otal of $140,000,000. The output for
1906 was estimated at $180,000,000. The state factory inspectors in 1905
visited 1721 factories having 83,231 employees. In 1906 they inspected
1790 factories with 93,071 employees. Detroit is the leading city in the
country in the manufacture of automobiles. In 1904 the value of its
product was one-fifth that for the whole country. In 1906 the city had
twenty automobile factories, with an output of 11,000 cars, valued at
$12,000,000. Detroit is probably the largest manufacturer in the country
of freight cars, stoves, pharmaceutical preparations, varnish, soda ash
and similar alkaline products. Other important manufactures are ships,
paints, foundry and machine shop products, brass goods, furniture, boots
and shoes, clothing, matches, cigars, malt liquors and fur goods; and
slaughtering and meat packing is an important industry.

The Detroit Board of Commerce, organized in 1903, brought into one
association the members of three former bodies, making a compact
organization with civic as well as commercial aims. The board has
brought into active co-operation nearly all the leading business men of
the city and many of the professional men. Their united efforts have
brought many new industries to the city, have improved industrial
conditions, and have exerted a beneficial influence upon the municipal
administration. Other business organizations are the Board of Trade,
devoted to the grain trade and kindred lines, the Employers'
Association, which seeks to maintain satisfactory relations between
employer and employed, the Builders' & Traders' Exchange, and the Credit
Men's Association.

_Administration._--Although the city received its first charter in 1806,
and another in 1815, the real power rested in the hands of the governor
and judges of the territory until 1824; the charters of 1824 and 1827
centred the government in a council and made the list of elective
officers long; the charter of 1827 was revised in 1857 and again in 1859
and the present charter dates from 1883. Under this charter only three
administrative officers are elected,--the mayor, the city clerk and the
city treasurer,--elections being biennial. The administration of the
city departments is largely in the hands of commissions. There is one
commissioner each, appointed by the mayor, for the parks and boulevards,
police and public works departments. The four members of the health
board are nominated by the governor and