

Legislature Wrestles 

 With Unemployment 



UNEMPLOYMENT relief is the prin- 

 cipal problem before the present 

 session of the Illinois General As- 

 sembly. At this writing comparatively 

 little has been done. Legislative commit- 

 tees and leaders have been meeting with 

 the Governor and other state officials to 

 work out a program. Tax increases'and 

 new revenue measures have been pro- 

 posed. There is talk of increasing the 

 state gas tax an additional cent and rais- 

 ing the state occupational tax from two 

 , to three cents. Another source of reve- 

 nue talked about is a four and one-half 

 per cent tax on net income of corpora- 

 tions. Another proposal would broaden 

 the occupational tax to include profes- 

 sional people. A two per cent gross in- 

 come tax on individuals has been sug- 

 gested. 



In the meantime the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association is preparing amenda- 

 tory state' legislation necessary to pro- 

 vide for replacing the dole system of 

 relief with employment of able-bodied 

 men now on relief roles, in improvement 

 and repair of secondary roads and city 

 streets. 



As soon as the provisions of the fed- 

 eral work relief measures and the ap- 

 propriations therefore are determined, 

 the I. A. A. expects to have the necessary 

 state legislation ready for introduction 

 in the General Assembly. The Associa- 

 tion already has secured all available 

 information for each county of the state 

 about the number of families on relief, 

 the number having employable members, 

 and the number having no employable 

 menlbers. 



;• - ;-■ ■• Farms On Dirt Roads 



John C. Watson, director of taxation 

 and statistics, has computed from data 

 given in the 1930 federal census the per- 

 centage of farms in each county located 

 upon roads of each type of- road improve- 

 mpnt or of no improvement. This study 

 discloses some interesting information. 

 For example, in a number of counties 

 from 80 to 92 per cent or more of all 

 farms are located on dirt roads. While 

 the average for the state is '63.56 of all 

 farms located on dirt roads, 36.91 on un- 

 improved (not graded) dirt roads, and 

 26.65 per cent on improved dirt roads, a 

 few counties, like Cook and DuPage, show 

 only 7.89 per cent of farms on dirt roads 

 in the case of Cook and 2.70 per cent in 

 the case of DuPage county. 



Generally, the farther south you go in 

 Illinois the greater the percentage of 



farms situated on dirt roads. Hamilton 

 county in extreme southern Illinois, had 

 93.86 per cent of its farms located on 

 dirt roads in the year 1930, Jasper had 

 92.56 per cent, DeWitt 92.29 per cent, 

 Brown 93.07 per cent. Fayette 92.63 per 

 cen, Jackson 89.30 per cent, Morgan 90.08 

 per cent, Richland 90.05 per cent, Wash- 

 ington 89.26 per cent and Wayne 87.11 

 per cent, etc. 



These facts bear out the contention of 

 the I. A. A. that compulsory wholesale 

 consolidation of rural schools would pre- 

 sent an unbearable situation because of 

 the difficulty of transporting children 

 any g^reat distance over mud roads dur- 

 ing a substantial part of the year. Then, 

 too, the immediate problem of erecting 

 new consolidated school buildings in 

 many communities is a serious one. This 

 cost together with the cost of buses and 

 maintenance would fall on property 

 under our present inequitable taxing sys- 

 tem. 



The Association was host to some 126 

 members of the General Assembly at 

 the Abraham Lincoln Hotel Tuesday 

 night, February 12, where President Earl 

 C. Smith outlined in an informal 40-min- 

 ute talk the policies of the I. A. A. on 

 unemployment relief, tax amendment, 

 motor license fee. reduction and compul- 

 sory consolidation of schools. All these 

 policies have been presented and dis- 

 cussed in previous issues of the REC- 

 ORD. Briefly they are as follows: 



I. A. A. Policies 



(1) Use the uncommitted portion of 

 state gas tax revenue (estimated at |26,- 

 000,000) to match the federal allotment 

 of 181,000,000 to Illinois to take able 

 bodied men off the relief rolls and put 

 them to work building and improving 

 secondary roads and city streets; 



(2) Place the responsibility for the 

 care of unemx^oyable destitute people on 

 the municipalities and taxing districts 

 where they reside; 



(3) Reclassify motor vehicles for the 

 purpose of determining license fees ac- 

 cording to weight with the fee ranging 

 from $6 on cars under 3,000 pounds up 

 to $12 for cars 5,000 pounds and over; 



(4) Submit a tax amendment provid- 

 ing for a one per cent limit on property, 

 otherwise giving the General Assembly 

 broad powers to frame a more equitable 

 taxing system for the state; 



(5) Oppose wholesale consolidation of 

 schools until a fair taxing system has 

 been established and secondary roads 



have been graveled or otherwise im- 

 proved for year 'round transportation. 



A highly interesting report was made 

 recently to the governor by a legislative 

 commission following an investigation of 

 unemployment relief in Illinois. Mem- 

 bers of this commission are: Louis O. 

 Williams, John G. Ryan, secretary, Clin- 

 ton L. Ewipg, F. W. Lewis, James T. 

 Burns, Geo. M. Maypole, Wilbur H. Hick- 

 man, all members of the General as- 

 sembly. 



Especially interesting to Farm Bureau 

 members is this statement: "Your com- 

 missioners are of the «pinion that work 

 relief is much superior to the dole sys- 

 tem, and sugg«8t that so far as it may 

 be done, the state continue its work-relief 

 program and that new work projects be 

 inaugurated so far as possible. The dole 

 system of giving relief has a demoraliz- 

 ing effect upon many of the recipients. 

 This is especially true of young persons 

 who are just entering upon the work-age 

 of life. They have never learned to work : 

 have never worked, and have developed 

 no spirit of personal independence. They 

 form the notion that work is not neces- 

 sary and some of them drift into crime. 

 These young people are forming habits 

 of idleness and will be unwilling to work 

 when times are normal and work oppor- 

 tunity comes back to the nation." 



One Fourth On Relief 



The commission estimates that one- 

 fourth of the population of Dlinoic is 

 either directly or indirectly on relief 

 State indebtedness has been increased by 

 $50,000,000 in bond issues, they report. 

 Other large sums have been expended 

 by state funds for relief purposes. Speak- 

 ing of the administration of relief, the 

 commission said: "Few dictatorships in 

 America have been set up with so much 

 despotic power as that exercised by the 

 Executive Secretary of the Illinois Emer- 

 gency Relief Commission, and of the 

 (Continued from page 14) 



MARCH> 1»S5 



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