Local In this situation Boston faces a problem of the first order. Ferries, au tomobiles, steam and electric railways bring daily into the city thousands of these people. This fact can be easily illustrated. In the year ending 30 June 1914 the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn Railroad, a narrow gauge suburban railroad, carried 13,817,292 passengers into and out of the city, or practically 7,000,000 each way, which equals more than 20,000 for each working day. In the same year the three lead ing railroads entering the city carried over 60, 000,000 passengers into and out of the city, most of this business consisting of the transporta tion of "commuters," who come to the city each day. The Boston Elevated system carried an even larger number into the cities and towns of the metropolitan district. These people from the suburbs come to work and to play. The city must provide transportation for them; it must clean its streets and regulate traffic for their convenience; it must give them police pro tection; it must educate many of them; it must be ready to serve their every want as if they were citizens. Ample evidences of these facts may be found in school, hospital and police records. Over one-third of the persons ar rested annually in Boston do not have their residences in the city.
On the other hand, this condition has its compensations for the city. The commerce and industry of the city are thereby greatly in creased. This, in turn, has its effect onprop erty values. The assessed valuation of real estate in Boston in 1914 was $1,237,473,100, of personalty, $312,573,509, total over a billion and a half. This equals a per capita assessed val uation of $2,061.84, which exceeds New York's per capita valuation by almost $300 and every other city in the country by over $600.
Population.— The population of the city proper has grown steadily since 1790. Immi gration and the annexation of other towns have probably been the most important fac tors in this growth. In 1790 Boston had 18,320 people; in 1810, 33,787; in 1830, 61,392; in 1850, 136,881; in 1870, 250,526; in 1890, 448,477; in 1910, 670,585; and in 1915 (State census) 745,439. Immigration has been largely from Ireland. Following the famine in Ireland in the 40's, a considerable stream of Irish immigration set in toward the United States, and much of it found its way to Bos ton. In 1846, when the city is said to have had about 120,000 people, there were already about 24,000 Irish among the population. This stream of incomers continued through the century, until the home of the Puntan and the birthplace of Unitarianism has come to be dominated politically by the Irish-Ameri cans. In 1910 there were in Boston over 150,000 persons of Irish birth or Irish parent age. To be sure, other nations have also con tributed to Boston's foreign population, espe cially in recent years. In 1910, 69,000 of its
people were of Canadian birth or parentage, less than 5,000 of these being French-Cana dian; 19,000 were of English birth or parent age; 19,000 German; 49,000 Italian; and 63. 000 Russian. mainly Jewish. In addition there were thousands of persons in the city one of whose parents was of foreign birth. All told, less than 25 per cent of the people of Boston in 1910 were native born of native parentage and many of these could claim but a single generation of American parentage behind them.
Churches.— Church statistics go far to confirm these figures, for of 345 churches of all denominations listed in the city directory of 1915, 65 were Roman Catholic and 38 Jew ish. Among others, the Baptist denomination had in the same year 35 churches within the city; the Congregational-Ttinitarians had 36; the Congregational-Unitarians, 24; the Meth odist Episcopal Church, 31; the Lutherans, 12; the Presbyterians, 11; and the Episcopalians, 36. When one considers the history of New England, these statistics are, indeed, surpris ing. Among the various other denominations which have a footing in Boston is the Chris tian Science Church, whose temple, or mother-church, is one of the architectural landmarks of a city which boasts many famous and beautiful buildings.
Commerce.— With the growth and diver sification of the population has come a cor responding increase in commerce and manu factures. Boston is not a city of one domi nant manufacture, nor is its import and export business highly specialized in one line. Never theless, in the manufacture of boots and shoes, clothing, pianos and organs and a number of specialties, Boston is one of the leading cities of the Union, and as a wool market it stands first. The United States census of mamifac tares for 1914 recorded 3,138 industrial estab lishments of factory grade, employing 96,913 persons, of whom 78,894 were wage earners, receiving annually in wages $49,444,000. The capital invested aggregated $214,735,000, and the year's output was valued at $284,802,000: of this, $134,234,000 was the value added by manufacture.
The port of Boston is firmly established as the chief port of New England and as one of the largest in the United States. With exports of $71,961,259 and imports of $162, total $234,959,730, Boston's foreign trade in 1914 was surpassed by that of only two other American cities, New York and New Orleans. The tonnage of vessels in for eign trade which entered and cleared in the year 1913 was over 5,000,000, in 1914 slightly under 5,000,000. The coastwise trade was also considerable, as was the number of passengers coming and going on the steamship Imes which make regular railings from the port.