THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



27 



International Film Service 



CITY HALT AXD COUNTY BUILDING: CHICAGO 



Chicago has twenty-six governments and near-governments within her borders, each 

 with its own independent functions. Elections alone cost as much here as all activities cost 

 in many fair-sized cities. A State constitutional convention has been called, one of the pur- 

 poses of which is to consolidate the governing bodies in the city into one organization. 



ture of twine. More than 150,000 tons 

 of this product are required to bind the 

 world's grain, and without it every grain 

 binder in existence would lose half its 

 usefulness. The bulk of this twine is 

 made from sisal fiber, which comes from 

 Mexico. The plane from which it is ob- 

 tained is known as the henequen and is 

 closely related to the century plant. The 

 remainder is made of the manila fiber, 



which comes from the Philippines, or 

 from a mixture of the two fibers. 



The process of transforming fiber into 

 twine begins with the opening up of the 

 great bales as they come from Yucatan. 

 After inspection and mixing, the fiber is 

 put through a series of machines which 

 comb it out into long ribbon-like slivers, 

 becoming smaller and thinner and softer 

 with each operation. Once sufficiently 



