ILLINOIS. 



349 



dressed weight. By this system of inspection, 

 -.ived to the Shipper and producer, 

 tin- price secured being increased, and the con- 

 sumer was protected. 



Decisions. Tlie circuit court of I'rbana, in 

 .Iniii'. ruled the "flag law" unconstitutional. 



The State Supreme Court, in November, declared 

 unconstitutional the Tonvns land-tit!' 



The county court at Chicago, in November, ren- 

 dered a decision that the new inheritance-tax law is 

 unconstitutional because the act was not properly 

 drawn and because the classification attempted in 

 the act makes unjust discrimination between per- 

 sons and is arbitrary and is not based upon sound 

 principles of public policy. 



Political. The State Convention of the Pro- 

 hibition party assembled at Springfield on April 8. 

 The platform contained a preamble asserting the 

 belief that "the prohibition of the liquor traffic is 

 the most important issue in American politics," and 

 resolutions declaring against all toleration of liquor 

 for a beverage, and that its manufacture and sale 

 for other purposes should be controlled by the 

 State. It declared against alien ownership of land, 

 and in favor of equal suffrage ; the extension of the 

 civil-service-reform system ; the securing public- 

 school facilities ; the protection of the Sabbath : 

 the election of United States Senators by vote of 

 the people; arbitration between employers and em- 

 ployees ; the creation of " a tariff commission rep- 

 resenting all national political parties as nearly 

 equal as possible, whose duty it shall be to recom- 

 mend annually to Congress such changes in tariff 

 laws as may be necessary to adjust the revenues to 

 the needs of the Government and to enable our 

 workingmen to receive fair wages for their labor " ; 

 the suppression of " all combinations designed to 

 enrich the few at the expense of the many"; and 

 the control by Government of all means of trans- 

 portation and communication. The following was 

 the financial plank : 



" We declare that money should consist of gold, 

 silver, and paper, and be issued by the Government 

 directly to the people, without the intervention of 

 any private individual or corporation, and to be a 

 full legal tender for all debt, both public and pri- 

 vate: that the Government should not discriminate 

 in favor of gold as against silver, and that its mints 

 should be open upon equal terms to both at the 

 ratio now established by law. We oppose the issu- 

 ing of Government bonds in times of peace." 



Delegates to the national convention and candi- 

 dates for presidential electors were selected, and 

 the following State ticket was put in nomination : 

 For Governor, Hale Johnson ; for Lieutenant Gov- 

 ernor, E. A. Windell ; for Secretary of State, Alonzo 

 E. Wilson ; for Auditor. Arthur J. Bassett ; for 

 Treasurer, E. K. Hays ; for Attorney-General, Rob- 

 ert H. Patton ; for Trustees of the State University. 

 Mrs. Lucy Page Gaston. Mrs. Carrie L. Grout, Mrs. 

 Ella M. Orr. On July 25 George W. Gere \va- 

 nominated for Governor, in place of Hale Johnson, 

 the former candidate, who resigned, having re- 

 ceived the nomination for Vice-President, and II. B. 

 Kepley for Lieutenant Governor. 



On April 28 the Woman's Republican State Con- 

 vention, composed of delegates from all of the 22 

 districts, met at Springfield and nominated as trus- 

 tee of the State University Mrs. Mary Carriel. 



The Republican State Convention was held at 

 Springfield on April 29. The platform, after de- 

 nouncing the Democratic administrations national 

 and State declared in favor of a tariff to produce 

 revenue and protect home labor, and of the unre- 

 stricted exchange of noncompetitive articles ; in 

 favor of the Monroe doctrine and of strengthening 

 our coast defenses and enlarging our navy; ex- 



piv-scd sympathy with Cuba : ivi-miuncnd' .,; i the 

 people that they vote for the proposed ameiiu: 

 to the Constitution submitted to them by the :i 

 the Legislature of IN!).'), permitting three artid 

 the Constitution to be amended at one time: fa- 

 vored submitting to the people an amendment 

 viding that the Legislature shall enact suitable laws 

 to regulate contracts between employee.- and em- 

 ployers: recommended a revision of the revenue 

 laws and further provision for the creation of a 

 board of : provi-ion for an improved 



method of levying and collecting special a- 

 ments for public improvement-: and the enacting 

 of a law providing for the care and treatment of all 

 adjudged insane persons in State asylums. It de- 

 clared also: "The Republicans of Illinois are now, 

 as we ever have been, unyielding and emphatic in 

 our demands for honest money. We are opposed to 

 any and every scheme that will give to this country 

 a currency in any way depreciated or debased or in 

 any respect inferior to the money of the most ad- 

 vanced and intelligent nations of the earth. We 

 favor the use of silver as currency, but to the ex- 

 tent only and under such restrictions that parity 

 with gold can be maintained." Delegates to the 

 national convention and candidates for presiden- 

 tial electors were selected, and the following State 

 ticket was nominated : For Governor, John R. Tan- 

 ner: for Lieutenant Governor. William A. Xorth- 

 cott ; for Secretary of State, James A. Rose ; for 

 Auditor, James S. McCullough ; for Treasurer, Henry 

 L. Hertz; for Attorney-General, Edward C. Akin; 

 for Trustees of the State University, F. M. McKay, 

 Mrs. M. T. Carriel, Thomas J. Smith. 



In May, at Chicago, the Socialist-Labor party en- 

 tered the field of State politics for the first time, 

 adopted a platform which declares that the eco- 

 nomic evils from which the people suffer are not 

 caused by the gold standard and will not be reme- 

 died in any way by the free coinage of silver, but 

 that what is wanted is to destroy the money power 

 by establishing the co-operative commonwealth ; 

 and nominated presidential electors and a complete 

 State ticket, headed by Charles Bastain for Govern- 

 or. On Sept. 28 this ticket was filed by petition, 

 1,569 names being signed thereto. 



The State convention of the Democratic party 

 met at Peoria, June 23. and the 1.065 delegates, 

 after selecting delegates to the national conven- 

 tion and candidates for presidential electors, voted 

 unanimously for a platform that demanded "the 

 immediate restoration of the free and unlimited 

 coinage of both gold and silver at the ratio of 16 

 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold of equal fine- 

 ne-s, with full legal-tender power to each metal, 

 without waiting for or depending on any other 

 nation on earth." 



Other declarations denounced the MeKinley tariff 

 law. favored a tariff for revenue only, and declared 

 that Government should collect "no more taxes 

 than are necessary to defray the expenses of the 

 Government honestly and economically adminis- 

 tered"; demanded the "abolition of government 

 by injunction"; approved the administration of 

 Gov. Altgeld ; demanded such legislation as will 

 require all property not exempt, and all men to pay 

 their fair share of taxes, and favored a constitutional 

 amendment that will allow local taxation for local 

 purposes: condemned the last General Assembly 

 for crippling the industrial arbitration law. and de- 

 manded the abolition of child labor in factories ; 

 demanded the repeal of the flag law ; favored legis- 

 lation to prevent competition between convict and 

 outside free labor; demanded legislation for the 

 protection of miners; favored an income tax. ' 

 lation in behalf of good roads, and the constitu- 

 tional amendment permitting three articles of the 



