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THE NEW YOV:K
PUBLIC LIBRARY

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When Chicago "Dreams"

The amazing beauty of the Court of Honor at the World's Fair is here
vividly suggested by the famous landscape painter, Thomas Moran, whose color-
ful portrayal of the scenic -wonders of the Yellowstone and Colorado region
secured him place in the Capitol at Washington. The splendid Administration
Building, with the thrilling fountain at its feet, admonishes Chicago, as perhaps
the Chicago Plan Commission would have it do, that the forthcoming civic
center of this great city may find a model in the glories of the past.

This picture, one of a series of color prints executed for the "Book of the
Builders," is reproduced by courtesy of T. W. Foster.

CHICAGO

A HISTORY

AND FORECAST

Editor
WM. HUDSON HARPER

Contributors

MILO MILTON QUAIFE
MABEL McILVAINE

J ■> ' u ' «

I y^ Published by .,,,,*''.:;

The Chicago Associaiion oir^CoMMERC]

1921

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PUBLIC lib;-ar\

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Chicago's municipal flag was officially adopted April 4, 1917. It
was chosen after a competition by a special commission. The
designer is Wallace Rice. Its stripes are blue and white. Its
stars svmbolize the Great Fire and World's Fair.

PREFACE

This book is issued by The Chicago Association of
Commerce, as a feature of service in organizing the cele- "
bration of fifty years of progress since this city passed
through the Great Fire of October 9, 1871, and in ashes
was reborn. It is dedicated to the founders, far-visioned
and enduring; to their successors who have carried on
and built the city; and to the hope of tomorrow, Chi-
cago's splendid youth of all bloods and altars, but of
one growing faith in this wonderful home of the world.

It is believed that at this time many, who boast their
citizenship and expectations here, will read with interest
and renewal of civic purpose a brief recital of the acts
of those who came and saw and conquered, and will wel-
come information about activities of a restricted but pro-
gressive community which aspires toward leadership in
the spirit, in government, in business, in education and
the arts.

Accordingly, by the hands of competent specialists, is
herewith offered certain historical narratives opportune
to this hour, and by the editor is submitted as the for-
ward-looking division of the book matter descriptive of
existing or projected work which either has already had
popular approval or now invites the judgment of the
wise, that the next generation shall come into a practical
inheritance and that the candle of today shall be the sun
of tomorrow.

The facts and opinions wrought into this series of
statements, constituting something in the nature of a
synopsis of the elements of a Chicago development pro-
gram for the next quarter or half century, have been
derived from authoritative sources, and care has been
used to present the various issues without prejudice,
partisanship or controversial pleading.

The forces and facilities of progress command the
imagination and will of a great people.

To those in various places in Chicago life who have co-
operated with the editor by provision of facts and opin-
ions he offers sincere thanks, while to colleagues on the
staff of The Chicao;o Association of Commerce. o;ood
fellows all who lend a ready hand, his thanks go out
with equal fervor, and he expresses the hope of ^Ir.
Joseph R. Noel, president of the Association: ^Ir.
Robert B. Beach, its business manager, and Mr. Charles
Herrick Hammond, chairman of the Semi-Centennial
Committee, that this little volume may prove in a sort of
way a textbook of progress, at least a partial schedule
of principles for the methodical direction of Chicago's
future.

W. H. H.

September 27. 1921

^sop, the Greek slave of twenty-six cen-
turies ago, who consorted with kings of
thought and watched the ways of men — men
both wise and simple — bequeathed certain im-
mortal sayings to posterity. Fables they are
and one, entitled "The Belly and the Mem-
bers," counsels thiswise:

"One day it occurred to the Members of the
Body that they were doing all the work and
the Belly was having all the food. So they
held a meeting, and after long discussion de-
cided to strike work till the Belly consented to
take its proper share of the work. So for a
day or two the Hands refused to take the
food, the Mouth refused to receive it, and the
Teeth had no work to do. But after a day or
two the Members began to find that they
themselves were not in a very active condi-
tion: the Hands could hardly move, and the
Mouth was all parched and dry. while the Legs
were unable to support the rest. So thus they
found that even the Belly in its dull, quiet way
was doing necessary work for the Body, and
that all must work together or the Body will
go to pieces."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

From Marquette to the Great Fire 9

Fifty Years of New Chicago 33

Things Done and to Do 85

Citizenship 39

Woman and the New Chicago 93

Progressive Government 96

Chicago Needs Program of Religion 103

Social Welfare 113

Education and the Future 117

A Greater Chicago's Health 129

Public Safety 133

Chicago Weather 136

Public Library 138

Chicago Historical Society 141

Chicago and the Arts 144

The Chicago Plan 153

Subways 176

Railway Terminals 180

Zoning New Chicago Task 185

Commerce and Industry 188

Chicago in Banking 196

Chicago as Cotton Market 204

New Industries 208

Industrial Relations 211

Chicago's Drainage 216

Chicago Needs Convention Hall 221

Railway Clearing Yards 223

Growth of Community Centers 225

Chicago as Aviation Center 227

Water Transportation 230

Illiana Harbor 237

Calumet Industrial Harbor 242

Postal Service 244

Public Utilities 247

Chicago's Freight Tunnels 249

Railway Electrification 250

Street Lighting 252

Industries on Drainage Canal 254

Municipal Miscellany 255

C E LE B R/VTI 0>N

CHICAGO FIRE

OCTOBEJ7 2-15

Poster proclaiming celebration of Great Fire
anniversary.

The personifying figure of Chicago was given to the city
by The Inter Ocean, March 20, 1892, when that paper, now
extinct, but long maintained as a Republican authority by
Wm. Penn Nixon, was in possession of H. H. Kohlsaat.
The artist, whose conception had the approval of a dis-
tinguished jury, was Charles Holloway. Here for the first
time Chicago saw its characteristic vigor and purpose in sym-
bolic portraiture, artistically executed, and its genius last-
ingly proclaimed in a perfect motto.

Shortly after the Chicago Tribune produced a city seal
for popular use, and later The Chicago Association of
Commerce introduced therein the potent advertising legend,
"The Great Central Market."

The motto of the current
daunted — We Build" — is the

Great Fire anniversary — "Un-
happy invention of Maurice

Blink, president of the Commercial Art Engraving Company,

CHICAGO'S STORY FROM JOLLIET

AND MARQUETTE TO THE

GREAT FIRE

The Pioneer Found Provisions of Nature Promising a

Commanding City and Set His Masterful Hand

to the Building

Contributed by the Chicago Historical Society

Milo Milton Quaife

Author of "Chicago and the Old Northwest," and Editor of the
"Lakeside Classics"

Diedrich Knickerbocker began his notable history of
New York with the creation of the world, and here also
must any history of Chicago properly begin; for the
most important factor in the development of Chicago is
the economic environment responsible for her creation,
and this environment was determined when the Creator
moulded the Continent of North America.

The force of this observation will become quickly evi-
dent to anyone who will consider attentively Chicago's
position on the map. Lying at the head of Lake Michi-
gan, in the heart of the richest river valley on the globe,
to Chicago all roads lead, even as of old they led to
ancient Rome. Into this city, through which no railway
train ever passes, pours the golden stream of wheat from
a thousand leagues of western prairie. For its enrich-
ment the cornfields of Kansas and Nebraska, the live-
stock grown on the sunny plains of Texas and those of
cold Alberta, the forests of Wisconsin and the iron mines
of Minnesota yield alike their share of tribute, with the
inevitable result that here in less than a century has
developed one of the chief primary markets and prin-
cipal manufacturing centers of the globe.

Long Before the White Man Came

These facts about the modern Chicago are common-
place enough, but comparatively few are aware that for
generations before the white man began his work of up-

building the modern city, when for a thousand miles
around brooded the silence of the wilderness, nature had
made of Chicago a point of importance, the rendezvous
of parties from far and wide bent on missions alike of
war and peace. This importance proceeded naturally
from the conditions of travel and intercourse in the wil-
derness. Over all the eastern half of the continent the
forest stretched practically unbroken, penetrated only
by the narrow Indian trail or the winding river. Thus
the rivers and lakes afforded almost the only highways

* N

Says Mr. Quaife, in his accompanying historical narrative:
"Broadly speaking. Fort Dearborn was Chicago for almost three
decades. * * * When the troops arrived at the mouth of the
Chicago River in August, 1803, they found here several traders'
huts or cabins, three of which were occupied by French

Canadians."

Permission of Central Trust Company of Illinois, the picture being copy of
one of a series of mural historical paintings in that bank by Clarence C. Earle.

through the wilderness; and Chicago lay on one of the
principal routes of travel between the two great river
systems of the continent, the St. Lawrence and the Mis-
sissippi. Here at the south end of Lake Michigan the
traveler could portage his canoe from the Chicago River
to the upper waters of the Illinois, where he found him-
self upon a ready highway leading to the farthest sources
of the thousand tributaries of the Father of Waters.

Thus it was inevitable that the site of Chicago should
be known to Europeans from the time when they first
penetrated to the interior of the continent. Forest

rangers were not commonly men of letters, and we can-
not say who was the first white man to visit the place;
but it is characteristic of the city which has since grown
up that the first two visitors of whom we have record
were traders; likewise they were lawbreakers, for they
were roving the wilderness in defiance of the decrees
issued in the name of His Most Christian Majesty, Louis
the Fourteenth of France, to whose realm Chicago then
belonged.

Chicago's Recorded History Begins

With the momentous exploration conducted by Louis
Jolliet in the summer of 1673 the recorded history of
Chicago really begins. The Mississippi had been dis-
covered by De Soto, and its lower reaches explored, over
a century before, and about the same time the French
had begun their efforts at colonizing the lower valley
of the St. Lawrence. Now Jolliet, sent out by the gov-
ernor of New France, discovered the upper Mississippi
and followed its course far enough to determine that it
emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. Thus the identifica-
tion of the upper Mississippi with the great river De Soto
had discovered was established; and hard upon the heels
of Jolliet came another dauntless Frenchman, the sieur
de La Salle, bent on realizing his imperial vision of a
New France which should stretch from the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico.

A companion of Jolliet on his voyage of 1673 had
been the gentle priest, Father Jacques Marquette. So
favorably was he received by the natives of- Illinois that
he resolved to return at an early date and establish a
mission here. This determination he carried out the fol-
lowing season. Leaving Depere (near modern Green
Bay) in the late autumn of 1674, he journeyed along
the shore of Lake Michigan as far as Chicago, where,
overtaken by illness, he tarried through the winter in
a rude shelter erected some distance up the south branch
of the river. In the spring he went on to the vicinity
of modern Ottawa, preached to the friendly natives, and
then with the hand of death already upon him hastened
to return to distant St. Ignace, dying en route at the
mouth of the Notepseakan River, where Ludington now
stands. Other missionaries seized the torch which fell

from the dying hand of Marquette, and from that day to
this the Gospel has been preached in Illinois.

La Salle and Tonty

While the missionaries were thus zealously laying the
foundations of the church in Illinois, its commercial pos-

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Father Marquette's own map of the regions of his explorations
with Jolliet, 1673-1674.

Permission of Chicago Historical Society.

sibilities were being no less eagerly exploited by the
traders. Of these La Salle, "first promoter of big busi-
ness in the West," was for almost a decade, until his

tragic death in 1687, the leading figure; and from his
Fort St. Louis on Starved Rock for a decade and a half
longer his faithful lieutenant, Tonty, continued to domi-
nate the red men and monopolize the trade of the sur-
rounding region.

It was in this early period, too, that the dream, even
yet only partially realized, of opening a practicable
waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico
was first conceived. By cutting a canal of half a league
at the Chicago portage, Jolliet reported, a bark could
sail from Lake Erie to the Gulf. A few years later
La Salle took sharp issue with this statement of Jolliet,
showing clearly the uselessness for all practical pur-
poses of such a canal, since the real head of navigation
on the Illinois was not the point on the upper Des Plaines
opposite the South Branch of the Chicago, but instead
at Fort St. Louis, one hundred miles below. In later
years by dint of frequent repetition the error of Jolliet
effected lodgment in the public mind, and on July 4,
1836, the digging of the Illinois and Michigan Canal
was gaily entered upon; but weary years of disappoint-
ment ensued to dampen the ardor of the hopeful citi-
zens of Chicago before the first boat passed through the
canal in the summer of 1848; and the sequel confirmed
the accuracy of La Salle's observations over a century
and a half before, for Jolliet's ditch of "half a league"
had lengthened to one hundred miles, and the cost to
many millions of dollars.

After Jolliet's Voyage of 1673

The period of French occupation of the Northwest
continued for ninety years after Jolliet's voyage of 1673.
During these decades the prosecution of the fur trade
constituted the sole economic interest of France in this
region, to effect which posts were established at strategic
points throughout the Northwest, and the tribesmen were
cajoled by friendly artifices or subjugated by martial
means, as the exigencies of the French might dictate.
A notable feature of this period was the half-century
struggle between the French and the Fox tribe of Wis-
consin, in which the Illinois and other tribes were em-
broiled as allies of the French. Periodically, too, war
parties of braves from Illinois and Wisconsin, and even

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You are looking at one of the most interesting epistolary records
of Chicago's age of discovery. Here is a letter, the middle
portion eliminated for economy of space, written by La Salle —
and his signature is \4sible— from "Le Checagou, le l®"" 7^^^®,
1683," to Tonty and his other followers at Fort St. Louis (Starved
Rock in the Illinois River), advising them how best to conduct
the Indian trade and keep harmony among the voyagers.

Permission of Chicago Historical Society.

from points beyond the Mississippi, went down to Mont-
real and Quebec to assist their Great Father in his nu-
merous wars with the English. Illinois and Wisconsin
tribesmen thus marched with Denonville in his invasion
of New York in 1687 ; they massacred the English troops
at Braddock's defeat in 1755 and at Fort William Henry
two years later; and they fought under the banner of
Montcalm in the defense of Quebec against General
Wolfe in 1759. When at length New France fell, and
the triumphant English reached out to take possession
of their conquest in the West, the tribesmen, led by
Pontiac, turned fiercely upon them. The garrisons at
St. Joseph and Mackinac were massacred. Green Bay was
abandoned, and for over a year Detroit was hotly be-
sieged. But not even the genius of Pontiac could en-
able the red men long to withstand the oncoming Eng-
lish. In 1764 he made his peace with the conquerors;
three or four years later in southern Illinois a renegade
Indian, bribed with a keg of English rum, sunk a toma-
hawk in his brain; and over his unmarked grave throbs
today the busy life of the great city of St. Louis.

New France Fades Into Anglo-Saxon North America

Wolfe's conquest of Quebec in 1759 was one of the de-
cisive actions of all military history. It made of New
France but a memory and gave the future of North
America into the keeping of the Anglo-Saxon. It ended
for all time the dream of a greater France, it compelled
the reorganization of the British empire on its modern
basis, and foreshadowed the birth of the United States
as an independent nation. The battle on the Plain of
Abraham was thus a momentous factor in shaping the
future destiny of Chicago. It chanced, however, that in
the working out of the problem of imperial reorganiza-
tion a dispute arose between the American colonists and
the mother country. There ensued the struggle known
to American history as the Revolutionary War, one of
whose important phases was the contest for the control
of the Northwest. The British center of operations in
the West was Detroit. Three hundred miles away, at
Pittsburg, was the American center, and directed from
these two headquarters, the rival forces seesawed back
and forth in their struggle for the mastery of the rich

region where today beats the industrial and political
heart of the nation.

In 1778 George Rogers Clark with a little army carried
the banner of Virginia into this region, and for three
years strove to reach Detroit and crush the British op-
position at its fountain head. In this design he failed,
but the partial measure of success achieved was never-
theless a principal factor in gaining for the new United
States, at the treaty of Paris in 1783, the Mississippi as
its western boundary. During these years of intrigue
and warfare Chicago was, by virtue of her situation, at
the very heart of the struggle in the West. Contending

Chicago's first department store.

From mural painting in Fort Dearborn Hotel by Edgar S. Cameron.

war parties repeatedly passed through or around the
place, and where now the steel mills of South Chicago
darken the sky by day and redden it by night was fought
in the winter of 1780-81 a miniature battle.

Policy of "Long Knives" Peace Settlement

Broadly viewed, the Revolution in the West was a
tw^enty-year struggle, ending only with Wayne's victory
over the Indians in 1794 and the evacuation by the
British two years later of their posts throughout the
Northwest. So completely have the events of this period
passed from the public consciousness that only by a
positive exercise of the imagination can one compre-
hend how as late as 1790 a British partisan in central
Indiana could write as though he were in the heart of

ac-

the British empire, as for all practical purposes he
tually was.

The sharp lesson driven home by Wayne's bayonets at
the battle of Fallen Timbers at length convinced the

Chicago's latest department store, with victory parade of
returning forces.

tribesmen that the power of the "Long Knives," as the
Americans were called, could no longer be ignored in
the Northwest. In the treaty of Greenville, which the

victorious general extorted the following year, pains
were taken to acquire from the natives the title to tracts
of land at the most strategic points through the Indian
country for the erection of forts, and the free passage
of the rivers and portages connecting these points.
Among the reservations thus secured was "One piece of
Land Six Miles Square at the Mouth of Chicago River
emptying into the Southwest end of Lake Michigan."

For several years, following the Greenville cession,
there were rumors afloat of a governmental intention to
establish a fort at Chicago. At length the design as-
sumed tangible form when in the spring of 1803 Captain
John Whistler was sent overland from Detroit with an
escort of six men to examine the route and report on the
practicability of marching a company of infantry to
Chicago. A few weeks later the march was made and in
the bend of the river where now stands the Michigan
Avenue bridge, amid hardships and privations which we
of the present day can scarcely imagine, the walls of the
stockade fort began slowly to rise.

For Three Decades Fort Dearborn Was Chicago

Broadly speaking, Fort Dearborn was Chicago for al-
most three decades. Traders had visited the place from
Jolliet's time onward and had made, it seems probable,
more or less lengthy sojourns here. In the main, how-
ever, the hand of time has wiped out all knowledge of
their doings, and none may say with assurance who was
the first white resident of Chicago. Governor Reynolds
tells a remarkable story of a French woman. Madam
La Compt, whom he knew in after years at Cahokia,
who lived at Chicago with her husband for several years
prior to the Revolution. When Gurdon Hubbard came
here as a youth in 1818 he was shown by an old French
trader the traces of corn hills on the west side of the
North Branch, and told that as early as 1778 a trader
by the name of Guarie had lived here. This chance
story aside, our only hint of trader Guarie's existence is
the record of Major Long's exploring expedition in 1823
that the North Branch was then known as the "Gary
River."

More tangible is the memory of Trader Baptiste Point
du Sable, who was, according to his own description,

"a free mulatto man." Du Sr.ble, like most Indian
traders, wandered widely in pursuit of his calling, and
we find him at different times at Chicago, Peoria, St.
Louis and other points. In 1779 he was at Michigan City
with a stock of goods whose principal item was ten bar-
rels of rum. In 1783 he was living at Peoria, and in 1790
at Chicago. He lived with an Indian woman, and a daugh-
ter of this union became the wife of Jean B. Pellitier of
Cahokia. Some time toward the close of the century
Du Sable sold his cabin at Chicago to another French
trader named Le Mai and withdrew to Missouri, where
he was living as late as 1814.

Troops Arrived August, 1803

When the troops arrived at the mouth of Chicago
River in August, 1803, they found here several traders'
huts or cabins, three of which were occupied by French
Canadians, all of whom were living with Indian wives.
These men were Le Mai, already mentioned, Antoine
Ouilmette and Louis Pettle. Pettle resided here until
1812, and probably perished in the massacre of that
year. Ouilmette claimed to have come to Chicago in
1790, and is known to have lived here at least from
1803 until his death some time after 1829, remaining
even during the years of warfare from 1812 to 1815.
In 1804, following the founding of Fort Dearborn, John
Kinzie, a native of Canada of Scotch extraction, who had
spent long years in the Indian country, established him-
self in the cabin formerly owned by Du Sable. Al-
though not the first and never the sole civilian settler at
Chicago, Kinzie was an abler man than the French trad-
ers, and this factor combined with his racial and busi-
ness connections to give him a dominant position in the
tiny community where he resided until his death in 1828,
saving the years from 1812 to 1816.

Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812

As at all wilderness outposts, so at Chicago, life flowed
on in humdrum fashion during the years from 1803 to
1812. But the outburst of war with the mother country
rudely terminated this peaceful existence. The red men,
smarting under the menace of the steady advance of
American sentiment and the consequent loss of their

homes, seized the opportunity to fall upon the little
garrison, vainly essaying to withdraw from Fort Dear-
born, and in a short, sharp fight of fifteen minutes' du-
ration killed or made captive the entire force. The
civilian residents capable of bearing arms, twelve in
number, had been organized by Captain Heald as an
auxiliary force, which he denominated the "Chicago
militia." Some there were of the Six Hundred who
came back from Balaklava, but the members of the first
Chicago military orpjanization, fighting valiantly in de-
fense of homes and loved ones, perished to a man. Yet

Bennet School, 1844, corner of State and Madison Streets, now

world's busiest traffic crossing. This school was one of the first

private schools in Illinois.

By permission of Chicago Trust Company,

no poet has ever sung their praise, and the city for which
they died remains oblivious of the sacrifice.

Peace with Great Britain was concluded at the close of
1814, but it still remained to gain control of the Indians
of the Northwest, who, during the war, had made com-
mon cause with Great Britain. As a means to this end
it was determined to make the red men commercially de-
pendent upon the United States by denying to the British
traders, upon whom they had hitherto relied, access to
their country. In a letter to the Secretary of War in
the spring of 1816, General Cass pointed out that this
communication was effected through three great chan-

nels of trade: the route from Lake Superior to the upper
Mississippi, the Fox-Wisconsin river route from Lake
Michigan to the Mississippi, and the route by Chicago
and the Illinois between the same bodies of water. These
two latter routes were the ones most commonly used, and
to cut off this trade, Cass urged, it was only necessary
to establish garrisons at Green Bay and Chicago. Gov-
ernmental decision followed promptly in this instance
and in July, 1816, the American flag waved once more
over Chicago, never from this time to be hauled down.

Forces Presaging the New Chicago

For several years life at the New Fort Dearborn went
on much as in the old days before the war of 1812.
Meanwhile, far away from the wilderness stockade at the
bend of the sluggish river forces were developing which
were destined to remove forever the menace of Indian
attack and to usher in the birth of the new Chicago.
These were, in general, the persistent advance of Ameri-
can settlers westward, and in particular the construc-
tion of the Erie Canal under the guiding genius of Gov-
ernor DeWitt Clinton. The Erie Canal was a master
stroke of statesmanly provision. It poured into the lap
of New York the limitless wealth of the western country
and made her, apparently for all time, the chief city of
the Atlantic seaboard. It poured a veritable flood of
New England, New York and (later) foreign-born set-
tlers into the upper Mississippi Valley. It completely
altered the character of Illinois, which hitherto had been
inhabited chiefly by southern men and economically de-
pendent upon New Orleans. By filling the upper North-
west with settlers, it made inevitable the birth of the
modern Chicago. Happily Chicago has recognized its
debt to Governor Clinton by naming a great thorough-
fare in his honor.

Before the influence of this far-reaching event could
find local expression, the obstacle to white settlement
presented by the Indian ownership and occupancy of the
soil must be removed. The accomplishment of this was
a long-drawn-out process, whose fulfillment, broadly
speaking, was signalized by the Black Hawk war of 1832.
From the local point of view this is the sole significance
attaching to this tragic contest. It chanced to coincide

in point of time with the opening of an era of commer-
cial enthusiasm and speculation such as the United States
has never witnessed before or since that decade. In the
West this era found chief expression in a rush of immi-
gration and a frenzy of speculation in land.

Development Fervor of 1833

The spring of 1833, therefore, ushered in the first and
greatest boom in the history of Chicago. Over night, as

A grand mansion of the old days, home of Eli B. Williams at
Monroe Street and Wabash Avenue. Houses such as these, with
trees and lawns, helped to strengthen the poetic claim of the
Garden City's motto, "Urbs in Horto." The house became a well-
known restaurant, the Maison Doree. The site was given to the
University of Chicago three years ago.

Permission of E. G. Goodspeed.

it were, the sleepy military outpost was transformed into
a mushroom city, attended by all the concomitants of
ugliness and vigor which are characteristic of such a

development. A single incident will sufficiently illus-
trate the speculative mania of the period. In 1835 Gur-
don Hubbard became part owner of an eighty-acre tract
extending westward from the North Branch between
Chicago Avenue and Kinzie Street, purchased for $5,000.
Even this price would have been deemed fabulous a year
or two before. Chancing to visit New York a few months
later, Hubbard found to his amazement a wild specu-
lation going on in Chicago town lots. Hastily hunting
up an engraver, he caused a plat to be drawn from his
verbal description of the tract, and sold one-half of it
at auction for $80,000. Reports of the transaction pre-
ceded Hubbard homeward, but they seemed so extrava-
gant that even the thrifty Chicago speculators regarded
them as incredible until Hubbard himself arrived to
authenticate them. The further revision upward of paper
valuations of town lots which thereupon ensued can well
be left to the imagination.

And Now a City

By 1837 Chicago had become a community of several
thousand souls and achieved the dignity of a city. About
the same time President Jackson pricked the bubble of
the nation's speculative mania by the issuance of his
famous specie circular, and the severest financial panic
of our national history ensued. At Chicago the intensity
of the depression corresponded to that of the speculative
madness which it had brought to a close, and for several
years the new-born city stagnated. Although the reaction
bore hardly on the townsmen, carrying numbers of
them to financial ruin and rudely overturning the eco-
nomic structures which all had reared on a foundation
of dreams, it had no permanent effect on the city's fu-
ture. That future was dependent upon the development
of the West, which found at Chicago its natural com-
mercial clearing house, and while a financial flurry
might temporarily retard, it could no more stay this
development than can the art of puny man stay the on-
ward flow of a glacier. Even in the midst of the depres-
sion a vision of the city's destiny was retained by some,
at least, of the townsmen.

From the dawn of American history to the opening of
the nineteenth century the sailboat on water and the

horse-drawn vehicle on land were the established modes
of transportation. In June, 1807, however, Fulton dem-
onstrated the practicability of steam navigation and be-
fore two decades had passed steamboats were penetrat-

*XJ

An unfamiliar picture of Lincoln presented to the Chicago
Historical Society by Mrs. W. J. Chalmers of Chicago. It was
taken on the battlefield of Antietam. Lincoln is accompanied
by Allan Pinkerton, his personal bodyguard, and by General

McClernand.

Permission of Chicago Historical Society.

ing to the upper reaches of the Mississippi and the re-
motest shores of the Great Lakes. This development of
steam-propelled navigation was the logical complement
to the opening of the Erie Canal in promoting the settle-
ment of the West. It remained, however, to apply steam
power to transportation by land, and about the year 1830
this application was begun in the United States.

Wilderness Becomes a Fruitful Hinterland

We are on the eve of the most important development
in the history of Chicago, for it is scarcely too much to
say that the modern city as we now know it is the product
of the railroads. The story is told that an enthusiastic
newcomer to Chicago shortly after the Black Hawk war
ventured the prediction that within five years the place
would number five thousand inhabitants, to which an
army officer replied, "That cannot be, for there is no
back country to sustain a city." "Back country" there
was in plenty, of course, but it was still a wilderness,
and lacking in highways to give Chicago access to it.
The railroads supplied this want, and today Chicago's
back country stops only at the shores of the Pacific.

It is characteristic of Chicago's outlook, and of the
sources from which her economic strength is drawn,
that the city's first railroad ran west rather than east,
being designed not to connect her with the Atlantic, but
to bring to her markets and wharves the produce of her
rich hinterland. In the early years of railroad construc-
tion there was no conception of independent transporta-
tion systems which should compete with water routes;
instead, the first American railroads were designed, like
the canals they superseded, to span the land lying be-
tween navigable water courses. Chicago lay at the head
of navigation of the Great Lakes, and by the Erie Canal
had uninterrupted water communication with New York
City. By means of the Illinois and Michigan Canal the
city early essayed to make connection with the navigable
waters of the Mississippi, but before the years of delay
and disappointment which the execution of this enter-
prise entailed were over, it had become evident that the
importance of the canal as an instrument of transporta-
tion was waning, and that other measures for tappnig
the back country were essential.

In the lead mine region of northwestern Illinois there
had begun about the year 1821 an era of vigorous ex-
ploitation and development, and within a few years the
mining country was dotted with thriving villages and
towns. Chief among these was Galena, whose aspira-
tions equalled, and whose present commercial achieve-
ments excelled, those of Chicago. The Mississippi af-
forded the mines their only commercial outlet, and their

R EAL ESTATEOmcE\¥waKE.RRX)Tj- -

This is the Chicago undaunted, the picture which you talk
about to your children's children. It may seem to suggest
Chicago's day off with nothing doing. Not so. It shows the
first building put up in the burned district after the fire, the
office of W. D. Kerfoot, and this is the challenge and promise
which this resolute Chicagoan flung forth to the world — and
the Chicago Historical Society has the original board shown on
the left of the house:

W. D. KERFOOT IS AT 59 UNION PARK PLACE.
ALL GONE BUT WIFE, CHILDREN AND ENERGY.

Mark the "energy." That's why Chicago is here today. This

first structure became a city directory, as signs were tacked

all over it telling the whereabouts of business firms.

Permission of Chicago Historical Society.

principal trade connections were with St. Louis and
New Orleans. But with the development of the lake-
board cities there arose in the mines an insistent demand
for an eastern commercial outlet. Milwaukee and Chi-

cago were quick to perceive the advantage which would
accrue to the city which should become the eastern ter-
minus of such a route, and each harbored plans for the
construction of a railroad which should tap the wealth
of the mines and the upper Mississippi.

Ogden and Chicago's First Railroad
In the expansive years of the thirties a charter had
been taken out for the Galena and Chicago Union Rail-
road, but for ten years nothing further was done in the
matter. Then William B. Ogden became president of
the company, and under the impulse of his genius the
moribund enterprise leaped into life. The work of ac-
tual construction was begun in the autumn of 1847, and
a year later Chicago's first railroad extended to the Des
Plaines River. Not until 1853 was Freeport reached,
and the line was never built to Galena, for by this time
the Illinois Central had entered the field, and the Galena
arranged to use the Central's tracks from Freeport to
its destination. Thus was constructed the first line of
what is now the great Northwestern system. In Febru-
ary, 1852, the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana
ran the first train into Chicago from the East, and three
months later the Michigan Central entered the city. The
development of the greatest railway center on earth had
been auspiciously inaugurated.

Meanwhile Milwaukee had not abandoned the contest,
and during the early fifties not merely one but two steel
roads were being pushed westward from that city. One
reached Prairie du Chien in 1857, the other entered La
Crosse a year later. Such was Milwaukee's answer to
Chicago's bid for the commercial supremacy of the West.
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul system, into which
these lines presently evolved, made of Milwaukee a great
city, but Chicago's advantage of position could not be
overcome, and to her network of railroads the Milwaukee
itself was presently added. Instead of deflecting trade
from Chicago, as the Milwaukee line was originally de-
signed to do, it became one of the most important feeders
of Chicago's commerce.

Chicago's Debt to Nature and Railroads

The railroads completed the work which nature had
begun of making Chicago the great central mart of the

continent. Henceforth her growth was to be conditioned
only by the growth of the country itself. In 1850, after
seventeen years of development unaided by the railroads,
the city had a population of 30,000; by 1860 this had
more than tripled, and in the following decade, not-
withstanding the upheaval of the Civil War, it tripled
again. Twenty years later the population was 1,100,000,
and in the twenty years ending with 1910 this figure was
almost exactly doubled.

