Business Interests.— The position of Cin cinnati as a midway port on the great central channel of one of the most fertile districts of the world, added to its location on a platform above the floods which washed away its rivals, was the origin of "ts greatness; but that river traffic has greatly declined since the advent of railroads. Even yet, however, it is invaluable for the transportation of bulky freight — coal, ore, iron, lumber, salt, etc.— to manufactories and the distribution of itsproducts to the Ohio and Mississippi ports as far as New Orleans, up the Ohio to to the Big Sandy, Cumberland, Tennessee and Green, Red, White, Arkansas, Yazoo, etc., covering 1,200 miles of the Ohio, 850 of the Mississippi, and 2,000 of tributaries. About 100 vessels a year register for this inland commerce, with a tonnage of some 8,000; but there is a much greater com merce than this indicates, as one towboat will push many barges in front of it, a method peculiar to Western rivers. The government improvements, dredging and lighting the chan nel, have greatly aided to keep this navigation alive. The immense railroad business has already been referred to. Seventeen roads enter Cincinnati; the passengers of most of them come into the Central Union Depot at Central avenue and Third street; but a few, of which the Pennsylvania is chief, have separate stations. The Cincinnati Southern road, 338 miles long, was built and is still owned by the city, and is operated by the Southern Railway Company. under lease. The business interests of the com munity revolve around the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, an organization of business and professional men, totaling 4,000, which conducts by means of a large income a thoroughly de partmentalized organization, the principal de partments of which are devoted to conventions and publicity, weighing and inspection, statis tics, grain and hay, exchange, produce exchange, civic and industrial work, traffic, merchandis ing and foreign trade.
The trade and manufacturing interests of the city are large and important. It has many national banks, clearings aggregating $2,030, 181,819 in 1917. It has also a large number of State and private banks, building and loan as sociations, many strong trust companies and savings banks. Slaughtering and packing of meats, especially pork, has been long and is still one of the leading branches of commerce, the city packing more than one-half of the produce of the State. Cincinnati holds the first position in the country in the manufacture and sale, both domestic and foreign, of machine tools and machinery. The number of industrial estab lishments is about 4,000, with a capital of about $212,500,000, and 100,000 workmen, and occupy ing real estate valued at $100,000,000, with an annual factory output of nearly $300,000,000. According to the last census the greatest single branch is iron work, including pig, castings, foundry and machine shop products and archi tectural iron work; men's clothing, slaughter ing and packing of meats, distilled liquors, fac tory made boots and shoes, carriages and their material, tobacco products end malt liquors. Other great products are leather and leather goods, furniture, lumber, timber and woodworking products; coffee and spices, roasted and ground; saddlery and harness ; pickles and preserves; undertakers' goods ; musical instruments; soap and candles; cal supplies; flour and grist; plumbers' sup plies; patent medicines; and regalia, banners, etc., in which Cincinnati
heads the United States. Other products num ber hundreds, many curious and interesting, notably those of the Rookwood Pottery.
Educational Institutions, Libraries, News papers, Cincinnati has a thorough system of public schools with 59 day elementary, 10 special, 2 night high, 6 night elementary, 6 pub lic high schools and about 1,725 teachers; be sides private academies and secondary schools including 51 Catholic parochial schools. • For higher education the chief is the University of Cincinnati, the only municipal university in the United States, operated as part of the public school system, expanded from the old McMicken University, the capstone of the system of public instruction, with affiliated medical, and dental and law de partments, and in connection the famous observatory now located on Mount Lookout one of the earliest in the United States, with a 16-inch refractor and a new meridian circle, and with a notable record in the investigation of double stars. The university buildings are in a 30-acre space set off by the city in Burnet Woods Park. The Ohio Mechanics' Institute, one of the most important educational forces in the city, has a large, thoroughly equipped build ing and library, and maintains both daily, and night schools, attended by hundreds, in which regular classical, literary and scientific instruc tion and courses of lectures are given. There are also medical and surgical schools, besides training schools for nurses in the hospitals; two other dental colleges; a night law school; sev eral business colleges and schools of expres sion; Lane Theological Seminary at Walnut Hills (1832) famous for Lyman Beecher and Calvin E. Stowe, and for its slavery dissensions, two Roman Catholic colleges, Saint Francis Xavier (1840) and Saint Joseph's (1873) ; five Catholic seminaries for the education of priests and six Catholic female academies and semi naries, leading to others, the Hebrew Union College (Reformed Jewish) for educating rabbis, the chief one in the United States; the Art Museum and Art School founded by Cin cinnati ladies on the model of South Kensing ton, London, with two large buildings and sev eral hundred students, and a valuable collection of works of art. The Cincinnati Society of Natural History has a museum of valuable and interesting relics open to the public. Of the libraries, the chief is the free Public Library, handsomely housed on Vine street (with over 490,000 volumes and pamphlets) and 23 branches and 26 stations. There are 16 others, subscrip tion and institutional, of which the chief are the Young Men's Mercantile, the Law Library, that of the Mechanics' Institute, the library of Saint Xavier's College, Lloyd Library and Museum, the University Library, and the His torical and Philosophical Society has the finest collection in existence of original manuscripts, pamphlets and bound volumes pertaining to the history of Cincinnati and the State of Ohio, and ranks among the first institutions of the kind in the country. The city supports some 20 daily newspapers — English, German and Italian; over 80 weeklies, English and German; over 100 me/Whiles and quarterlies, besides a number of special publications.