59+h General Assembly 



(Continued from page 6) 



Whenever the State ceases to provide 

 the funds for relief of unemployables, 

 tiien the counties will have the duty of 

 providing relief funds and will have ad- 

 ditional taxing power to be used so'.ely 

 for this purpose. If the burden shall 

 p; ve to be too heavy for the counties, 

 V ,h their constitutional limitations of 

 7: cents in total tax rate without ref- 

 ei iidum for all purposes, then it may 

 at in be necessary to transfer the duty 

 of providing poor relief back to the 

 tov.nships. It will then be feasible to 

 pi. v-e the same obligation on Cook 

 County townships and the City of Chi- 

 caio, and upon such local subdivisions 

 aF the road districts in the other seven- 

 ter i commission governed counties. 



The Department of Agriculture and 

 the Department of Public Health, after 

 conferences with interested represent- 

 atives of the dairy industry, prepared 

 bills prescribing the sanitary require- 

 ments in connection with the production 

 and distribution of milk. Representatives 

 of the Association worked with the De- 

 partment of Agriculture in an attempt 

 to get this legislation into a form where 

 it would be practical and where the re- 

 quirements could be met by the dairy 

 farmer who makes a rersonable effort 

 to keep his milk clean, without requiring 

 any large outlay for equipment. The I. 

 A. A. representatives took the position 

 that it was to the advantage of the 

 dairy industry to furnish consumers with 

 a clean supply of milk but that so long 

 as the milk was clean, it would not 

 make a great deal of difference whether 

 the farmer had a model dairy barn or 

 whether he produced the good grade of 

 milk as a result of unusual care even 

 though he had only mediocre equipment. 

 This bill as revised had many good 

 features but it failed to pass. 



The bill which prohibits the sale of 

 filled milk in this state was enacted in- 

 to law. Filled milk is condensed milk 

 from which the butter fat has been ex- 

 tracted and cocoanut or other vegetable 

 oils substituted therefor. While only a 

 comparatively small amount of this filled 

 milk is being manufactured in the State 

 at this time, it constitutes a threat to 

 the dairy industry since other con- 

 densers in order to meet cnmnetition 

 would be driven to the manufacture of 

 filled milk. 



The I. A. A. opposed legislation which 

 would require mandatory consolidation 

 of schools and school districts and this 

 legislation was not passed. The I. A. A. 

 *ias not opposed consolidation under 

 present laws in cases where it is de- 

 sired by the rural people and there- are 

 " number of consolidated schools in this 



State which are a credit to the commu- 

 nities they serve. 



During the session of the General As- 

 sembly it was discovered that a larger 

 percentage of the amounts due from the 

 State distributive fund have besn paid 

 to the Chicago school district than to 

 other school districts of the State. The 

 I. A. A. supported legislation which 

 would appropriate additional money to 

 bring the payments to the down state 

 districts up to the percentage of the pay- 

 ments made to the Chicago district. 

 However, near the end of the session, 

 the State distr'butiv? fund was increased 

 from ten and a half riiiron to thirteen 

 million dollars ner annum. The bills 

 making the appropriation for the down 

 stpte districts were dronped. leaving un- 

 changed the inequality in percentages of 

 claims paid to schools in down state 

 counties. 



The I. A. A. prepared and sponsored 

 a resolution amending the revenue ar- 

 ticle of the constitution and providing a 

 one percent limitation upon property 

 taxes, along with authority to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly to tax other objects and 

 subjects of taxation. This amendment 

 failed of passage in the Senate and a 

 vote was not had thereon in the House. 

 The Revenue laws were amended to 

 provide that the first and second install- 

 ment of taxes should be due and pay- 

 able on or before the first day of June 

 and the first day of September instead 

 of first day of May and August respec- 

 tively. Legislation was also enacted 

 amending the Revenue laws and, up to 

 August 1, 1935, waiving the penalties 

 upon delinquent taxes for the years 

 1929, 1930, 1931, 19.32 and 1933 in cases 

 where the property had befn forfeited 

 to the State and permitting the redemp- 

 tion of this forfeited property upon pay- 

 ment of the principal of the general 

 taxes together with the costs and for- 

 feiture fees, and after August 1, 1935 

 upon payment of the amount of the 

 taxes, costs and forfeiture fees plus a 

 penalty of 5%. 



The I. A. A. reprpsentatives opnosed 

 various bills which would have placed 

 trucks under the control of the Com- 

 merce or other State commission and 

 would have given such Commission 

 power and authority to fix and regulate 

 the rates and charges of these carriers. 

 The I. A. A. took the position that 

 trucks having a gross weight of 15 

 thousand pounds or less should be ex- 

 empt from any such regulation since in 

 their opinion if these trucks were sub- 

 ject to this regulation, it would inevi- 

 tably increase the cost for hauling live- 

 stock, milk and other farm commodities. 

 None of the bills providing for regula- 

 tion of trucking industries were enacted. 

 The I. A. A. supported a bill permit- 



ting the disconnection of unsubdivided 

 land from cities and villages. Similar 

 legislation enacted in 1933 was held un- 

 constitutional on the ground that it ap- 

 plied only to agricultural land. It is 

 believed that this objection has been re- 

 moved. The bill permits the owner or 

 owners of twenty acres or more lying on 

 a border of a municipality and not sub- 

 divided into lots or blocks to have the 

 same disconnected upon filing a petition 

 with the county or circuit court. 



The I. A. A. supported a number of 

 bills sponsored by the Department of 

 Agriculture. Among theise bills which 

 were enacted into law were measures 

 amending the Farm storage act and in- 

 cluding cereal grains, soybeans and 

 cowpeas under its provisions and mak- 

 ing other changes designed to strengthen 

 the Act including a provision requiring 

 the treasurer of the local supervisory 

 boards to give a bond in the amount not 

 less than $500 or more than $5,000 to be 

 fixed by the Department of Agriculture; 

 a bill providing for an agricultural cen- 

 sus to be taken annually by the asses- 

 sors; a bill limiting the amount of 

 awards for 4-H club projects in any 

 county in order that funds may be avail- 

 able for distribution to all counties of 

 the State; and a bill providing that when 

 fruit or vegetables are sold in closed 

 packages, the packages must show 

 whether the fruit or vegetables were 

 grown in Illinois or elsewhere and the 

 name of the grower and the variety of 

 fruit or vegetable must be shown on 

 the package. 



The provisions of the Farm-to-market 

 road bills which were prepared and 

 sponsored by the I. A. A. and the dis- 

 position made of them are treated else- 

 where in this issue. 



Of general interest to citizens of the 

 State is the old age pension bill, which 

 provides a benefit of not to exceed Sl.OO 

 a day to persons 65 years of age or 

 older who have been residents of Illinois 

 for at least ten of the last fifteen years 

 prior to application and who do not own 

 in excess of $5,000 worth of property. 

 Six million dollars were appropriated 

 for payments under this Act, the benefits 

 are not to be payable prior to January 

 1st, 1936. The I. A. A. did not take any 

 position on this measure other than it 

 would be opposed to the imposition of 

 any property taxes for the payment of 

 benefits. The appropriation made is to 

 be paid from the proceeds of the sales 

 tax. 



It seems fairly certain that a special 

 session of the legislature will be called 

 to meet early this fall to consider a 

 number of matters not enacted at the 

 regular session including an amendment 

 to the Constitution and school legislation. . 



UGLST, 1933 