In the years while Chicago was attaining the dimen-
sions of a city, the dispute between North and South
was developing which was to eventuate in civil war. The
story of this dispute and of the war which closed it

TO TITE

General Heiief Committee

COFaEEaATIOIsrAL CHUECH,
Cor. Washington^ Ann Sts., .

ii„, r.,i.i.. ^.-(.-1 !■■

»l^t...'M.^ «I II. ,.1 <

H. B. MASOar,ma|ror.

Stern days when heroic men and women rose to un-
precedented emergencies.

Permission of Chicago Historical Society.

belongs to our national history and need not be traversed
here. As the metropolis of the state which gave Grant
and Lincoln to the nation Chicago, of course, played
a worthy part in the contest. Here from an early day
abolition sentiment had been powerful, and when, after
the Compromise of 1850, Stephen A. Douglas came home
to account to his constituents for his share in that meas-
ure the indignant citizens hooted him from the platform.
Here Colonel Ellsworth had acted his brief role on the

stage of public affairs, and in his person Chicago fur-
nished the first hero of the Civil War.

Through War and Fire

Although the war inevitably dislocated the business of
Chicago, it did not greatly retard, apparently, the city's
growth. What might have been in the absence of war
we cannot say; but despite it the city grew from 110,000
in 1860 to 200,000 in 1866; and by 1870 another hun-
dred thousand had been added.

Thus we come to the event whose recital is to termi-
nate our story, the Great Fire of October 9, 1871. To
the superficial eye the ways of Providence seem ofttimes
mysterious enough; to the discerning, "Providence" is
seen commonly to be but a subterfuge for human igno-
rance, folly, and greed. Despite all her pride of brawn
and bigness, Chicago was preparing for herself, in the
years of mushroom growth, a fearful lesson in the art
of city building. Across the broad plain which skirts
the river's mouth buildings by the thousand extended,
constructed with no thought of resistance to the greatest
menace with which our modern cities are confronted.
Even the very sidewalks, made of resinous pine and ele-
vated upon stringers, were combustible, almost, as a
powder fuse, and the city's single pumping station, which
supplied the mains with water, was covered with a roof
of wood! If ever a city invited its fate, surely Chicago
did in 1871.

The season was one of excessive dryness. Up from
the plains of the far Southwest blew week after week a
scorching wind which withered the growing crops and
turned the smiling green of the prairies to a dull brick-
red. In the forests of Wisconsin and Michigan confla-
grations of unexampled magnitude raged, desolating en-
tire districts and slaying hundreds of human beings.
The force which consumed the living pine in the forests
would not long be balked by the seasoned pine of
wooden-housed Chicago.

Destruction Spreads Fertile Ashes

About the Great Fire volumes have been written, which
here must be condensed to a page. Where it started
is clear ; how it started no man knows. Living in a shack

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at the corner of Jefferson and De Koven streets, was a
poor Irish family by the name of O'Leary. The story
commonly told is that Mrs. O'Leary went out to the barn
with a lamp to see her cow; sometimes the detail is
added that she proposed to milk this family pet. What-
ever her intentions, the lamp was upset and cow, stable
and Chicago were engulfed in one common ruin. One
veracious reporter even assured the world that the cow
accidentally kicked over the lamp ; apparently the animal

Landmark of Chicago's advance to greatness— Mrs. O'Leary s

cottage on De Koven, between Jefferson and Clinton Streets,

the morning after the regenerative Great Fire. The historic

barn and everything to the northeast passed in flame.

Permission of Chicago Historical Society.

was questioned as to her motives in the brief interval
of time between the fatal kick and her own prompt de-
mise. Modest Mrs. O'Leary, far from coveting the honor
of starting the Chicago fire, testified under oath that she
was safe abed and knew nothing about it until called by
a friend of the family.

Once started, the fire moved onward with resistless
tread to the north and east until there was nothing more
to burn. Between nine o'clock on Sunday evening and

ten-thirty the following night an area of three and one-
half square miles, including the business section of the
city, was burned, over 17,000 buildings were destroyed
and 100,000 people rendered homeless. From Taylor
Street to Lincoln Park, from the river to the lake, the
city lay in ruins. The direct loss of property was about
$200,000,000. Of human life, while never known, the
estimate is commonly about three hundred. The mass of
human misery, and the indirect losses entailed by the
fire can never be estimated. Such was the lesson Chicago
learned on that October night and day half a century
ago.

FIFTY YEARS OF NEW CHICAGO

Some of the Acts of a Dauntless City Which Said, "I Will,"

and Did It

Mabel Mcllvaine

Assistant Editor Fort Dearborn Magazine

To go ahead as if nothing had happened was the one
thought of Chicago after the great fire of 1871. She
was aided in this determination by the attitude of the
whole world toward her. With one accord it Avas agreed
by all the world that Chicago must go on. Messages
came from Europe, from India, from China, from the
uttermost parts of the earth telling of substantial aid
that was on the way. Mayors all over America pledged
their cities in amounts of tens of thousands to be drawn
at will. A single merchant in New York, A. T. Stewart,
placed $50,000 at Chicago's disposal. The sentiment
was rudely expressed by a journalist in the East, W. H.
McElroy, who, after confessing that the New York papers
used to try to take Chicago down, after the fire wrote:

"But we loved you in spite of your many airs,

Chicago,
If it wasn't for wheat there wouldn't be tares,

Chicago,
And so as we heard your trumpets blow,
Loud as theirs at Jericho,
We said — 'Well, one thing, she isn't slow!

Chicago.'

"And when of your terrible trouble we learned,

Chicago,
How your fair young beauty to ashes was turned,

Chicago,
The whole land rose in its love and might,
And swore to see you through your plight,
And 'Draw by the million on us at sight,

Chicago.' "

Business men in Chicago received telegrams from the
men they had dealt with in the East and West, saying,
"We know that you will need stock to replace what has
been burned. Your credit is good. Order as usual."

And Chicago did order as usual. Without waiting to
know where they were going to put them, Chicago mer-
chants ordered stocks of goods, and hunted up places
to sell them afterwards. Without waiting to know what
was inside their red-hot safes, if anything, the bankers
of Chicago met and agreed to resume business, and then
when the money in the safes was found intact, they re-
sumed payment on the dollar for dollar basis, one week
after the most awful fire ever recorded. This action on
the part of the Chicago banks gave the whole country
confidence as to the ultimate outcome. It is a matter to
be noted that not one of these banks failed as a conse-
quence of having carried on.

Board of Trade Kept Every Contract

The Chicago Board of Trade, which might, under the
circumstances, have repudiated its contracts formed be-
fore the fire, voted as one man to keep them, and did
keep them, every one. It was a member of the Chicago
Board of Trade who, in the midst of the confusion,
sought and obtained from Mayor R. B. Mason an order,
written on the back of an envelope, to receive and dis-
tribute the relief supplies which were coming into Chi-
cago by the carload. Commandeering wagons and Avare-
houses, he rushed these supplies to the different divi-
sions of the city for the "first aid" to the 100,000 people
rendered homeless over night.

As soon as practicable this work of distribution of
relief supplies and funds was taken over by the Relief
and Aid Society, the stanch old organization which had
its rise in the panic of '57, did valiant duty through the
Civil War, and was on hand with the only organization
capable of handling a proposition of such magnitude in
a systematic way. Their official records, deposited in
the Chicago Historical Society, show that they handled
and disbursed no less than $4,996,782.74 worth, meet-
ing the immediate need. The churches helped in all this,
gathering the frightened flocks together, furnishing shel-
ter when they had a building left, or, like grand old
Robert Collyer and the congregation of Unity Church,
meeting amid the ruins, and agreeing to carry on, even
if the church had no funds, and the pastor had to go
back to blacksmithing to live.

The Congregational Church at the corner of Wash-
ington and Ann Streets became the city hall for the time
being, and the Methodist Episcopal Church on Wabash
Avenue, the post office. Through the heroism of a sub-
ordinate in the old federal building the mails had been
saved, and Chicago was spared the interruption which
their loss would have occasioned.

"Undaunted We Build" Said Kerfoot

With lines and boundaries all but obliterated, the real
estate men were nevertheless first on the field, the very
first structure to be erected in the burnt district being
the real estate office of W. D. Kerfoot. Nailed to the side
of the little slab shanty which he put up in the middle of
Washington Street, because the ashes of his former build-
ing were too hot behind that line, was a shingle that
bore the slogan: "All Gone but Wife, Children and
ENERGY."

Several of the larger real estate concerns had copies
of the abstracts of titles, the originals of which perished
with the courthouse, and thus Chicago was saved the
unutterable confusion of an uncharted city. Even with
the duplicate records filed at Washington, however, it
was often necessary to admit mere recollection in evi-
dence in court for years to come.

The refuse from the ruined buildings was carted away
as rapidly as possible and dumped into the lagoon which
formerly divided the Illinois Central tracks from the
shore opposite Lake Front Park. How little did the
people realize then that they were beginning the very
work which in after years was to be prosecuted with
vigor in carrying out the provisions of the city plan, by
w^hich, literally on the ashes of the old, was to rise the
new, the city beautiful!

As fast as the foundations of buildings were uncov-
ered, their walls began to be rebuih. As far as feasible
they made them fireproof. The Nixon building, the only
practically fireproof building in town before the fire,
had stood the test. It became the model. Fine fronts of
marble and even iron girders, unprotected by concrete,
had melted like wax before the blow-pipe created by the
tremendous and self -engendered blast of the fire. Concrete
was now used in lining walls and covering iron work,

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and soon experiments with steel resulted in the "Chi-
cago steel skeleton construction," known to all the world
today. Chicago had thus, in less than a century, pro-
gressed from the palisade architecture, used in Fort
Dearborn, through the "balloon frame" stage, the brick,
limestone and iron period, and arrived at the most ad-
vanced form of construction ever known.

Battle-scarred but Invincible

Of course this did not all happen in an instant. For
immediate purposes merchants were permitted to put up
temporary wooden structures on the lake front, and
much frame building went on in the city at large.
Strange to say, the taste of the people, all untamed by
the disaster, was for a good deal of ornament, and to
this day one comes upon houses in outlying districts
trimmed with a sort of wooden fringe along the eaves,
or brandishing a gingerbread tower and pinnacles. They
are like brave old banners to those who understand all
that their very existence meant in the midst of the battle-
scarred but undaunted city.

The feeling of Chicago people for their city may be
partly understood when one reads how they all rejoiced
as they heard that such and such a building was to be re-
newed. Men would meet each other in the street and
say, "Have you heard that the Palmer House is to be re-
built?" "No! Let me hug you, old man." Or, "Did
you know that the Grand Pacific was going up again?"
when perhaps a war dance would be executed. Each
business block that shot up out of its ashes was acclaimed
like the sacred Phoenix, and men and v/omen wept in
unspeakable joy as they saw their churches and their
dear familiar theatres lifting up their heads again. Field
& Leiter, whose splendid new building on State and
Washington had gone with the rest, began to rebuild at
once, but meanwhile started life over again in the car
barns at Twenty-second Street. People might laugh, but
they liked the spirit of it just the same, and stood by
them until they became what they are today, exclusively
under the Field name, the greatest mercantile establish-
ment under one management in the world. Indeed, it
was that very strength of feeling for one another's pros-
perity which knit together the inhabitants of Chicago

into one solid body, a corporation, but not without heart
and soul.

The "Rookery"

As for the visible governing powers of the city, they
were soon housed in a building on what was called the
"reservoir lot" owned by the city, at the southeast cor-
ner of Adams and La Salle, completed and occupied by
January 1, 1872, and which continued to do duty until
1885. Being a mere bird cage of brick, with no orna-
ment or convenience, it was nicknamed the "Rookery."
Built about the old iron tank which had served as a res-
ervoir for the South Side water works, it converted the
latter into a storage place or vault, used by the post
office and other city departments in common. It was in
this tank that the several thousand volumes collected by
Thomas Hughes, Queen Victoria and other Britishers
were stored pending the opening of a public library in
Chicago, a token of the sympathy and civilizing influ-
ence of the English.

Chicago was not slow to take the hint. By January 1,
1873, a reading room was opened in the city hall, ad-
jacent to the tank, and by October 25 Dr. W. F. Poole
was appointed librarian, and had a circulating depart-
ment in operation the following year.

Foundations of a Greater City's Culture

Not that Chicago was without civilizing influences
aside from this. Many of her inhabitants were of rare
education and attainment — such men as William B.
Ogden, Chicago's first mayor; Isaac N. Arnold, friend
and counselor of Lincoln; Ezra B. McCagg, entre to
whose drawing room was like a title of nobility, and a
host of others, whose private libraries and art galleries
were sources of enlightenment. It is doubtful if society
in Chicago has ever comprised men of more individual
"light and leading" than at this time, not excluding the
coterie of brilliant journalists and authors who helped
to educate the public mind. The Chicago Historical
Society, founded in 1854, had a library, museum and art
gallery at the time of the fire, and began to rebuild and
re-collect soon after. The Chicago Academy of Sciences,
founded in 1857, had specimens and a library of great
significance. Northwestern University, organized in

1851, Chicago University in embryo, organized as a
Baptist college in 1855, Loyola University, chartered in
1858, all afforded opportunities for higher culture, and
Chicago's public schools were of notable excellence.

Opera in Reconstruction Days

Musically, Chicago had already enjoyed forty short
"seasons" of opera before the fire. The forty-first sea-
son opened February 12, 1872, with Theodore Wachtel,
a German singer, in "Trovatore" and "The Postillion."
The performances, three in number, were given in the
Globe Theatre. The forty-second season took place at
the Academy of Music, with Emma Howson and others
in "The Bohemian Girl," etc., in English. The next sea-
son was given at McVicker's, with Pauline Lucca, Clara
Louise Kellogg and other notables in "Mignon," "Travi-
ata," "La Favorita," "Faust," etc., in Italian. And so
it went on — short "seasons" but plenty of them, with
"Pinafore" and our own Jessie Bartlett to top off with
in 1879.

Chicago people, while taking kindly to opera, were
not above going to the minstrels in between, and it is to
be doubted if the so-called musical comedy of the hour
reaches the point of perfection in its kind attained by
some of these troupes of black-cork artists, whose names
are individually remembered among our older citizens
to this day, and whose melodious voices rendered the
slave songs of the late war, or love ballads like "Drink
to me only with thine eyes," with never-to-be-forgotten
beauty, interspersed with solemn drollery.

Thomas Orchestra Starts to Be Chicago Institution

The Thomas Orchestra was to have performed in Chi-
cago at Crosby's Opera House, one of the most beauti-
ful buildinsrs of its kind in the country, on the evening
of October^'lO, 1871. They were left wandering about
the streets of the devastated city deshabille, having lost
their hotel— the Sherman House— as well as their audi-
torium. They had the satisfaction, however, of open-
ing the first downtown music hall in Chicago after the
fire, Kingsbury Hall on Clark Street, opposite^ the Sher-
man House, on the evening of October 6, 1879. Chi-
cago culture was to be credited with not only discover-
ing them, but with holding on to them.

Another evidence of the cultural life of Chicago which
had its inception in the seventies was the opening of Cen-
tral Music Hall, on December 4, 1879. This building,
erected through the taste and insight of George B. Car-
penter, stood at the southeast corner of State and Ran-
dolph Streets, a site now absorbed by the retail house
of Marshall Field & Co. In it was not merely an excellent
auditorium, where the Apollo Club and the Oratorio So-
ciety vied with each other in concerts second to none on
the continent, but there were lesser halls where chil-
dren's classes were held, studios, and lecture rooms for
various arts, musical and otherwise, constituting it a real
center of culture and delight.

Drama in the Seventies

Chicago of the seventies was even more devoted to
the legitimate drama than it is now. McVicker's Theatre,
home of the legitimate from its foundation, was rebuilt
immediately after the fire, and put on a play called
"Time Works Wonders," by Jerrold, with a good stock
company. This stock company was maintained all the
time at McVicker's and furnished excellent support to
such traveling stars as McCullough and Booth in their
great Shakespearean roles, or, in lighter mood, to Mag-
gie Mitchell or Joe Jefferson. On August 9, 1877, Sar-
dou's "Seraphine" was produced at McVicker's for the
first time in America, the occasion being the twenty-first
annual opening of the house. About this time Hooley's
Theatre began to go in for the legitimate more than be-
fore, putting on Shakespeare with Booth, Barrett, Mc-
Cullough, and Jefferson, Raymond, Maggie Mitchell,
Lotta, etc., in between. In February, 1878, Sardou's
"Exiles" was running simultaneously at McVicker's and
at Hooley's. Haverly's Theatre, which stood at the north-
v/est corner of Monroe and Dearborn, was beautifully re-
decorated in while and gold, and had the honor of in-
troducing Italian opera under Mapleson, in 1879.

Lake Front Exposition Building

Chicago was never long content with small things.
Having got her house in order after the fire, she was
restive to tell the world about it, and set about devising
a plan by which she might receive visitors on a large
scale. The result was the great exposition building on

the Lake Front where the Art Institute stands and ex-
tending down to Jackson Street, housing the Interstate
Industrial Exposition, which became an annual affair
for years to come. The building was of Scotch granite,
roofed wdth an elliptical glass dome supported by iron
girders. Stepping inside, one was greeted with the roar of
a gigantic fountain rising in the center, the throb of ma-
chinery and the crash of bands playing while the crowd
surged around, a sea of delighted sight-seers.

It was not all sight-seeing, however. Merchants, man-
ufacturers, agriculturists, artists, inventors, indeed,
everyone who had anything to offer here had the op-
portunity. Conducted at first without charge to exhib-
itors, but with an entrance fee of fifty cents (afterwards
reduced to twenty-five) , it did not at first pay expenses,
but ultimately became self-supporting and even profit-
able. Those who organized it, public-spirited men,
headed by Potter Palmer as president, were completely
satisfied if it met expenses. It was promoting Chicago.
In one end of the building was arranged the first big
public exhibition of paintings and statuary that Chicago
ever had, or the Middle West, for that matter. In an-
other section the Thomas orchestra found an auditorium
large enough to accommodate the throngs who wanted
to attend their summer night concerts.

Early Expositions Foreshadow World Fair

Before it was removed to make way for the Art Insti-
tute, Edgar Lee Brown, of its management, had proposed
the idea of a celebration of the landing of Columbus in
America, to be held at Chicago in the early nineties.
Opened in October, 1873, just two years after the greatest
conflagration known to history, the old exposition was
at onc'e a demonstration of Chicago's exhaustless spirit
and an earnest of her ability to cope with the World's
Fair that was to come.

Chicago's social life at the period of the fire had not
been invaded by the club idea to any great extent. In
a sense the city was one big club — or perhaps we should
say three big clubs. North, South and West Sides, re-
spectively, and no closer organizations were needed. It
was essentially a city of homes, big double-barreled
homes, as it were, where the ample parlors would ac-

commodate hundreds at a real "function," or where a
few friends could gather round the fireside in the "sitting-
room" for social intercourse of the more intimate sort.
It was the thing for young ladies in those days to play
the piano, and nearly every home had its piano — a grand
or square, not an upright, which came in with the "flat"
idea — and many a skilled musician was found among
these parlor performers. Young men were expected to
bear their share of the entertaining, too, and played the
guitar, banjo or "the bones," even going so far as to
serenade occasionally. Most Chicago young people had
been taught to dance — at Bournique's or Martine's — the
waltz, polka, galop and square dances, and some were
even expert in "fancy dancing." Balls were of frequent
occurrence, interspersed with theatre parties, after which
it was customary to have supper at Kinsley's — oysters,
frogs' legs, chicken salad and pate de fois gras, etc.

Big Men Found Chicago Club

Men folk entertained one another from time to time
with game dinners at the Grand Pacific — the Drake Hotel
of its day — or at the Palmer, the Sherman, or the .Fre-
mont houses, glorying in the frescoed ceilings, the Brus-
sels carpets and the excellent fare. Out of such enter-
taining as this and the desire for more metropolitan life
grew the Chicago Club, the pioneer club of the West, and
for many years the only social club in Chicago. Its
membership of one hundred included such names as B.
F. Ayer, Charles J. Barnes. T. B. Blackstone, A. H.
Burley, John Crerar, John De Koven, John B. Drake,
N. K. Fairbank, C. B. Farwell, Marshall Field, Robert
T. Lincoln, E. B. McCagg, S. M. Nickerson, George M.
Pullman, J. Y. Scammon, Perry H. Smith, Lambert Tree,
Emory Washburne, Jr., and others of equal prominence
socially and financially. A clubhouse where De Jonghe's
restaurant now stands was ultimately attained, and there
the younger members had their first taste of what at that
time was considered really "high life."

The Chicago Yacht Club was organized in July, 1870,
the Farragut Boat Club in March, 1872, the Chicago
Cricket Club in May, 1876, and the Bicycle Club in 1879.

As for the national game, Chicago was represented at
the meeting of the National Professional Baseball Asso-

ciation in New York City on March 17, 1871, by the
"White Stockings," otherwise known as the Chicago Club,
which by 1876 became the champion club. The home
grounds of the club at that time were located near the
corner of State and Twenty-third Streets, and by 1877
the City Council had granted the club a lease of the lake
front between Washington and Randolph Streets.

Municipal Reorganization

Out of the unusual conditions created by the fire, mak-
ing necessary the repair or replacement of almost all
public works, such as street pavements, sidewalks, lamp
posts, waterworks, sewage systems, bridges^ etc., besides
the undertaking of new enterprises, such as the boring
of more tunnels, the extension of horse car lines, etc.,
came the general consciousness that a change in the
very fabric of the body politic was necessary. The re-
sult was the reorganization of the city under the general
incorporation act of April, 1875. By this Chicago's
rural government by legislative enactment, suitable for
a small town, gave place to a more metropolitan system,
with more power vested in the common council. In
1876 the board of public works was abolished and the
single commissioner system instituted, the mayor him-
self holding that office temporarily until a regular com-
missioner was appointed in May, 1879.

Civic Bodies and Press

Such changes are not effected without the action of or-
ganized civic bodies, and chief among these were the
Citizens' Association — now the oldest civic reform or-
ganization in America — which came into being July 24,
1874, "to insure a more perfect administration in our
municipal affairs," and the Commercial Club, organized
on December 27, 1877, by the city's most prominent and
public-spirited business men, and whose force in the
affairs of the city it is impossible to overestimate.

The newspapers — the fourth estate of the period —
were the Journal, founded in 1844 and never missing an
issue, not even that of October 9, 1871; the Tribune,
founded in 1847, and the bulwark of Republicanism;
the Times, founded in 1854, and with democratic pro-
clivities: the Inter Ocean, founded in 1872 by J. Y.
Scammon ; the News, first issued on Christmas day, 1875,

with the present head of the Associated Press as its ed-
itor, Melville E. Stone, and Eugene Field on its staff of
poets.

The morale of the people after the fire, as well as in
some cases their actual physical well-being, was in great
part sustained by the active and whole-hearted work of the
churches. Am^ong clergymen of the period whose names
stand out prominently are the Rev. Robert Collyer, of
Unity Church; Rev. E. P. Goodwin, of the First Con-
gregational Church; Rev. William Everts, of the First
Baptist Church; Dwight L. Moody, of the Chicago Ave-
nue Church; David Swing, of the Fourth Presbyterian,
later of Central Church; Bishop Charles E. Cheney, of

Home of Carter H. Harrison. Sr., many times mayor of
Chicago, on Ashland Boulevard,

Christ Church; Bishop Whitehouse, of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, and Bishop Thomas Foley, Roman
Catholic administrator of the diocese of Chicago.

How the "I Will" Spirit Was Born

All these agencies pulling together as never before
accomplished what to the ordinary mood of mankind
would have appeared impossible, the resurrection of a
city from what seemed to be annihilation. By the suf-
ferings which these people who passed through the fire

endured together, they were welded into one body, one
mind and one spirit, and Chicago of today is a demon-
stration of what such unity can accomplish.

Electricity and Sanitation in the Eighties

Events touching every interest in Chicago in the
eighties were the introduction of electricity in the form
of light and telephone service, and the organization of
the Sanitary District, looking to the purification of the
city's water supply by way of the drainage canal.

The first electric lights in Chicago were seen in 1880,
a 50-light dynamo having been installed in the base-
ment of the Young Men's Christian Association building,
whence by June 1 light was going forth to at least forty
lamps — all under the patents of the wizard Edison. The
first theatre in the world to use incandescent lamps was
the Academy of Music on Halsted Street, Chicago. The
first theatre to be completed lighted with electricity was
the old Haverly Theatre on Monroe Street. That Chi-
cago people rose to the occasion was shown when on the
first night, just as the curtain rose, all the lights were
turned on. As one man they sprang to their feet and
applauded for fully fifteen minutes. By 1885 the court-
house and city hall had electric plants of their own; on the
evening of December 31 the new Board of Trade building
bloomed out with a corona of lights at the crest of its
300-foot tower, and in a few years they were in general
use throughout the city. Telephones had been in the
wind since 1878 when the Bell and Edison systems be-
gan to operate in Chicago, but it was in April, 1881, that
the Chicago Telephone Company bought out the Bell
Company of Illinois and the American District Telegraph
Company, consolidating the Bell and Edison systems,
and giving the city practical service. Such utilities can
only be appreciated by imagining their absence for a
single twenty-four hours.

The fact that Lake Michigan is the source of water
supply for the city, and that prior to the eighties it had
also been the place of sewage disposal, makes apparent
the need that led to the organization of the Sanitary
District under the acts of June 6, 1887, and May 29,
1889. Attempts to divert the course of the current m the
Chicago River and its branches had been made early m

the eighties and before that, by means of powerful pump-
ing stations within the city limits. Chicago was now
empowered to go beyond its borders, cut through the
rocky stratum separating the Lakes from the Mississippi
water systems, and purify her own water supply.

The year 1880 was a record year for Chicago in the
development of commerce, not only throughout the
Northwest, but in the direction of foreign trade. Corn
receipts increased 50 per cent over the previous year,
while oats and barley were larger than ever before. The
value of cattle and hogs was greater than in any previous
year of Chicago's history. Foreign tonnage entered at
seaports of the United States had increased from 1,608,-
291 tons in 1860 to 12,112,160 tons in 1880. Chicago,
doing her share towards taking care of this trade with
Europe, had meanwhile acquired two new carriers, the
Grand Trunk Railway in February, and the Wabash, St.
Louis & Pacific in August. The Chicago & Atlantic Rail-
road was opened in 1883, and with its connection, the
New York, Lake Erie & Western, formed a direct line to
the seaboard.

Foundations of the Great Central Market

In addition to the enormous growth of the packing
industry of Chicago, there was development along cog-
nate lines, and the estimated value of wool and hides
handled in Chicago for the year 1885 was $25,000,000.
The total value of raw^ furs brought to Chicago about
this time was between one and two millions of dollars
annually.

A notable feature of the grocery trade in Chicago has
always been the direct importations of teas and coffees.
Among the more prominent grocers who developed in
the seventies and eighties in Chicago establishments of
national note were Franklin MacVeagh & Co., Reid. Mur-
doch & Fischer, H. C. Durand & Co., Corbin, May & Co.,
Sprague, Warner & Co., Merriam, Collins & Co., John A.
Tolman & Co., W. M. Hoyt, Henry Horner & Co., and
Dean Brothers & Lincoln.

The lumber industry, already the largest in the coun-
try, in 1881 added another district to the South Branch
of the river, extending from 35th Street to the Stock
Yards, and by 1884 a number of firms were obliged to

move to South Chicago to secure space, while the North
Branch was already being invaded by the retail trade.
At that time there were about 500 steamers and sailing
vessels employed in the lumber traffic in Chicago, and
30,000 railroad cars, the total value of the products re-
ceived being about $50,000,000.

By 1885 Chicago had become the recognized center
of the clothing industry, both as to manufacture and dis-
tribution. The total sales for that year aggregated $20,-
000,000.

Masterful Advance of Great Industries

By the middle of the eighties Chicago had already
taken her place as leading the world in the manufacture
and distribution of furniture. In 1870 she made about
half as much furniture as Cincinnati, one-third as much
as Boston and Philadelphia, and one-sixth as much as
New York. By 1880 she distanced all the others except
New York, but by 1885 she had beaten New York both
in number of employes and amount of annual product.
In parlor furniture her sales equalled those of New York,
Boston and Cincinnati combined.

Refrigerating cars came into use in Chicago in the
early eighties, there being two concerns operating them
on the basis of a percentage of the earnings of the rail-
ways using them, plus a royalty. By means of these cars
fresh fruit from the South appeared on Chicago tables,
and the people in Boston began to eat fresh beef which
might have been shipped from Cheyenne.

Pullman Cars

The increase of transportation by means of the seven-
teen railroads entering Chicago had had the effect of
greatly widening her borders, through the growth of
suburbs, encouraged by the railroads issuing commuta-
tion tickets.

Pullman palace cars, Chicago's contribution to the
comfort of the traveling world, began to be made in the
town of Pullman— the $5,000,000 village on the out-
skirts of Chicago, created by George M. Pullman for the
centralization of his manufacturing work, and in the
hope of dispelling dissatisfaction of employes through
advantageous surroundings. A commentary on this is

that the work went on apace, but for some reason the
employes did not seem to like to live in the company
houses — perhaps because they were too uniform in ap-
pearance. Within recent years Pullman has been an-
nexed to Chicago, with all city privileges. An important
experiment in the segregation of workmen and their
families has been tried there, and manufacturers of to-
day are putting into practice the lessons learned. One
of the results is the study to afford as much variety in
appearance in the houses as would obtain in any aver-
age village.

Chicago as Steel and Iron Center

Chicago's position between the ore beds of Northern
Michigan and the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Illi-
nois made her a natural center for the manufacture of
railroad rails and other iron products necessary to the
development of the Northwest. While the North Chicago
rolling mills were established in 1857, the South Chicago
mills were of the seventies and eighties. The year 1881
was especially prosperous in the iron industry. The
rolling mills found it necessary to run at full capacity
and four new blast furnaces were built at South Chicago.
The number of establishments engaged in the business
for 1881 was 202; employes, 11,359; capital, $10,752,-
000, and value of products $33,343,000. While this does
not seem a very huge total according to present day
standards, still it brought Illinois up from fifteenth place
in the manufacture of steel and iron to fourth place at
that time. The location of the Pullman works on Calu-
met Lake and the rolling mills at South Chicago, with
the later development of the steel works at Gary, have
had a strong influence on men's minds with regard to the
ultimate location of Chicago's main harbor.

Farm Machinery Center

Cyrus Hall McCormick died in Chicago on May 13,
1884, having established the great business of manufac-
turing reapers in Chicago on a basis so broad and firm
that it led ultimately to the organization of the Interna-
tional Harvester Company and made Chicago the world's
center for the manufacture of agricultural machinery.
The removal of the McCormick factory from the main

river to a point on the North Branch had the effect of
drawing away a good many big enterprises from the
mouth of the river to a zone where they could obtain
more space.

An industry which has almost passed out of existence
all over the land, but which in Chicago of the eighties
flourished like a green bay tree, was the brewing business.
By 1885 there were thirty-three breweries in Chicago and
twenty private malt-houses. The brewing interest had
more than doubled in fourteen years and Chicago ranked
high as a beer-producing center in the United States.
The annual production in the middle eighties was 800,-
000 barrels and required over 5,000.000 bushels of malt,
over 4,000,000 bushels of barley and 1,600,000 pounds
of hops.

