THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



23 



A friendly suit, which is still pending, 

 was brought in the Federal courts to 

 determine the relative powers of the 

 State, the city, and the Federal Govern- 

 ment in the premises. Upon its outcome 

 hinges the question of whether or not 

 Chicago can send enough Lake Michigan 

 water down the Mississippi River to pro- 

 tect the lake from pollution. 



Through the Sanitary District, which 

 now comprises a territory of 358 square 

 miles, covering the region from the town 

 of Wilmette to the Indiana line, the city 

 is both a real-estate operator and the 

 owner of a power plant. Nine great 

 aluminum wires carry 42,000 horsepower 

 cityward from the hydro-electric plant 

 above Joliet. They supply one county, 

 twelve municipalities, and many private 

 concerns, besides furnishing the city it- 

 self with power for pumping water out 

 of the lake into the city mains and the 

 canal, and for lighting the fourteen thou- 

 sand arc lights used in the municipal 

 system. 



SIC SEMPER TYPHOID 



The result of the opening of the drain- 

 age canal was phenomenal. Typhoid, 

 which had reached a degree of prevalence 

 that was truly alarming, began to sub- 

 side immediately, and Chicago, but lately 

 the most unheal thful principal city in 

 America, soon was cutting down its death 

 rate faster than any similar community 

 anywhere. No man who knows the his- 

 tory of the conquest of water-borne dis- 

 ease by the building of this canal can 

 fail to appreciate the triumph of the sani- 

 tarians. They said they would cut the 

 typhoid rate in half, but they actually 

 sliced off more than 90 per cent of it ! 



Like all great world cities, Chicago has 

 many problems still unsolved. Most seri- 

 ous of these is the urban transportation 

 situation. With more passengers to carry 

 than all of the steam railroads of the 

 United States together, and with the great 

 bulk of the cars that carry them entering 

 the narrow confines of the constricted 

 business district, it was inevitable that a 

 heroic revampment of conditions would 

 be needed. 



Some very striking steps of coop- 

 eration between the various companies 



operating the urban transportation lines 

 have been taken in the past. These com- 

 panies were urged to believe that uni- 

 versal transfers would redound to their 

 respective advantage. Very dubious on 

 the subject, yet imbued with the general 

 spirit of cooperation for the city's wel- 

 fare, they agreed to try it, merging all 

 of the surface lines, for purposes of op- 

 eration, into one system and all of the 

 elevated lines into another. 



TRANSPORTATION AND WATER PROBLEMS 



The result was greater profits than 

 ever before, and the experiment did much 

 to remedy the situation. But much water 

 of development passes under the bridge 

 of progress in Chicago with the lapse of 

 a few years, and now the city is where 

 nothing but a radical extension of both 

 elevated and surface lines, with subways 

 added, and universal transfers established 

 between elevated, surface, and subway 

 lines, will suffice. 



A plan was prepared by a commission 

 representing the city, and accepted by the 

 transportation interests, providing for the 

 requisite extensions, and for the oper- 

 ation of all the lines under a board of 

 trustees appointed by the people, with a 

 definite guarantee to all stockholders of a 

 fair income. Every commercial and pro- 

 gressive organization in the city was be- 

 hind the plan, but somehow it failed of 

 a majority in the November referendum. 

 It is quite plain, however, that Chicago 

 must soon face the transportation prob- 

 lem that handling an overwhelming popu- 

 lation involves. 



The water situation also presents some- 

 thing of a problem. In a recent number 

 of the Geographic (see "New York — 

 The Metropolis of Mankind," July, 1918) 

 it was shown that Gotham's great aque- 

 duct system carries enough water to slake 

 the thirst of the whole world. Chicago, 

 with half as many people, uses more 

 water than New York. The reason for 

 this, of course, is that Chicago is the 

 home of heavy manufactures and New 

 York of light, the former demanding 

 much more water than the latter. The 

 per capita use in Chicago is two and a 

 half times that in New York. 



The combined water and sewer mains 



