By the provisions of the present charter (the fifth it has had), adopted in 1926 by a vote of more than 4 to 1, the city is under a council-manager form of government. A council of 9 members (including the mayor) is elected on a non-partisan ballot. The council appoints the auditor and the city clerk, and a city-man ager, who is responsible for the administrative departments of the government. The mayor appoints the board of park commis sioners, the city-plan commission, and the municipal art commis sion. The police department is under a board of two members appointed by the governor of the State, with the mayor as chair man ex officio. A new water-supply system was completed in 1928, at an expense of $11,000,000. The water comes from the north side of the Missouri river, above the mouth of the Kaw, and is brought in to the city through two parallel tunnels 6.5ft. in diam eter, through solid rock under the bed of the river. The water plant has been owned by the city since 1895, but all other public utilities are under private ownership. Coal comes from fields in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas and Illinois, fuel oil from the mid-continent field not zoom. away, and natural gas from Kansas has been available since 1906. The public-school system includes 94 elementary, 8 senior high and 4 junior high schools, a teachers college, a junior college, a trade school and a part-time school. There are also 3o parochial and 6 private schools, and several institutions for professional training. The public library in 1935 had 554,103 volumes, and maintained 15 branch stations. There are 400 churches. The Nelson Gallery of Art has an endowment of $15,000,000. The charitable agencies are financed jointly through a community chest which raised $1,094,668 during the '935 campaign.
Kansas City is the seat of the Federal Reserve Bank of the tenth district. Debits to individual accounts in the local banking insti tutions in 1934 aggregated $3,119,299,000. Though primarily a commercial centre, Kansas City has become also an important manufacturing city. Its economic life is closely bound up with that of its neighbour across the State line (see KANSAS CITY, Kansas). Greater Kansas City has a wholesale trade which amounted to $541,785,000 in 1933, and a factory output valued at $323,349,655 of which 24% was represented by packing-house products. It is the largest market in the country for hay, stock hogs and stock and feed cattle; it also ranks first in distribution of agricultural implements, lumber, seeds, kaffir corn and milo maize, and as a primary winter wheat market ; ranks second in meat-packing, and as a horse and mule and live stock market, in receipt and distribution of fruits and vegetables, and in volume of discount paper; third in distribution of butter, eggs and poultry, in production of flour and soap, and as a general grain market ; and fifth in capacity of grain elevators. The Missouri city, rank ing 19th in population (1930), stood eighth in postal receipts and ninth in bank clearings in 1935. Manufacturing was increased after the World War by the establishment of branch plants by many eastern firms, by the making of open-hearth steel for local consumption, and by a great development in the oil-refining and the milling industries. In 1936 the grain elevators had a capacity
of 58,782,00o bu. ; receipts of grain totalled 87,105,400 bu. ; the output of the flour mills was 6,313,140 bbl. Receipts of live stock reached 3,995,00o heads in 1934. The American Royal Live Stock Show, held each November, is one of the largest horse and live stock exhibitions in the United States. Its pavilion, erected in 1922, is a two-story building of reinforced concrete, containing over lac. of floor-space. The Kansas City Live Stock Exchange and the Board of Trade building (the grain market) are the largest buildings in the country devoted exclusively to their respective purposes.
Because of its central position Kansas City is an advantageous meeting place for national conferences. The hotels have 12,000 guest rooms. In the heart of the city is Convention hall, 314f t. long by 198ft. wide, covered by a steel-frame roof without a col umn for its support, and containing 35,000 sq.f t. of floor space and a large roof garden. It was built within three months for the National Democratic convention of 1900, to replace one that had been destroyed by fire; and in 1928 it was the scene of the National Republican convention.
The first permanent settlement within the present limits of Kansas City was established by French fur-traders about 1821. Westport—now a fashionable residential district of Kansas City— was a rival of Independence in the Santa Fe trade, and succeeded to most of it after the great Missouri flood of 1844 destroyed the landing used by Independence. Meanwhile Westport Landing, on the river, increased in importance and overshadowed Westport. In 1838 lots were surveyed and the name Town of Kansas (from the Kansas river) was adopted. It was incorporated as a town in 185o, chartered under its present name in 1853, rechartered in 1875, and adopted new charters under its power of home rule in 1889, 1908 and 1925. Before 185o it was practically the ex clusive eastern terminus on the river for the Santa Fe trade, and a great outfitting point for emigrants to California. Whiskey, gro ceries, prints and notions were staples sent to Santa Fe. Wool, buffalo robes and dried buffalo meat, Mexican silver coin, gold and silver dust and ore came in return. In 186o the trade employed 3,00o wagons and 7,000 men, and amounted to millions of dollars. During the Civil War both Independence and Westport were the scene of battles. There was no fighting at Kansas City, but her trade went to Leavenworth, where it had the protection of an army post and a quiet frontier. After the war the railways took away the traffic to Santa Fe, and other cities, farther up the Mis souri, took over the trade to the upper river valley. In 1866 the first railway reached Kansas City from Saint Louis; in 1867 the packing industry had its beginning; and in 1869 a railway bridge across the Missouri assured Kansas City predominance over Leav enworth and Saint Joseph. The population grew from 4,418 in 186o to 32,26o in 187o, and by 188o it had reached 55,785. Be tween 188o and 190o it increased threefold, and between 1900 and 192o it doubled. The estimate for 1935 was 412,563.