Substance and Elegance in Building

On the physical side vast changes took place in Chi-
cago of the eighties. From the age of framework and
marble fronts, the city passed to the age of brick, gran-
ite and brownstone. All down Michigan, Prairie and
Calumet Avenues on the South Side, out Ashland and
Washington Boulevards on the West Side, and up Dear-
born Avenue and North State and Rush Streets on the
North Side appeared palaces, usually with bulging fronts
and a round tower at the corner, and finished inside with
the most massive of woodwork. Very elegant were these
homes as to their fittings, for Chicagoans had many of
them been abroad, and paintings, statuary and Aubusson
rugs were the order of the day. Occasionally an East-
lake house, or row of houses would appear, usually built
of brick, with insertions of colored tile and stained glass
windows. The flat geometrical ornament of the Eastlake
fashion is connected in the minds of a great many Chi-
cago people with the visit of Oscar Wilde, with his sun-
flowers, for the main motif of the Eastlake ornament
seems to be the sunflower — or perhaps it is intended for
a daisy. A striking example of the Eastlake style was
the George E. Adams homestead, at Belden Avenue and
North Clark Street, where the whole interior was one
unified textbook of the Eastlake manner, even to the
furniture of the bedrooms, built in, because nothing
Eastlake enough could be procured, presumably.

Many clubhouses were built during this epoch, includ-
ing the Calumet Club, on Michigan Avenue and Twen-
tieth Street, opened April 21, 1883; the Union League
Club house, opened in May, 1886, at Jackson Street and
Third Avenue; the Union Club, opened in December,
1883, at Dearborn Avenue and Delaware Place, etc.

The removal of the Chamber of Commerce from Wash-
ington to Jackson Street occasioned a great deal of build-
ing in that vicinity. The new Board of Trade building
was completed in 1885, and was thought at the time to
"defy competition." Not far from it on Adams Street
stood the "purely Moorish" structure erected by Kins-
ley, the caterer. On Michigan Avenue was erected the
Richelieu Hotel. Fireproofing, advanced by the use of
construction steel, began to result in "skyscrapers" and
at the same time in a style of architecture in which some
attention was paid to what the architects call "function"
in deciding upon "form." The Marshall Field wholesale
house on Adams Street may be taken as typical of the
change which was coming over Chicago in point of archi-
tecture. Only a warehouse, essentially, and without
meretricious ornament, so grandly have the masses and
proportions of the building been handled as to suggest
in some sort the weight and import of the great business
which it houses. H. H. Richardson of Boston was the
architect of the Marshall Field wholesale building, but
our own Adler and Sullivan were the architects of the
Auditorium, built in 1889, including under one roof an
hotel and a theatre, massive as the Pitti Palace, and ex-
pressing as no building had done before the tremendous
power of the young democracy by the lake. From this
point on, it may be said that Chicago architecture had
"arrived." Men no longer built buildings and tacked
on the ornament afterward. The relation of form to
function was observed, and the "Chicago School," headed
by Louis Sullivan, discovered how to make even "sky-
scrapers" dignified, and, in relating dwelling houses
to landscape, learned to apply the principle, for this
prairie country, of the horizontal line.

Origin of Lake Shore Drive

Along in the latter part of the eighties there arose a
movement to make land east of Pine Street for building

purposes, and out of this grew the famous Lake Shore
Drive. A pioneer in this movement was Potter Palmer,
who, contrary to all precedent, dared the "inclement
blasts" of the east wind and built a castle on the new
extension in what was then an uninhabited waste. Tall
trees and clinging vines now cluster round that castle,
which has an ancient air, and is about to be opened with
ceremony by the second generation of Potter Palmers.
The beautiful drive — one of the most superb in the world
— sweeps by it, and neighboring castles have come to its
support, but already there is talk and more than talk,
of "doing away with all that mediaeval grandeur" in
favor of flat buildings, shops, and huge hotels. We
could curb the lake which used to tear away the Lake
Shore Drive at intervals, but it would seem that we can-
not curb the mighty city, surging forward from the river,
unless it be by a magic moat thrown around our castles
by the zoning system.

Great Political Conventions Center Here

In the matter of elections, Chicago began to play a dis-
tinguished part in the eighties, becoming the city for
conventions of the great national parties. Beginning with
1880 more than a score of such conventions have been
held here — some of them the most momentous in the his-
tory of the country. At least six of the men nominated
have been elected — Garfield in 1880, Cleveland in 1884
and 1892, Harrison in 1888, Roosevelt in 1904, Taft In
1908 and Harding in 1920.

Meanwhile, within the city government was instituted
what might be called a royal Democratic dynasty. Be-
ginning with 1879-80, and continuing for five successive
elections, the mayor of Chicago was Carter H. Harrison,
who was mayor again at the time of the World's Fair,
when at the height of his glory — and of the city's tri-
umph— he was struck down by the hand of an assassin
in his own hospitable home. His son. Carter H. Harri-
son, Junior, not long after succeeded him for an almost
equally long term of office.

Political Impurities

Way back in the seventies the city and county had ad-
vertised for plans for a new city hall and court house,

and in the year 1885 they were ready for occupancy, hav-
ing cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000,000.

Some notable trials which took place in the eighties
are typical of the struggle which the city, and, in fact,
the country, were passing through. In 1884 occurred
the trial of Joseph C. Mackin for perjury in connection
with alleged spurious tickets with the name of a Repub-
lican candidate upon them in the state election. The
case was tried before Judge Moran, with Emery A. Storrs
attorney for the defendant, and J. S. Grinnell, Israel N.
Stiles and Joel M. Longnecker for the state. Mackin was
adjudged guilty and sent to Joliet. In 1887 began the
"omnibus boodle" trial, resulting in the conviction of
"McGarigle et al." on June 29th, and dragging Chicago's
name in the dust.

When Chicago Throttled Anarchy

Out of a strike in the McCormick reaper works arose a
disturbance in 1886 among the "international anarchists"
of Chicago, who were organized into groups and very
active. They were advocating a "general strike" for an
eight-hour day, and stirred up an intense excitement
among the workmen of the city, leading to ultra-
anarchistic utterances. A riot occurred on the third of
May at the McCormick works, and an anarchist meeting
was called for next day in Haymarket Square in Ran-
dolph Street. When it was judged that the speeches were
too revolutionary to be allowed to continue, the police
were called upon to disperse the meeting. A bomb was
thrown and many policemen were injured, seven fatally.
In the trial which followed before Judge Joseph E. Gary,
no one person could be identified as the one who threw
the bomb, but on the ground that they were morally con-
spirators and accomplices in the killing, seven of the
anarchists w^ere condemned to death. Four were hanged,
August Spies, Albert Parsons, Gus Engel and Adolph
Fischer. Fielden and Schwab had their sentences com-
muted to life imprisonment, but one, Louis Lingg, com-
mitted suicide by exploding a dynamite bomb in his
mouth. By the anarchist trial, in which Judge Gary's
decision was sustained by the supreme court of the United
States, it is considered that certain principles of law have
been established reaffirming the very foundations of our

body politic, and forever protecting the citizens of the
United States from the invasion of foreign anarchistic
propaganda leading to deeds of violence.

Strong Men Move for Political Reform

The constant repetition of election frauds brought
about a non-partisan movement in favor of a new elec-
tion law that would have the effect of preventing such
frauds. The movement was headed by Marshall Field, A.
A. Carpenter, M. E. Stone, I. N. Stiles, S. Corning Judd,
A. F. Seeberger, John A. King and others. A bill known
as the "citizens' election bill" was submitted to the legis-
lature and passed. On being submitted to the people it
received a majority in every ward of the city, and elec-
tion commissioners were appointed. The first election
held under the provisions of the new law was the town
and aldermanic one of April, 1886. During this period
the Citizens' Association was active in the fight for civil
service reform, and finally organized and launched the
Civil Service Reform Association. They also carried on
a persistent educational campaign for a constitutional
convention in Illinois looking to tax consolidation.

First Cable Train

On January 17, 1881, the city council granted the Chi-
cago City Railway Company the right to operate a line
of cable cars in Chicago, and by January, 1882, the State
Street line to Twenty-ninth Street was ready for use. On
the 28th of the month, with a great deal of ceremony, the
first public trial took place. Mayor Harrison, Superin-
tendent Holmes, Judge Caton, Silas Cobb, William Bross
and others of "the early day" making speeches. The
Wabash and Cottage Grove line was constructed next,
and by the close of the first year it was estimated that
6,000,000 more people had been transported than by the
previous system of horse cars. The speed made was
something less than ten miles an hour. The cable, which
was adapted from the San Francisco system, was an end-
less steel rope running in a slot under the street so that
it could be "gripped" by the cars, which were thus pro-
pelled along, the power being furnished by stationary
engines in the plant. Ultimately the North and West
Sides were all fitted out with cables, and if any inhabitant

of Chicago of the eighties happened to return to this
region and did not hear the rattle of the cable in its slot,
he would think that the world had come to an end.

The cable itself was not so bad, although it did hitch
along a bit and break occasionally, especially in icy
weather, but the squabbles into which Chicago was
thrown over the franchises, particularly the attempt of
the companies under leadership of Charles T. Yerkes to
secure a ninety-nine year extension, threw the people into
bitter conflict with the authorities, and led in the next

Hull House, world's largest social settlement.

decade to the formation of the Municipal Voters' League
and the Committee of One Hundred.

When the Horse Still Was King

The favorite equipage in Chicago of the eighties was
a four-in-hand, or, failing that, a tandem cart. "Charlie"
Schwartz, Valentine Dickey, Hall McCormick, Potter
Palmer, Chatfield Taylor and later Arthur Caton pos-
sessed these first bewildering vehicles, and used to aston-
ish the eyes of their fellow citizens and assail their ears

as well with the winding horn which heralded their ap-
proach. Fast trotting was in vogue on the boulevards,
and all roads led to Washington Park on Derby Day.
Ladies rather favored the stanhope-phaeton, and at "the
hour" the avenue and the Lake Shore Drive were gay
with pretty parasols and beautiful costumes — a custom
which the rapid-transit auto has rather sadly displaced.

The West Division High School was built in 1880, the
North Division in 1883 and the South Division in 1884.
Prior to that all three sides of the city had united in one
high school. Evening schools developed rapidly in the
eighties. An educational event of surpassing importance
to Chicago was the opening of the Chicago Manual Train-
ing School on Michigan Avenue and Twelfth Street in
1884, through the insight and generosity of the Com-
mercial Club of Chicago. In 1886 the old University of
Chicago, founded in 1858 on land contributed by Stephen
A. Douglas at Thirty-fourth Street and Cottage Grove
Avenue, had to turn its property over to its creditors. Im-
mediately plans for a collegiate foundation were insti-
tuted by T. W. Goodspeed and others, with the result that
John D. Rockefeller, who was debating a choice between
New York and Chicago as a site for a college to be en-
dowed by him, chose Chicago and subscribed $600,000 to
that end. Chicago raised the remainder of the amount
needed at the outset, and by 1891 William Rainey Harper
was elected president, and the great enterprise was
launched, on an unprecedented scale, with such foresight
as to make the University of Chicago known throughout
the civilized world today.

The Founding of Hull House

In the year 1889, in a long-neglected old family man-
sion on South Halsted Street, two women came to take
up their residence — Miss Jane Addams and Miss Ellen
Gates Starr. They had been traveling abroad, engaged in
sociological and economic investigation for some years,
visiting among other European institutions Toynbee Hall,
in London, and many experimental foundations in Ger-
many looking to popular benefit. Hull House — the
former home of one of Chicago's early citizens by the
name of Hull — was in the very heart of the cosmopoli-
tan population which Chicago's great industries had been

drawing from foreign shores. Furnishing the house ex-
actly as they would have done in a so-called residential
district, with all the enrichment of pictures, collected in
their travels, and quiet but harmonious furniture and
rugs, these women proceeded to get acquainted with their
neighbors. Immediately needs, spiritual and physical,
began to be made known. The effort to supply these
needs, to safeguard the bodies and to feed the minds of
those with whom they came in contact has resulted in
the great educational and industrial and social institution
known as Hull House, whose influence extends today in
ever-widening circles to include all mankind.

Liberal Religious Forums of Swing and Thomas

Striking examples of departure from routine in mat-
ters religious which flourished in Chicago of the eighties
were Central Church of Chicago, founded by Rev., or, as
he was called, "Professor" David Swing, and the People's
Church, organized to hold up the hands of the Rev. H. W.
Thomas. The former church arose during the seventies
because of doctrinal differences between the pastor and
the presbytery, and the latter because of similar diff^er-
ences in the Congregational Conference, occurring in 1880.
Both brilliant men drew to them enormous audiences.
Professor Swing in Central Music Hall and later the
Auditorium, and Dr. Thomas in Hooley's Theatre and
later the Chicago Opera House. Probably no more hu-
manizing thought has ever found utterance in Chicago
than from these two broad platforms. The continuance
of Central Church under Dr. N. D. Hillis and the late
Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus have demonstrated the need
for taking the truth to the people in the city proper as
well as in the so-called "residential districts."

An annual art exhibition was given all through the
eighties in the Exposition Building on the lake front,
constituting Chicago's Salon, and affording to the artists
a market for their wares. People really bought pictures
in those days, and statuary as well. We may laugh at
them now, but the cultural life of the city is the richer
today for the taste there developed.

Chicago's First May Festival

The first Chicago May festival was given on May 23-
25, 1882, with Theodore Thomas as director of music

and W. L. Tomlins in charge of the choral work. The
second May festival came in 1884, under the same aus-
pices. The first opera festival occurred April 13-25,
1885, with Adelina Patti, Signori Giannini, Cherubini,
De Anna, and others of the famous Mapleson organiza-
tion, on the staff of artists.

There was plenty of opera in Chicago those days,
especially opera bouffe, beginning in 1880 with the
"Pirates of Penzance," and following thick and fast with
that whole wonderful series given by the Chicago Church
Choir Company and the Boston Ideals, including "Pina-
fore," "Patience," the "Bells of Corneville," the "Mas-
cotte," "Olivette," "Billee Taylor," the "Musketeers,"
etc., etc., etc. As for the theatre, Sarah Bernhardt, Rob-
son and Crane and Ellen Terry were among our visitants.

World's Fair and End of Century in Chicago

With the dawn of the last decade of the nineteenth cen-
tury there occurred in Chicago an event once more bring-
ing Chicago to the attention of the whole world, as had
done the great fire of 1871, but with this difference: in-
stead of appearing to the eyes of the world as a martyr
to disaster, she had so far conquered circumstances as to
be designated by the government of the United States to
hold the great international exposition commemorative
of the discovery of America.

As a matter of fact, the initiative in this vast undertak-
ing lay with Chicago, for as far back as 1885, the direc-
tors of the Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition —
Chicago business men — had expressed themselves to this
effect: "Resolved, That a great world's fair should be
held in Chicago in the year 1892, the four hundredth an-
niversary of the landing of Columbus in America." By
1889 a "World's Exposition Company" was organized by
Chicagoans, with a capital stock of $5,000,000. In 1890
Senator Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois introduced a bill in
Washington providing for the holding of the "World's
Columbian Exposition of the Arts and Industries," but
neglected to say where it should be held. New York,
St. Louis and Washington immediately entered into com-

petition with Chicago, but, by reason of the action al-
ready taken, and backed up with funds in Chicago, to-
gether with our acknowledged superiority of location as

Daniel Hudson Burnham, director of works of World's Columbian
Exposition and author of the Chicago Plan.

From portrait by Zorn, by permission of Mrs. Burnham.

to centralization and transportation, Chicago received the
award.

Building of the Matchless Exposition

A national commission was appointed with Thomas W.
Palmer as president; Harlow N. Higginbotham was pres-

ident of the exposition company; the local board of
directors were elected from among the original stockhold-
ers, and George R. Davis became director-general. Act-
ing as professional advisor from the very beginning of
the enterprise, Daniel H. Burnham, Chicago's great archi-
tect and master magician, was now appointed chief of
construction, with his partner, John W. Root, as consult-
ing architect, and the firm of F. L. Olmstead & Co. as
consulting landscape architects. There was also, for the
first time in history of expositions, a board of lady man-
agers appointed, with Mrs. Potter Palmer as president
and Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin as vice-president. Charles
C. Bonney was president of the World's Congress Aux-
iliary, covering every phase of human achievement.

Summoning the Master Builders

Burnham's problem involved a site far from the center
of town — Jackson Park — but reached by seven railroads
and the surface lines; in part reduced to park-like condi-
tions and in part corresponding somewhat to Sidney Lan-
ier's description of the Tampa Flats, "inexorable, vapid,
vague and chill, the drear sand levels." His broad pol-
icy was at once manifest by the calling not merely Chi-
cago architects to the task, but the representative archi-
tects of the entire nation, such men as R. M. Hunt, George
B. Post, McKim, Mead & White of New York, Peabody &
Stearns of Boston, Van Brunt & Howe of Kansas City,
Adler & Sullivan, S. S. Beman, Henry Ives Cobb, W. L.
B. Jenny and Burling & Whitehouse of Chicago. Augus-
tus St. Gaudens was advisor in all problems involving
the decoration of the grounds by sculpture and monu-
mental fountains, and Frank D. Millet had charge of
decoration.

It is beyond our purpose or powers to go into detail as
to the great scheme wrought out there. This much should
be said, however: it was a city that was born on those
"drear sand levels," with its approaches by land and by
water, its civic or administrative center, its Court of
Honor, about which were grouped — or zoned if you pre-
fer— the buildings representative of the great main indus-
tries; its outer zone embracing the Woman's building,
Horticulture, Fisheries and buildings admitting of a
lighter, more decorative treatment, the very keystone of

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which was the Art Building; and on the outmost fringe
of all — the outer park belt, so to speak — the region d'e-
voted to forestry, animal life, and the like.

Seat of Commerce Materializes Its Dream

Out of orderliness and art sprang beauty such as had
never been seen before on American soil, or, indeed, in
all the world mayhap. Chicago, the commercial city,
the devotee of industry — nay, if we remember her his-
tory, the Cinderella who but late had sat among the
ashes, was to show the world how to be worthy of the
Fairy Prince. It was civilization that was exemplified
there, the last best phase of it, which in providing com-
fort and convenience for all comers, confers also the
ineffable boon of beauty to refresh the spirit.

A New York architect in speaking of it said: "Burn-
ham, the chief of construction, rubs his wonderful lamp
of Aladdin at Chicago and the sudden result is an ex-
halation, a vast phantasm of architecture, glittering with
domes, towers and banners, like the vision of Norumbega,
which presently will fade away and leave no trace be-
hind."

Enshrining the Vision

Doubtless he meant to be comforting, and even flat-
tering, that New York architect, but he did not know
Chicago people — those hard-headed commercial people
of the Middle West. They made no immediate sign, even
when the vision vanished to the perception of those who
considered it a mere phantasm. But deep in their inmost
souls they retained the vision and resolved to make it
real — as once before they had retained the image of the
dear city of their first love — the Chicago which seemed
to perish in the Great Fire, but which was cherished in
their hearts until she lived again. The City Beautiful of
today is the White City of yesterday, made tangible,
practical and permanent.

The year following the fair the South Park Commis-
sioners proposed the improvement of the lake front from
Jackson Park to Grant Park. In furtherance of this a
plan for a connection between the two parks was drawn,
and the project presented at a meeting of the West and
South Park Commissioners and later at a dinner given by

the Commercial Club of Chicago. This plan provided
for a park out in the lake, separated from the mainland
by a long lagoon spanned at intervals by bridges.

Beginnings of the Chicago Plan

During the next three or four years the lake front
scheme was matured by further study. Larger and more
detailed drawings were made. Meanwhile, the Merchants
Club of Chicago, a young and vigorous organization of
Chicago business men, on the 11th of April, 1897, ap-
proached J. W. Ellsworth, chairman of the Board of
South Park Commissioners, to ascertain his opinion of
erecting an exposition building on the lake front. After
a conference it was decided to visit D. H. Burnham at
his office in the Rookery Building. The result was that
the plan for a solitary exposition building on the lake
front was abandoned and the broader question,^ "Wliat
can be done to make Chicago more attractive?" sched-
uled for the next meeting of the club on April 3rd. At
that meeting, Burnham presented to his audience a bird s-
eye view of Chicago from Fifty-fifth Street to Grant Park,
showing an outer park 300 to 700 feet wide to be buih
along the lake shore east of the Illinois Central tracks
from Jackson Park to Twelfth Street, and another park
to be built out in the lake as an island about six miles
in length. The lagoon formed by these two parks varied
in width and a dozen or more bridges of graceful design
connected the island with the mainland. The project was
pronounced as "entirely feasible from a financial view-
point," by a financial expert who was called upon to
advise, and by one of Chicago's foremost merchants was
called "an opportunity for making Chicago the most re-
markable city of the world, which it would be the height
of folly to neglect."

Merchants' Club, Commercial Club and the Plan

The lake front park plan was endorsed by the Mer-
chants' Club in executive session on April 12, 1902, and
at a meeting of the executive commhtee on February 17,
1903, the persons best fitted to introduce the lake front
park bill at Springfield were selected. The bill, which
involved the dedication of the land under the lake to this
purpose, and the filling in of the submerged shore, was

drafted by Attorney John H. Hamline, and with the sup-
port and active co-operation of the Merchants' Club, it
was passed. Early in 1906 the Merchants' Club arranged
for the preparation of a complete plan for the develop-
ment of Chicago, a studio for the making of the drawings
was built on the roof of the Railway Exchange, where
Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett could work
without petty distractions, and where the great scheme
took form. In 1907 the Commercial Club, which was
the elder body, and the Merchants' Club coalesced to
form one club, to be called the Commercial Club, and
the Chicago Plan has proceeded under their auspices,
with the help of every other civic agency.

Most Practical, Yet Most Idealistic

We have gone into detail with regard to this matter be-
cause it shows the effect of the World's Fair, which prop-
erly belongs to the period of the nineties, and the way
in which Chicago men work when they want to accom-
plish something worth while. At once the most idealistic
and the most practical men on the face of the earth, they
do not leave the carrying out of their ideals to die other
fellow. They have not shifted their burdens onto the
shoulders of overworked and underpaid public officials,
but have found a way of co-operating with the latter
which lightens the whole load.

Another effect of the World's Fair was the cosmopoli-
tanism which it created. Chicago people who had drunk
the blending of golden and brown elixir out of the two
teapots of the gentle Ceylon representative, or had taken
coffee with the Costa Ricans, or in "Old Vienna," or
from the "Hot, Hot" coffee-pot of the white-petticoated
Turk, who had watched the batik-making of the Javanese,
observed the completeness of Japan's defensive equip-
ment, sanitary and otherwise, been cheered by the life-
giving quality of French art, or depressed by certain
decadent tendencies in the German — Chicago people who
came in contact with all this daily and intimately could
never be accused of provincialism again. They would
feel at home in the real "Streets of Cairo." quite at their
ease in a village of the South Sea Islanders, and in re-
turn they knew that the name of Chicago and the entire
feasibility of dealing with us had been made known to

the uttermost parts of the earth. It is needless to say that
the memory of all this will have a decided effect in stimu-
lating interest in foreign trade, which can never seem so
"foreign" since the World's Fair.

Panic of 1893

The inevitableness of our unity with the rest of the
world was rather sadly demonstrated by the financial
panic of 1893 occasioned primarily by the cessation of
free coinage of silver in India and the consequent shut-
ting out of American silver, leaving us with a great quan-
tity on our hands. At the same time the silver purchase
law of 1890 was in force, providing for the purchase of
4,500,000 ounces of silver each month by the United
States treasury, and the issue of treasury notes against it
redeemable in coin. The report of the fiscal year ending
February, 1894, showed that our gold exports amounted
to $70,000,000, owing to the liquidation of American
securities abroad. Two national banks in Chicago failed,
as did many such institutions elsewhere. At the same
time, because Chicago is the great food market of the
world, and people must have food, money continued to
flow into Chicago and Chicago banks were in the main
able to meet their obligations with hard cash. Congress
at length repealed the Silver purchase law, and the coun-
try recovered from the crisis.

On May 11, 1894, occurred the strike at Pullman,
where the Pullman Company, affected by the business
depression, had had to lay off many employes, and fol-
lowing which the American Railway Union ordered a
boycott against all roads running Pullman cars. It tied
up traffic all over the country, trains were stoned, and a
general strike of all labor threatened. Federal troops
from Fort Sheridan were ordered here, and Debs, the
strike leader, failing to get support from the other indus-
trial unions, called the strike off. President Cleveland
appointed a Labor Commission to investigate the cause
for the strike, with Carroll D. Wright as chairman.

The Chicago Woman's Club was organized in 1876
by Mrs. Caroline M. Brown, and this important advance
of organized women into the cultural life of Chicago
had been preceded in 1873 by organization of the Fort-
nightly Club by Mrs. Kate Newell Doggett. The Friday

Club, composed of younger women of tastes similar to
those of the members of the Fortnightly, further ex-
tended the fields of cultural interest which the women
of Chicago were more and more exploiting. There was
begun, largely through the efforts of Mrs. Ellen M.
Henrotin, the great movement of the confederation of
women's clubs of all states, a movement with large
consequences.

Journalism in the nineties carried such literary special-
ists as George Ade, Finley Peter Dunne ("Mr. Dooley"),
Opie Read, Brand Whitlock, and John McCutcheon was
then laying the foundations of his unique popularity.
Writers of distinction were Henry B. Fuller and Hamlin
Garland, and John Vance Cheney, the poet; and with
poetry one associates Chicago's distinguished writer,
Miss Harriet Monroe, author of the World's Fair Ode
and subsequently the founder of the magazine. Poetry.
These people and others opened new vistas for Chicago
authors. Among magazines are to be noted the Dial,
edited by F. F. Browne, and the House Beautiful, edited
by Melville E. Stone, Jr., while the creation of the
Economist by Clinton Evans was the founding of an
institution.

In dramatic writing Chicago has given to the world
William Vaughan Moody, Edward Sheldon and Frank
and Fannie Hatton. Among gifted amateurs are Mrs.
Arthur Aldis and Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, the latter
not returning from the great war. Among fiction writers
contributing to the distinction of Chicago letters are
Frank Norris, Robert Herrick, Theodore Dreiser, Upton
Sinclair, Emerson Hough, Joseph Medill Patterson,
Clara Laughlin, Elia W. Peattie, Edna Ferber, Lillian
Bell, Henry Kitchell Webster, Hobart Chatfield Taylor.

Chicago's most representative poet in the present era
is the late William Vaughan Moody, who in noble verse
came to a permanent place among great writers. An-
other writer of verse of fame far beyond his own city
is Edgar Lee Masters. The magazine. Poetry, has been
a medium unique and important for the productions of
such unusual writers as Carl Sandburg, Vachel Lindsay,
Ezra Pond, Eunice Tietjens, the last being the associate
editor of Poetry, and many others of the more modern
school of verse. Mention of the cultivation of poetry in

Chicago must include the name of the lamented humorist,
Bert Leston Taylor ("B. L. T."), conductor of the "Line
0' Type" in the Chicago Tribune and publisher of two
volumes of verse. Wit, scholar, philosopher, poet in one
was this important entertainer and teacher, and a great
reading constituency regrets his death. In the writings
of university professors Chicago has richly contributed
to the literature of science and research.

Chicago artists who have come to their own are such
ss Lorado Taft in sculpture, Ralph Clarkson and Louis
Betts in portraiture, Oliver Dennett Grover and the late
Charles Francis Browne in landscape, Frederick C. Bart
lett, Edgar S. Cameron and Jessie Arms Botke in mural
painting.

It would be invidious to single out a few^ as men of
mark among Chicago's architects, but a less personal
selection may be effected by glancing over the names of
exhibitors at the thirty-fourth annual Chicago architec-
tural exhibit at the Art Institute for the year 1921.
Among names which appear there are noted S. S. Beman,
who, it will be remembered, was active during the
World's Fair period; E. H. Bennett and W. E. Parsons,
Mr. Bennett having collaborated with D. H. Burnham on
the Chicago Plan and being still connected with it as
consulting architect; Frank D. Chase, working more es-
pecially in steel construction; Chatten & Hammond,
architects of many park buildings; Coolidge & Hodgdon,
architects of many of the University of Chicago build-
ings; Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, whose Wrig-
ley building overtops all others in Chicago in height;
Alfred Granger, who is building a home for E. H. Soth-
ern in Washington; Holabird & Roche, architects of the
Monroe building and the University Club; George W.
Maher, who specializes on the building of homes; Per-
kins, Fellow & Hamilton, who are building Nanking
University, in Nanking, China; Pond & Pond, architects
of the City Club and of the new Chicago Woman's Club
buildings; Schmidt, Garden & Martin, successful with
large undertakings in hospital and factory construction;
George F. Schreiber, architect of the Singer and Flatiron
buildings, New York, as well as in other forms; Howard
Shaw, devoting himself largely to domestic architecture,
particularly for suburban purposes.

On the constructive side of things in Chicago of the
nineties, there was the steady progress of that great engi-
neering enterprise, the Drainage Canal, and much build-
ing. The Field Museum was incorporated in 1893, under
the name Columbia Museum of Chicago, a title changed
in June, 1894, to Field Columbian Museum, and in No-
vember, 1905, to Field Museum of Natural History. The
continuance of this museum in the Art Building at Jack-
son Park and the purchase by its far-sighted director.
Dr. Skiff, of the foreign exhibits available in his line,
consoled the people in part for the disappearance of
their beloved Fair. The Art Institute, incorporated in
1879, came into its own in an adequate building on the
lake front at Adams Street on November 1, 1893. The
ownership of the building, which cost $785,000, is vested
in the city of Chicago, while the right of use and occu-
pancy is vested in the Art Institute. The museum features
are as fine in quality as any in the country, while the
school is unsurpassed in this country. The Chicago Acad-
emy of Sciences, through the generosity of Matthew
Laflin, received title to a new building at Lincoln Park
and Center Street in 1893. On May 30th of that year
the cornerstone of the new Public Library was laid, while
the Newberry Library, the largest general reference
library in the West, entered its new building at Dearborn
Avenue and Walton Place in time to assist in the cere-
monies of receiving our foreign guests who came to at-
tend the Fair.

Good Citizens on Guard

A bold attempt on the part of the traction people to
secure a 50-year extension of their franchise was de-
feated by the formation in 1896 of the Municipal Voters'
League and by a representative Committee of One Hun-
dred sent from Chicago to attend the legislature at
Springfield. The active campaign for the improvement
of municipal service began in 1896, although a civil
service system was inaugurated in 1895. The salaries of
councilmen were raised with good effect. The Civic Fed-
eration, organized in 1894, in the year 1896 demonstrated
that it could clean the streets of the center of the business
district for slightly over half what the city was paying,
and this it did by actually hiring the street cleaners

with an expert to direct the work. Cartoonists of the day
revelled in the chance to depict John G. Shedd and Harry
Selfridge in "White Wings" costume, doing the city's
dirty work for it.

The Merchants' Club reformed the city's bookkeeping,
and secured the establishment of the first municipal
pawnbrokers' society in 1899, an institution of inesti-
mable benefit to the poor of a great city. A Municipal
Art League was formed the same year.

In 1899 the Chicago city council created the Special
Park Commission and provided for a systematic study of
present and future needs of the city in the matter of parks
and recreation grounds. In the same year the Illinois
Juvenile Court came into existence, largely as the result
of Chicago's interest and active eff^ort.

Chicago Thinks Toward the "Greater Chicago"

The phrase "Greater Chicago" came into common use in
1898 and 1899 in connection with the efforts of various
civic bodies to secure the consolidation of the numerous
taxing bodies within the city, so that one municipal gov-
ernment should perform the functions of the city, county
and sundry small town governments involved. This was
the time when the press all over the country was agitated
by reports that whereas Chicago then covered 184 square
miles, she soon would embrace 400 square miles, includ-
ing "prairie, corn fields, forests and frog ponds, while
every living thing would be included in the census, bring-
ing the total up to 5,000,000, and ending with the annex-
ation of Illinois." Chicago went calmly on, however, and
while she did not succeed in eliminating all the taxing
bodies she would have liked, she did gain considerable
territory, which made possible the extension of much-
needed roads beyond the former city limits, and concerted
action between city and county when the matter of forest
preserves arose.

