378 



ILLINOIS. 



been exhausted by the grain corner of 1879. 

 The receipts embraced 3,000,000 barrels of 

 flour, 23,000,000 bushels of wheat, 95,000,000 

 bushels of corn, 22,000,000 bushels of oats, and 

 7,000,000 bushels of rye and barley. The ship- 

 ments of 1880 aggregated 156,000,000 bushels 

 of grain, about the same as in 1879. In nearly 

 every article dealt in on the Produce Exchange 

 there was a very large increase in aggregates 

 in 1880. The sales of grass-seed were 52,- 

 000,000 pounds in 1880, against 48,000,000 

 pounds in 1879; of flaxseed, 188,000,000 pounds, 

 against 118,000,000; of butter, 65,000,000, 

 against 54,000,000 pounds. There were 5,- 

 375,000 hogs slaughtered, against 5,089,000 in 

 1879, in spite of strikes which lasted during 

 the larger part of the packing season. The 

 average capacity of the packing-houses of the 

 city is 100,000 hogs. The pork-packing in- 

 dustry of Chicago has grown up since 1853, in 

 which year the first hogs were slaughtered. 

 The business of 1880 amounted to $62,000,000, 

 $20,000,000 more than that of 1879, the aggre- 

 gate weight of the year's killing amounting in 

 1880 to 1,100,000,000 pounds. The number of 

 live animals received during the year included 

 7,000,000 hogs, 1,354,000 cattle, and 32,000 

 sheep ; the shipments of live animals included 

 138,000 hogs and 860,000 cattle. The growth 

 of Chicago was remarkable in many directions 

 in 1880. Great numbers of new dwellings and 

 factories were erected, and hundreds of new 

 industries started. The bank clearings ex- 

 ceeded the enormous total of 1879, aggregating 

 $1,693,000,000. 



During the two years of the administration, 

 741 corporations have been organized for pur- 

 poses of pecuniary gain, and 359 for other ob- 

 jects. Of the former, 229 were manufacturing, 

 267 mining, 112 miscellaneous companies, and 

 18 were building and loan associations ; of the 

 latter, 167 were benevolent associations. Since 

 the law of corporations went into force, in 

 1872, there have been 3,140 companies incor- 

 porated. 



The statement of local bonds registered in 

 accordance with the provisions of the different 

 acts, together with the amounts paid and can- 

 celed, shows that there were outstanding. Sep- 

 tember 30, 1880, under the act of 1869, $12,- 

 127,978.31; under the original act of 1865, 

 $2,015,511.62; under the amended act of 1865, 

 $4,096,285. There has been a large increase 

 over the amount registered in 1877-'78, but 

 this is because of the large amount of refund- 

 ing bonds issued. The average rate of interest 

 on the bonds registered during the past two 

 years was 7'99 per cent., while for the pre- 

 ceding two years it was 8'4 per cent. 



The insurance report of the Auditor of the 

 Treasury shows that 189 insurance companies 

 were doing business in Illinois in 1880, twenty- 

 two having been admitted since the previous 

 report. Of the total number, eight joint-stock 

 and four mutual associations are Illinois com- 

 panies. The amount of tire risks written in 



the State in 1879 was $479,675,409 ; premiums 

 received thereon, $4,727,080; marine and in- 

 land risks written, $54,609,032; premiums re- 

 ceived, $224,976. The losses paid in the State 

 were $1,927,595 ; deducting which amount 

 from the total premiums paid, with 30 per cent, 

 on these for expenses, the apparent profit on 

 the year's business amounts to $539,143. The 

 average premium rate charged is 93 cents on 

 $100; the ratio of losses to risks taken, 36 

 cents on $100 ; to premiums, 39 cents on every 

 dollar received. The aggregate amount of the 

 risks written in Illinois for eleven years is $4,- 

 919,894,698; the aggregate amount of premi- 

 ums paid to the companies, $57,149,368; the 

 aggregate losses incurred, $47,985,714. Of the 

 losses incurred, $25,763,723 fall within the year 

 of the Chicago fire ; the losses in that year were 

 over seven and one half times as great as the 

 amount of premiums taken in. During the five 

 years succeeding 1871, the year of the fire, the 

 average premiums charged exceeded $1.30 on 

 $100 of risk, and three times as much was re- 

 ceived as was paid out for losses. Leaving out 

 the year of the great fire, the losses paid have 

 averaged about 41 per cent, of the premiums 

 received ; including that year, about double this 

 percentage. 



The laws regulating life insurance have been 

 complied with by 29 companies of other States, 

 which issued 3,860 policies, amounting to $8,- 

 898,906, in 1879; the total number of policies 

 in force at the end of the year being 4,084, 

 amounting to $9,442,160. The premiums re- 

 ceived during the year amounted to $127,767 ; 

 the losses paid, $30,047. The Auditor has en- 

 deavored to test in the courts the claimed right 

 of cooperative life-insurance associations of 

 other States, organized on the plan of the as- 

 sessment of members to pay death-losses, to 

 transact business in Illinois without complying 

 with the insurance laws. Upon threatening 

 them with the penalties of the law, these com- 

 panies have discontinued business, and none of 

 them embraced the proposal of the Auditor to 

 carry the question into the courts for decision 

 on an agreed case. The Auditor denies to 

 these organizations the character of benevolent 

 enterprises, and defines the position taken re- 

 garding them as follows : 



It is the intention of the Auditor to prevent, by all 

 available means, those so-called cooperative insurance 

 companies of other States from entering this State and 

 selling to its citizens their policies or certificates of 

 supposed insurance until the proper tribunal shall have 

 decided that the true construction of the law will per- 

 mit them to do so. This course is adopted from a 

 sense of public duty, and is demanded bv a regard for 

 the intent and meaning of the law, and for the true 

 interest of the people of this State, as those who are 

 solicited are, to a large extent, without the information 

 necessary to judge of the merits of the various schemes, 

 and Avithout available means of redress for wrongs. 



The State Board of Health was organized in 

 1878. Its principal work has been the protec- 

 tion of the public against unqualified and in- 

 competent medical practitioners. The number 

 of practitioners in the State on July 1, 1878, 



