March, 1932 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Eleven 



Committee on Motor Vehicles and 

 Traffic Regulation, was passed late in 

 the regular session. This Act would 

 be improved by the passage of an 

 amending bill, Senate Bill 13 5, as 

 amended, now pending in the first spe- 

 cial session of the General Assembly, 

 which divides trucks of between 8,000 

 and 12,000 pounds of gross weight 

 (Including weight of vehicle and maxi- 

 mum load) into two classes. The 

 lighter t^cks of 8,000 to 10,000 

 pounds of gross weight under this bill 

 would pay a license fee of $24 instead 

 of $3 5, and trucks of 10,000 to 12,000 

 pounds of gross weight would pay $35 

 as at present required of the entire 

 class. 



5. Appropriations to provide Boys' 

 and Girls' 4-H Clubs with adequate, 

 commodious and permanent quarters at 

 the Illinois State Fair. The require- 

 ments of 4-H boys and girls at the 

 State Fair were taken up with the proper 

 authorities at Springfield. There was 

 urgent pressure for substantial appro- 

 priations by the state to erect a suit- 

 able structure for the coming Century 

 of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 

 1933. On the other hand, there was 

 need of economy. It was, therefore, 

 definitely agreed with responsible offi- 

 cials that all structural steel for a State 

 building at the Exposition would be 

 purchased with the understanding that 

 after the close of the Exposition, such 

 structural steel as would be necessary 

 would immediately be removed to the 

 State Fair Grounds and used for the 

 erection of adequate and permanent 

 quarters for the Boys' and Girls' 4-H 

 Clubs. 



6. State Income Tax. 



The result of the I. A. A.'s many 

 years' efforts to enact income tax legis- 

 lation is discussed elsewhere in this issue. 



The Association also prepared, spon- 

 sored and secured the enactment of 

 House Bill 467 amending the Agricul- 

 tural Co-Operative Act of 1923 in sev- 

 eral sections in such ways as experi- 

 ence has shown necessary, in order that 

 the Act may fully meet the needs of 

 really co-operative farm enterprises. 



Legislation Opposed 



The annual meeting of January, 

 1931, also directed the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association to oppose any regula- 

 tion requiring vaccination by a licensed 

 veterinarian before swine could be ex- 

 hibited at any coimty fair or the State 

 Fair; to oppose legislation proposing to 

 substitute, for purposes of administra- 

 tion and revenue, a single school district 

 in each county in place of all elementary 

 and high school districts therein, until 

 such time as local highways are suffi- 

 ciently improved to make it possible at 

 all times for children to be conveyed 



to central or consolidated schools and 

 until the revenues for supporting the 

 public schools are at least in part col- 

 lected by a system of taxation levied 

 upon ability to pay rather than by a 

 system of taxation levied wholly upon 

 property; to oppose the diversion of any 

 portion of gasoline tax funds to cities, 

 towns and villages, but to favor amend- 

 ment of the Act relating to hard roads 

 through or within cities, towns and 

 villages in such a way as to authorize 

 and direct the State Highway Depart- 

 ment to maintain and when necessary to 

 reconstruct such hard surfaced roads on 

 streets or roads within cities, towns and 

 villages as have previously been desig- 

 nated as state highways; and to author- 

 ize and direct careful study of the op- 

 eration and effect of a Drivers License 

 Law and to withhold support therefrom 

 until further directed. 



The first two named measures were 

 successfully defeated, the diversion of 

 the gasoline tax funds was defeated, but 

 extension of the use of such funds was 

 provided in the manner favored by the 

 Association, and a Drivers' License Law 

 in the State of Illinois is still in the 

 stage of discussion and study. 



Unemployment Relief Bills 



MANY inquiries have reached the 

 offices of the Association relative 

 to the effect the unemployment relief 

 bills will have upon down-state coun- 

 ties and also requesting information as 

 to the attitude assumed by members of 

 the General Assembly representing dif- 

 ferent sections of the state. 



There was introduced in the third 

 Special Session bills covering sugges- 

 tions and requests of a Chicago Com- 

 mittee to provide immediate funds for 

 use in meeting what was said to be a 

 great emergency existing in Chicago 

 and other metropolitan centers. 



The evidence presented to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly disclosed a very serious 

 situation in Chicago, due to the tremen- 

 dous volume of unemployment and the 

 necessity for funds to provide food for 

 the hundreds of thousands of unem- 

 ployed. 



Chicago Funds Exhausted 



It appeared that ten million dollars 

 ($10,000,000) had been raised by pri- 

 vate subscription in the City of Chi- 

 cago to meet the situation up to Febru- 

 ary 1, that those funds were practically 

 exhausted, and that immediate assistance 

 was necessary. Evidence presented also 

 disclosed the fact that bonds of the 

 City of Chicago or of Cook County 

 could not be sold due to the critical 

 revenue situation prevailing in that 

 county as a result of deferred tax pay- 

 ments which were tied up in the courts. 



There were five bUls enacted into law 

 in the ihortett possible space of time, 



which in eflFect, provide: (1) the cre- 

 ation of a state emergency relief com- 

 mission; (2) a tax of twenty-five mil- 

 lion dollars ($25,000,000) upon prop- 

 erty in the 1932 levy for relief of resi- 

 dents destitute because of unemploy- 

 ment or otherwise; and for the issue of 

 state anticipation warrants against such 

 tax; (3) for appropriations necessary 

 for the purpose of the bills; (4) for 

 submission of a bond issue of twenty 

 million dollars ($20,000,000) by the 

 state in the general election in Novem- 

 ber, 1932 — such bonds to be used to 

 retire the anticipation warrants issued; 

 and (5) payment of the interest and 

 principal of such bonds by such coim- 

 ties as use state funds for unemploy- 

 ment rehef, payment to be made out of 

 the gasoline tax funds allotted to such 

 counties under the Motor Fuel Law. 



Pledge State's Credit 



There was very evident resentment 

 on the part of down-state representa- 

 tives at what was called "unwarranted 

 delay" in bringing this matter to the 

 attention of the General Assembly if 

 the need was so urgent and also at some 

 of the alarmist statements used in 

 bringing pressure to bear on down-state 

 members for the support of these bills. 



In effect, the series of bills pledges 

 the credit of the State of Illinois and 

 involves the possibility of a state tax on 

 property for emergency relief. This tax 

 on property can be avoided if a ma- 

 jority of those voting for the members 

 of the General Assembly next Novem- 

 ber vote for the proposed issue of bonds. 

 If this bond issue is approved, part of 

 the gasoline tax funds will be diverted 

 from the state aid roads in every coun- 

 ty using the state funds so provided for 

 relief, and in that manner retire the 

 bonds. Such counties as do not use 

 such funds for unemployment relief 

 will not be affected, if the proposed 

 bond issue is approved. 



Representatives of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association neither supported 

 nor opposed the unemployment relief 

 bills. In their opinion, the situation 

 was not only so difficult but involved so 

 many angles of public interest, particu- 

 larly the humanitarian side of the ques- 

 tion that sufficient evidence was not 

 available to justify taking a definite 

 stand. 



Support Bond Issue 



It was reported that the Illinois 

 Bankers Association, the Illinois Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, the Illinois Manufac- 

 turers Association, the Illinois Federa- 

 tion of Labor, the Chicago press and 

 much of the down-state press had 

 agreed to actively support the bond is- 

 sue when submitted to the people next 

 fall and it was recognized that with 

 {Continued on page 12) 