Technical Education in the Nineties

Technical and industrial education in Chicago was
much forwarded by several events in the nineties, such
as the opening by the Armour Institute of Technology
of its principal building in 1893, the incorporation in
1894 of the John Crerar Library as a free library of ref-

erence, confining itself to scientific and technical litera-
ture, and the organization of Lewis Institute on the West
Side.

Sociological studies and welfare service were advanced
by the organization of Chicago Commons in 1894, and the
incorporation in 1898 of the settlements of Northwestern
University and of the University of Chicago.

Women's clubs were assuming greater importance
through their serious constructive studies along humani-
tarian lines, as well as along purely cultural themes.

Work of One Trade and City Building Organization

In the year 1903 Chicago celebrated the centennial of
her foundation as a frontier trading post under the name
of Fort Dearborn. An important event in 1904 was
the organization of The Chicago Association of Com-
merce.

It were futile to attempt to enumerate the things ac-
complished by the Association of Commerce since its
organization. A partial list of things done in a single
year published in their annual reports for 1919 may
serve as typical:

Organized the Mississippi Valley Association for the eco-
nomic development, north and south, of the great
productive section of America.
Secured enactment of the convention hall bill by the

Illinois General Assembly.
Organized the Chicago Crime Commission.
Secured 66,000 jobs for soldiers, sailors and marines

through co-operation of Chicago employers.
Formed the Advertising Council of the Association, the

largest "ad" club in the country.
Organized the Investors' and Advertisers' Protective

Bureau.
Obtained passage of the Illinois waterways bill and the
favorable attitude of the United States authorities to-
wards this great project.
Obtained federal legislation, establishing a $1,500,000

harbor at the Great Lakes Training School.
Formed the Foreign Trade Club of the Association.
Fathered the movement resulting in the organization of
the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

Conducted Chicago's most successful Fire Prevention

Day.
Brought to Chicago the headquarters of the American

College of Surgeons, increasing Chicago's prestige as

the leading medical center.
Conducted the first important trade tour into Mexico, to

be followed that year by a return trip in which many

American cities were expected to join.
Sponsored a strong movement for the improvement of

the St. Lawrence River, the success of which will make

Chicago an ocean port.
Received in Chicago the International Trade Missions of

Belgium, France, Great Britain and Italy and con-
ducted their three-day program in this city.

The Wednesday meetings of the Association's Ways and
Means committee are unique in the entire country, con-
stituting as they do one of the most important forums
ever erected for the consideration of matters affecting the
city, state and nation and the world.

Standardizing Philanthropic Work

An unusual departure within a commercial organiza-
tion was the institution in 1911 of the Subscriptions In-
vestigating Committee, which now has on its list 219 com-
mendable local charities, civic and reform associations,
enabling the business man who has not time himself to
investigate, to judge quickly of the sound management,
social service efficiency and financial integrity of those
appealing for aid.

The constructive relation of the Association of Com-
merce to the Chicago Plan Commission and its work may
be judged from testimony in Walter D. Moody's book,
"What of the City," published in 1919, Mr. Moody hav-
ing become managing director of the Chicago Plan Com-
mission after service as general manager of the Associa-
tion of Commerce. In April, 1920, Chairman Charles
H. Wacker, of the Plan Commission, reported that al-
ready twelve basic improvement features had been pro-
vided for by bond issues where necessary, and were either
under construction or advanced in procedure in the
Board of Local Improvements or in the courts, these be-
ing Roosevelt Road, Michigan Avenue, West Side
terminals and related work. South Shore lake front,

Illinois Central Railroad terminal, Western Avenue,
Robey Street, Ogden Avenue, South Water Street, acqui-
sition of 14,254 acres of forest preserves by Forest Pre-

ISNT IT TIME SHE HAD A NEW DRESS?

The late Luther D. Bradley, famous cartoonist of the Chicago Daily

News, stressing this city's bare municipal necessities in that paper's

issue of August 17, 1904.

In 1904 the constitution of Illinois was amended so as to permit special charter legis-
lation for Chicago, with the approval of the people of the city on a referendum vote.
Under authority of that amendment the Municipal Court of Chicago has been estab-
lished as a substitute for the old justice courts. The fifty-ward law and the law for
the non-partisan election of aldermen rest upon the same basis. A law is on the
statute books under which all the park governments may be consolidated with the city,
but it has not yet met with popular approval. It was submitted once and rejected. A
plan is on foot to submit it again. Efforts to secure comprehensive charter revision
under the Chicago charter amendment of 1904 thus far have proven unavailing. A
semi-official charter convention created in 1905 did much good work on the subject and
agreed upon the draft of a new charter. Lack of success was due to political differences
that developed after the measure was presented to the legislature.

serve Commission, outer highway system. Toward the
public cost of these improvements of ten years the peo-
ple had voted $61,510,000 of bonds; the special assess-
ments for the Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road
(Twelfth Street) improvements had amounted to $8,-
125,237.89; the railway companies had agreed to spend
$162,091,350, and the Forest Preserve Commission had
expended $5,316,762. A later announcement is that
of the improvement of Thirty-ninth Street or Pershing
Road, as an east and west artery, connecting Lake
Michigan with the McCormick Zoological Gardens, for
which the land near Riverside has already been received
by the Forest Preserve Commissioners as the gift of Mrs.
Harold McCormick. Michigan Boulevard, widened and
provided with the magnificent "boulevard link bridge,"
now sweeps northward unfettered for traffic or for auto-
mobile use by reason of the bridge's two-level structure,
and the Lincoln and South Park boards have agreed to
the plan for an outer drive between Grant and Lincoln
Parks.

The Franklin-Orleans $1,000,000 double-leaf span,
with its approaches forming the connecting link between
the loop and the Northwest Side, was opened on October
23, 1920. The Field Museum of Natural Sciences — the
largest marble building in the world, and containing as
wonderful collections as any in the world — was opened
on land made pursuant to the Chicago Plan on the lake
front and at the head of Roosevelt Road.

In the direction of transportation, the following are
significant events:
Drainage Canal opening on January 1, 1900, linking

the Chicago River with the Mississippi, first link in the

route to foreign fields by waterway.
First train over the electric road to Joliet, September 12,

1901, and first train over the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago

Electric Railway, August 25, 1902.
First Chicago underground tunnels for freight in use

July 15, 1906, and first electric cars run on Clark

Street the same year, with subsequent electrification of

lines.
Acceptance by the railway companies with tracks entering

Chicago of an ordinance of the Chicago City Council

for the elevation of 192.77 miles of main track and

947 miles of all tracks and the construction of 724 sub-
ways at a cost of $65,000,000 in the year 1908, with
subsequent performance of much of the requirement.

Opening of the new passenger station of the Chicago &
Northwestern railroad in 1911 at a cost of $25,000,000.

Beginning of construction of the new passenger station
for the roads using the present Union Station — Penn-
sylvania, Burlington, Chicago & Alton, Milwaukee & St.
Paul R. R. — estimated cost at post-war prices $80,-
000,000, 1921.

Pageant of Progress at the $5,000,000 Municipal Pier,
July 30-Aug. 14, 1921, showing approaches by water,
by the new Chicago Avenue surface line extension, and
by hydro-aeroplane, three 6-passenger boats floating in
the harbor, together with power-boats, arousing discus-
sion of Chicago as the American marine aviation
center.

Passage of an ordinance by the Chicago City Council on
July 27, 1921, for the deepening of a broad channel
through the center of Lake Calumet and the building
of piers and slips with filled ground for ware-
houses— a practical step towards making a center of
deep-sea shipping, in close contact with railway lines
and obviating the transshipment of freight through
congested loop areas or along the river.

Men's and Women's City Clubs

An event of importance growing out of a feeling of the
need of companionship in the downtown district by those
engaged in civic work was the formation of the City Club
of Chicago in 1903. The club now has 2,000 members.
Their six-story clubhouse is the rendezvous of civic
organizations of all kinds. Two main activities of the
club are the conducting of a forum for discussion and
of committees for investigation and report on civic ques-
tions. The Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency, offspring
of the club, is also housed in its building.

The Woman's City Club has also been formed on some-
what similar lines, the pioneers being Mrs. Mary W. Wil-
marth, Jane Addams, Harriet Vittum and Mrs. J. T.
Bo wen.

In 1907 was launched as an experiment the Chicago
Sunday Evening Club to provide in the loop district

from October to June a popular Christian service every
Sunday evening. A small audience has grown until in
May, 1921, the average attendance had become 2,500
with 2,175 at a previous song service. The founder of
the club is Clifford W. Barnes, and he has been sup-
ported by leading business men. The club looks toward
the erection of a great building in the downtown dis-
trict where a community center shall be established
with rooms for recreation, education, public welfare and
promotion of Christian ideals.

The small parks and playgrounds movement, which
was well under way in 1910, has developed enormously
in the decade that intervenes. In 1920, in addition to the
several large parks, there were 194 small parks and play-
grounds maintained by the city and by park authorities.
Many of these have field houses and some have swimming
pools.

Prior to 1910 the bathing beach facilities were limited
in Chicago. In 1920 there were twelve public bathing
beaches, three maintained by park boards, the rest by the
city government. Clarendon Beach, managed by the city,
is the largest, with 10,000 lockers and accommodation
for 23,000 bathers in one day.

Interesting special schools which have been opened
in the new century are the Francis Parker School,
founded on the principles of advanced education held by
Dr. Parker, at the expense of Mrs. Anita Blaine McCor-
mick, and the Chicago School of Domestic Science, whose
north branch opens this fall in the old Belden Avenue
mansion of the George E. Adams family. The College
of Education at the University of Chicago is one of the
most highly specialized schools in the world. At the close
of its summer session in 1921 the University of Chicago
conferred 400 degrees, 57 of which were the bachelor's
degree in the College of Education and 19 in the College
of Commerce and Administration.

Great Orchestra and Great Opera

Cultural opportunities at the Art Institute of Chicago
were seized by 4,267 students last year, and by 1,100,000
visitors to the museum of the Institute. Typical of the
work, which is an outgrowth of the institution, is the
Fountain of Time by Lorado Taft to be erected in per-

manent material between Washington and Jackson Parks
with proceeds from the Ferguson fund.

The building and dedication on December 14, 1904,
of the permanent home of the Chicago Orchestra, Orches-
tra Hall in Michigan Boulevard, is one of the most
notable events in the musical world of America, com-
pensating Chicago for the long years of patient cultiva-
tion of the people's taste, and crowning her judgment
in matters artistic, she who fifty years ago knew that
Theodore Thomas and his orchestra deserved a place of
their own, and never faltered until she had achieved it.
The orchestra has recently made a tour of the country
with overwhelming success.

Chicago may congratulate herself on another score at
this fifty-year celebration. Grand opera has likewise
come here to make it her home. For several years the
Chicago Opera Company has been the recipient of sup-
port from the public, aided by the munificence of the
guarantors, chief of whom was Harold F. McCormick.
In January, 192], Miss Mary Garden was made general
director, with George M. Spangler, formerly in charge
of conventions for the Association of Commerce, as
business manager, and the strong backing of the asso-
ciation behind the whole organization. Its artistic suc-
cess has long been unquestioned, and it is now felt that
its financial status is assured as well. A unique devel-
opment in Chicago, revealing more idealism than she is
commonly credited with, is the summer season of opera
at Ravinia, where artists of the grand opera organiza-
tions of both Chicago and New York lend their assist-
ance the summer through to a most unusual summer
repertoire, such as "Mignon," "Traviata," "Lakme,"
"L'Elisir d'Amore," "Martha." "Jewels of the Madonna,"
"Manon," "Madame Butterfly."

A number of new theatres have opened in Chicago
with the new century, including the Columbus in 1901,
the Iroquois and the Garrick in 1903, the Colonial in
1904, the New Olympic in 1904, the New Theatre (for-
merly the Steinway) in 1906, the Apollo in 1921. The
burning of the Iroquois Theatre on December 30, 1903,
was the occasion of such loss of life that Chicago, in
common with all other cities, has established fire regula-
tions for theatres never before attempted. The silent

drama came to Chicago for the first time September 1,
1897, the place being the Scenic Theatre, now the Fashion
Theatre, No. 557 S. State Street. Today the moving pic-
ture houses of Chicago number 450, some of large size
and architecturally distinguished.

Illinois in the Great War

Meeting requirements as a center of population and
patriotism in the Spanish-American War of 1898, as
in the prolonged struggle of the Civil War, Chicago and
Illinois mightily took up the huge responsibilities of

One of Chicago's great days — the preparedness parade, June 3,

1916. The demonstration even exceeded the huge outpouring

not long before marking the mood of New York and the Nation,

the growing will to enter the war and settle it.

Permission of Chicago Daily News.

the world war, and Illinois gave 351,153 men to
the army and navy of the United States during this
conflict, furnishing one man for every twelve in the
army and more men to both army and navy than any
other state excepting New York and Pennsylvania, both
of which have a larger population. The state's own
division was the 33d, and this was the only distinctively
Illinois organization that saw active service in France.
It was formed from the state's old National Guard regi-
ments and represented every part of the commonwealth.
It was led chiefly by Illinois men, under the command of

Major General George Bell, Jr., a veteran of the regu-
lar army. The division had a total of 7,255 battle cas-
ualties, including 989 men who were killed or died of
wounds. The 33d (^or Prairie) Division was trained at
Camp Logan, near Houston, Tex., and after a short pe-
riod of training overseas took its place beside the vet-
eran divisions of the American army and fought glo-
riously throughout the critical days of the war.

The division's brigade units were: 66th Infantry
Brigade, composed of the 131st and 132nd Infantry
and 124th Machine Gun Battalion; 65th Infantry
Brigade, composed of the 129th Infantry, 130l;h Infan-
try and 123d Machine Gun Battalion; 58th Field Artil-
lery, composed of the 122nd Field Artillery, 123rd Field
Artillery and 124th Field Artillery, 108th Ammunition
Train and 108th Trench Mortar Battery.

Fortunes of 86th Division

The 86th Division, which was trained at Camp Grant,
Illinois, composed chiefly of Illinois selected men, was
not permitted by circumstances of war to fulfill all of
its fine promise. It was depleted time and again while
training by drafts made upon it to fill ranks of other
divisions that were about to sail for France. Indeed,
the 86th Division included in its personnel at various
times enough men to make up several divisions and it
is likely that the division was represented in almost
every regiment seeing actual service in France. Finally
out of the stream of raw recruits the division was per-
fected and almost a year after it had gone into training
at Camp Grant the 86th was ordered to France, disem-
barking at Brest in September and October, 1918. De-
structive fighting was then in progress and there was a
need for replacement, a need for men rather than di-
visions, and the 86th as a division was sacrificed.

Illinois was also well represented in the 84th and 88th
Divisions and in a number of regiments and many
smaller units, one prominent organization being the
149th Field Artillery (First Field Artillery). Among
the first units to leave Chicago for France was the 13th
Engineers, recruited from six railroad systems. The
colored population of Illinois furnished two regiments
who were in the thick of the fighting, being the 370th

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Infantry, formerly 8th Infantry, and the 365th In-
fantry. The first Illinois organization to reach France
was Base Hospital No. 12, being one of the four com-
plete units of its kind organized by the Chicago chapter
of the American Red Cross. There were Illinois men
in the fight from the first appearance of American forces
at the front to the last terrible days of the Argonne,
and Illinois contributed thousands to the technical and
scientific branches of the service. Illinois, too, in the
work of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station became
the center after the war began of the greatest post of
its kind in the world. The home lines were held with
equal sacrifice and devotion. Two striking and influen-
tial public events were the preparedness parade of June
3, 1916, and the government war exposition of 1918.

Complete Devotion to Supreme Task

About 7 per cent of the war loan subscriptions of the
Nation came from Illinois, which has but 51/^ per cent
of the population of the United States. The State
Council of Defense, Samuel Insull, chairman, has re-
ported that the state's total contributions to various funds
for war aid and relief organizations were more than
$45,000,000. The farm crop of 1918, greatest in money
value ever produced by any state, was estimated to be
worth $879,697,000, and in the same year the output of
Illinois factories in direct war contracts was about
$2,000,000,000, the total of manufactured products being
valued at $6,000,000,000. Illinois gave to the Nation
the American Protective League and the Four-Minute
men, and organized labor kept industrial peace.

Of the state's 351,153 men in the army and navy more
than 46 per cent entered by enlistment. Illinois regis-
tered 1,572,747 men under the selective draft and of
these 188,010 were inducted into the service. More than
5,000 men gave their lives for their country, and out
of the seventy-eight officers and men awarded the Con-
gressional Medal of Honor seven were residents of Illi-
nois, while 350 officers and men from this state received
the Distinguished Service Cross. The state maintained
four great training camps, one the Reserve Officers'
Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, and the others the
Great Lakes Naval Training Station, National Army

Cantonment at Camp Grant, and the Chanute Flying
Field at Rantoul. Under the State Council of Defense
80,000 citizens engaged in war activities and nearly 700,-
000 women in Illinois were enrolled in the woman's

Liberty's service flag.

A splendid bit of war work by John T. McCutcheon, in Chicago Tribune.

committee of the State Council of Defense, while hun-
dreds of thousands of other men, women and children
were otherwise active for the victories.

Chi

icago s war

Civilian War Work

work, non-combatant.

functioned

through the American Red Cross, and in die follow-
ing seven societies, all like the universal mother, ar-
dently devoted to the aims of victory: National War

3 33d Division comes home to its own, June, 1919. March past La Salle
tel as seen from the headquarters of The Chicago Association of Commerce.

International Film Company.

Work Council of Y. M. C. A.; National War Work
Council of Y. W. C. A.; National Catholic War Coun-
cil (Knights of Columbus) ; Jewish Welfare Board;
War Camp Community Service; American Library As-
sociation; Salvation Army. The receipts from the coun-
try at large of the Y. M. C. A., as of March 31, 1919,
were $125,282,859, and expenditures $97,817,005. Chi-

cago contributed for war "Y" work about $12,000,000.
In the united war work drive securing $8,555,000, the
Y. M. C. A. was allotted $4,000,000; Knights of Colum-
bus, $1,500,000; Jewish Welfare Board and Salvation
Army, $185,000 each. The American Red Cross, as re-

Since America entered the war the Chicago Chapter of the
American Red Cross has received in contributions from Chicago
citizens nearly $15,000,000, and it continues to be the succoring
mother wherever in its jurisdiction arises the call.

Reproduced by permission of C. D. Gibson, the Life Publishing Company
and the University Club of Chicago.

ported by its national war council, Feb. 28, 1919, had re-
ceived in cash and supplies more than $400,000,000, with
8,000,000 American women in its service, about 17,000,-
000 full-paid members and 9,000,000 school children ad-
ditional.

In Chicago the Red Cross has been administered by
the following executive committee: John W. Scott,
James Simpson, Albert A. Sprague, Seymour Morris,
Frank 0. Wetmore, Augustus A. Carpenter, Charles H.

November 29, 1915.

January 24, 1916.

There were days when, as the late and masterful Luther D.

Bradley, of the Chicago Daily News, trenchantly depicted, we

were indeed "slow to anger"; but there did follow Chateau Thierry^

St. Mihiel and the Argonne — and Armistice day.

Wacker, Wm. Wrigley, Jr., Marquis Eaton, chairman.
Chicago's citizens have contributed since this country
entered the war nearly $15,000,000. It is a vast com-
munity enterprise commanding in Chicago during the
war a membership of more than 1,000,000 persons.

Through this agency Chicago equipped and put in serv-
ice numerous ambulances and four complete base hos-
pitals, cared for more than one million soldiers and
sailors in transit, transformed $1,700,000 worth of raw
material, through the volunteer service of 100,000 work-
ers, into $4,000,000 worth of manufactured supplies
and took adequate care throughout the war of upwards
of fifty thousand families dependent on the Chicago
men who were then fighting in the armies of the United
States and of its allies. The chapter has continued
since the war to bridge the gap for thousands of dis-
abled soldiers and sailors awaiting the relief ultimately
available under the Government plan. It carries on
among the children, through the Junior Red Cross, an
extensive program of patriotic education and service.
It gives essential instruction in dietetics, first aid, and
home care of the sick to many families; more particu-
larly to the families of disabled service men.

THINGS DONE AND TO DO

Activities and Projects of Chicago as a City

Which Contain Essential Elements of

Development Program

A city, like a family or corporation, is what its people
make it. Headless and planless organizations drift but,
even with some good done by chance, leave no monu-
ments in government, industry and social service. Em-
pires are not born, masterful communities are not
founded in seed unthinkingly sown by the wayside. Ger-
many had a plan, a German plan, and she set forth to
make it good. It was not easy to arrest execution of that
plan, so well ordered was it, so united and zealous were
its devotees. If to a bad plan can be given extraordi-
nary impetus and direction, surely a good plan can go
far by the benevolence of its purpose. But a plan, al-
ways a plan, a program.

A city of the first class is today physically and morally
a commanding example of organization, of regulated in-
dividualism. We may like a city for its eccentricities,
but the city that draws and sways, loves and is loved, is
a balanced organism of diverse attributes and these come
only by design. In the greater cities growth rests upon
commerce and industry, in the rich soil of which flourish
the creative arts. The life of a city is thought, worship,
industry, trade and government. Chicago is still pre-
eminently a great workshop and market into which edu-
cation and the arts are bringing new power and prestige.
Conditions promise it a vast accession of people, but
these people must assert themselves masters of their own
development or Chicago will be population without iden-
tity. Manufacturing and merchandise are the essentials
of a market, but more numerous are the elements of a
city whose aspect is inspiration and whose word is leader-
ship.

Dawn, of an Era of Plan

No Mecca to the race is the city which satisfies itself
only. A symmetrical city means health, production and

sale, churches, schools, museums, amusements, cleanli-
ness, order, public safety, beauty, transportation — com-
munity elements such as these do not automatically fall
into their respective relations and start to function to the
greatest advantage merely because man is a gregarious
animal and the "government at Washington still lives."
Into all, inciting and correlating and forever guiding,
must enter plan. Chicago as a social and economic ag-
gregation has attained in an uncontrolled century, strik-
ingly by the potency of destruction, the framework and
moral power of greatness — now opens an era of con-
scious cultivation and regulation, an era of plan.

At this historic hour in the spontaneous and unorgan-
ized progress of the world's youngest great city many of
its friends herewith propose to fellow citizens that we
all scan the making of the heritage to our children, and
agree that concert of action along certain lines of devel-
opment is reasonable, indeed is imperative. Accordingly
The Chicago Association of Commerce offers for study
of the people of this city the following summaries and
suggestions constituting a practical program of work,
and before us all nothing existing so well deserves seri-
ous and grateful consideration as the Chicago Plan. Ac-
companying presentation herein of its essential features
go other proposals begging the respectful study of the
generations passing and to be.

Population at Centennial

Every city has policies of improvement, and certain
facilities and services are common to Boston, Chicago,
Seattle or New Orleans — essential things in structure and
function, but each city may present a variation of the
universal problem, and in a city of the size and rapid
growth of Chicago municipal activities cannot be left to
evolve, but must be directed according to local require-
ments and harmonized as soon as possible with the gen-
eral plan.

Chicago had 2,701,705 people in 1920, according to
the government census figures. A committee of The Chi-
cago Association of Commerce, reporting upon smoke
abatement and the electrification of railways in 1915,
made estimates of Chicago's future population for a
number of periods up to and including 1950. The esti-

mate of this committee for 1920 checked very closely
with the official census returns. The committee's fore-
cast for 1950 places Chicago's population at 4,267,803.

Past experience shows that Chicago has gained at
least 500,000 people each decade, or 50,000 annually.
If we assume, to be conservative, that the city's growth
after 1950 will be at the rate of only 40,000 people an-
nually, Chicago will have at the centennial celebration
of 1971 more than 5,100,000 inhabitants.

Double Its Present Area?

In 1871 the city of Chicago covered 36 square miles
of territory; today somewhat more than 200 square
miles are embraced within its limits, a growth in extent
during the short space of fifty years of 455 per cent.

Cook County covers an area of 933 square miles.
While annexations become less frequent after cities grow
large, there are today many thriving communities
crowded about the city's boundaries, some of which will
undoubtedly become parts of the greater city. As the
territories immediately surrounding the city's limits be-
come more densely populated, and the differences be-
tween city and suburban life less emphasized, many of
these communities will come into Chicago, so that it is
quite within reasonable prediction to foretell a Chicago
double its present area when another fifty years shall
have passed.

Chicago is the place of origin of twenty-three railway
trunk lines and within the Chicago district are thirteen
switch roads, making thirty-six different entities compos-
ing the physical facilities of the world's railroad center.
From the beginning of the construction in 1847 of the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad — a superior pioneer
line, by the way — up to the present vast preparations for
freight and passenger accommodations west of the river,
new railroads have, so to speak, steamed in where they
could, hooked on to the growing city's economic struc-
ture and set out to establish the relations between manu-
facture, trade and transportation. Now has become
acute Chicago's problem of terminals.

The great question of transportation involves the im-
provement of harbors and waterways and of the devel-
opment of aviation policies and facilities. In the re-

versal of the Chicago River, for drainage disposal and
navigation, Chicago accomplished an undertaking of the
first magnitude, and for the time, with the co-operation
of the federal government regulating the discharge of
water through the Drainage Canal, the drainage problem
has its solution, but Chicago has great matters before it
in this department of municipal safety.

Essential Improvements

Chicago is a city daily moving to and from the center
a great and increasing number of people. Intensive study
of the problem of local transportation steadily points
to the building of subways and the perfecting of surface
and elevated lines. Other public utilities must be fos-
tered; progressive electrification of one great railway is
ordained with corresponding elimination of smoke; the
reduction of noise must be sought; parks, playgrounds
and bathing beaches must be multiplied; a zoning system
will be a creation of the near future and Chicago's hous-
ing problem will begin to have solution; in practices for
public safety the people are willingly accepting instruc-
tion; beauty must not be a happening but an objective;
government must be simplified and measured by its serv-
ice for the common good ; our water front must be made
to attain its inspiring possibilities; education must be
developed as a holy trust, and religion considered at least
as vital a force as the functioning of any mechanical
equipment or service; social welfare work must receive
even greater encouragement, and the arts acquire the
impetus, as they have the friendship, of commerce itself.
These statements, historical and forward looking, must
in view of the confines of this book be confined to basic
things, to some of the essentials of growth, and the realm
of the incidental cannot be opened on all sides. This
forelook will serve its ends to the generation in control,
and to the citizens of tomorrow, if it concentrates atten-
tion upon some of the meritorious activities and possi-
bilities of Chicago's development, secures the more in-
telligent perpetuation of work in hand, and stirs the
imagination and will of the men and women of the fu-
ture to realize a greater and better city.

CITIZENSHIP

Chicago Citizens Urged to Commit Themselves to All the

Duties Which Franchise Implies — Problem

of Americanization

A year significant in Chicago history, 1921, has been
marked by a proposal issued by Joseph R. Noel, presi-
dent of The Chicago Association of Commerce, that the
citizens of this community formally pledge themselves to
give greater attention to the various duties of citizenship,
and cultivate personal and collective devotion to politi-
cal obligations. Men and women voters have been asked
to sign the following citizenship pledge:

With sincere belief in the noble purpose
which gave birth to our nation and in the
lofty principles which have been wrought
into its constitution ; with ardent love for
the country which has conferred upon me
a priceless heritage of freedom and oppor-
tunity, i gratefully acknowledge my priv-
ileges and obligations as an american citi-
zen, and promise to vote at all primaries
and elections so that i may help to give
assurance that "government of the people,
by the people, and for the people shall
not perish from the earth."

Executing Political Responsibility

A card bearing this pledge is being issued in large
numbers, and already the extensive degree of its accept-
ance suggests the desirability and promise of this call to
fulfill a common trust. The declarations of this pledge
are simple, elevating and patriotic and cannot but invite
in course of time general adoption. The practical re-
sults of popular commitment to the objects of this pledge
should appear in a reanimated citizenship, purposeful
and persistent. Whoever signs this pledge will acquaint
himself or herself with the issues and candidates of cam-
paigns; will give personal attention to the membership

and acts of political conventions; will attend primaries;
will vote at all elections, and will work for the purity
and efficiency of the ballot.

Citizens who hereby give themselves to a more active
citizenship will also accept, seeking no exemption, the
duties of jurors, and in the selection of legislators, state
and national, they will choose representatives who will
enact laws which will be enforceable, and when such

A new Lincoln statue is among the rich possessions of
Chicago, and will be erected at the south end of the Grant
Park improvement. It is the work of the great Saint
Gaudens, sculptor of the noble memorial in Lincoln Park.
The sculptor aimed to make this statue the greatest creative
work of his life. He worked on it nearly twelve years. He
has sought to suggest the isolation of Lincoln in the crucial
period of the Civil War. Will not Chicago long say with
Lowell in his own imperishable ode? —

Our children shall behold his fame.

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,

New birth of our new soil, the first American.

laws become enacted they will insist upon enforcement.
There is no time, speaking without the least partisanship,
so auspicious as the present for concert of action to
emphasize the evils of political negligence and the bene-
fits which will follow systematic devotion to all the obli-
gations of citizens.

Chicago's Task in Americanization

The war admonished Chicago and indeed all America
to take new thought about the Americanization of the
alien. In 1910 there were 783,428 foreign born people
in this city, and in 1920 these had become 805,482. Here
is a problem of much racial complexity, the end being,
apart from that of standardized education, the conversion
of the foreign born into citizens of ardent and intelligent
Americanism and of the complete preparation of their
native born children for all the duties and privileges of
a progressive democracy.

Among many local forces contributing to the work of
Americanization, The Chicago Association of Commerce
has had the pleasure of establishing a particularly inti-
mate touch with the adult foreign born, and this through
conducting classes in English and citizenship in many in-
dustrial plants. So far as this instructive work has gone,
when the circumstances have encouraged the greatest
number of classes and the largest attendance, classes have
numbered fifty-six, having 616 sessions, and attendances
6,788 in one month. With the continued and invaluable
co-operation of the Chicago Board of Education and the
favor of industrial employers, this work of making Amer-
ican citizens will go on. It is reasonable to anticipate
the gradual amalgamation of the races in America, and
to this end is being taught first the English language and
the obligations of citizenship, and the more elementary
laws of federal and state government; and in this con-
nection our procedure of naturalization should conduce
to high conceptions of citizenship.

Future Policies in Making Citizens

While the next fifty years may not require so much of
the teaching of English in this special way, because of
the work of the public schools, it will require great wis-
dom in directing the study and reading of both young

and old in matters relating to citizenship, a citizenship
that shall be harmonious and hopeful. Finally when, as
we shall strive to do, we shall have secured a united peo-
ple speaking a single language, there remains the task
of setting forth higher ideals and more definite obliga-
tions on the part of the individual which will secure the
greatest good of all. This involves in many forms classes
in citizenship for adults, lectures, social gatherings, more
right ways of inspiring the individual to a higher type
of personal life, and the better recognition and fulfill-
ment of social obligations.

WOMAN AND THE NEW CHICAGO

Her Endowment with Political Powers Based Upon

Organized Cultural and Welfare Work Promises

That Her Citizenship Will Be a

Progressive Force

In the presidential election of 1920 the successful can-
didate received in Chicago 213,083 votes of women and
his next competitor 66,700. The population of Chicago
in that year, as by the federal census, was 2,701,705,
and of this total the females were 1,331,541 and the
males 1,370,164. The total vote of Chicago's women
at the presidential election was 293,401 and of men 491,-
600. The nineteenth amendment to the federal constitu-
tion conferring equal suffrage with men upon women
was proclaimed August 29, 1920.

