ILLINOIS. 



427 



therein of the State of Illinois, whether sub- 

 merged or otherwise, within the limits of Chi- 

 cago or adjacent thereto, which may be selected 

 by said authorities as the site or sites for holding 

 said Exposition, such use and occupation to con- 

 tinue not over one year after the close of said 

 Exposition ; 2. The use and occupation, for such 

 term as may be necessary for their purposes, of 

 any public ground, park, and rights appurtenant 

 thereto, owned or controlled by the city of 

 Chicago, the authorities of said city consenting 

 thereto, with the right to make improvements 

 thereon, the buildings to be removed within one 

 year after the close of the Exposition, unless 

 otherwise agreed upon, and the city having the 

 right to purchase such buildings at cost. It is 

 further provided that the use of any submerged 

 lands of the State which may be filled or re- 

 claimed by the Exposition authorities, under the 

 provisions of the act, shall accrue to the city of 

 Chicago, after the close of the Exposition, to be 

 forever maintained as a public park, and when- 

 ever any part thereof shall be diverted to any 

 other use, it shall revert to the State. The park 

 commissioners in charge of the public grounds, 

 or any part thereof, selected as a site for the Ex- 

 position, may issue $500,000 in bonds, the pro- 

 ceeds thereof to be used in improving such 

 grounds, provided that, at an election therefor, 

 the legal voters of the park district agree to such 

 issue. A resolution was also adopted providing 

 for the submission to the people, at the next 

 November election, of an amendment to article 

 9 of the State Constitution, such amendment to 

 form section 13 of said article and being : 



The corporate authorities of the city of Chicago are 

 hereby authorized to issue interest- bearing bonds of 

 said city to an amount not exceeding $5,000,000, at a 

 rate of interest not to exceed 5 per cent, per annum, 

 the principal payable within thirty years from the 

 date of their issue ; and the proceeds thereof shall be 

 paid to the treasurer of the World's Columbian Ex- 

 position, and used and disbursed by him under the 

 direction and control of the directors in aid of the 

 World's Columbian Exposition to be held in the city 

 of Chicago, in pursuance of an act of the Congress of 

 the United States ; provided that if, at the election 

 for the adoption of this amendment, a majority of the 

 votes cast within the limits of the city of Chicago 

 shall be against its adoption, then no bonds shall be 

 issued under this amendment. And said corporate 

 authorities shall be repaid as large a proportionate 

 amount of the aid given by them as is repaid to the 

 stockholders on the sums subscribed and paid by them, 

 and the money so received shall be used in the re- 

 demption of the bonds issued as aforesaid ; provided 

 that said authorities may take, in whole or in part of 

 the sum coming^ to them, any permanent improve- 

 ments placed on land held or controlled by them ; and 

 provided further, that no such indebtedness so created 

 shall, in any part thereof, be paid by the State or from 

 any State revenue, tax, or fund, but the same shall be 

 paid by the said city of Chicago alone. 



Another resolution recommends to the Exposi- 

 tion authorities the employment of American 

 citizens only, or such as have announced their 

 intention to become such, and to exact only 

 eight hours for a day's labor. The session ad- 

 journed on Aug. 1. 



Education. The following public-school 

 statistics cover the school year ending in 1889 : 

 Number of graded schools, 1,501 ; number of un- 

 graded schools, 10,723 ; school population (six to 

 twenty-one years of age) 1,133,867 ; total num- 



ber enrolled in public schools, 763,411 : male 

 teachers, 6,980 ; female teachers, 16,109. During 

 the same time there were enrolled in private 

 schools, including parochial schools, 98,503 

 pupils. For the school year ending in 1890 the 

 State Superintendent of Public Instruction re- 

 ports the following statistics: Total number 

 of schools, 12,259 ; total school population, 1,163,- 

 440; total number enrolled in public schools, 

 778,319; average daily attendance, 537,310; 

 male teachers employed, 7,522 ; female teachers 

 employed, 15,642; average monthly wages of 

 male teachers, $53.30 ; average monthly wages 

 of female teachers, $43.48 ; average length of 

 school year, 7*4 months ; number of school houses, 

 12,252 ; estimated value of school property, $27,- 

 000,000. The total expenditure for maintaining 

 the schools of the State during the year was 

 about $12,000,000. Statistics from private schools 

 show that there were 998 during the year em- 

 ploying 2,966 teachers and having 105,232 pupils. 



The Governor finds the operation of the com- 

 pulsory school law to be very beneficial, notwith- 

 standing the hostility that has been shown to- 

 ward it, but recommends that it be amended so 

 as to remove all just cause of complaint. 



Prisons. The recent adoption of a constitu- 

 tional amendment forbidding contract labor at 

 the State prisons imposes upon the next General 

 Assembly the necessity of providing labor for the 

 convicts. At the Joliet Penitentiary there were 

 1,365 convicts confined on Oct. 1, 1890. Con- 

 tracts for the labor of 305 of these expired on 

 Aug. 1, 1889, and for the labor of 125 others on 

 July 1, 1890, Of the contracts still in force 

 seven will expire on Oct. 1, 1892, releasing 472 

 convicts, and the remaining contracts, seven in 

 number, will expire on Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, 1894, 

 releasing 269 more. These 741 prisoners, now 

 employed under existing contracts, are each 

 earning about sixty cents a day. 



During the year the prison commissioners 

 entered into agreements for the employment on 

 the piece-price plan of those convicts that were 

 left unemployed by the expiration of the con- 

 tracts, such agreements being subject to the 

 action of the General Assembly. On Oct. 1, 1890, 

 there were confined in the Southern Illinois 

 Penitentiary at Chester 667 convicts, 125 of 

 whom are working under a contract, which will 

 expire on June 20, 1894. Two contracts have 

 already expired, one on July 1 and the other on 

 Aug. 1, 1890, releasing 250 convicts. By the ex- 

 piration of these contracts the earning capacity 

 of the prison has been reduced in the sum of $36,- 

 000 annually. The convicts not working under 

 unexpired contracts are employed in building 

 the Institution for Insane Criminals provided 

 for by the last General Assembly, in making 

 brick, cultivating the farm, and in and about the 

 warden's house and other departments. 



Charities. The cost of maintaining the chari- 

 table institutions of the State for the year ending 

 June 30, 1890, was $996,601, and the total num- 

 ber of inmates was 10,271, of whom 5,772 were 

 insane, 507 deaf and dumb, 187 blind, 489 feeble 

 minded, 503 soldiers' orphans, 526 inmates of the 

 reform school, and 1,347 soldiers and sailors. 



The average attendance at the Soldiers' and 

 Sailors' Home was 789 ; at the Soldiers' Orphans' 

 Home, 313 ; at the four hospitals for the insane, 



