San Francisco

Industries and Commerce.

The Federal census of manufac turing in 1933 showed the following conditions to exist in San Francisco and the territory included in what is known as the metropolitan area : San Francisco,—number of establishments, 1,683; wage-earners, 30,691 ; wages, $33,107,340; value of prod ucts, $221,325,675; metropolitan area (five counties),—number of establishments, 2,649 ; wage-earners. 66,313 ; wages, $71,108,819 ; value of products, $598,290,815. The chief industries ranked by value of production at their high in 1929 were: across the bay, was opened on November 12, 1936. It is the longest bridge in the world over navigable water and was erected at a cost of $77,200,000 which it is expected will be liquidated by tolls within twenty years. The second bridge spans the famous Golden Gate with a central suspension section of 4,200 feet. It was erected at a cost of $32,000,000 and was opened to the public on May 28, 1937.

The climate is practically free from extremes, with a uniform relative humidity, and an abundance of sunshine. Rainfall con stituted the entire precipitation over a period of 5o years, with one or two extreme exceptions, when a very light snowfall was San Francisco's business extends to all parts of the world ; in the confines of the immediate trade area are a number of cities and towns, the greater number of which border on the bay. In the west bay section, on the San Francisco peninsula, the out standing communities are San Francisco, Burlingame, San Mateo, Redwood City, Palo Alto and San Jose. North of San Francisco on the Marin peninsula are the towns of San Rafael, Sausalito, Mill Valley and San Anselmo. In the east bay region are Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Richmond and San Leandro. These sections form a central unit from an operating standpoint and are the immediate market. In the west bay region there are three trunk line highways extending down the peninsula from San Francisco ; five railway lines doing an interstate business, three of which are transcontinental, have their western terminus in San Francisco. A deep water channel extends practically the full length of the peninsula.

Nature supplied the San Francisco region with one of the finest land-locked harbours of the world. To this have been added the most comprehensive docking and berthing facilities, rail and freight connections, modern and well-equipped warehouses, etc. The area of San Francisco bay is 54o sq.m. ; the harbour has 17.2 miles of berthing space and this is constantly being in creased. The harbour is controlled by the State of California and is governed by a board of harbour commissioners appointed by the Government. Of the 43 piers, most are assigned to steamship companies having their own fleets and operating their own schedules. Repairs and maintenance average $750,000 annually.

The water-borne commerce of San Francisco bay has trebled since the days before the World War. San Francisco, according

to the department of commerce, at the close of 1935, ranked sixth among the 49 customs districts of the United States in the value of imports and exports. In 1935 11,772 ships with a registered tonnage of 13,523,361 arrived and 11,762 ships with a tonnage of 12,491,181 departed. San Francisco's exports in 1935 were valued at $67,563,931; imports, $84,075,603. The principal ex ports are barley, canned fruits, raw cotton, flour, canned milk, canned salmon, fresh and dried fruit, lumber, asphalt, scrap iron, automobiles, fertilizer, etc. The principal imports are raw silk, coffee, sugar, copra, coconut oil, burlap, newsprint, tea, fresh fruit, etc. The 1935 report of the Army Chief Engineer shows that the San Francisco bay foreign trade does not approach the domestic trade in tonnage, as indicated by the following figures: total (long tons), 26,962,032; foreign, 3,302,338; coastwise, 14,761,199; internal and intraport, 8,898,495. San Francisco is the port of call for many steamship lines. Besides the movement of commodities by water, there is a large rail traffic in San Fran cisco; while 67,700 passengers arrived at the San Francisco air port during 1936 when 31 arrivals and 31 departures were sched uled daily and 20,100 planes used the port.

Finance.

San Francisco was created a financial centre by the gold rush of 1849 and has maintained its position since. In that year $2,000,000 in gold was exported. Today it still leads every city west of Chicago in bank clearings and bank deposits. In 1935 bank clearings totalled $6,468,835,00o, a figure exceeded only by New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston. On November first of that year San Francisco banks owed $659,796,081.03 to 619,487 depositors, had resources totalling $848,093,728.03 and possessed a surplus of $21,858,815.77. The city was headquarters of the 12th Federal Reserve district having 35o member banks. The growth of Los Angeles in recent years has threatened San Fran cisco's leadership in several fields; but although surpassing its northern rival in the amount of postal receipts and in the number of shares of stock traded annually, Los Angeles trailed in the value of stock transactions. Since there is no state property tax, the only levy in San Francisco is the combined city and county tax. This amounted to $30,964,430 for 1936-1937 and resulted in a levy of $37.84 on each $1000 of assessed valuation which amounted to $997,075,939 on the basis of 5o% of the true value. Per capita city expenses were divided as follows during 1935: total, $46.11; education, $12.70; police and fire protection, $10.05 ; charities and hospitals, $9.11 ; general government, $3.90; recreation, $2.79 ; highways, $1.82 ; sanitation, $1.14 ; conserva tion of health, $.82; miscellaneous, $3.86.