In 1913 the Illinois legislature gave women the vote
for presidential electors and other officers. In other
states many legislatures followed, and this gave such im-
petus to the national movement that the federal constitu-
tional amendment, which had been so heroically pushed
for several years, became an accomplished fact, the Illi-
nois legislature being first to ratify the suffrage amend-
ment.

It was estimated that under this amendment more than
26,800,000 women were made eligible to vote in all elec-
tions. Under existing state laws 17,000,000 had already
become entitled to vote for President of the United States
and 7,000,000 to vote for members of congress.

Chicago, the Illinois contingent of this imposing host,
is in the organization period of vast future service. The
public welfare work of Chicago women already has its
monuments in settlements, kindergartens, vacation
schools, school lunch rooms, women matrons in jails and
schools in jails, child welfare society, parental schools,
juvenile court, pensions for mothers, civic music associa-
tion, children's orchestra, corrective schools for girls,
policewomen, community kitchens, day nurseries, and
with the advent of the great war it was women who stabil-
ized the home forces, who saved the food, whose tireless

needles augmented the clothing and sanitary supplies of
armed millions.

Woman and Housing Problem

Now come the requirements of peace to be satisfied by
social or political action, or both, and the call to women

Projected building of Woman's Club of Chicago, Nos. 62-72
East Eleventh Street.

Permission of Pond & Pond, architects.

as citizens is to be practical, not too partisan, and fulfill
the possibilities of golden opportunity. Woman as a
citizen will not long leave Chicago's neglected problem

of housing untouched. Into matters of education, house-
keeping and recreation her sympathies, her intuitions
and her constructive powers will enter for distinguished
accomplishment. The urgency of the housing situation
is already making her an advocate of a zoning system,
and her service for the betterment of physical conditions
will develop corresponding forces to strengthen the
city's spiritual life.

While woman's entrance into municipal politics may
imply a degree of temporary submission to its evils, it
should be the expectation of the sex which gave itself
first the franchise, and has far to go in its corrective use,
that the sordid conditions of a great city, in moral and
physical transformation, will enlist the best endowments
of the new voting class and stimulate woman's practical
devotion to the ideals of government.

PR./GRESS IN GOVERNMENT

A Sufficient Taxation System to Be Expected from Present
Constitutional Convention — Unification of Chicago's
Many Governments Imperative Accom-
plishment of Future

There is now in service a constitutional convention for
the purpose of providing a new constitution for this state.
The greatest need which must be met by this convention
is the removal of those limitations fastened upon the
state and particularly the city of Chicago by the now
archaic constitution of 1870 which prevents our having
a workable, fair and sufficient taxation system. The situ-
ation in the convention, however, is that unless the dele-
gates agree to a proper representation of Cook County
in the legislature, to be provided by the new constitu-
tion, based upon the population of Cook County as it
may be from time to time without limitation, at least
in one house of the legislature, there is no possibility
that any document drafted by the convention can ever be
adopted by the voters of the state. If the opposing fac-
tions in the convention can agree upon this fundamental
necessity, and at present this does not seem hopeful, Chi-
cago and the state of Illinois may acquire a taxation
system which will remove the handicaps under which
the city peculiarly and the state to a less degree are la-
boring.

Real Estate Bears Undue Tax Burden

Under our present constitution all property is sup-
posed to be taxed uniformly by valuation. The propor-
tion of intangible property is much greater now than it
was at the time of the adoption of the constitution. The
ease with which this property passes from hand to hand,
and the lack of necessity for identifying any individual
with ownership of intangible property, has practically
rendered the taxation of this variety of property impos-
sible. At the present time much more than 75 per cent
of the revenues of the state and municipalities derived
from general taxation is borne by real estate, and most
of the intangible property in Illinois entirely escapes

apparently the recognized tendency in '--afting of

state constitutions, to write into a state con tion only
such limitations upon the power vested in the ^^te legis-
lature as will :

Equitable Taxation Requirements

First, require taxation to be uniform upon all prop-
erty of the class taxed.

Second, require that all exemptions from taxation
shall be by general law uniform as to the class of prop-
erty exempted and at all times subject to modification
or repeal at the pleasure of the legislature.

Economic conditions rapidly change, and the history
of this state, with its marked tendency to become a manu-
facturing and mercantile state rather than an agricul-
tural one, demonstrates the wisdom of having as few
hampering restrictions as possible upon the exercise of
the fundamental power of taxation which is essential to
taxation. The constitutional limitations preventing the
classification of property and preventing the imposing
of reasonable income taxes must be removed, and, if the
new constitution be adopted, undoubtedly will be re-
moved.

When it is remembered that a state constitution is
not a grant of legislative power to the legislature of
the state but is merely a limitation upon the legislative
power of the people, which by election is vested in the
legislature, it will readily be apprehended that only
those limitations upon the power of taxation should be
written into the constitution that are essential to pre-
serve the liberties of the citizen and prevent abuse of
power. It is coming to be more and more the settled
opinion of those who have studied these subjects, and is
the continuance of the state.

Superfluities and Complexities

Reorganization of local governments in Chicago is an
urgent issue created by increasing taxes without improve-
ment in the volume and quality of public service, by em-
barrassed public finances, public dissatisfaction with the
character of local administration and frequent clashes
of diff"erent authorities with one another. The problem
of unification > which for many years has been under dis-

cussion, has received helpful analysis by the Chicago
Bureau of Public Efficiency, which has pointed out that
a reform program should contemplate improvement
under existing laws and constitutional provisions, under
new laws passed under the present constitution, and
under new conditions brought about by extensive modi-
fication of the constitution of Illinois, a service now in
progress at the hands of the constitutional convention,
which, by action of the legislature, was called together
at its first meeting January 6, 1920.

There are twenty-four local governments exercising
jurisdiction in Chicago without central control and cen-
tral responsibility, not counting several township gov-
ernments of nominal existence.

The structure of Chicago as an organized community
shows the following characteristics: From the vote of
the people are derived the executive officers, and directly
from the people, too, comes the municipal court. The
municipal government appoints the board of education,
the public library board and the municipal tuberculosis
sanitarium. The departments constituting the city gov-
ernment actuated by the mayor and city council num-
ber about twenty-five.

Governments and Governments

In the progress of this political analysis the observer
now fixes his attention upon other sources of power and
he sees that that virtually greater Chicago, that is, the
political organization of Cook County, gives birth to a
board of commissioners, to sundry courts, commissions
and institutions, and that the circuit court, constituting
one of these creations of the voters of Cook County, is
the birthplace of the South Park Commission, which em-
braces various vital departmental activities. The gov-
ernment of the forest preserves is a separate government
with the members of the County Board ex-officio com-
missioners, and the physical limits of the preserves are
coterminous with Cook County. The observer discovers,
however, to his surprise as he further seeks an under-
standing of that complex organism known as the govern-
ment of Chicago that the remaining two great park sys-
tems, namely, West Chicago and Lincoln Park, do not
derive their existence directly from the voters of Chicago,

or from the voters of Cook County as single creative
bodies, but from the governor of Illinois. These two
park boards have, of course, their own extensive internal

organization.

The analyzing observer of the governmental situation
in Chicago now discovers that when this city accom-
plished its big feat in engineering and sanitation, revers-
ing the Chicago River and uniting Lake Michigan and
Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, there was created, to
embrace the city's own ample boundaries within it, the
Sanitary District of Chicago and that the management of
this district, comprising its necessary departments, is reg-
ulated by direction of the voters of the district. Here
is found a sort of an organized municipality working for
another municipality of an area about half as great.

Have we now exhausted enumeration of the elements of
political Chicago? We have not. Voters in fourteen dif-
ferent and distinct petty park districts select governing
commissions of the same.

A Principle of Consolidation

The problem of municipal consolidation presents two
fundamental questions, namely, what should be the terri-
torial limits of the unified municipality, and what gov-
erning agencies should be eliminated and how should the
activities be combined and organized? Seeking here to
be suggestive rather than controversial, it may be said
that the territorial limits of the unified government should
be the same as the metropolitan community, and it should
include all contiguous area, especially urban in charac-
ter or likely soon to become so, having municipal inter-
ests in common. Application of such a principle would,
of course, meet with suburban resistance, but future mu-
nicipal progress would be likely to make practical con-
solidation more easy than would be the attempt to this
end today, and, as the Chicago Bureau of Public Effi-
ciency well says, "by the time consolidation shall be leg-
ally possible the natural limits of the reorganized and
unified Chicago may be more clearly apparent." Within
the boundaries of the district outside Chicago, and these
boundaries extend on the north to include Glencoe, on
the south to include South Holland, and on the west to
include Bellwood, there are 108 taxing bodies, not in-

9' 58783 A

eluding Cook County and the Sanitary District. These
taxing bodies are composed of five cities, namely, Ber-
wyn, Blue Island, Evanston, Harvey and West Hammond,
thirty-five villages, ten park districts, fifty school districts
embracing eight townships, of which three lie partly with-
in the present city limits. Nine townships lie partly
within and without the proposed city limits, that is, the
area within the Sanitary District. The eight townships
King wholly within the present limits of Chicago, that is,
Rogers Park, formerly Evanston, Hyde Park, Jefferson,
Lake, Lake View, North Chicago, South Chicago and
West Chicago, having only formal existence could also
be formally abolished. There are also eleven school dis-
tricts Iving partly within and without the proposed city
limits.

Obvious Economic Advantages

In the matter of absorption of outlying communities in
a greater Chicago the point has been well made that there
is a distinction between mere annexation to Chicago of
a single municipality and the merger into one effective
government of all urban agencies of the territory natu-
rally comprising the community. Whatever may be re-
luctance even to consider consolidation now, the day may
come when this argument will be granted of paramount
importance.

A city made coterminous, say, with the county or
within the lesser boundaries of the Drainage District
would accomplish the elimination of great overhead ex-
pense in government, that is, in salaries and in needless
registrations, primaries and elections. The present tax-
ation machinery is unsatisfactory and involves an enor-
mous waste, and the judicial machinerv of such a countv
and city as now organized is declared to be on the whole
conspicuously inefficient and wasteful. There is the mu-
nicipal court of Chicago and five separate independently
organized county courts, that is, the circuit, superior,
county, probate and criminal. The present judicial or-
ganization and procedure lead to much needless annoy-
ance, expense and delay. There are six separate clerk's
offices. Consolidation would bring economy in the service
of deputy sheriffs and deputy bailiffs. Important sav-
ing would follow in jurors' fees if there were but one

100

court instead of six, for the reason that a numher of
judges calling for jurors as they are required would not
need as large a supply as if each judge had enough to
supply him alone, because the judges are not always
trying jury cases. A smaller number of jurors supplying
all the judges would be required than if each judge were
required to keep on hand his full quota.

Prodigal Duplication

By consolidation also would be saved the cost of sev-
eral independent legal departments involving duplica-
tion of many subordinate positions. In these depart-
ments, quite beyond the classified civil service, spoils
politics plays a wasteful and inefficient part. Needless
overhead must be accounted for, too, in maintenance by
the city's several governments of several accounting
agencies, while advantageous purchasing demands a cen-
tral purchasing department and standardization of equip-
ment, material and supplies. Enormous is the combined
buying power of Chicago's different local governments.

Seventeen different park governments even in a city
as great as the world's fourth is surely a prodigal dupli-
cation of machinery and personnel; and the traditional
usages of a conglomerate not a unified city, with prece-
dent and politics still ruling strong, must soon yield to
the sway of economy and common sense.

The ways and means of bringing about this new day
may become the substance of heated civic discussion and
bitter political campaigns, but simplification of Chicago's
government will be an accomplishment of the near future,
even though sundry historic boards and officers disap-
pear. It is the estimate of those who have studied the
unification problem intensively, and with least yielding to
partisanship, that consolidation of Chicago's local gov-
ernments would ensure economies aggregating from
S4,000,000 to $5,000,000 annually. The fifty-ward law
is coming into operation with an expected saving of more
than $500,000 in election expenses every other year.

Reforms in Progress

Public-spirited citizens and civic and business organ-
izations are working in co-operation to secure tax re-
forms, especially improvement in methods of assessing

101

property; the short ballot, and reduction in election ex-
penses. There is a definite movement on foot to secure
for Chicago the city manager form of government. A law
has been passed and adopted by the people on a refer-
endum vote under which aldermen in Chicago are elected
on non-partisan lines, and there is public demand for
applying this same system of election to the mayor.
Much progress has been made in curing old abuses under
which custodians of public funds kept for themselves or
their friends large portions of interest earning on money
in their possession. Strict accounting is now required by
law of the treasurer of the city of Chicago and of the
treasurer of Cook County.

102

CHICAGO NEEDS PROGRAM OF
RELIGION

Challenge of the Hour Finds Great Communions of Prot-
estantism and Roman Cotholicism Strong of
Purpose and with Plans of Growth to Meet
Wants of an Urgent Era

An irreligious city may pass the way of Rome — a city
recognizing the supreme power of religion over com-
munities and individuals may fail in its struggle with
the material but it will know the satisfactions of a
spiritual triumph embodying the ideals of progress. On
October 10, 1871, the mayor of Chicago, as shown in
an illustration in this book, proclaimed that the head-
quarters of the general relief committee would be in a
church — as it happened, a Congregational church of the
West Side. True, it may have been a peculiarly avail-
able building, but it is not without point to observe that
it was from a church that stricken Chicago raised the
flag of succor and kept faith with the noblest traditions
of Christendom. A corresponding tower of strength are
the churches of Chicago today, and their mission and
virtues must be conserved through a distinct program
of development if this wonderful city is to go forward,
mighty of spirit. Seeking community of thought in way
of discovering tendencies and duties, all who love their
city and believe in the organized manifestations of re-
ligion will read with profit the following observations of
a representative of many Protestant churches:

Morality and Religion

We are celebrating three hundred years of progress since the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Every student of history knows that
the fundamental explanation of the best elements in the life of
the Nation is the fact that those men and women laid the foun-
dations of our best life and most beneficent institutions in the
Christian faith, and sought to practice their convictions in con-
sistent daily living. The semi-centennial celebration of the Chi-
cago fire, with its striking story of amazing progress, unparalleled

103

by any other city of equal population in a similar period of time,
involves the very same elements of stability and strength in the
character of the builders of our city as marked that of the Pil-
grims. They possessed those deeper essentials to truest advance-
ment, allegiance to righteousness, reverence for law and the ap-
praisement of moral and spiritual values as the indispensable and
priceless assets of the city's best life.

The builders of Chicago, acting on Washington's familiar em-
phasis that morality is impossible without true religion, set about
the nurture of religious institutions and the development of those
movements in education and philanthropy which are its hand-
maids, together with those organizations which seek the noblest
aesthetic culture, as the flowering out of the love of the beautiful
which always co-ordinates with the sense of truth and right living.
It is therefore not unnatural to note that the old First Presby-
terian Church was organized in Fort Dearborn itself at the very
beginning of our civic life. The fight of faith was to go hand in
hand with the fight for liberty and order in making a city in-
creasingly wholesome for the nurture of our children and the
finest development along all lines of progress.

Christian Ministrations

The free church and the free school have always gone together
in vigorous democracies, and beyond the grades of the public
schools clear-visioned and large-minded men and women have
seen to it, long before state institutions of higher learning were
established, that great universities and professional colleges should
keep pace with the growing needs of higher education. More-
over, great-hearted citizens have made possible those splendid
hospitals which minister to sickness and pain, open to all people
regardless of race or creed, such as Augustana, the Presbyterian,
St. Luke's, Wesley Memorial and dozens of others. The very
commendable many-sided programs of the Young Men's and Young
Women's Christian Associations command the universal respect
and the eager support of our citizens generally, Christians and Jews
uniting in their encouragement. They touch eveiy section of the
city, the great commercial establishments, the large manufactur-
ing plants, as well as various educational institutions, carrying on
a program adapted to the needs of men and women, boys and
girls, in physical, mental and spiritual culture.

Our churches are established in every part of the city, minis-
tering to people of every condition. Their representatives seek
to apply their religious principles in co-operation with all others,
of whatever faith, and are found on such boards as the United
Charities, the Council of Social Agencies, Children's Home and
Aid Societies, etc. They carry on the fruitful work of the Bible
and Tract Societies, and send their representatives into the
juvenile courts and the institutions for delinquent and dependent
boys and girls, as well as men and women, pointing them to the
way of another chance. In recent months many of them have
been specially active in ministering to the unemployed. If the
complete figures were at hand, the total would be amazing. One
church alone furnished meals for 75,000 people during the last
year. Some of our colored churches gave 41,000 meals to people

104

out of work during the first five months of the year. The Brother-
hood House, the Chicago Christian Industrial League, Halsted
Street Institutional Church, Chicago Commons, Norhwestern Uni-
versity Settlement, Marcy Center, Olivet Institute, Hull House, the
Garibaldi Institute and others are all ministering day and night
along lines of social betterment, Americanization, etc.

Demand for Adequate Program

As we face the future we are conscious of the widespread em-
phasis in many lands of the "spiritual slump" marking the re-
action from war conditions. Chicago has not escaped this re-
action, noted in increased juvenile delinquency, in lax ideas con-
cerning conventions that were considered almost sacred only a
few years ago, in a growing indifference to the immoral at-
mosphere which penetrates modern theatricals as never before,
in the complacent neglect of the institutions of religion on the
part of many who were loyal imtil recent years.

To ignore this diagnosis would be folly. To face it honestly,
with appreciation of the fact that it must be counteracted, if our
society is to retain its wholesome character, is our plain and un-
escapable duty, as we value our heritage and realize our re-
sponsibility for the generations that are to follow. Our fathers
have given us a great inheritance. Shall we be as faithful and
generous to our posterity? No lackadaisical attitude toward our
task will suffice. The worthy citizens of Chicago never faced a
more supremely important responsibility. It is the distinctive
challenge of the hour. Shall we meet it with courageous deter-
mination and with an adequate program? Our dream of main-
taining and elevating the ideals of our people will be nothing
but a dream, unless we accept this challenge with the same spirit
of the "I will" attitude which has achieved big things along so
many lines. But bigness is not greatness, for true greatness is
impossible except the moral fibre of the city's life be made in-
creasingly stronger and its spiritual aspiration dominates its plans
for pleasure.

Our leaders in the great enterprises of the city, in commerce,
in education, in art and every activity which seeks to make Chi-
cago a "city beautiful" in its external growth, need to get to-
gether in serious concern for the sane, strong program of true
religion that is absolutely essential to the salvation of the people,
to lives of integrity and loyalty, to high ideals, which will be
revealed in something of that spirit of sacrificial service which
was so constantly manifest in the devotion of the war days. This
readiness to serve, at real sacrifice, in places of official respon-
sibility, on juries, on boards of welfare organizations, to be true
to the obligations of citizenship at the primaries and elections, to
appreciate the fact that every man or woman who has succeeded
in Chicago owes a real debt to Chicago, which can only be paid
by seeking to serve the city's welfare in some actual devotion to
its higher interests — this readiness is the first essential to the
fidelity which we must bring to the solution of the problem as to
how we may make the Chicago of the future something even finer
and nobler than it has been in the past.

105

Let it be urged in the light of undeniable history, notwith-
standing all the failuret, of the institutions of religion, that these
alone have developed most helpfully the culture of those very
gifts and graces of character which have been the strength and
the admiration of mankind, evident in the individual, in our
sweetest and strongest home life, and in the truest leadership in
the best hours of our nation's progress, from Washington and
Lincoln to the present time.

First Resident Priest in 1833

In the twenty centuries of history of the Roman
Catholic church the story of the growth of this faith in
Chicago and Illinois forms an important chapter. From
the day when Father Jacques Marquette, the Jesuit priest,
and two companions pushed their way into the Chicago
River, the march of the Catholic church has kept pace
even with the marvelous growth of Chicago itself and
has vitally contributed to it. As the business and civic
leaders of Chicago have been guided by their vision, so
have the leaders of this church down to this hour, to
the administration of the present distinguished head of
Chicago Catholicism, the most Rev. Archbishop George
William Mundelein.

Chicago received its first resident priest in 1833 in
the person of Father St. Cyr, and ten years later this
place was selected as the see of a new diocese embrac-
ing all Illinois, and Bishop William Quarter became
Chicago's first Roman Catholic bishop. The institu-
tional work of this prelate a quarter of a century before
the great fire laid the foundation for the present wide
activities of the church, including parochial schools,
hospitals, orphanages, boys' schools and universities.
Bishop Quarter in December, 1844, secured from the
Illinois legislature a charter for the University of St.
Mary of the Lake and established that institution. Its
successor today now under construction, and as planned
by the present archbishop, is to be the greatest Catholic
educational institution in the West, if not in all America.

In the great fire the losses of the church were esti-
mated to be about $1,000,000, the properties including
churches, convents, asylums and schools, the labor of
years of courage, sacrifice and piety. Among these
institutions destroyed were St. Paul's church, parsonage
and school, on the West Side; St. Louis church and
rectory, the Christian Brothers' academy, the convent and

106

school of the Sisters of Mercy, St. Mary's cathedral on
the South Side, the Holy Name cathedral and bishop's
home, the House of Providence, the academy of the
Sisters of Charity, St. Joseph's orphan asylum, the
Christian Brothers' parochial school, the convent and
school of St. Benedict, St. Joseph's church and the
Benedictine Fathers' monastery, the Magdalen asylum,
the Church of the Immaculate Conception, St. Michael's
church with the convents and schools attached to these
churches, on the North Side.

Rising Heroically from the Fire

But among the builders arose the Rt. Rev. Thomas
Foley, young, vigorous and capable, and restoration be-
gan in the re-erection of fine academies, colleges, schools
and church edifices, which, as a local historian declares,
were among the chief ornaments of the Chicago that had
passed in flame. It is noteworthy that St. Ignatius, at
Roosevelt Road and May Street, which had been
founded and opened a year before the fire, and the
parent school of the present Loyola college, being out
of the path of the flames, was spared.

Fifty years have passed and this is the significant
growth of the Catholic church in Chicago as officially

indicated by its authorities:

1921 1872

Catholic churches in Chicago 227 28

Diocesan priests 643 138

Priests of religious orders 350 31

Parochial schools 202 23

Pupils in parochial schools 130,000 10,000

High schools 22 ....

Pupils in high schools 2,172 ....

The above statistics measure only in part the develop-
ment of the Catholic church in Chicago whose funda-
mental is religion, but whose activities reach out into
education, charitable work, orphanages, hospitals, social
work and civic betterment.

Chicago's Catholic population today is declared to be
1,200,000. In 1880 the diocese became an archdiocese.

Archbishop's Great Educational Plan

The plans for the future of the Roman Catholic church
in Chicago are indeed spacious, commensurate not only

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108

with its achievements in Chicago, but with its vast deeds
for civilization throughout the world.

The great educational plan of Archbishop Mundelein,
which is definitely and rapidly unfolding, centers about
the University of St. Mary of the Lake, the seat of which
is being erected on a 1,000-acre tract on the shore of
St. Mary Lake at Area, near Libertyville, about forty
miles from the heart of the Loop. On this site the
divinity school, including the colleges of philosophy and
theology, are to stand, with the administration building,
chapel, dormitories, power houses, library, recreation
halls with terraced lawns, roads and bridges, to cost

Dormitory units at St. Mary of the Lake Theological Seminaiy.

Permission of Joe W. McCarthy, architect.

some $10,000,000 now under construction, the school of
philosophy being ready for occupancy.

The university departments of De Paul and Loyola,
already well established, and of the new college for
women — Rosary college — under construction in River
Forest, are to be a part of the great university, each
functioning as a separate unit, but with the degree-con-
ferring power centering in the University of St. Mary
of the Lake.

The Quigley Memorial seminary on the near North
Side is the preparatory school for the divinity school.
The present large number of high schools for girls and
for boys, scattered about the city, is being added to and
uniformly graded so as to be preparatory schools for
the other colleges of the university. Practically every
parish has its parochial school, from which the pupils
are graduated into the high schools, the completed sys-

109

tern taking *he child from the primary grade on until
his or he^' ''e has been won.

^volent Work of Roman Church

The ch. 's system of charities has been developed
into the A '^ociated Catholic Charities, an organization
formed three years ago by the archbishop, and whose
contributing membership is co-personnel with the mem-
bership of the church itself. A great fund is raised
annually from contributions taken up in every church,
and distributed through the Central Charities Bureau,
under the direction of Rev. Moses Kiley, selected by the
archbishop and trained for the work. In this distribu-

Chapel of St. Mary of the Lake

Permission of Joe W. McCarthy, architect

tion the agency largely used is the St. Vincent de Paul
Society, for many years the central organized charity
agency of the church.

These funds are divided about equally, one part going
toward the support of the many orphanages, old people's
homes, training schools, of which St. Mary's institution
at Desplaines is the largest; schools for the deaf and
dumb, hospitals, girls' homes and similar institutions.
The other part is used in personal and family relief
work.

Welfare work is carried on through many organiza-

110

tions of men and women, each doing a df^nite part in
the general plan. Perhaps the morp irtant and

effective forms which this work takes . ^f the Big

Brothers, an activity delegated to the Hoi le Society,

for the reclaiming of wayward boys; the Sisters for

the reclaiming of girls, the Protectorate o. he Catholic
Woman's League and other similar organizations whose
agents patrol the railway stations to protect girls, look
after the homes for working girls and similar work.

More than fifty charitable and welfare institutions, in-
cluding day nurseries, and also fifteen hospitals, are be-
ing supported in whole or in part, and are given super-
vision and aid through the Associated Catholic Charities,
and by the varied associations of laymen and women,
all working under the direction of the church, and fol-
lowing plans of the archbishop.

Here and There in Chicago's Church Work

The world's most cosmopolitan great city should have
and does have the churches of all races and creeds, the
Christian church predominating, although the presence
of Jewish synagogues — distinguished looking, too —
marks that age-old faith. The two best known Jewish
temples are Sinai, whose eminent leader. Dr. Emil G.
Hirsch, has celebrated his forty-first anniversary as
rabbi, and Temple Sholem, whose leader. Dr. Abram
Hirschberg, is to celebrate his silver jubilee.

A 21-story building on the same site is to supplant
the old First Methodist church building at Clark and
Washington Streets, having the distinction now of being
the only church in the Loop district.

Architecturally speaking, probably the most notable
church edifice in Chicago is the First Presbyterian, and
the most beautiful chapel or church of the Roman com-
munion is the Quigley Memorial preparatory seminary.
In this connection should be mentioned the beautiful
St. Mary of the Lake Roman Catholic church on the
North Side, dedicated by the archbishop four years ago.

Lutheranism was founded in Chicago as long ago as
seventy-five years, the pioneer community being that of
the First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church on the
North Side.

Of the inter-denominational churches, of which Chi-
lli

cago has not a few, a representative organization is the
Moody Bible Institute. Chicago has sixteen Christian
Science churches, two recently having been dedicated
and free from debt. There are three Greek Catholic
churches, the population to which they minister being
about 25,000, and there is also a Russian Orthodox
church.

112

SOCIAL WELFARE

Advanced Policies, Practical and Humane, to Govern

Administration of Chicago's Charities, and Greater

Conservation of the Family Will Be Attained

One of the fundamental problems of Chicago — of civ-
ilization, indeed — is the efficient public application of
private philanthropy. In ten years Chicago's charitable
organizations, accepting the standardizing and co-ordinat-
ing service of the Subscriptions Investigating Committee
of The Chicago Association of Commerce, have shown a
steady and rem.arkable growth, and today 220 organiza-
tions, practically all of Chicago's organized charitable,
philanthropic and civic organizations, conform to certain
business principles and seek popular support in accord-
ance with methods defined by this committee.

The management of the vast network of charitable and
philanthropic bodies is coming into the hands of capable
business men and women who are devoting far niore
time and feeling to these obligations of an organized
society than at any previous time. Executive heads of
these relief organizations, charitable and philanthropic,
take a personal interest in sound methods of administra-
tion, and expert public accountants scrutinize institutional
finances and prepare an annual report and balance sheet
for practically all of the charities of Chicago.
Central Council of Social Agencies

As the latest progressive step in philanthropic service
there has come mto existence the Central Council of
Social Agencies, with purpose to promote the highest
possible degree of co-operation among the city's philan-
thropic societies. The co-operation of the council and the
aforesaid committee of business men working in har-
mony has brought about a closer correlation of the
work of the charitable bodies and has prevented much
superfluous and costly eff^ort.

Chicago's charities, having taken on principles of busi-
ness administration, without loss of the hallowed spirit
of philanthropy, are now by nature of their organiza-
tion and the interest and good will of the public pre-
pared to adopt advanced methods and higher levels of

113

service in their field of activity, and under such conditions
many of the serious errors and unsound policies which
have characterized charities of some other cities will
be avoided. Here will be carefully studied the best
programs which have been approved in other places, and
only Chicago's particular needs will determine their

adoption here.

Chicago Charity Plan

It may be remarked with emphasis that the final adop-
tion of any scheme will be characterized as the "Chicago
Charity Plan." Under this plan state, county and city
will gradually undertake larger service and the stand-
ards of service on the part of public bodies will improve.
This program will relieve the financial strain on private
charity, and funds will thereby be released for wise ex-
perimentation in fields of private philanthropy. Organ-
izations such as the Elizabeth McCormick Memorial
Fund, the Chicago Community Trust, the A. A. Sprague
Memorial Fund, the Psycopathic Hospital and similar
organizations will be enabled greatly to modify the pol-
icies and administrations of many of the private and pub-
lic organizations. In the future, health, safety first and
thrift campaigns will all have their immediate bearing
on the scope and character of work of existing phil-
anthropic organizations.

A certain solicitude and tenderness of the personal
kind will qualify the systematic and thorough efforts
made by churches, lodges, schools, community centers,
clubs and societies to combat the sense of isolation or
friendlessness that characterizes the lives of vast metro-
politan multitudes. In the future perhaps more than now
will be nurtured the spirit of neighborliness even when
Chicago's people number 5,000,000, 7,000,000 or 10,-
000,000. A gigantic task, but a city of exceptional pur-
pose will try more than ever to keep alive, to unify and
make productive a strong community spirit. The organ-
izations in the pjreat cities will have corresponding
branches and affiliated bodies in every city and village
in the country, and those who come from farm and vil-
lage will find organized friends to lend moral, physical
and mental relief in the first few weeks of solitude in a
huge community.

In the future, whatever the advances of the past, Chi-

114

cago will not be satisfied with a social service and civic
program merely negative or palliative. It will be a fixed
principle characterizing the city as a whole to provide
ways to lift human life to its highest possible plane of
efficiency. In search for this end more sound industrial
policies will be realized to remove from the worker the
fear of unemployment and to stimulate every citizen to
do his best with his endowment. It will be the aim of
that new Chicago to find work congenial and sufficient for
all.

Relief Policies of the Future

Work, worship, play and elevated and competent fam-
ily life, these four things will give to Chicago the highest
type of American citizenship. These words seem of
the nature of a "dream,'' but those in social welfare
work who look upon disease, poverty and crime as these
conditions are seen in their steadfast service are not
despondent, although the state of the "other half" some-
times may strain their faith in the potency of the ideal.
An authority in Chicago charities, a man of patience,
compassion and moral fortitude, says this:

The foundation of the highest civilization that has yet been
reached is the family, and the abnormal homes which now exist
in (>hicago threaten tlie very life of the city; for from those homes
come the feeble-minded, the insane, the delin(|uent boys and girls
who devel(»p into the inellicient or unambitious working men and
women, and the criminals.

