Lesislature Wrestles 

 With Unemployment 



WAITING 



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 

 I new revenue measures have been pro- 



I posed. There is talk of increasing the 



state gas tax an additional cent and rais- 

 ing the state occupational tax, from two 

 to three c.ents. Another source of reve- 

 nue talked about is a four and o:ie-half 

 per cent tax on net income of corpora- 

 tions. Another proposal would broaden 

 the occupational tax jto include profes- 

 sional people. A two per cent gross in- 

 come tax on individuals has been sug- 

 gested.' 



In the meantime tl^e Illinois .Agricul- 

 tural Association is preparing amenda- 

 tory state legislation necessary to pro- 

 vide for replacing the dole system of 

 . relief wiUi 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- 

 1^ tion already has se<'ur<>d all available 



information for each county ^f the state 

 ;il)Out the number of families on relief. 

 'he number having employable members. 

 I and the number having no employable 

 i members. 



FaVms OiT Dirt Roads 



J John r. Watson, director, of taxation 



and statistics, has computed from data 

 given iVi the lO.IO federal census the per- 

 centage of farms in each county located 

 upon roads of each type of road improve- 

 ment or of no improvement. This study 

 discloses some intere.sting 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 6."?. 50 of all 



^ t'arms located on dirt roads, 3(5.91 on un- 



r 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 



I in the ca.se 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 



M \nCH. IMS 



* .. i 



farms situated on dirt roads. Hamilton 

 county in extreme southern Illinois, had 

 9.'?.86 per cent of its farms located on 

 dirt roads in the year 1930, Jasper had 

 92.51} per cent, DeWitt 92.29 per cent. 

 Brown 93.07 per cent. Fayette 92.fi3 per 

 cen, Jackson 89.30 per cent, Morgan 90.0h 

 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 'great 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 hust to some 125 

 members of the General .Assembly at 

 the .Abraham Lincoln Hotel Tuesday 

 night, F'ebruary 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 h.ive been presented and dis- 

 cussed in previous issues of the RFC- 

 ORP. Briefly they are as follows: 



I. -A. A. Policies 



(1) I'se the uncommitted portion nf 

 stale gas tax revenue (estimated at ?2G,- 

 000.000) to match the federal allotment 

 of $81,000,000 to Illinois to take abb' 

 bodied men off (ho relief rolls and put 

 them to work buililing and improving 

 secondary roads and city streets: 



(2) Place the responsibility for the 

 care of unemi>loyable 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 P^ on cars under 3.000 pounds up 

 to Si 2 for cars 5,000 pounds and over; 



(4) Submit a tax amendment provid- 

 ing for a one per cent lin;it on property, 

 otherwise giving the General Assembly 

 broad powers to frame a more equitable 

 taxing system for the state; 



(5) Oppo.se wholesale consolidation of 

 schools until a fair taxing system has 

 been established and secondary roads 



rrb^ 



have been graveleii or otherwise in- 

 jiroved for year 'round transportation. 



.A highly interesting report was ma<i. 

 recently to the govern<ir by a legislative 

 commission following an inve.'-ligation of 

 unemployment relief in Illinois. Mem- 

 bers of this commission are: Louis <t. 

 Williams, John G. Ryan, secretary. Chi- 

 ton L. Ewing. V. 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 coni' 

 missioners are of the opinion that work 

 relief is much superior to the dole s>»- 

 tern, and suggest that so far as it ma.\ 

 be done, the stale continue its »orl»-relifl 

 program and that new work projects be 

 inaugurated so far as possible. The dole 

 system of giving relief has a demoraliz- 

 ing efT»yt upon many of the re<-ipienl«. 

 This is espe<'ially true of young pervon- 

 w ho are just entering upon the wHrk-am- 

 of life. They have never learned to work ; 

 have never worked, and have de\ eloped 

 no spirit of personal independence. The> 

 form the notion that work is not neces- 

 sary and some of them drift into crime. 

 The-e younc people are forminc habile 

 of idleness and will be unwilling to work 

 when limes are normal and work oppor- 

 tunity comes back to the nation." 



One Fourth On Relief 



The commission estimates that <in< 

 firurth <>f the population of Illinois i^ 

 either directl.v or indirectly on relief 

 .'~tate indebtedness has been increased by 

 S.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, thi 

 commission said: "Few dictatorships ir, 

 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) 



