Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/773

PHILADELPHIA 739 Girard Fiuul ; the Wills Hospital Fund, for the relief of indigent blind and lame ; the Franklin Fund, for aiding young married artificers ; and sundry funds for furnishing the poor with fuel and other purposes, amounting in the aggregate, on 31st December 1883, to $11, 606,320-92. There are thirty -two national banks in Philadelphia with an aggregate capital of $17,578,000, and for the week ending 30th June 1884 their loans and discounts were $73,525,885, deposits $64,436,411, and circulation $8,416,013. Their surplus on 31st December 1883 was $8,712,303. In addition to the national banks there are six banks chartered by the State with an aggregate capital of $714,600 ; eight trust and safe deposit companies, where deposits are received and a quasi banking business done, with a total capital of $8,625,000, and a surplus on 31st December 1883 of $4,589,732 ; and three saving funds without any capital, but where all the de positors are interested in the profits, with total deposits on 31st December 1883 of $28,503,200 93. Philadelphia has fourteen joint- stock fire insurance companies, with a capital of $3,950,000 ; five joint-stock fire and marine companies, with a capital of $4,860,000 ; six mutual fire insurance companies ; and six life insurance com panies. In addition to these there are a real estate title insurance company and a plate-glass insurance company, their objects being expressed in their titles. Commerce. Until within the last sixty years Philadelphia was the commercial emporium of the United States, but since that time her commerce has been gradually declining, until now she ranks fifth in the order of ports, being preceded by New York, Boston, San Francisco, and New Orleans. At the same time her manufactures have been steadily increasing, until she has become the great manufacturing centre of the country. On 30th June 1884 there were registered as belonging to the port of Philadelphia 854 vessels, having a tonnage of 197,491 tons, 295 being steamers. For the year ending 31st December 1883 724 coast-wise vessels having a tonnage of 418,625 tons entered, and 1213 with a tonnage of 576,719 tons cleared. During the same period there entered 1066 foreign vessels with a tonnage of 813,706 tons, and 942 cleared with a tonnage of 732,333 tons. For the six months ending 30th June 1384 there entered 290 American vessels with a tonnage of 134,807 tons, and 199 cleared with a tonnage of 101,908 tons. In the same period 285 foreign vessels entered with a tonnage of 263,577 tons, and 246 cleared with a tonnage of 238,929 tons. Statistics of the exports and imports of the city have been kept since 1821 ; and they show that the greatest exports in any one year were in 1876, the centennial year, when they amounted to $50,539,450. The greatest imports ($38,933,832) were in 1880. For 1883 the exports were $38,662,434 and the imports $32,811,045. For the six months ending 30th June 1884 the exports were $17,605,271, and the imports $18,245,733. The total receipts for duties at this port for the year 1883 were $11,834,014 55, and for the six months ending 30th June 1884 $6,917,37671. Lines of steamers run to Liverpool, Glasgow, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Savannah, Charleston, and other ports. Philadelphia is also the centre of the three great internal carrying lines of the State, the Pennsylvania Rail road, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and the Reading Railroad. The last two are principally coal-roads from the great anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, while the first, with its numerous branches, is the main artery from the west for the transportation of its agricultural products. The gross receipts for 1883 of the Penn sylvania Railroad, from all lines connecting directly with Phil adelphia, were $57,512,766 36. The total tonnage moved over these same lines was 57,379,115 tons, and the number of passengers for the same period was 36,584,435, and the pieces of baggage 1,774,192. The tonnage of the other two roads is proportionately large. Industries. The largest single classes of manufactures are the iron and steel and the textile industries. The first-named, which includes all forms of machinery and of iron and steel articles, em ployed in 1883 31,917 persons in 712 establishments, producing articles valued at $58,608,781. The manufactures of wool, cotton, silk, &c. , employed 60,897 persons in 1018 establishments, pro ducing textile fabrics to the value of $102,087,128; and these figures are rather below than above the actual facts. In the carpet manufacture alone, for which there are 216 establishments, there are 35,000,000 yards of carpet made annually. The census for 1880 gave Philadelphia 856_7 manufacturing establishments, with a capital of $187,148,857, employing 185,527 hands and producing articles valued at $324,342,935 per annum. The seven classes producing over $10,000,000 a year were sugar-refineries (11), $24,294,929; factories of woollen goods (89), $21,349,810; men s clothing manufactories (426), $18,506,748 ; cotton-mills (145), $14,268,696 ; carpet manufactories (170), $14,263,510 ; foundry and machine shops (226), $13,455,238 ; drugs and chemicals manu factories (54), $11,804,793. Since then, however, Philadelphia has made great strides, and the close of 1882 showed 12,063 manufac turing establishments, employing 147,137 men, 67,050 women, and 28,296 children under sixteen years of age, or a total of 242,483, and yielding products of the value of $481,226,309. The large and important industry of brick-making, for which