The w^orkers in the charity field have an entree to many of
these homes, and they see what most of us have only read about.
The ideal of these workers is not only to keep the poor from
starving and freezing, but to restore normal family life to every
home in which they enter. The poor need so much more than
they ask for — they ask for bread when what they need is sanitary
surroundings, medical attention, suitable employment, proper
food, ambition for themselves and their children. To give the
poor money is easy, but to give them increased interest in life
and a desire to develop and to live normally is not easy — hard as
it is, it is the ideal of the charity visitor.

And that ideal must be realized, for society cannot stand and
Chicago cannot succeed if thousands of abnormal families are
permitted to continue to exist in its heart and produce the
delinquent, the criminal, the inefficient, the unambitious, the
feeble-minded, and the insane.

Care of the Child

Another distinguished worker in the charities stresses
the possibilities of the future for a clearer understanding

115

of the ramifications of the subject generally known as
"child care" or "child welfare." He points out that
more and more the community should understand the
various services provided for the direct and indirect pro-
tection of childhood, and the future should interpret
more thoroughly the service of these agencies in terms
of better child life. The future, too, must provide a
clear definition of the fields of service of each and every
agency to reduce overlapping. It is believed by such stu-
dents and workers that probably the greatest force for
the strength of the race will be found in the preventive
service applied to childhood and child life, and industry
may join hands with social service to this end. Few will
disagree that the education of both fathers and mothers
in the progressive steps of infant welfare should farther
and farther permeate this community and so lessen infant
mortality and defective childhood. It is the belief of not
a few that eugenics in a few years will have its favorable
effect upon the race, and that public opinion will more
and more support the regulation of marriage, and that
even more drastic measures may be resorted to for con-
servation of social welfare.

The prophets of today, who are also the workers in
philanthropy, foresee that many types of prevention will
be applied to the human race, and that these in a few
years will greatly reduce the results of human inferiority
which must now be cared for by the philanthropic public,
results which are not only a financial drain, but bring
misery beyond words.

116

EDUCATION AND THE FUTURE

A New Day in Public School Instruction — Northwestern

University Plans City Campus for Professional

Schools — University of Chicago Projects

Great Building Enterprises

What Chicago shall become in the next half century
in knowledge, ideals and practical accomplishments will
be determined much by the service of its public schools,
its church and other schools, and its institutions of
higher learning. In the public schools is the strength
of the republic, and no more important educational lab-
oratory exists than the schools of cosmopolitan Chicago.

More and more are the schools compelled to look to
trade and manufacture for the ideals and processes by
which education may be achieved. Education is becom-
ing standardized along the mechanical, industrial and
commercial lines, while heretofore it was standardized
along lines of classical book study. Idols of the classi-
cist of former days are being displaced and less and less
value is likely to be given to the purely book form of
education. Educators foresee that during the years of the
near future schools will give increasing emphasis to the
material, and some hold the prospect to be that more
and more will the local unit, that is town or city, tend to
become absorbed by larger unit — state and nation — in
the support and control of education. Under these cir-
cumstances there will be possible a greater increase in
school activities. Continuation schools, providing for
those not able to complete their education in the regular
day schools, and also to instruct and train industrial
classes to prepare workmen for higher and better posi-
tions will be established at convenient and accessible
points throughout Chicago instead of at two or three
places as now.

Technical High Schools for Girls

More attention can be given to physical education, in-
cluding not only games and other recreations, but to
scientific correction of physical defects early in the life

117

ot the child, this serving as an effort to prevent recur-
rence of the condition found when we went into the great
war. when manv of our young men were discovered phys-
ically unfit. There must come erection of technical high
schools for girls as fully equipped and as convenient as
are similar schools for boys. Chicago's educational sys-
tem starts with the kindergarten and logically should end
with the full college course and degree, but at present two
years of junior college work only are given. It is the
ijelief of important authorities that in the near future
there should be a completely equipped four-year college
in Chicago leading to the degrees of bachelor of arts,
bachelor of science and similar degrees. Experts de-
clare that the physical development of childhood into
voulh. including the adolescent changes, seem to make

A Chicago high school in 1921

necessary some readjustment of our present scheme of
education, and there is a prediction that the future holds
a reorganization whereby the kind of educational material
used and the method of its use will change at the end of
the sixth school year, and an entirely different content
and method of treatment become established from the
seventh to the ninth and tenth school year.

Industrial Education

Into the field of education has come a new ideal and
no longer is it thought necessary that a man, in order to
become educated, must deal with books alone. It is be-
coming accepted that education may be acquired also
with tools, materials and physical things, and all the
public school systems of this country are recognizing and
emphasizing the value of what may be termed "industrial
education." The high school of today is not that of
twenty years ago. Then there was no equipment for study

118

of the sciences — physics, chemistry, botany, zoology —
and no shops for the teaching of trades or other elements,
whereas today one is impressed with the presence of lab-
oratories and shops in the high school building and more
and more have grown the demand for activities that will
truly educate, such as require manual dexterity in the
handling of materials, fibres, textiles and metals, activi-
ties which shall also express in concrete form ideals
which have been established in the minds of students and
which have their educational value in the utility of the
product as well as in the training of the brain and hand.
The planning and execution of educational as well as in-
dustrial activities tend to become standardized and to
yield quantity production. The day of isolated school
systems is passing.

Association of Commerce Will Aid

The success of a school system depends upon the intel-
ligent sympathy of the people. Chicago in recent years
has been much benefited by this circumstance. The pres-
ent outlook is for the continuance and increase of co-
operation. This co-operation will, it is believed, receive
within a year an important demonstration on the part of
the Committee on Education of The Chicago Association
of Commerce, which will submit for public consideration
the result of long study of the American problem of edu-
cation in the related elements of city, state and nation.

Since 1846 fifty-one new activities have been under-
taken by the Chicago school system. Music came in 1847
and German in 1865; crippled children became recog-
nized in 1900 and then, too, were baths and the blind
thought of; in 1909 vacation schools and the industrial
arts were new activities; in 1911 vocational guidance
secured attention and in 1916 the teaching of commerce
and administration; in 1917 Americanization recognized
the alien, and also out of war came in the same year the
cadet corps and school gardens. Chicago's necessities
and Europe's example set continuation schools going in
1918, and in 1919 and 1920, respectively, the physical
welfare movement begat summer camps and athletic
directors. Its need for service to its 410,768 enrolled
pupils is more revenue.

The yearly increase in cost of operating the Chicago

119

schools is $2,000,000, and the current budget is $28,000,-
000. The cost of free text-books will be $1,500,000 the
first year. Chicago has more pupils per teacher— and
there are 9.700 classroom teachers— than any city of
comparable size except Philadelphia. While teachers
receive more salary than in 1910-11, salary still bears
the same relation to the per capita cost of education that
it did then.

School Building Program

Physical growth of the school system may be indicated
as follows:

Three elementary schools are just being completed at
an approximate cost of $500,000 each. Construction has
been ordered on eighteen elementary schools at a cost
of about $500,000 each, and construction has also been
ordered on two high schools at approximately $1,250,-
000 each. Additions to four high schools have been
ordered. It is expert opinion that Chicago should have
in the very near future at least twenty-five more buildings
for elementary schools and four more buildings for high
schools.

The education that will be provided in the future by
our public schools, universities and colleges will undoubt-
edly be of such character that it will produce the type of
trained youth whose product and service will enable
America to compete more successfully with the nations
of Europe and Asia in the markets of the world.

Acclaimed by administration, alumni, students and
public as a man of learning and leadership, Dr. Walter
Dill Scott became inaugurated this year as president of
Northwestern University, and at once strengthened official
purpose and general interest in development of new and
great university projects not as part of the campus at
Evanston, but near the edge of the expanding business
district of Chicago.

Founding of Northwestern University

In 1850 a group of devout, resolute and far-seeing
men met to establish Northwestern University, and at
the time when no degree of higher learning had
ever been granted in Chicago or at any place in the
United States north and west of this city. At that time
only as many people lived in Chicago as live in Evanston

120

today, yet that group of educational pioneers had faith
in the Chicago of 1850, believed that it would become a
great metropolis and planned their projected university
accordingly. They purchased 380 acres of land as a site

loKrav^ii^^^tRti mx^i^'^'^'iiJ^M.JMJi^r-'

Whm'f^r: ^

Projected medical group of assembled Chicago schools of
Northwestern University.

Permission of University authorities and Holabird & Roche, architects.

121

and laid the foundation for a university equipped to
render service to the growing city. From the year of the
Chicago fire to the present day the attendance at North-
western has increased each decade about three times as
fast as the growth of Chicago in population and the
crrowth of Chicago has been a wonder.

Great Building Program of Northwestern

It is the belief of the authorities of Northwestern Uni-
versity that with the passing of the pioneer days and the
development of a great world city, the educational re-

Projected Chicago buildings of Northwestern University to form
group and campus on north shore.

Permission of University authorities and Holabird & Roche, architects.

quirements of the university will continue to increase
three times as fast as the population of the Chicago dis-
trict. Held by the successors of the determined founders
that this measure of growth will hold true and therefore
to permit the university to increase three times as fast as
the metropolis there must be made at once provision for
extensive expansion. Accordingly the university authori-
ties have bought nine acres of land on the lake shore
four blocks north of the Municipal Pier, where they ex-
pect to place the institution's medical school, law school,
dental school, school of commerce and school of journal-

122

ism. It is hoped to erect on this site buildings to accom-
modate as many as 10,000 students, ahhough the total
registration in the university in 1921, as great as it is, is
only 8,500. It is believed by these bold and patriotic
educators that Chicago is to become a great educational
center, and it is hoped to make the city campus of the
university, located in the heart of Chicago, a great center
for all forms of social service, and the dream of these

'"^-.V

Proposed design by Bertram C, Goodhue, architect, for University
Chapel of the University of Chicago. The noble edifice will
probably be named Rockefeller Chapel. It will face the Midway
between Woodlawn Avenue and University Avenue, with entrance

on Woodlawn.

Pennission of University authorities.

wise men contemplates the rising here of great hospitals,
headquarters for charities and churches as well as educa-
tional buildings. One of the ambitions and capacities
of the university relates to social service as appears in the
statement of the fact that its medical and dental clinics
in Chicago last year served 50,000 patients. Now these

123

Interior of fortlicoiniug University Chapel, University of Chicago.

Permission of University authorities. Architect, Bertram G. Goodhue.

124

friends of society are planning a greatly enlarged plant
hoping to serve hundreds of thousands annually, and it
is hoped to make this prospective city institution render
to the greater Chicago a distinct and eminent service
which shall be characterized by the practical nature of
its instruction and by predominance of laboratories and
clinics. The spirit animating Northwestern for the win-
ning of the war should carry far its projects for human
betterment in an era of peace.

University of Chicago's Thirty Wonderful Years

Youngest of the great American universities, the Uni-
versity of Chicago in thirty years of remarkable growth
has received within its doors 87,000 students and its an-

Library group of Midway front, University of Chicago, as designed
by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, architects.

Permission of University authorities.

nual enrollment is 11,000. Its library even now num-
bers 1,000,000 books and its assets aggregate $50,000,000.
From the first it has welcomed women both as students
and teachers, and in its school of education it has one of
the two completely organized educational laboratories in
the world. In development of its several schools in
1916-1917 there was raised for medical work $5,461,000,
but the entry of the United States into the war prevented
the immediate execution of the broad plans made possible
by this fund. The war record of alumni, students and
faculty has been praiseworthy indeed, and the university
was an important training center. Four thousand three
hundred and fifty-five alumni and former students were
in service. In the summer of the winning of the war

125

La Verne W. Noyes presented to the university property
of an estimated value of about S2,000,000 for establish-
ment of scholarships for those who had served under <he
American flag in the great conflict and for their descend-
ants. Hundreds of men are now enjoying its benefits. A
distinguished memorial will some day be erected in the
quadrangles of the university to commemorate the service
of the men who went forth, of whom seventy-two gave

up their lives.

Medical Development Plans

The great fund for medical development will provide,
first, within university precincts for a medical school of
the highest grade; second, establishment of the Rush
Graduate Medical School near the Presbyterian hospital
as a graduate medical school for practitioners, and third,
extended provision for special medical research. As
building conditions improve the university will take up
erection of these proposed buildings and execution of the
whole medical program.. The medical building program,
large as it is, is only a part of the university building
program as a whole, the execution of which has been pre-
vented by the war and industrial conditions following.
There are to be buildings for administration, for theology
and for a divinity chapel. There are also to be a univer-
sity chapel and a new club house. The university chapel,
which is to be a stately Gothic building seating more than
2.000, will be erected by means of a fund of $1,500,000
set apart ten years ago by John D. Rockefeller, university
founder, in his final gift of $10,000,000. This chapel,
surmounted by a massive tower 216 feet high, will be
the dominating feature of the quadrangles and one of the
most impressive buildings of its kind. An academic ave-
nue of unusual distinction is to become the university's
possession of the frontage on the Midway extending for
three-quarters of a mile on both sides of this spacious
boulevard.

Institutes for Graduate Work in Science

Distinguishing a five-year program outlined by the
university's veteran president, Harry Pratt Judson, in
1920, are increases of salary to faculty members, a step
first taken in 1919, and development of the graduate
schools for investigation of the basic principles of pure

126

science involved in important problems of society and its
industries. Within these graduate schools will be organ-
ized a series of institutes, the first being that of physics
and chemistry, with necessary building and equipment,
requiring building funds or an endowment. The second
institute will be that of plant agriculture and here will be
trained men in the fundamental science of agriculture,
and it will be notably advanced work. Here again many
hundreds of thousands of dollars will be required. The
third institute will be that of mining, also for advanced
work, and requiring several hundred thousand dollars.
The fourth institute will be that of the science of educa-
tion and will call for liberal endowment. Indeed, in
establishment of these institutes there will be necessary
new endowments amounting to $3,000,000, while for the
new buildings will be required $1,250,000. To meet the
growing needs of the great library and the need of class-
rooms, and to provide an adequate administration build-
ing and residence halls for both women and men, there
will be required not less than $1,750,000. The total
financial requirements of the university within a five-year
period are $10,000,000.

University Commissions

A new feature of university development with co-
operation of all interests is to be the appointment of
university commissions, fourteen in all, one from each of
the main groups of university interests. On each commis-
sion will be two alumni, a university trustee, two faculty
members and two or more citizens. The duty of each
commission will be to study the work of its particular
school or group of interests and make to the board of
trustees suggestions for improvement. The university
needs scholarships and fellowships and many depart-
ments need money for publication. Each journal needs
an endowment fund to insure its future. Many graduate
students upon passing their doctor's examination find that
to publish their theses as required by the university will
cost them $500 or more, an expenditure for which ten
years of study has not prepared them.

The university has been active in the Near East, !;he
latter released from Turkish control, in the field of
archaeology. It is desired to establish a field school of

127

geology. The department of geography hopes to organ-
ize research expeditions, and the department of zoology
plans a museum, while hotany needs an experimental
garden, laboratory and greenhouses. By the invention of
Professor Michaelson of the university a twenty-foot
interferometer operating in connection with the 100-inch
telescope at Mount Wilson, California, there was meas-
ured December last the diameter of the giant star, Betel-
geuze, which is learned to have a diameter of nearly
300,000,000 miles, or 300 times that of the sun. Such
is astronomical research by gifted scientists well
equipped, while one of the world's most remarkable
astronomical equipments is the property of the Univer-
sity of Chicago in the Yerkes observatory at Geneva Lake,
Wisconsin, where each year 8,000 people see the great
40-inch telescope in operation.

128

A GREATER CHICAGO'S HEALTH

Medical Progress and Falling Death Rate Encourage
Confidence in Security of City of Tomorrow

Man's efficient survival is measured by his physical
hardihood and his practical solution of the complicated
problem of health. A vigorous future is promised Chi-
cago by its sanitary progress in fifty years. The death
rate of 1921 is not much more than half as high as was
that of 1871, when it was 20.87, having fallen from about
25 per thousand. The baby death rate is about one-third
of that of the Great Fire period. The span of human
life is longer. The death rate of children from 1 to 4 is
about one-fourth that of 1871, of typhoid fever about
one-fiftieth, of diphtheria about one-third, of scarlet
fever about one-half, of consumption about one-fourth,
while smallpox and cholera, a great menace half a cen-
tury ago, no longer cause deaths. In those days that tried
men's souls Chicago had an evil reputation from the
health standpoint, whereas today its public health status
attracts families and homes.

Wonderful has been the progress of medical science at
large in the past fifty years, embracing introduction of
the germ theory of disease, the X-ray and application to
practice of the microscope and laboratory. Almost the
entire list of vaccines, anti-toxins and serums has been
discovered and come into use. Surgery has progressed
more rapidly than other branches of medicine, but none
has lagged completely, and the period has been one not
only of dazzling discovery but of improvement in day-by-
day working methods as well.

Chicago's Growth as Medical Center

And the next fifty years — and Chicago? There will be
an increase in the number of great hospitals and their
aggregate bed capacity. From all over the world will
come graduate and undergraduate students for research
and clinical work, and post-graduate schools inviting
medical practitioners from everywhere will spread the
advances of medicine to numberless localities. Here is

129

the home of the American Medical Association and of the
College of Surgeons, and place of issue of their journals.
Here is the strategic center of medicine. Methods of
health conservation developed in Chicago's department
of public health will be copied elsewhere.

Will the next fifty years see further material reduction
in Chicago's death rate? There are trustworthy authori-
ties who would answer in the negative, believing, indeed,
that the rate of 1920 or 1921 cannot be held; but on the
other hand the same authorities contend that improve-
ment of health in the next fifty years will equal those of
the past, with improvement found largely along lines of
increased efficiency. The goal must be to have men work-
ing at full efficiency at 60 or even 70 years, and as the
rule.

Life in the Greater Chicago

The greater Chicago, say the far-seeing, will fifty
years hence be a metropolitan district extending at least
as far as through Michigan City, Kankakee, Joliet,
Aurora, Elgin and Waukegan, and one will speak, for in-
stance, of the Elgin wards of the Kankakee subdivision.
Improved transportation will reduce the congestion of
metropolitan population by permitting the people in in-
dustries to live in the open, and this will make for
efficiency through good health. Some believe that
there will not be any change in the present move-
ment of population toward cities and that man
will fmd sustenance in synthetized foods. When that
time comes the ground can all be given over to the
uses of habitation, of industry and things pertaining
thereto, and cities, metropolitan districts or industrial
districts, whatever they happen to be called at that time,
Avill be proportionately increased in size and develop-
ment, and this will not mean decrease in the health meas-
ure. Man has shown his ability to protect himself and
save health in cities. There will be new discoveries and
progressive increase in the efficiency of health methods
so that we can contemplate the growth of Chicago in
the next fifty years with complacency.

The advances of that new day will have proceeded
from the sanitary efforts of our ancestors of the seventies,
when the very high death rates of the forties and fifties

130

had fallen because of better drainage, better sewerage and
garbage disposal and better control of contagion. Just
after the fire the young city of 300,000 had 306 physi-
cians, 5 medical colleges with a total of about 300 stu-
dents, and there were 10 hospitals with a total of perhaps
1,000 or more beds.

After the Great Fire

The fire destroyed six hospitals, leaving a total of 650
beds available after the conflagration. Within a few
days after the fire all relief work was concentrated under
the organization formed by the Relief and Aid. One
hundred and seven people perished in the fire. In spite

1891-1900

Death rate of Chicago per 1,000 of population, 1871 to 1920,

inclusive.

Chart drawn by Dr. W. A. Evans.

of these casualties and exposure of the homeless at this
terrible period, Chicago had a lower death rate in Octo-
ber of 1871 than in the same month in 1870, 1872 or
1873.

The liberalism, community spirit and genius for organ-
ization born out of the great disaster soon showed itself
in public health work, and public sentiment began to
get behind efforts for the improvement of the city's health

131

to a degree never known before. Much of the money
left at the end of the relief period was used to endow
beds in hospitals. Two examples of sanitary progress
appeared, one, in the removal of all slaughter houses
from the district bounded by Fullerton Avenue, Western
Avenue, Thirty-first Street ?nd the lake, and in prohibit-
ing the keeping of more than three cows in a city lot. To-
day Chicago's hospitals are licensed by the health depart-
ment, numbering 75, with 6,676 beds available. These
institutions do not include homes, places for convales-
cents or asylums. Chicago has six medical colleges
attended by 1,736 undergraduate students and has at least
four well-organized post-graduate schools with many stu-
dents each year. Besides, there are a few institutions
teaching certain medical subjects to graduates.

The department of public health of the city of Chi-
cago advises that during the past six years notable re-
ductions have been made in Chicago's death rates from
the principal preventable diseases. For example, the
death rate from scarlet fever has been reduced 75 per
cent; the death rate from typhoid fever, 90 per cent, and
through the combined efforts of the Municipal Tubercu-
losis Sanitarium forces and those of the department of
health, the deaths from tuberculosis have been reduced
practically 50 per cent. The record of the department's
work against diphtheria, however, while showing a com-
mendable reduction in the deaths from this disease, is
far, in its judgment, from being satisfactory; and this
despite the fact that, during the past six years, there has
been a reduction of I8I/2 per cent in diphtheria deaths
and for the last three years 32 per cent.

The unsatisfactory situation as to diphtheria is, how-
ever, common to other large cities. There is, however,
not only a preventive in the form of toxin-antitoxin, but
a cure, if administered soon enough, in the form of anti-
toxin. It is because the parents of the city of Chicago do
not avail themselves of these known and approved agen-
cies that Chicago and other cities in America have not
banished this disease.

The commissioner of health is now appointing a
diphtheria commission to study the situation and to co-
operate in an intensive drive against this dangerous dis-
ease of childhood.

132

PUBLIC SAFETY

Chicago Safety Council New Organized Force for Con-
servation of Life and Fire Prevention

Preservation of life, limb and property is a duty of
organized government whose work may become supple-
mented by private initiative. The increasing number
of fire, industrial and traffic fatalities brought about in
1920 the organization by The Chicago Association of
Commerce, in conjunction with the National Safety Coun-
cil, of the Chicago Safety Council, which operates as
a department of the Association and is the local repre-
sentative of the national body. It is not concerned with
profits, politics, nor the inducements of business. It
is engaged in the task of educating the people of the
Chicago district in safety and fire prevention, and it
also concerns itself with health, sanitation and first aid.

It had become time to set up principles and means of
safety. In 1920 in Chicago and the remainder of Cook
County deaths caused by accidents were 1,982 men,
women and children, with the serious injury of 49,550.
Of these deaths 497 were of children under sixteen years
of age and 542 deaths were caused by automobiles. The
gravity of the industrial phase of the problem is shown
in the fact that about S5,000,000 was expended last
year by employers in this district under provisions
of the workmen's compensation act. Within Chicago
proper the fire loss in 1920 amounted to $11,800,000,
an increase of nearly 100 per cent in two years. There
was also loss of property by collisions and other acci-
dents. The total loss by accidents and fires last year
was $25,000,000, a greater part of which could have
been prevented.

Lines of Service

Intensive organization of the Chicago Safety Council
has come to embrace more than 300 men and women
actively interested in its work, including business men,
doctors, lawyers, engineers of various classes, club
women, social workers, industrial executives, leaders in
automobile clubs, etc. This large group of earnest and

133

competent friends of safety are functioning through the
same sort of safety organization which has accomplished
striking results in industrial, railroad and public utility
fields. It is now said to be recognized that accidents
in industry can be more effectively prevented by work
carried on in a public way than through accident pre-
vention activities through the industry itself.

The future service of the Chicago Safety Council for a
safer Chicago is partly indicated by the variety of the
efficient activities of its first year, which has embraced
a school for safety supervisors, prevention of motor ve-
hicle accidents, teaching of safety and fire prevention
in the public schools, instruction and formal graduation
of foremen from a safety instruction course, about 50,-
000 workmen being represented; production of beneficial
publicity, prevention of traffic accidents, co-operation
with the American Red Cross, prevention of accidents
on railroad premises and at crossings, promotion^ of the
study of health and sanitation, instruction of chauffeurs
and truck drivers, direction of fire prevention day, study
of accidents to juveniles, co-operation with the Ameri-
canization movement, holding of many meetings and
conferences.

Number of Fatalities Less

The Chicago Safetv Council has reduced fatalities in
Cook County from 2,026 in 1919 to 1,982 in 1920, a
decrease of 2.2 per cent. This record was adversely af-
fected by an increase of 29 per cent in automobile deaths
in 1920 as compared with 1919, but it is to be noted
that automobile licenses in Cook County have increased
from 143,531 in 1919 to 175,724 in 1920.

The Chicago Safety Council plans to make of the
semi-centennial anniversary period a "no accident-no
fire" week when thousands will be given special cause
to consider individual responsibility for the general
good. In preparation for this safety campaign the coun-
cil has displayed an effective picture poster on local
transportation lines urging citizens to make Chicago safe.

Building upon its useful past, the Chicago Safety
Council means to improve upon its work and undertake
new and appropriate activities to demonstrate that acci-
dents and fires are not inevitable but are readily pre-
ventable. The council pursues its mission of conserva-

134

tion of life, limb and property with the presumption that
people appreciate that its work is not only intensely hu-
manitarian but economically fit. Chicago will be safer
tomorrow than today because of the Chicago Safet\
Council.

135

CHICAGO WEATHER

Not Unlikely Energy of Chicago People Due Largely to
Peculiar Nature of Climate

When some years ago The Chicago Association of
Commerce made an appropriation to aid in publication
of a study of Chicago's weather, in form of an exhaustive
work on the "Weather and Climate of Chicago," by
Prof. H. J. Cox, government meteorologist, and asso-
ciates, business showed that breadth of interest in pro-
moting education relating to the basic conditions aftect-
ing this great city's life that has found additional ex-
pression in subsequent activities. It is appropriate that
in these notes on the future of Chicago one should pic-
ture in non-statistical fashion, and in the words of this
same esteemed public servant, certain conditions which
make for the vital efficiency of Chicago and an expand-
ing future:

"The city is located in latitude 41° 53' north, some-
what less than half-way from the equator to the pole, and
in longitude 87° 37' west, on a crescent-shaped plain
gradually rising from the level of Lake Michigan, whose
altitude is about 581 feet above mean sea level. This
plain at its highest point is considerably less than 100
feet above the surface of the lake, and its greatest width
is approximately 15 miles in a northeast-southwest di-
rection. The whole plain is bordered inland by a glacial
moraine which rises in places to about 150 feet above
the higher portions of the plain itself. This rim is far
too low to exert any appreciable effect upon the climatic
or weather conditions of the city, and forms no barrier
to either cold-wave areas from the west or hot winds
from the southwest and south. Such barrier, however,
is but infrequently needed, as many times the waters of
the lake serve to soften the rigors of the wintry storms
or to moderate the intensity of the summer's heat.

No Changes Probable in Chicago's Invigorating Climate

"Located as it is at the southwest corner of the lake,
Chicago is justly proud of its climate. As a consequence

136

of the cool expanse of water in summer, the city often
enjoys delightful and refreshing breezes while the in-
terior of the country away from the lake is sweltering in
an air hot and still almost to the point of suffocation.
The city is close to certain well-defined storm tracks,
and the passage of these disturbances insures ample pre-
cipitation and interrupts the otherwise monotonous
cycles of temperature and weather change. Chicago
has been called the 'Windy City,' but the wind move-
ment here is not much greater than it is at other places
in the Great Lakes region. Its changes in weather are
often sudden and pronounced, but usually are of such
a character as to have a stimulating effect upon the av-
erage person of health; and it is not at all improbable
that the great energy of its people, which has resulted
in the rapid upbuilding of Chicago, is due largely to the
peculiar nature of its climate.

"There will be in the future, as there has been in
past, a great variety of weather conditions — occasional
cold and warm waves, snows, rains, gales and drouths,
mingled with the usually excellent weather for which
Chicago is noted. Fortunately, a recurrence of the pro-
longed heat such as that experienced in the summer of
1921 need not'be anticipated for many years; nor will
the winters on the average be more severe or more mild
than in the past. Past periods of drouth like the one pre-
ceding the Chicago fire in 1871, when practically no
rain fell for twenty-two days, may be expected infre-
quently; and these will be balanced by rainy spells of
more than the usual length. There is, in fact, no proba-
bility of any change in our climate, and our weather
will merely undergo its usual fluctuations from day to
day, from week to week and from month to month."

137

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Branch Library in Every Ward— Who Plans Next Legacy
to People's Treasure House of Books?

Let not Chicago forget that the Chicago Public Library
owes its origin after the great fire to gifts of books from
English publishers and authors who founded the present
institution by presentation of over 12,000 volumes sump-
tuously bound and each volume inscribed "As a mark
of English sympathy." In this historic collection, of
sentimental as well as of literary value, are autographs
of famous people, not the least being that of Queen
Victoria herself. This nucleus of Chicago's present great
treasure house of books was organized and forwarded
under the direction of Thomas Hughes, prominent Brit-
ish author and publicist. An embarrassment of riches
proved to be the arrival of these books less than two
months after the fire, and a two-fold problem was pre-
sented because the city had neither authority to accept
and care for them at public expense nor were there suit-
able quarters in which to store them. Joseph Medill,
of the Chicago Tribune, mayor, passed the case on to a
special committee of citizens with Thomas Hoyne as
chairman. And where was this precious gift, requiring
a fireproof depository, installed? It was deposited in
an iron water-tank standing on trestles behind the tem-
porary city hall at the southeast corner of Adams and
La Salle Streets, this humble structure because of its
shabby exterior being known as the "Rookery," a name
that passed to a more stately successor on that site.

OfiFspring of First Fifteen Thousand

On January 1, 1873, was formally opened the new
library with sole function, however, that of a reading
room. The first librarian. Dr. William Frederick Poole
of Cincinnati, a man distinguished in his profession, was
appointed January 1, 1874. There were less than 15,000
volumes when books began to circulate, and in the first
year the daily average circulation was over 799. The
number of volumes has today become 1,100,000 and

138

home circulation has risen to 25,000 volumes per day.
And these great resources and services are represented in
no less than 1,800 different branches, stations, etc.,
whence books may be borrowed.

So much in brief of the Chicago Public Library of the
past. As for the future all hopes and policies are con-
tained within the idea that the library shall be brought
within easy walking distance of every citizen from his
home. The total number of registered users, that is to
say borrowers, is now 400,000 in a population of
2,700,000, or 15 per cent, an excellent proportion, but
it would be greater were facilities greater. The aim
announced ten years ago but not yet attained is *'a
branch library in every ward." This accomplishment
will not take fifty years, but nevertheless progress toward
it will be slow under present conditions. The library
board needs sites, locations and buildings, and with
buildings planned and built and owned by it. It now
has but five special buildings, whereas to secure thirty-
five or forty others there is needed a building fund of
$5,000,000 within the next ten years. The library's sole
revenue is the annual tax lately increased to 8/10 of a
mill. There are no endowments and in the fifty years
there has been but one bequest. Public-spirited people of
wealth should think of everybody's library as if it were
in the class of museums and hospitals and technical
schools. Chicago will surely sustain and expand what
England so spontaneously founded.

New Services Projected

A new educational service, perhaps, will be the cre-
ation of a home study bureau to advise as to the sys-
tematic courses of reading for individuals and clubs,
including building complete book service. Another fine
project awaiting opportunity is the extension of or-
ganized service to all hospitals. A yet unrealized hope
but not abandoned is no less a development than a busi-
ness branch on La Salle Street, equipped with every
sort of reference material. Such a branch would sub-
serve research for any occupation. Still another project
contemplates installing in public schools and in every
room 50-book deposits. At present are served about
one-fourth of the rooms, some 1,500, in this manner.

