INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The Eleventh Annual Meeting of the National Board of Trade was regarded by those who were present as one of the most interesting and important meetings which the Board has held, at least within recent years. The attendance was good; the topics considered were closely related to the pressing business wants of the country; and the discussions were able and spirited. The results of these discussions, in so far as they became embodied in resolutions which received the requisite majority in the Board, have already been given to the constituent bodies in a brief abstract. reports of the Executive Council, and of the Committees on Reciprocal Trade with Canada, the Postal Telegraph, and Food Adulteration, have also been printed separately, and have been widely circulated.

The

Many of the questions which were under debate at this meeting, have received more or less attention during the session of Congress soon to come to an end. The proposition for the appointment of a Commission to consider and report upon the Trade Relations of the United States with Canada, would seem to have failed for the present. At the moment of writing, it is not improbable that the House of Representatives will concur with the Senate in authorizing a Commission for the Revision of the Tariff. No immediate action in relation to the Postal Telegraph is to be expected; although the recent absorption of the American Union and the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Companies by the Western Union Telegraph Company, creating a consolidated capital of eighty million dollars, has added emphasis to some of the opinions expressed by the Board. With regard to American Shipping Interests, Congress has not yet reached any conclusion as to what should be done either to promote shipbuilding or to revive the Ocean-Carrying Trade of the country, and perhaps this is not

strange, in view of the wide divergence of opinion on these subjects which prevails among those who may be supposed to be personally familiar with them. The Board has found more difficulty in reaching anything approaching to unanimity in reference to them, than in connection with any other class of questions that has been before it.

The full discussions contained in this volume are commended to the membership and the public, for their careful perusal. They will be found both interesting and instructive, as an expression in brief and direct form of the mature judgment of men versed in affairs, looking at the questions which appropriately come before them from different points of view, but all having reference to definite and practical results. Such questions are often passed upon by Congress with less discussion than they receive in this Board. Hence, the value which attaches to the meetings of the Board and to the publication of its proceedings.

BOSTON, February 9, 1881.

H. A. H.

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE,

ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 5, 1868,

AND AS SINCE AMENDED.

DECLARATION.

In order to promote the efficiency and extend the usefulness of the various Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce, and other chartered bodies, organized for general commercial purposes, in the United States; in order to secure unity and harmony of action in reference to commercial usages, customs and laws; and especially, in order to secure the proper consideration of questions pertaining to the financial, commercial and industrial interests of the country at large, this Association, on this 5th day of June, 1868, is hereby formed by delegates, now in session in the city of Philadelphia, representing the following named commercial organizations, to wit:

SECTION 1. This Association shall be designated the NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE.

ARTICLE II.

SECTION 1. Every local Board of Trade, Chamber of Commerce, or other body organized for general commercial, and not for special or private purposes, and duly chartered under State or National laws, shall be entitled to membership in this Association, on the approval of two-thirds of the bodies represented at any meeting of the Association, and shall be accorded the following representation: Each such Association having fifty members, who have the right to vote therein, shall be entitled to one delegate; having one hundred members, two delegates; having three hundred members, three delegates; and for each additional two hundred members above three hundred, one additional delegate.

SEC. 2. Delegates who shall, in all cases, be active members of not less than one year's standing of the respective bodies which they represent, shall be selected by the local organizations in such manner and for such term of not less that one year, as each may see fit. At each meeting of the Board they shall present credentials under seal from the Secretaries of their respective constituencies; these credentials shall certify the number of members authorized to vote, then connected with the body which is claiming representation, and which may present or may have a copy of its charter on file in this Board.

SEC. 3. Any local Board organized in any State where special charters cannot be had, shall be deemed to comply with the provisions of this article by filing with this Board a copy of its Articles of Association under State law, and of its Constitution and By-laws.

ARTICLE III.

SECTION 1. On all questions before the Board, on which a vote is taken viva voce, or by division, each delegate present shall be entitled to one vote in person. In all voting by yeas and nays, the delegates of a constituent body who are present, shall have the right to cast as many votes as the number of delegates which the body they represent is entitled to send to the meeting, according to its officially reported membership; all yea and nay votes shall be fully recorded in the proceedings of the Board. A call for the yeas and nays may be ordered only on questions involving action by the Board on propositions of a public character, or on such as relate to amendments to the Constitution or to the By-laws of the Board, and only on the demand of a delegate supported by one-third of the constituent bodies represented in the meeting; each constituent body on this question being entitled to but one vote, which shall be recorded. All votes for elective officers shall be by ballot; each delegation present shall be entitled to one ballot, and upon this shall be stated the name of the constituent body by which it is cast, with the number of votes to which it is entitled, and the number of votes or fractions of a vote given for each candidate voted for, all of which shall be counted in making up the result.