 for charitable institutions, $750,000 for municipal lighting, over $600,000 for garbage removal, and about $500,000 for parks and gardens. The assessed valuation of property, real and personal (the basis of assessment being 100 per cent.), is about $1,130,000,000; the bonded debt is, approximately, $82,000,000, including $3,500,000 county bonds. The legal borrowing limit is fixed at 2½ per cent. of the average assessed valuation for three years.
Population. From the earliest date of the country's history, Boston has ranked among the largest American cities. The growth of its population has been gradual and steady, as seen from the following figures: 1790, 18,320; 1800, 24,937; 1850, 136,881; 1870, 250,526; 1890, 448,477; 1900, 560,892. As in nearly all large modern cities, two interesting facts may be noted in connection with the distribution of the population in Boston—the segregation of various classes in certain localities, and the gradual shifting of the quarters of the various classes following in the wake of industrial changes.