139

In each of the twenty-seven high schools it is hoped
eventually to have a fully equipped branch under com-
petent direction; and meanwhile must go forward serv-
ice to music art, the industrial arts, and the blind, and
the general subject of visual education will continue to
receive attention. Possibilities of instruction by pic-
tures, moving and otherwise, are fully appreciated by
the library management, which is discussing the idea of
a service of free picture films for schools, churches,
clubs and similar institutions or groups.

The library is doing its own executing as well as its
own dreaming, but much depends upon the public's be-
stowal of resources. Not in fifty years can these projects
be put through if the library must subsist solely upon
its normal income. There must be library development
means provided on a larger scale than supplied through
official sources, and therefore the board considers launch-
ing a publicity campaign to bring its needs and oppor-
tunities to public attention. Chicago must be "sold" on
its public library — 100 per cent "sold." Chicago must
come to feel throughout its entire population that the
library is worthy of current support and testamentary
benevolences. Surely it should not take half a century
to bring true the ideals of its friends today.

140

CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Rare Treasures Make Library and Museum One of the
Bulwarks of American Traditions

When Chicago was nineteen years old as a city, that
is, in 1856, a group of bankers, merchants, physicians
and lawyers decided that Chicago should then begin to
collect and preserve a record of her own history, of the
states carved from the old Northwest Territory and of
all America. Therefore they banded themselves together
under the name of the city which several of them had
helped to organize as a village in 1833. Todav these
city fathers are perpetuated in school buildings and
thoroughfares, although our children may not realize
the historic significance of such names as Kinzie, Barry,
Hubbard, Arnold, McCormick, Manierre, Ogden, Skin-
ner, Scammon, Ryerson, McCagg, Burley and Went-
worth. This group made itself the city's center of cul-
ture and here were laid the deep foundations of the Chi-
cago Historical Society, so deep and broad as to invite
such a superstructure as the great Gunther collection of
Americana which now awaits purchase.

WTien that well known citizen, Charles F. Gunther,
died in 1920 — and he had been for twenty years a di-
rector of the Historical Society — the latter took on the
responsibility of administering his great collection of
historical treasures and of paying to his estate $150,000.
Happy to say, 860,000 has been raised by the Society
and it is expected that a popular subscription will com-
plete the funds. Meanwhile, Chicago is losing much of
the advantage of the possession of these treasures be-
cause but a small portion can, by limitations of space,
be exhibited at the home of the Society.

Children's Museum of Americanism

What Chicago now has within its grasp is the com-
plete establishment of a children's museum of Ameri-
canism. When the collection of the Chicago Historical
Society shall have been amplified and enriched by pos-
session of the Gunther treasures, Chicago and other west-

141

ern children need not journey to eastern centers of his-
tory and antiquarian study, but in our own great city
can perfect their conceptions of Colonial and Revolu-
tionary America. Indeed, for twenty years the Chicago
Historical Society has been adapting its collections to
the understanding of children, and today Washington
and Lincoln and others of the Nation's great seem to in-
habit in their very personalities the halls of an institu-
tion which is one of the bulwarks of American traditions.
Constant and constructive are the activities of the So-
ciety, embracing the publication of ten large volumes
and over seventy lesser ones; historical lectures, an an-
nual social function, current topic talks, children's lec-
tures, Sunday afternoon talks on American ideals, Sun-
day suppers for soldiers during the war, hospitable re-
ception of kindred clubs and societies, development of
a rare library already comprising 100,000 volumes,
manuscripts, pamphlets, etc., including a collection of
early newspapers resorted to from all parts of the coun-
try, and of course an historical museum. The Society
also recognizes patriotic anniversaries and "Chicago
fire day." Did the Society have more ample support,
being maintained entirely by membership dues and the
interest of legacies, it could co-operate with every ac-
tivity that makes for a better city and a more united
Americanism.

Fire Destroyed Valued Possessions

From its foundation in 1856 the Society has been a
medium of expression of Chicago's best citizenship, its
members standing foremost for the successful prosecu-
tion of the Civil War and carrying their patriotic serv-
ice^ through all the years of Chicago's life story. By
1871 the Society had collected the very great number
of 100,000 volumes, etc., and installed them in a massive
fireproof building at the northwest corner of Dearborn
Avenue facing Ontario Street, the fine home of the So-
ciety today being at the corner of Dearborn Avenue and
West Ontario Street.

On Monday morning, October 9, 1871, this store-
house of treasures melted in the fire, its secretary. Colonel
Samuel Stone, nearly losing his life in a fruitless effort
tc save its records and the most precious of its docu-

142

merits, the original draft of Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation; and afterwards from the ashes there was
recovered but one book and one relic, the former a
handsomely bound edition of the Psalms of David, and
the latter an old Confederate sword. The ashes were
not cold before John Wentworth had laid the founda-
tion of a second collection by building up the files of
the Democrat from copies solicited from beyond the fire
region. Then came the fire of 1874, and such collections
as had been made in the intervening time were swept
away. Today the library and historical museum are
what they are by virtue of its founders and conservators
and the good will of an appreciative public, which will
surely call in the near future for enlargement of the
Society's resources and not unlikely the relocation of its
home.

143

CHICAGO AND THE ARTS

In a Great Market and Workshop the Fine and Decorative

Arts Are to Flourish and Music and Poetry Will

Further Assert Their Power

Art's influence upon the Chicago of tomorrow, gifts
of the sisterhood — architecture, landscape design, paint-
ing, sculpture, music, poetry — will disclose its inspiring
powers in fullest expression only as we of today train
the taste, kindle the imagination, enrich the mind, guide
the hand of those who are to create, the while agreeing
as an entire community that, although business be our
vocation, beauty shall be one spiritual quest.

Order prepares for beauty, and a vision of order dawns
upon Chicago, its prophecy being the Chicago Plan.
With order will come adornment, and, although the
quaint and picturesque of ancient Europe may not be-
come recreated in an American capital of commerce and
industry, behind less interesting walls but along sunlit
ways there will be a degree of health and comfort which
the new civilization will glory to achieve. And art will
begin to flow through the life and works of a people as
a quickening stream. Those who give thought to their
city known Chicago's faults, and, although these cham-
pions be not organized as such, are a constant and pro-
gressive band for its betterment and beautification; and
the Art Institute and public schools will have proven
power houses of execution.

Grace Will Gild Power

Ten years will give almost sensationally transforming
touches to this masterful city seeking the graces; and the
stately and monumental, the lovely and benign, will dis-
place many a hard and forbidding relic of a people
wresting success from the material, but attuned to the
spirit. Resident and stranger want a clean and smoke-
less city, and "strict control of the billboard horror, a
constant and hideous irritation." "It does not," further
writes a leader in the arts, "seem possible that 'big busi-
ness' can realize to what extent the polluted air and

144

flaunting billboards influence people against one of the
most wonderful cities in the world today. If they did
they would take such action that would shortly eliminate
both."

What is good in Chicago's buildings, bridges, towers,
parks and statuary and in decorative painting, will have
our own and the world's approval; and we shall be rich,
indeed, if, as one artist hopes may prove our fortune,
"this most characteristically American city shall possess
the greatest comprehensive collection of American art,
and if the Art Institute shall develop so as to house this,
and also contain the finest examples of the art of all
nations."

Restore Columbian Art Gallery

Eminent in his art, and of countrywide authority, is he
who wishes the following benefits to the city of his long
and enriching service:

The tangible thing that I have most desired for a score of
years is the development of the city's water front — the union of
Grant Park with Jackson Park by means of the outer drive and
the lagoon. This realization of Mr. Burnham's imposing vision
will glorify our city and serve all its people.

Another thing which I have greatly at heart is the restoration
of the Columbian art gallery to its original beauty and its recon-
secration to public service. In that building, which has been
called the most beautiful in America, I would like to see installed
a great museum of architecture and of American sculpture. Also
a wing should be reserved to neighborhood uses, with gymnasium
and auditorium. Such accommodations I would like to see multi-
plied and scattered throughout our city that every young man
and woman might have opportunity to develop physically and
socially, and, if so disposed, on lines musical and dramatic.

I hope to live to see the Midway surrounded by the imposing
structures of the University of Chicago and fitly decorated with
sculptural expression of the highest ideals of an ambitious and
aspiring citizenry.

But whatever we suggest or dream is to be so greatly surpassed
in the next half century that it seems almost idle to record our
hopes. How little did those stout-hearted men of 1871 foresee
the Chicago of today. We can but imitate them, each doing as
honestly as he can the little job assigned him; out of our united
efforts will develop the Chicago of the future, the true City of
Destiny.

Art's Great Storehouse

Distinguished among institutions of its class, whether
in the new world or among the more classic centers of art
in the old, is the Art Institute of Chicago, which requires

145

146

and deserves the public's continued appreciation and in-
creased support if the fine arts shall flourish in this city
as its ideals demand. The Institute is a popular pos-
session in two senses — it has the support of over 13,000
members, and last year over 1,000,000 people visited
its galleries. The Institute is now asking for the modest
sum of $1,000,000 to carry on and develop the work of
one of Chicago's major activities and nearly one-third of
this sum has already been subscribed. The Art Institute
is the recognized leader and dominant factor in Chicago's
art world, and its call to the public to aid in financing its
necessary expenditure and expansion is the result of
its position and growth. It faces a deficit in operating
income and at the same time faces the need for expansion
that is nothing less than compulsory. One of the city's
most famous cultural institutions receives from but a
part of the public support in entrance fees, while a small
South Park tax is but one-third or less of requirements
for operation of the Institute.

Institute's School of Art

It cannot be too frequently repeated that the Art In-
stitute of Chicago conducts the largest art school in the
world, and in the four decades of its existence the many
thousands of students who have received inspiration and
education in its classes have wielded an incalculable in-
fluence all over the world. In the life of the city the
museum wields a far greater influence. So great is this
influence that the Art Institute has become a veritable
communitv center, where rich and poor, throughout the
year, crowd through the doors that are never closed a
single day.

In activities as well as in number of visitors no other
art museum in America compares with the Art Institute.
In its hour of urgent need it is scarcely conceivable that
Chicagoans will not come speedily and gladly to the aid

Lorado Taft's "Fountain of Time" is a fragment of the sculptor's compre-
hensive scheme for the decoration of the Midway. Along with three bridges
dedicated to the Sciences, the Arts, and Religions, and a cordon of statues of
great idealists, he proposed some years ago a "Fountain of Creation" or evolu-
tion to be erected at the eastern extremity of the avenue and the "Fountain of
Time" for the sunset end. The model of the latter is now in place. ^ This
sculptural allegory is a recognition of the mystery of life; a presentation of
waves of ephemeral hum«n atoms as contrasted with the rock-like eternity of
Time. The conception was suggested by Austin Dobson's paraphrase of Ronsart:
"Time goes you say? Ah, no
Alas! Time stays, we go."

147

of an institution of such vital importance to the future
of our city. There should be more than sufficient ready
contributions to meet every need.

The increasing number of gifts of important art col-
lections, the growing school and demand for new features
and modern facilities have all combined to render addi-
tions of such insistent necessity that it is impossible to

The Municipal Art League and the Chicago Camera
Club, in a series of strikingly lovely postal cards for
public sale, are uncovering beauties in the material
forms of smoke-beset Chicago. Not a classic old world
ruin this, but the peristyle adorning the lake front.

Photo by Robert H. Conklin

148

ignore the conditions. The recent gifts of such splendid
collections as the Kimball and Palmer pictures will alone
require two galleries for their accommodation.

Chicago's increased interest in art is well exemplified

As dignified and stately as a Grecian temple— a section

of the portico of the Field Museum. This picture is

another art gift of the Municipal Art League and

Chicago Camera Club.

Photo by A. H. Born

149

in the two important prize competitions offered through
the Art Institute by the Chicago Daily News and the Chi-
cago Tribune, the Tribune offering a $5,000 prize for
mural paintings to decorate the walls of its local room,
and the Neivs offering $1,000 for a sculpture decoration
for a fountain to embellish the grounds about the Daily
News sanitarium for sick babies.

A reader of the accompanying interesting sketch of the
Chicago of the past fifty years will note that in a com-
munity having its own endowment in the arts there was
the happiest cultivation of opera to the degree of avail-
able resources — tomorrow a greater Chicago will read
that in 1921 this place became the first American city
to effect an organization of citizens to underwrite in their
private capacities the adequate production of grand
opera.

Grand Opera's Splendid Promise

A growing institution of exhilarating promise — and its
support would be an obligation of a municipality in Eu-
rope— is the Chicago Opera Company, which, resolving
to do a great share in making Chicago authoritative as a
music center in America, is about to enter on its eleventh
season, opening at the Auditorium Theater, Monday, No-
vember 14. Under artistic and business direction of
exceptional capacity, this company will present an array
of singers without serious rivalry in the world.

To assure that this undertaking shall attain the mag-
nitude and excellence proposed, and that it shall be re-
liably sustained and without undue burden anywhere,
there is being enrolled a body of 500 citizens and busi-
ness houses, becoming guarantors at not to exceed $1,000
a year for five years beginning May 1, 1922. If deficits
ensue in the early years of a splendid adventure — and
there have been deficits which but a few have generously
borne in the past — this guarantee fund will provide an
adequate sum to care for them. Half of the guarantors
has already been obtained. Public-spirited citizens of
means following the example of their like will not fail
to seek enrollment. Already the extent of the advance
subscriptions for the next season's seats indicates not only
encouraging financial support, but extension of the main-
tenance of opera among the people, that is the democ-

150

ratization of a cultural activity which needs to be made
financially available to become intensively developed.

Chicago's Cultivation of Poetry

A year ago the London Times, writing of the Chicago
publication, Poetry, a magazine of verse, Miss Harriet
Monroe, editor, made this interesting observation: "We
need not linger on the many English and French con-
tributors of this periodical. We do have to note that it
has published, as it honestly claims, much of the best
experimental poetry written by Americans in the past
eight years. They have succeeded in their primary de-
sign to create poetry which should be American in
thought, feeling, subject and form. That is after all a
distinguished achievement."

A tribute of moment this to a little institution of
authority and leadership peculiarly Chicago's own, an
instrument to make Chicago a center of influence in the
art of poetry, and recently drawing from the editor of
another London paper the interesting admission that,
speaking as he was in the office of this magazine, he was
"in the center of the English-speaking poetry world." It
is the opinion of the editor of Poetry that Carl Sandburg
and Edgar Lee Masters, both Chicago residents, are two
of the most distinguished poets now writing in English,
and that Vachel Lindsay of Springfield may be claimed
for the Chicago group, which includes also Eunice Tiet-
gens, Agnes Lee, Frances Shaw and, of course, the maga-
zine's editor herself.

The magazine. Poetry, comes to its ninth birthdav
October 1st of this year, and in this short but fruitful
period it has had the honor of introducing many poets,
among them some of the most famous, and it is generally
acknowledged to be the most influential organ of the art
now published and a true force in the development of
poetry in America. "Man does not live by bread alone,"
nor do peoples grow great without inspiring utterances
of the spirit.

A Center of Musical Study

During the last decade the musical activities of Chi-
cago have been increased to such an extent that the city
bids well to become the musical center of the country.

151

The first organizations in the field were the Theodore
Thomas Orchestra, now known as the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and the Apollo Club. The Apollo Club was
founded forty-nine years ago under direction of William
Tomlins. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra came into
existence about thirty years ago, with Theodore Thomas
as its director. When the Apollo Club was first organ-
ized Chicago was just recovering from the effects of the
great fire. It may be said that these two organizations
have been the main factors in making Chicago musical.
Today are found musical organizations in every large
corporation. Bands — the Chicago Band a leading ex-
ample— choruses, orchestras, fife and drum corps, are
all represented. With the growth of interest in organized
music has also come tremendous development of the
student body. Chicago runs a very close second to New
York in number of musical students. Coupled with the
growth of the city has developed the musical organiza-
tion known as the Civic Music Association, whose chief
reason for existence is Americanization through music.
It conducts free Sunday concerts in the outlying dis-
tricts, giving them in the field houses of the parks. In
these same places twenty-one children's choruses have
been organized which have received two lessons a week
from experienced teachers. The aim of these choruses
is to teach the children of the foreign born their own
folk songs in English.

Another development of the Civic Music Association
is the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Frederick Stock, di-
rector. This is the only organi2ation in the country
where an American trained musician can acquire experi-
ence and routine to fit him for work in the Symphony
Orchestra. Heretofore it has been necessary to use
foreign players for this highly specialized work because
of the fact that Europe has seen the value of symphony
training and in many cases men received their educa-
tion through government subsidy. This orchestra has
been in existence for but a year and a half and has
placed nine players in the major symphony orchestras
of the country.

Several choral festivals are held in the city and its
environs each year. First in importance is the North
Shore Festival at Evanston.

152

THE CHICAGO PLAN

What a City of Rapid and Unregulated Growth Has Done

and Is Preparing to Do by Means of a Model Plan

— United Public Backs Great Undertakings

Chicago's greatest conception for physical improve-
ment, and a model in principles for tihe entire world, is
the development scheme of the Chicago Plan Commis-
sion, now generally known as the "Chicago Plan." This
proposal of vision, practicality and magnitude, proceed-
ing from Daniel H. Bumham and Edward H. Bennett
under auspices of the Commercial Club, is now under-
going effective application in the reconstruction and ex-
pansion of a great city evolving without a plan from
frontier conditions.

The plan of Chicago contemplates solution of prob-
lems of transportation, recreation and public health, and
points the way to orderly municipal development. Twelve
of the major features of the Plan have been assured,
each of commercial benefit, while many have humani-
tarian consequences, but the philosophy of the Plan at
large is the attainment of commercial advantage.

The Plan, as submitted to the public twelve years ago,
has been given important and constant public emphasis
by Charles H. Wacker, chairman of the commission, and
by the late Walter D. Moody, managing director, while
at the same time major features of the Plan by approval
of the public have begun to be realized before its eyes,
and to secure conclusive and enthusiastic approval for
its principles and projects. By force of such circum-
stances, therefore, Chicago is beginning to consider its
own development as a problem of science and art, to ac-
cept a formulated program, to attain certain great and
popular ends and to urge that civic leaders cast their
"dreams" upon the sky. Chicago is ready to "dream"
and tomorrow execute.

Competing Cities Plan and Spend

There is a war of cities and the community which does
not design a practical and beautiful organism for business

153

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and residence may already see an imperilled future. Cities
competing with Chicago trade and industry are spend-
ing millions upon public improvements, and in Chicago's
determination for a progressive policy lies the secret of
its supremacy. It is not enough to be the greatest rail-
road center of the country when there is a lack of water
transportation, congestion of streets, inadequacy in ter-
minals. The relative commercial standing of Chicago, not
to speak of its distinct advance, cannot be maintained
without the application of this great city's great will to
such undertakings as the building of an industrial harbor
in Lake Calumet, of a vast transfer harbor at the Illinois-
Indiana border, completion of a waterway between Chi-
cago and the Gulf, and the bringing of deep sea ships
from all seas to Chicago by way of the Great Lakes and
St. Lawrence River. The creation of these indispensable
economic instruments require, however, large internal
improvements which will enhance the ease and economy
of doing business within Chicago itself.

The Chicago Plan is the paramount conception de-
signed to meet the requirements of a crisis. In realiza-
tion of certain great economic externals others will help,
but within itself Chicago must justify ambitions based
upon its central location, abundant raw materials, enor-
mous labor market and unlimited trade territory.

Improvement of Main Thoroughfares

Rehabilitation of railway terminals on the South and
West Sides will be a great improvement, but there re-
mains much to be done in further enlarging our railroad
and waterway facilities and in developing a scientific in-
terchange system. There is congestive traffic between
railroad terminals which could be handled better and
more cheaply elsewhere. Large areas of railroad prop-
erty are developed to only a small part of their use-
fulness and the true railroad and waterway transporta-
tion system is yet to come. Street traffic will benefit from
creation of a quadrangle of wide streets around the busi-
ness center composed of Michigan Avenue, Roosevelt
Road, Canal Street and South Water Street, and com-
munication will be further helped by the opening, widen-
ing and extension as main streets of such as Western
Avenue, Robey Street and Ogden Avenue, but there is

155

need for an enlarged program of street improvement,
because in the nine-mile width of Chicago there are but
three through north and south streets, and in its length
of twenty-six miles but twenty-two east and west streets.

Another Chicago plan project of much commercial
benefit is the effort to secure two blocks on Canal Street
between the Chicago and Northwestern depot and the new
Union station as the site for a new post office. Chicago,
the pivotal business point of the entire United States,
suffers inadequate postal facilities, and not only Chicago
but the entire country is the loser.

Attractive City Brings Great Wealth to Itself

The city which is attractive to an intelligent popula-
tion, arousing its pride and militant championship, is
also likely to be attractive to the world at large. The
next generation is growing up to accept as its own, and

Transformations of a century about the site of Fort Dearborn,
the timber walls of which rose on the near side of the river
where now sweeps broad Michigan Avenue crossing the
stream at two levels on Chicago's finest bridge. In the
river's center lies the Rush Street bridge discarded. Beyond
the queenly Wrigley Building the new Chicago Tribune
plant rests solidly at the right, and in the distance, were the
picture's area extended, might be seen Chicago's newest great
hotel, the Drake. Thence align themselves Chicago's most
beautiful mansions.

Permission of Ralph C. Diggins Company.

156

as features of a beautiful and distinguished city, the
Michigan Avenue improvement, the forthcoming lake
front park, forest preserves, Field Museum, the stadium,
and similar spectacular and useful improvements which
are to serve in splendid fashion the welfare of the people.
Travel and trade come to interesting cities and Chicago
must consider the advantage of the revenue to be derived
from hundreds of thousands of tourists. It is estimated
that money of this class amounts to $876,000,000 a year
in New York City : that before the war travelers spent in
Switzerland $150,000,000 a year, in France $600,000,000
a year, and that American travelers alone spent $500,-
000,000 annually in foreign lands.

Zoning and Housing

The latest development in city planning is city zoning,
and by the legislature Chicago has been given power to
divide itself into various districts, such as industrial,
commercial, residential and the like. The Chicago zon-
ing commission has been appointed and this essential
public service will begin to be undertaken, having in
view a plan recognizing the rights, proprieties, beauties
and decencies of harmonious metropolitan growth.

From the beginning Chicago's housing question has
been in the mind of the Chicago Plan Commission and
today, through suspension of building following the war,
the problem is more acute than ever. People continue in
great numbers to move to cities, and to supply proper
housing facilities both for the new-comers, and for the
thousands who have long suffered from fatal social neg-
lect, calls for a definite and comprehensive plan. Build-
ing will yet resume in Chicago on a great and perhaps
feverish scale. There may be urgency, haste and strenu-
ous competition. The vast numbers moving to this busy
workshop will demand and deserve adequate and eco-
nomic housing.

England has some experience to submit about the
building of houses under town planning control, and
about building houses within economic reach of work-
ing people. Chicago cannot too quickly and thought-
fully produce a housing program with which purposes
in general city planning and zoning are related.

From this brief survey of the Chicago Plan in the

157

broad, one may profitably proceed to more particular
mention of some of its features. The policy of grouping
public buildings as advocated in the Plan has stimulated
the formation of civic centers over the entire country,
notable examples appearing in New York City, Cleve-
land, San Francisco, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Buf-
falo, Denver, cities in which the principle already is
demonstrated or working out. Chicago alone, however,
parent of this movement, has up to the present taken no
step in the interests of economy, convenience and beauty
as regards its public buildings. In the Chicago Plan
the civic center has been designed for the vicinity of
Congress and Halsted Streets. The city's center of popu-
lation is at Fisk and Twentieth Streets, and has always
moved slowly in a southwestern direction from the days
of Fort Dearborn. For population and other important
reasons, this junction offers an ideal site for the civic
center. Here would be the keystone in the arch of civic

Double deck plan for reconstruction of South Water Street.

improvements for the general plan and by this would
be greatly benefited the West Side.

Revised Scheme for Civic Center

It may be necessary, however, to modify the original
scheme of the civic center, because for the last dozen
years the city and county building has established more
or less a present center of administration and so, retain-
ing the present city hall building for city hall purposes—

158

indeed, the building had outgrown itself before ready
for occupancy — and for special departments of justice as
related to that site, there might be erected a new group
of buildings at Halsted and Congress Streets, including
a town hall or auditorium, the municipal courts, state
appellate courts, juvenile courts and others, an Illinois
state building — the state alone has a score or more of
separate offices distributed about Chicago — a board of
education building, etc., and at the same time ground
should be secured for future extension of all these serv-
ices. In connection with this scheme, the diagonals orig-
inally converging at Congress and Halsted Streets, shown
in the Plan of Chicago, would not be executed but modi-
fied. Such would be a revised plan for a civic center.

Reconstruction of South Water Street

South Water Street, as Chicago's historic produce dis-
tribution center, defeats its own vital ends and the re-
moval of this great business and relocation elsewhere
is believed by many to be necessary to Chicago's recon-
struction and progress. The authorized improvement
of South Water Street according to the Chicago Plan
extends from the new Michigan Avenue bridge to the
Washington Street bridge and Market Street, a distance
of more than half a mile. It is proposed to complete
the marginal street along the Chicago River, connecting
the South Water Street improvement with Roosevelt Road
and extending it south into and beyond the great terminal
area. The service of such a street by reduction of traffic
congestion in the city's heart would be as much as 16 per
cent, acting in the removal of 15,714 vehicle trips per
day. Property valuations would also greatly increase.

Features of Reconstruction

The modernizing of South Water Street calls for a two-
level thoroughfare. The upper level will open from
the proposed plaza at the south end of the new Michi-
gan Avenue bridge, and this level will appear to be a
part of the normal adjacent street system. The lower
level will form an open, uncovered dock 25 feet wide,
accessible from the capacious double roadways of this
level, where the trucking traffic will be carried. The

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upper level will not resemble an elevated structure.
West from State Street it will be carried on a masonry
wall of fine architectural treatment, with arched open-
ings for lighting the lower level. The improvement will
offer opportunity for architectural effects in connection
with the new bascule bridges. The whole river front
scheme will follow similar lines, although not neces-
sarily two level, south to the great freight terminal area.
Those who surveyed all Chicago when they composed
the Burnham Plan — Chicago Plan — gave due thought
to system and harmony and therefore to the need of the
improvement and reorganization of the city's trade ter-
minals. Recommendation was made for a common
freight handling center properly related to all railroads
in the downtown district and to the docks. The Plan
Commission soon thought that to realize its great under-
taking the solution of the terminal situation was essen-
tial, and the commission's advance upon this problem led
other architects and engineers to study the subject and
evolve plans for terminal development. In time re-
sulted what is known as the Union Station ordinance
and Pennsylvania freight ordinance passed by the city
council March 23, 1914, and afterwards accepted by the
railroads interested. These ordinances benefited both
city and railroads. Among the advantages were the fol-
lowing:

Benefits Both to Railways and Public

Widening of viaducts between Canal Street and the
river to the full width of the street at uniform grades.

Opening of Monroe Street between Canal Street and
the river.

Widening of Canal Street and establishment of a more
uniform grade.

Provision for a double-decked connection between
Canal Street and the North Side.

Provision for the ultimate opening of Congress Street
to the width contemplated in the Chicago Plan.

Agreement to co-operate in the straightening of the
Chicago River, and steps to bring about this straighten-
ing between Polk and Sixteenth Streets have lately been
taken by the city council.

Chicago's freight terminal situation is a major prob-

161

lem of its future. All interests can agree that here is
unnecessary and uneconomic duplication of freight and
passenger facilities and services, because these terminals
are neither located, constructed nor operated as they
should be, whether viewed from the municipal or rail-
road point of view. It is a matter of unregulated devel-
opment; the question is one of improvement.

The Chicago Plan Commission — and the Chicago Ter-
minal Commission so recommends — believes that serious
study should be given to the advantages of the two or
three-level plan in the development of great facilities
in congested areas. Such a plan increases the capacity
of a given area much over 100 per cent. It permits the
use of greater space for standing teams and trucks and
makes possible the opening of thoroughfares above the
tracks and more intensive railroad uses upon the lower
level, thus increasing the value of these facilities for re-
ceipt and delivery of freight.

Co-operative Freight Stations

A railroad usually finds operating advantages in the
separation of freight and passenger terminals. This fact
is of great practical importance in preparing for the
electrification of railroad terminals. The cost of electri-
fication will be much reduced by simplification and
unifying the passenger tracks entering the city by re-
moving the present tangle of cross lines, by establishing
direct instead of round-about routes around the city, and
by the joint use of tracks available for and adequate
for more railway companies than now use these particu-
lar tracks. The Chicago Plan Commission believes that
the adoption of outlying co-operative freight stations
would greatly simplify the electrification of the more
central freight terminals and tracks. In this field of
study consideration has been given to the territory be-
tween the south branch of the Chicago River and State
Street and north of Eighteenth Street, because here the
terminals offer the greatest obstruction. Here, the city
planning authorities point out, is a situation which would
lend itself well to the application of the principle of co-
operative operation. In all such planning effort has
been made to secure the elimination of present railroad
grade crossings and opening up of streets for uninter-

162

rupted traffic without interference with railroad develop-
ment.

Straightening Chicago River

In many respects the straightening of the Chicago
River is the most important single step that can be taken
to improve the central terminal area. There is proposed
a direct channel between Polk Street and Dodge Street,
which would permit extension of Franklin Street and
streets east of Franklin as north and south thorough-
fares. Railroads own about all of the property involved.
The present curve or bend in the river's channel south
of Twelfth Street makes it very difficult to develop the
land lying between Dodge Street and the river. By
straightening the river, as the city council has very re-
cently proposed to do, the land lying between Clark
Street and the present river channel would be capable of
harmonious development along normal rectangular lines.

Terminal accommodations are already provided for
the railroads now using the present Union Station on
Canal Street, and there are enough to care for other
roads entering the city on the west which should logi-
cally use this station. The Illinois Central site on Roose-
velt Road could assemble all or most of the through
trains of the South Side, and such a station at the south
end of Grant Park offers opportunity for splendid archi-
tectural effect, and the broad right of way southward
for several miles along the lake with no grade crossings
makes the avenue of approach to the greater Chicago of
tomorrow of superior attractiveness.

It should here be said that the proper method of ar-
ranging for accommodation of the suburban service of
all railroads has not been worked out, but this problem
can be solved. A plan might contemplate an under-
ground railroad connecting the terminals, permitting of
a direct interchance of passengers between these ter-
minals on an overlapping basis and the routing of sub-
urban trains so as to eliminate existing congestion.

The Public Sees and Approves the Plan

In such late Chicago Plan undertakings as appear in
the widening of Michigan Avenue, construction of the
splendid two-level bascule bridge and developing of the

163

164

avenue's extension to the lake shore at the water works
— one of the world's spacious city improvements and to
become a boulevard of international distinction — the
Chicago public has seen initial steps in the realization
of the Plan, and a pride and confidence has been nour-
ished which was begotten when with the Plan's original
promulgation its creators projected the spectacle of a
magnified and be^mtified 1a!:e front from the north city
limits to Jackson Park. With fundamental features of
communication under execjtion like the "boulevard
link" and Roosevelt Road, lately Twelfth Street, the
people the more eagerly await consideration of such
,<7rand elements of the Plan as establishment of a civic
center, development of the lake front, improvement of
South Water Street, wideniag and extension of streets.

By tiie Chicago Plan is proposed the making of a lake
^roit pari' of about 1,700 acres, of which 1,500 will be
land a-ea, and the scheme would be worked out in con-
nection >:ith a commercial harbor, if such should be
built, knowii as harbor district No. 3. The park would
stretch from wrant P^rk to Jackson Park and the har-
bor from Sixt^nth Street to Thirty-first Street. Much
filling in would be '^d. Very extensive bathing

beaches, a lagoon d a four-mile racing course,

and adequate harbo. aany small craft are contem-

plated. The lagoon t protected water provides ideal
conditions for a great sk^.ting rink, and in such enclosed
lake rowing and canoeing ' , practical at all times during
the summer season.

