FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 31 



looms Inrge in our minds. But the Congress of the United States 

 appropriates now something over one bilHon dollars a year. My 

 estimate is that the State of lUinois pays one-tenth of this tax; 

 and the estimate is based upon her population and her relative 

 buying ix)\ver. One thing is certain ; that in the new sources of 

 revenue devised this year, the city of Chicago alone will pay 

 more than all the southern states combined. If my estimate- is 

 correct, the state of Illinois pays one-tenth of all the federal ex- 

 penses. Not less than one hundred millions of dollars a year 

 of good Illinois money goes into the federal treasur}\ 



What the University is asking, therefore, with which to 

 build a plant, is one-seventeenth of the total tax of the state, 

 or only one per cent, of what Illinois is already paying out 

 through the public treasury. While a million dollars a year for 

 ten years is a large sum of money, it is extremely small when 

 compared with the total expenditure of the state. It is too much 

 if what is to be done is not worth while ; but if the University of 

 Illinois is an important institution, the amount of money which 

 is necessary to build it well is insignificant as compared with 

 other public enterprises. 



In this connection let me point out that the best money of all 

 money is that which we raise by our local taxes, close at home, 

 know exactly what the money is for and very little of it is 

 wasted by excessive administration. The most pathetic spec- 

 tacle to me is to see rich cities and states call upon the federal 

 treasui*}^ for financial help. I was told in Washington last week 

 that a delegation from the city of Chicago w^ent before Congress 

 and implored of that body financial assistance for the city upon 

 the Lakes in solving its problem of vocational education. They 

 apparently did not stop to consider that when the bill is passed 

 and the money is paid in they will pay — as one Congressman 

 put it — ''about forty dollars to every one they will get back." 



These are some of the reasons why the State of Illinois 

 shall be asked this winter for the funds with which to build, and 

 afterwards to conduct, a strictly first-class University worthy of 

 so great a commonwealth as this." (Applause). 