there are 63 yards, produces annually about 350,000,000 bricks, of a market value of at least $3,500,000. The fine "pressed brick " of Philadelphia is used in all parts of the country, and of late years moulded bricks of various designs and of any size have been extensively and success fully made. Charities. There are not less than 300 charities proper in Phil adelphia, leaving out institutions of learning which come within the legal definition of the word. A few of them are municipal, but the majority are wholly private in their origin and conduct. Among the former may be classed the Blockley Almshouse for the care of the indigent poor of the city, and the house of correction, employ ment, and reformation at Holmesburg. This last is a mixed insti tution, being a workhouse both for criminals and paupers, and in 1883 there were received into it 7290 men, women, and children. On 31st December 1883 there were 1236 inmates, of whom 197 were females. The city bath-houses are another important municipal charity. There are twenty-two hospitals in Philadelphia, the most important being the Pennsylvania Hospital, projected in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Dr Thomas Bond. It is governed princi pally by the Quakers, and is supported wholly by voluntary contri butions. It has a capacity for 230 patients, and recent accident cases are always admitted. The insane department of this hospital is located on Haverford road, and was opened in 1841, since which time to January 1884 there have been 8852 patients. In addition to this hospital for the insane there is an insane department attached to the City Hospital at the Almshouse, and a Friends Asylum for the Insane at Frankford. Other important charities are the Phil adelphia Dispensary, Home for Consumptives, Home for Incurables, Preston Retreat (lying-in charity), Orphans Society, Philadelphia Working Home for Blind Men, Sheltering Arms for Infants, the Sick Diet Kitchen, and the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delin quents. This last receives children committed by the court of Over and Terminer upon conviction of a criminal offence, also vagrant, incorrigible, or vicious children committed by magistrates on complaint of the parent or any other person that the parent or guardian is incapable or unwilling to control them. Education. Penn in his frame of government provided that a committee of manners, education, and art should be appointed, so that all " wicked and scandalous living may be prevented, and that youth may be trained up in virtue, and useful arts and knowledge." The first school in Philadelphia of which we have knowledge was opened the year following the foundation of the colony. At a meeting of the provincial council held in Philadelphia " ye 26th of 10th month 1683 " the governor and council, "having taken into serious consideration the great necessity there is of a schoolmaster for the instruction and sober instruction of youth in the town of Philadelphia, sent for Enoch Flower, an inhabitant of the said town, who for twenty years past hath been exercised in that care and employment in England," and engaged him to instruct the youth of the city. In the year 1689 the first public school in Pennsylvania was established at Philadelphia under the care of the celebrated George Keith. It was incorporated by the provincial council 12th February 1698, and was entitled "The Overseers of the Public Schools founded in Philadelphia at the request, costs, and charges of the people of God called Quakers," and in 1711 received a charter from Penn. This school, although supported by the Quakers, was open to all, and for more than sixty years continued to be the only public place for instruction in the province. It thrived and was held in high estimation, and its legitimate successor is still in operation in Philadelphia, where it maintains its ancient reputa tion. In 1749 Franklin published his Pro2)osals Relative to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, which resulted the next year in the establishment of the academy and charitable school, which became a college in 1755, and in 1779 was incorporated as the university of Pennsylvania. The university at present occupies a site in Woodland avenue, in what was formerly AVest Philadelphia, and gives instruction in ten departments (Arts, Music, Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Philosophy, Auxiliary of Medicine, Veterinary Medi cine, Towiie Scientific School, and Wharton School of Finance and Economy). The faculty consists of 132 professors, lecturers, and instructors in the various departments, and for the college year 1883-84 there were 1000 students. The public school system of Pennsylvania was not really firmly fixed until 1818, when by an Act of the legislature Philadelphia was made the first school district of Pennsylvania with a distinct educational system from that of the State in general. This district is governed by a board of public education composed of 31 members, one from each ward of the city, who are appointed, one-third each year for three years, by the judges of the Courts of Common Pleas of the county. They have the financial control and general super vision of schools, the selection of the books to be used, the over sight of the teachers, and the building of the schoolhouses. In addition to this board there are the directors of the public schools, twelve from each ward, who have the local supervision of the schools in their respective sections. They are elected by the people, one- third each year for three years. The schools are divided into primary, secondary, and grammar schools, in addition to which