ILLINOIS 



2921 



ILLINOIS 



few people north of Springfield. This was due 

 to the fact that the territory was first peopled 

 by permanent settlers from Kentucky and 

 Tennessee ; incidentally this migration from the 

 south accounts for Abraham Lincoln as a citi- 

 zen of Illinois. The northern part of the 

 state did not develop until after the com- 

 pletion of the Erie Canal, after which immi- 

 gration westward benefited Illinois. Not until 

 five years after the opening of that waterway 

 was Chicago platted; in 1830 that modest set- 

 tlement covered less than one-half of a square 

 'mile and its voting population numbered 

 twenty-seven. 



In 1910, with 5,638,591 people, Illinois ranked 

 third among the states of the Union in popula- 

 tion, none of the great states to the west of 

 the Mississippi and only New York and Penn- 

 sylvania among the Eastern states surpassing 

 it. The average density .of population in 1910 

 was 100.6 to the square mile, but this figure 

 does not really convey a correct impression, for 

 nearly two-fifths of the people live in the one 

 city of Chicago. Illinois has been one of the 

 states toward which immigrants have flocked 

 in large numbers; in 1910 over twenty per 

 cent of its population was foreign born, and 

 over half was of foreign parentage. Of the 

 foreign element the Germans are the most 

 numerous, and immigrants from the United 

 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland rank 

 second. On January 1, 1917, a Federal esti- 

 mate credited the state with 6,193,626 people. 



In 1910 two-fifths of all the people lived in 

 one county the county of Cook, in which 

 Chicago is located; while more than sixty-one 

 per cent were living under city conditions, 

 that is, in cities of 2,500 or more, and that 

 despite the fact that Illinois is a strongly agri- 

 cultural state. The cities which have a popula- 

 tion of more than 25,000 number twelve, but 

 the second largest, Peoria, is less than one- 

 thirty-second as large as Chicago. The twelve 

 cities in the order of their size are Chicago; 

 Peoria; East Saint Louis; Springfield, the capi- 

 tal; Rockford; Quincy; Joliet; Decatur; Au- 

 rora ; Danville ; Elgin, and Bloomington. These 

 and others are described under their titles in 

 these volumes. 



Religion and Education. As in most states 

 with a large city population, the Roman 

 Catholic Church is very strong, containing 

 nearly half of all communicants; the various 

 Methodist churches are next to the Catholic in 

 point of strength. Other Protestant churches, 

 such as the Baptist, Presbyterian, Congrega- 



tional, Disciples' and Episcopal, also have large 

 followings, and the number of Lutherans in the 

 state is particularly noteworthy. This is ac- 

 counted for by the very considerable German 

 and Scandinavian population. 



The state has an excellent system of free 

 public schools which dates from 1855, and the 

 percentage of illiteracy is only 3.7. Fourteen 

 other states show a better average, but were 

 it not for the negroes, with their percentage 

 of 10.5, and the foreign-born whites, with their 

 percentage of 10.1, the percentage of those ten 

 years of age or over who are unable to read 

 and write would be but a little more than one 

 per cent (see ILLITERACY). The school system 

 includes kindergartens, of the attendance upon 

 which no official record is kept; grade schools, 

 upon which attendance is compulsory between 

 the ages of six and fourteen; 671 high schools; 

 six normal schools, at Carbondale, Charleston, 

 Chicago, De Kalb, Macomb and Normal; and 

 the University of Illinois at Champaign and 

 Urbana. Out of a possible school population 

 between the ages of six and twenty-one of 

 somewhat more than a million and a half, 

 there were in attendance at the schools in 

 1914 about 1,011,000. Over 30,500 teachers 

 are employed to teach these pupils, at an 

 average annual salary of $648 each, and the 

 total yearly expenditure for school purposes is 

 about $40,000,000. Provision is made for the 

 establishment of schools for defectives, and 

 the state has always shown itself ready to try 

 experiments which promised well, such as sum- 

 mer schools, open-air schools and schools for 

 tubercular children. 



In addition to the state institutions there 

 are in Illinois many private schools of various 

 grades from kindergarten to university. Among 

 the institutions of college rank, of which there 

 are not fewer than thirty, there may be men- 

 tioned as worthy of special note the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago; Northwestern University 

 at Evanston; Armour Institute of Technology 

 and Lewis Institute, both at Chicago; Knox 

 College at Galesburg; and Loyola University 

 and Saint Stanislaus College at Chicago. 



Charitable and Penal Institutions. In recent 

 years constantly increasing attention has been 

 paid to the administration of these institutions. 

 The legislature of 1909 made a thorough can- 

 vass of the methods used with success in other 

 states, and the result was the appointment of 

 a Charities Commission of five members, who 

 act without salaries and who have in their 

 hands the right to inspect and criticize the 



