DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 521
clerks, 4c, and wage-earners) numbered 23,984 : the cost of materials used was 30,938,000 dollars, and the output was valued at 52,840,000 dollars. Statistics of the chief industries are given in Thk Statesman's Ykap.-Book for 1916, p. 503.
The leather output comprised 11.005,292 goatskins valued at 10,232,463 dollars. Other industries are fruit-canning, and the manufacture of hosiery and knitted goods.
In 1916 the length of railway in the State was 335 miles, besides 153 miles of electric street railway track.
There is an active coastwise trade, particularly with New York, which is connected with Wilmington by a line of steamers. Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are connected by a canal. There is some foreign commerce direct through Wilmington.
In 1919, there were 2 savings banks in the State, with 45,555 depositors who had to their credit 17,422,000 dollars, being 382 43 dollars to each depositor.
Books of Reference.
Constitution of Delaware adopted in ConTention June 4, 1897. Republished, Dover,
Re|>orts nf the various Executive De|>artinents.
Conrad (Henry C), History of Delaware Wilmington, 1908.
SekarfiJ.), History of Delaware. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1-
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Government. — The District of Columbia is the seat of Government of the United States, and consists of an area of about 70 square miles which was ceded by the State of Maryland to the United States as a site for the National Capital. It was established under the authority and direction of Acts of Congress approved. July 16, 1790, and March 3, 1791, which were passed to give effect to a clause in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States, giving Congress the power: —
' To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not ex- ceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the Stat* in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.'
The authority of the United States over it became vested on the first Monday of December, 1800.
The present form of local government, which dates from July 1, 1878, is a municipal corporation, and is administered by a board of three Commissioners having in general equal powers and duties. Two of these Commissioners are appointed from civil life by the President of the United States, and confirmed by the Senate of the United States, for a term of three years each. The other Commissioner is detailed from time to time by the President of the Unitod States from the Engineer Corps of the United States Army. This Commissioner is selected from among the captains or officers of higher grade having served at least fifteen years in the Corps of Engineers of the Army of the United States. The Commissioners are in a general way vested with jurisdiction covering all the ordinary features of municipal government, except that the Congress