Greater Development of Bathing Beaches

The people's resort o the lake for its bathing de-
lights has been a sigi 'ficant laovement in the field of
public amusement and liealth v/ithin the last few years,
and bathers have had t-) be actammodated by ten public
beaches and at the Non': Shor'j, Manhattan, Lake Shore,
Chicago Beach Hotel and otner private beaches. All
these beaches, public a:. J pr vate, had a total capacity
of about 175,000 people daily in 1916, and their use has
been about doubled since th?it date.

The proposed plan of the >ake frtont provides for five
beaches in addition to all casting, having a total ca-
pacity of about 200,000 people daily. While the ca-

165

pacity of the proposed lagoon beaches is really limited
only by the length of the water front from Grant Park
to Jackson Park, the capacity of the public beaches is
largely dependent upon the amount of dressing-room
space. The danger of pollution of the water will be
diminished as congestion is diminished, whether the
beaches are located in the lagoon or on the open shore.
Numerous cross-town car lines will bring this entire lake
front development in close touch with the West Side,
w^here the greatest need for access to the lake exi-ts.

Already completed is the first piece of the (;eneral
Grant Park improvement scheme shown by the beautili-
cation of the strip along Michigan Avenue between the
Art Institute and Randolph Street, where the; sunken
grassy area stretches northward to the stately peristyle
and fountain bordering upon Randolph Street and tb
southern end of the widened portion of Michigan '^-
nue. The treatment of the strip south of tht; Art
tute to the proposed Union station on Roosevj;it Road
will be mainly similar to that of the ncmh strip, a
colonnade and fountain balancing the frantain of the
"Great Lakes." The plan for the whole Grant Park im-
provement from Randolph to Twelfth Streets, east and
west of the railroad tracks, has b^-n prep ir^d, and
funds provided by bond issue.

Grant Park an All-Chicagr Meeting Plnce

Grant Park, raw and unfinxmed as it is. has become
an important factor in Chicago's larger liic, place for
public celebrations, for the formation of parades, and
for such great demonstratior s as the military tourna-
ment of 1910, the aviation meet of 1912, the Knights
of Pythias celebration aJ 1917, a review of the draft
army, war exposition in 1918, -with an attendance of
over one and one-half r'illion, and the armistice day
celebration. Grant Pai v is an indispensable utility
emerging into a state of o[der and beauty. One obvious
use of this area, as proven by int'.^usive current practice,
will be its many-sided service as an athletic field.

Features of Superb Improvement

By the provisior of the Chicago Plan a broad street
would be cut th igh G'^ant Park opposite Congress

166

Street, bridging it across the railroad, and expanding
Michigan Boulevard into a large plaza almost to the
tracks. In this situation Chicago should look for impor-
tant adornment in sculpture, and in the broad places
following this imposing entrance to the Lake Park. On
the east of the tracks are other places for sculp-
ture, and here would be the concourse laid out almost
square and approached through little wooded spaces.
Three levels are planned, each leading down toward the

This air view embraces the Grant Park area under develop-
ment after the Chicago Plan. A few years will transform
this area into the world's most splendid water front. For the
near side of the massive Field Museum is planned a spacious
and architecturally important stadium.

Permission of Ralph C. Diggins Company.

lake, giving a finer view of it than can be found any-
where on the present lake front. Trees would surround
the concourse on all sides providing natural openings
for large pieces of statuary, and it is believed by land-
scape architects that statues of Washington and Lincoln
would fit in here most appropriately. The dimensions
of this concourse or plaza would be 900 by 500 feet.
There would be provision for several small play-fields
and parking space for automobiles, and at the north and
south ends of the lake shore would be facilities for boat
houses, and to cut off the park from the commercial en-
terprises between it and the Municipal Pier on the north

167

CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION

IMPROVEMENTS EXECUTED, IN PROGRESS
AND PROPOSED

SEPT. 1921

EHBENNETI
CONSUITAHT

Status of improvements of Chicago Plan Commission, heavy lines

Map drawn for this book

168

irk executed; long dashes work under ordinance, and short dashes

iennett and Wm. E. Parsons.

169

■rrrr'

New Chicago towers begin to thrill the gazer, and more

practical bridges with lines of beauty span its vital stream.

The Michigan Avenue bridge will be marked by four

stately pylons bearing sculpture of distinction.

By permission of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architect* of
the Wrigley Building.

170

there could be created, by a fill-in, a wooded area. At
the south end a similar park development in front of
the Field Museum is projected. It should be noted in
picturing the beauties and utilities of this transformed
region that a bridge should span the mouth of the Chi-
cago River connecting the south lake front with the north
lake shore thoroughfare and Municipal Pier.

Place of Honor for War Memorial

A great accomplishment awaiting Chicago, in keeping
with the Chicago Plan, will appear in conception and
erection of a war memorial worthy the city and its heroic
sons. The metropolis of the Central West devoutly
acknowledges the patriotic duty which the near future
will command it to perform. Public sentiment is yet to
determine the nature and location of this memorial, but,
be it monument or community building or in other form,
its purpose requires that it be given the chief place of
honor in all Chicago, and it is tentatively proposed by
the Chicago Plan consultant that it take the form of a
commemorative monument and find its site in Grant Park.
It is pointed out that Chicago has on its lake front an
opportunity unique among the larger cities of America,
and in the proximity of the memorial, if placed in Grant
Park, to other features of the Chicago Plan, and near by
Michigan Avenue, which is assuming the superb char-
acter of the main highway of a great metropolis, there
would be accomplished what the people desire in such a
tribute and what the Chicago Plan invites in the nature
of its principles.

The memorial as proposed would be for the most part
beyond the railroad tracks and would fit in as an in-
tegral part of the park plan. The site of the memorial
would be on the central axial line, that is, on Congress
Street extended, of the whole arrangement of the plan
of the city of Chicago, as place of honor standing first.

Memoriars Stately Setting Victory Concourse

The idea calls for a plaza on Michigan Avenue west
of the tracks, which might be known as Michigan Place,
and could extend on a great causeway to the east. Here
would be raised the memorial. Its setting would be the
place of assembly 900 feet by 450 feet wide, to be known

171

as the "Victory Concourse," the latter surrounded by
monuments, the chief of these to be known as the "Me-
morial Arch," with colonnades or peristyles to be erected
to the men and women of the war. This motif running
parallel to Michigan Avenue and visible from it would
consist of colonnades, each about 250 feet long, and a

A view from the air, looking toward the lake, of Chicago's
intensely developed Loop. In the middle ground is a great
business house of famous name, with the Northwestern
Railway Station lying nearer the observer. Distant to the
far right is the Field Museum. New bascule bridges span
the Chicago River. Dimly on the city's lake edge stretches
Grant Park, rich in the potentialities of beauty and utility.
This view is declared the first aerial picture of the entire
central business district.

Photographed and copyrighted by Ralph C. Diggins Co.

central arch on the axial line of Congress Street and of
somewhat the general proportions of the world's most
majestic structure of its kind, the Arch of Triumph in
Paris.

A Splendid Proposal

The commemorative monument proper would rise to a
height of about 14-0 feet. Within the arch and the peri-
styles, and in its sculptured surfaces and groups, the
events of the war would be commemorated and the

172

names of the dead inscribed. At night the whole group
would be moderately illuminated. On the north of the
concourse would be an altar of justice and on the south
an altar of liberty, and on the east monuments to the
Allied nations, somewhat similar to those of the Place
de la Concorde in Paris, and there might be a monu-
ment to Allied statesmen and generals and a monument
to peace. East of such a grand arrangement as the "Vic-
tory Concourse" would be, by the plan already adopted,
a great public garden, and to the north playgrounds and
drives with arrangements of trees and the monument of
Abraham Lincoln, now about to be erected. To the south
beyond the noble Field Museum a great open air stadium
capable of seating 75,000 people is among the assured
improvements of the future. Within such environment
Chicago's war memorial would be taken as a splendid
possession into the heart of the city's life.
Status of Plan Projects

The board of local improvement is carrying out seven
street improvements proposed in the Chicago Plan, chief
among the projects being the Michigan Avenue develop-
ment with its magnificent bridge, already a practical im-
provement; work on the Roosevelt Road assures the peo-
ple of the enjoyment of an important east and west high-
way, and the transformation of South Water Street has
been ordered by the city council. Projects awaiting de-
velopment in the near future are the opening, widening
and extension of Western Avenue, Ashland Avenue,
Robey Street and Ogden Avenue. At present eighty-
seven different projects in every section of Chicago, and
of interest to the people of every class and location, are
pending before the Chicago Plan Commission for con-
sideration. These relate to improvement of street fa-
cilities in outlying districts, the making of roads radiat-
ing out from and encircling Chicago, the establishing
of a new traffic circuit girdling the city from Lake Michi-
gan on the north to the lake on the south and extending
for miles through the forest preserves system along the
Desplaines River.

Plan Commission's Improvement Schedules

The Chicago Plan Commission, realizing the principles
and projects of the Chicago Plan, is a body that designs

173

and recommends physical improvements for Chicago but
is not charged with their execution. This is the province
of the city government. Within the service of the. Chi-
cago Plan Commission are undertakings of two classes,
those designated as "new," and those as "in the making."
The location, and to some degree the relative signifi-
cance, of these improvements receiving official considera-
tion are herewith indicated by their characteristic names,
although space limits forbid further description of each
project:

IMPROVEMENTS OF GENERAL INTEREST

New

New Union passenger station

district
Archer Avenue
Ashland Avenue
Clark Street
Cottage Grove Avenue
Dearborn Street
Federal Street
Indiana Avenue
La Salle Street
Market Street
Outer Circuit
Pershing Road
Plymouth Court
Polk Street
Post office
Robey Street
Section and half section line

streets
Sherman Street
State Street
Wells Street

In the Making

Canal Street

Forest Preserves

Lake front park and harbor plan

Indiana Avenue

Ogden Avenue

Outer drive (bridge near shore
connecting north and south
side boulevard systems)

Polk Street

River straightening

Roosevelt Road

South Park Avenue

South Water Street

West Side railway terminals

Western Avenue

Ashland Avenue
Bryn Mawr Avenue
Clark Street
Devon Avenue
Lincoln Avenue
Foster Avenue
Rogers Avenue
Sanitary District Road
Sheridan Road
Tower Court
Wrightwood Avenue

North Side

Fullerton Avenue
Peterson Avenue
Ravenswood Avenue
Ridge Avenue
Wrightwood Avenue

174

South Side

Blackweil Street

Charles Street

Cottage Grove Avenue

Eighteenth Street

Eighty-seventh Street

Fifteenth Street

Fifty-fifth Street

Lake Calumet region

Ninety-fifth Street

Oakwood Boulevard

One Hundred and Third Street

One Hundred and Eleventh Street

One Hundred and Thirteenth

Street
One Hundred and Thirty-fourth

Street
Sixteenth Street
Stony Island Avenue
Taylor Street
Torrence Avenue
Twenty-second Street
Vincennes Road
Wentworth Avenue

Beverly Avenue

Fourteenth Street

Loomis Street

One Hundred and Third Street

Seventy-first Street

Sixteenth Street

Torrence Avenue

Twentv-second Street

West Side

Avondale Avenue

Cicero Avenue

Clinton Street

Congress Street

Crawford Avenue

Desplaines Street

Harrison Street (completed)

Halsted Street

Jefferson Street

Kedzie Avenue

Madison Street

Sanitary District Road

Taylor Street (viaduct completed)

Van Buren Street

Fifth Avenue (Colorado Avenue)

Milwaukee Avenue

Randolph Street

Van Buren Street (viaduct)

175

SUBWAYS

Chicago's Local Transportation Problem a Transportation

Problem Only, and Ought Not to Be Clouded

With Other Issues

Chicago with a surface line transportation system of
more than 1,000 miles of tracks — the largest single street
car system in the world — and an elevated system totaling
166 miles of tracks, still finds its local transportation
service inadequate at certain times of the day and faces
the task of supplementing the service afforded by existing
facilities.

The need of greatly increased capacity for transporting
people rapidly and comfortably between their homes and
places of business — for the rush hour problem is the
most serious — has been clearly understood by the public
for the past twenty years. This being true, one may won-
der why in all these years so little real progress has
been made. Almost from the beginning the public has
been united in the belief that subways were needed to
supplement the service of our surface and elevated lines.

Beyond this fundamental proposition, however, agree-
ment has ended and controversial issues have crept in.
Whether the subways should be built to compete with or
supplement existing means, whether they should be mu-
nicipally or privately owned and operated, whether they
should be built by city money or traction company
money, whether they should spread out over the entire
city, or be confined to the central business area, whether
they should be designed to make it more easy or more
difficult to get downtown, whether the rate of fare should
be changed, what shall be the method of controlling and
operating a unified traction system — ^these and many
other questions have been the subject of endless re-
ports, endless discussions, much political activity and no
accomplishments.

In 1916, the date of the report of the Chicago Trac-
tion and Subway Commission, there were more than
4,000,000 passengers carried daily on the city's surface
and elevated lines, and about 160,000 on steam and elec-

176

Iric interurban lines. Today ihe Iraflic is surely as heavy,
and probably greatly increased.

Requirements of Central Business District

Physically, Chicago is about 26 miles in length, about
8 miles wide and with an area of 200 square miles. Willi
the immense trafllc load c^arricul daily it is a remarkable
fact discb)se(l by this study that 18 per cent of the car-
riding public work within an area of 5 square miles, em-
bracing the central business dislricl. In a similar area of
12 square miles 53 per cent of the people work, and in
an area of 23.5 square miles 63 per cent find employ-
ment.

Despite tendencies in recent years for business and
industrial concerns to seek locations removed from the
central business district, the above facts prove without
contradiction that any subway system which helps to
carry the public to and from their place of business must
make ample provision for the central business area. This
statement is not intended to ignore those important out-
lying business and industrial centers whose rapid devel-
opment in recent years has brought transportation prob-
lems of local character fully as important to them as
those of the loop district.

Chicago's transportation problem is city-wide and any
solution attempted must regard it in this light. It is
undoubtedly true, as outlying interests have alleged, that
Chicago needs subway or elevated lines to adord better
communication between outside centers without com-
pelling a trip through the central business district. This
requirement can easily be met in any well considered
plan of improvement.

One Unified System

The question of a unified system of local transportation
operating under one management, and with ownership
under one body, may perha])s be considered controver-
sial, yet it is believed by many that if this one question
were submitted to public referendum with all other de-
batable issues removed, it would receive the support of a
large majority. Leaving aside the questions of munici-
pal or private ownership and operation, it must be ap-
parent that one unified system under single ownership

177

and management can be more economically operated and
more effectively moulded to serve the public than two or
more competing systems separately owned and managed.
The public will be largely satisfied when it can secure
good service at a fair price and it is therefore legitimately
interested in any method which promises such service.

It may perhaps be worth while to suggest that much
progress in reaching a solution of Chicago's transporta-
tion problem may be made by considering a few of the
fundamentals involved in city-wide conferences held be-
tween election periods and when the opportunity to arrive
at calm judgments is perhaps more favorable.

Discussion of subway financing involves questions of a
debatable nature and immediately brings up the old ques-
tion of municipal versus private ownership. On this
question it may be observed that too often the funda-
mental of service to the public has been forgotten and
plans supported or opposed solely upon the question
of whether they carried the proper label. The real issue
is not the type of ownership or Chicago's ability to
finance subways or other transportation improvements.
The chief difficulty has been the public's apparent will-
ingness to be led astray by well phrased issues actually
not fundamental.

Let the People Understand and Act

Chicago must and will work out her transportation
problem within the coming few years if she is to hold
her splendid development. If this city seriously wants
to get a real transportation system, giving every part of
the city satisfactory service, for one thing it will keep
everlastingly at it instead of permitting the question to
sleep and to be brought forth periodically as a political
issue. Greatest public attention will be devoted to the
issue between election periods. The aim will be to secure
city-wide understanding of the problem. The fundamen-
tal of service must not be clouded by other issues. Chi-
cago will first work out the best plan which will provide
the service; it will then endeavor to adjust the financing
to bring the plan into being; it will not be misled by
arbitrary rates of fare proposed, but will work out and
stand for that rate, which will, step by step, transfer the
plan into a reality.

178

Had the wonderful Chicago Plan been submitted as a
whole to public referendum shortly after 1908, when it
was born, it would undoubtedly have been rejected be-
cause of lack of appreciation of its benefits. Instead, the
Chicago Plan Commission has educated the public to
understand what the city plan means, and step by step
is bringing it into being. Yet every few years there is
brought forth in Chicago a complicated transportation
plan, including subways, and before the public fully
understands its provisions, they are asked to approve the
plan as a whole. Is there not a lesson Chicago can
learn from past experience in subway and transportation
planning?

179

RAILWAY TERMINALS

Principles of Railway Terminal and Plan Commissions to

Get Greater Efficiency in Handling Passenger and

Freight Traffic and Develop New Areas for

Commerce and Industry

In the year of the outbreak of the great war, 1914, the
world's railway center, acting through its city council,
created the Chicago Railway Terminal Commission, and
in that year was visited Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New
York, Liverpool, Manchester, London, Paris, Brussels and
Antwerp, and it was the plan of the commission to in-
spect rail and water terminals in Frankfort, Hamburg,
Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Budapest, Kiel, Copenhagen
and Stockholm, but the outbreak of the war arrested the
tour of the party in Belgium. Of much value, however,
was the expedition and, fortified by its discoveries, by
previous study by the city council, by the voluntary work
of civilian experts and the service of the Chicago Plan
Commission, the Chicago Railway Terminal Commission
came to a determination of fundamental principles which
contemplated economy and efficiency in the work of the
railroads in handling passenger and freight traffic, in
promoting the interests of shippers and passengers, in
enabling the general public to conduct its business with
the least practicable congestion of streets and interference
with the expansion of present business districts and de-
velopment of new areas of commerce and industry, and
in enabling the city as a whole to shape its general de-
velopment policies for the general good.

Co-operation in Terminal Administration

The problem of the railway terminal expert relates not
to the scientific creation of terminals in an unbuilt city,
but to the readjustment of railroad terminal facilities in
an unordered and complex community. A single ter-
minal company could operate a combined and co-opera-
tive terminal system with decrease of cost and increase
of efficiency. Considerations that brought about union
passenger stations at railroad centers has compelled

180

favorable consideration of union freight terminal plans,
and the public has realized the convenience of co-opera-
tive terminal facilities for passenger traffic, although im-
portant instances exist of competitive passenger terminals.
It is the belief of the Chicago Railway Terminal Com-
mission that in the terminal handling of freight the
pressure of the public and the needs of the railroads will
gradually bring about the adoption of co-operative meth-
ods and facilities in place of competitive methods and
facilities, and it is further the conclusion of the commis-
sion that the key to the solution of Chicago's railway
terminal problem respecting both freight and passengers
is to be found in joint and co-operative rather than in
separate and competitive terminals.

If the terminal situation were treated co-operatively
there would be simplification at once of the tangled net-
work of tracks, release for business of valuable property
now held by the railroads for present competitive pur-
poses or prospective competitive needs, reduction of
operating costs and increase in efficiency. As to subur-
ban and through passenger service, the two classes do not
require the same accommodations. Various services can
be co-ordinated with great advantage and so secure the
more intensive use of rights of way.

Less Than Carload Traffic

It is thought many existing disadvantages in the
handling of less than carload traffic might be obviated
by loading such freight at receiving stations or team
tracks directly into trap cars for outlying stations or
yards located on less valuable property and equipped
for sorting and schedule loading of L. C. L. freight.
Indeed, the commission would apply the co-operative
principle by establishing in centers of traffic some uni-
versal freight receiving stations for outbound L. C. L.
freight. This would reduce unnecessary teaming and
street congestion. The commission favors consideration
of the two or more level plan in the future development
of freight facilities in congested areas.

Forthcoming electrification would be greatly reduced
by simplifying and unifying the passenger tracks enter-
ing the city; by removing the present tangle of lines;
by establishment of direct instead of roundabout routes

181

within the city; and by the joint use of tracks available
for and adequate for more railway companies than those
which now utilize these particular tracks. The adoption
of outlying co-operative freight stations would greatly
simplify the electrification of more central freight ter-
minals and tracks.

3
o

C/3

182

Since its creation the Railway Terminal Commission
has acted in an advisory capacity to the city council on
all matters pertaining to railway terminals. In this way
it has been enabled to direct all actions of the council
in matters pertaining to them.

After the passage of the West Side union station ordi-
nance, the two problems of greatest importance as affect-
ing the terminal situation in the central business district
were: first, the development of an adequate passenger
terminal station on the property of the Illinois Central
Railroad on the lake front and Roosevelt Road; second,
the straightening of the Chicago River and the rearrange-
ment and consolidation of railroad terminal facilities in
the territory south of the Loop district between State
Street and the Chicago River.

The passage by the city council July 21, 1919, of
the so-called Illinois Central-lake front ordinance was
the culmination of several years' intensive work on the
part of the commission and was considered one of the
most important developments in connection with the rail-
way terminal problem of Chicago. This ordinance pro-
vides for construction of a passenger station on the lake
front at Roosevelt Road, of a capacity to take care of
all the direct passenger trains now using the Dearborn,
LaSalle and Grand Central Stations. The interests of
prospective tenants in this station are amply safeguarded
in the ordinance and all of the facilities provide for the
entrance of other railroads into the station. This ordi-
nance was drawn entirely by the Railway Terminal Com-
mission and all of the work thereto originated in the
office of the commission.

To Straighten Chicago River

Since the passage of the Illinois Central-lake front
ordinance, the commission, in addition to its regular
duties of passing on railway terminal matters, has given
a great deal of time to the consideration of the railway
terminal situation south of the Loop district. The studies
in connection with this project are embodied in the re-
port submitted by the chairman in March, 1921.

Briefly, this report recommends the straightening of
the Chicago River between Polk Street and Sixteenth
Street; the removal of the three existing passenger sta-
tions; the construction of a sub-level suburban station

183

about on the site of the present LaSalle Street Station;
the consolidation and concentration of all of the rail-
road facilities in the territory between Clark Street and
the straightened Chicago River, south of Taylor Street
and between Wells Street and the river north of Roose-
velt Road; the construction of freight stations in this
territory on a two-level plan with special freight house
driveways serving the freight house on the viaduct level ;
the opening of new thoroughfare streets through the terri-
tory on the viaduct level and the construction of the
freight facilities so that it will be possible to develop
the air rights over the railroad freight house for com-
mercial purposes; the release for commercial occupation
of all the territory now held by the railroads between
Clark Street and State Street, south of Polk Street, and
between Clark Street and Wells Street, north of Taylor.

Would Open Four New Streets

Such a plan, if carried out, w^ould entirely remove
the so-called "iron band" which is preventing the south-
ern expansion of the Loop district. It would permit the
opening of four new thoroughfare streets leading into
the district from the south. It would permit of the devel-
opment of State Street south of Van Buren as a con-
tinuous business thoroughfare, and entirely change the
general aspect of all of the territory south of Van Buren
Street, since under the plan the railroad facilities would
be entirely covered by commercial property, and to all
intents and purposes the property occupied by the rail-
roads would have the same appearance as other com-
mercial property.

The benefits to the railroads would be that under such
a plan they could secure double their present facilities
without cost, since the rental on air rights would be more
than sufficient to pay the interest on the cost of the rail-
road facilities, and in addition thereto, they would have
available what has been conservatively estimated as $60,-
000,000 worth of property no longer needed for railroad
purposes.

The last session of the legislature empowered the city
to straighten the Chicago River to open new streets.
The city council has instructed the commission to con-
tinue the study of the subject and to report.

184

ZONING NEW CHICAGO TASK

Commission Acting Under Good Law Will Attack One of
the Problems of Chicago Plan

In a primary sort of way Chicago, as early as 1863,
had considered the location of certain industries with
reference to their nature. From 1910 to the present the
city ordinances have provided that in residence districts
frontage consents shall be required for not less than
twenty-seven different kinds of industries and buildings.
When the legislature in the 1919 session authorized Chi-
cago to lay out zoning districts, and when Mayor Thomp-
son recently appointed the city's first zoning commission,
practically every business subject to restriction under the
present state law had been restricted by the city council.

It was full time for the introduction of the zoning prin-
ciple. The necessary enabling act had been got after a
bill in the previous legislature had been defeated and
after various civic bodies had done much to bring about
such legislation.

Illinois Has Superior Zoning Legislation

Even the 1919 zoning law, believed when passed to be
adequate, was found later to contain certain cumbersome
provisions, which led business and civic organizations to
seek the passage of a new act by the 1921 legislature.
This effort was successful and Illinois today has what
zoning experts generally admit to be one of the best
zoning enabling acts in the Union. Empowered by the
1919 act the city, through a council committee and rep-
resentatives of civic bodies, visited ten cities in the United
States and Canada where zoning was an accomplished fact
or under progress. Then resulted the holding in Chicago,
December 16 and 17, 1919, of a citizens' zone plan con-
ference, and Chicago by aid of visiting authorities and its
own experts effectively concentrated attention upon this
urgent problem.

There are two classes of zoning ordinances, one being
known as the "piecemeal" type and the other as the
"comprehensive" type, the latter now in operation in New

185

York City and St. Louis. Los Angeles in 1909, estab-
lishing the first zoning ordinance in this country, adopted
the "piecemeal" type. The Chicago ordinance calls for
the "comprehensive" type. The New York ordinance,
adopted in 1916 — and one of its most satisfactory provi-
sions is the creation of a board of appeals — has in a gen-
eral way received city-wide approval, and there has been
surprisingly little attempt to change it. The changes in
the St. Louis ordinance were small and affecting but a
slight percentage of the city's area, and the ordinance,
which was adopted at the time when no building was
taking place, has had general approval.

What Zoning Means

Zoning has two phases, one dealing with general de-
velopment and organization and the other with the devel-
opment of the smaller district or neighborhood so as to
promote the best interest of that neighborhood for resi-
dential use, or for industrial use, or any other use which
it is most fitted to serve. A building is well located and
brings the best results when with its kind, and so it is the
function of zoning to supplement and encourage a natural
tendency toward segregation. Zoning involves the rela-
tions of business and industrial centers, residences, apart-
ment house, and the single family home owner, and zon-
ing facilities the segregation of different kinds of traffic.
Zoning, too, deals with housing congestion, building
heights, building lines, billboards and erection of build-
ings new and old.

Zoning in Chicago will have a constant relation to the
comprehensive scheme of city building known as the Chi-
cago Plan. It will supplement and preserve the best
characteristics of the districts the Chicago Plan seeks to
open up or extend.

City planning attempts to create a city which functions
to best advantage for all of the interests it serves, by
means of the arrangement of streets, transportation sys-
tems, parks, public buildings and so forth in an orderly
and economical manner. Zoning preserves the values
city planning creates by regulating the use of private
property for the benefit of all.

City planning and zoning experts have joined in pictur-
ing the benefits Chicago will enjoy by orderly develop-

186

ment under a zoning ordinance, which they believe should
be broadly conceived and without complicated or irritat-
ing limitations. All zoning ordinances are based upon
restrictions to the use, height and area of lot occupied by
a city's buildings and in this respect Chicago's ordinance
when completed will be similar to those of cities already
enjoying the benefits of zoning. Differences will arise
chiefly in working out these restrictions to suit the special
conditions of our city.

Chicago's Zoning Commission Has Momentous Task

Chicago is one of the world's metropolitan cities, com-
bining in one community and on a grand scale the prob-
lems of the residential, commercial and industrial city.
None of these problems will be simple of solution and
perhaps the most difficult will be the industrial. With more
railroad systems and a greater belt line mileage than
any other city in the world, Chicago's Zoning Commis-
sion faces a momentous task in working out the highest
and best uses of the property fronting these lines. Wise
restrictions in our present building code, and a fairly
well laid out system of local transportation, have some-
what simplified the problem of determining residential
and commercial areas.

In developing Chicago's zoning ordinance, which, with
the experience of other cities as a background, should be
the best of any city in the country, every citizen is con-
fronted with a definite responsibility. We must learn
what zoning means, understand thoroughly that it will
bring individual and collective benefits to all, suppress
all selfish or personal interests for the common good, and
be prepared at all times to co-operate whole-heartedly
with the authorities in this difficult task.

187

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Elements of Chicago's Leadership as Economic Center

aApDnj;suo3 SupiAui saaiAjag piiB sapjioj puB

Thought — Commercial Arbitration Court —

Advertising and Investing

It can scarcely be said of the commerce and industry
of Chicago that it needs certain changes and improve-
ments, as one might say of the needs of a defective busi-
ness or municipal corporation. The advantageous con-
ditions which have drawn manufacture and trading to
this continental center are comparatively fixed in their
operations, and whatever can be done to perfect these
is a problem of broad and collective action. The com-
pelling genius, the onward, victorious spirit is here, and
there remains agreement on community-wide issues and
the ways and means of progressive action removed from
the sphere of extravagant and superlative speech. Chi-
cago in fact is already an accomplishment so extraor-
dinary that its story and message can be adequately de-
livered without excess of phraseology.

Factors of Supremacy

Here we are today with all the powers, however un-
regulated, of invincible youth, superior because of our
geographical location with proximity to the national
population center; because here is the meeting place of
many land and water paths; because of our nearness to
an abundance of national wealth, and because of the
vision of the pioneers who foresaw a great city and went
through flames to make it. Today, if Chicago were
consciously to plot a program of economic develop-
ment, would there not be emphasized first the factors
of land and water transportation, the multiplication of
industries, the conservation and development of public
utilities, the internal reconstruction and beautification
of a planless city, and the balanced expansion of that
invaluable fact and name, the Great Central Market?

By the 40 per cent of the railway mileage of the
United States concentrated here are served 50,000,000

188

people. The wholesale trade of this continental dis-
tributing center in 1920 was estimated at $6,000,000,000
and here is conspicuously the world's greatest market
for livestock, grain and lumber, and here is held a com-
manding position in the distribution of general merchan-
dise, foodstuffs, seeds, machinery, jewelry, pianos, wear-
ing apparel, automobiles, furniture and household ar-
ticles. As producer and distributor putting forth
from its manufacturing zone annually, from more
than 20,000 factories, goods valued at $6,500,000,-
000, it has the indispensable co-operation of banks with
joint resources of nearly $3,500,000,000. This volume
of products of the metropolitan industrial district, Chi-
cago, has grown from that of the city of 1870, one
year before the destructive and re-creative episode of
the great fire, when the estimated output was worth $92,-
518,742. Here center the raw products of the Mississippi
Valley — iron, copper, lead, zinc, petroleum, lumber,
wool, hides, grain — and here the constructive thought
of the entire country finds expression in the meeting
of 700 conventions a year in the convention city of
America. From this distribution center move daily
2,500 through package cars to 1,800 points with one
transfer of service to more than 60,000 others. Here
is developed manufacturing power unlimited — coal gas
and electricity — and here a score of nationalities offer
the labor of hand and brain.

Chicago's Future in Its Tributary Territory

Conditions of Chicago's growth heretofore promise
indefinite expansion. This can be affected favorably or
otherwise by its larger economic policies, and transporta-
tion is of course qualifying all. At this railroad center is
laid in the case of many great lines the first or last rail
of their system. Without these gigantic instruments of
progress an empire of the West would not have been and
Chicago would have continued a portage.

Chicago's future depends upon the greater develop-
ment of its tributary territory. Leaders of Chicago
commerce have long held the supreme idea of the open
door — frequent exchange of products — believing that
the greatest extension of its own trade is found in serv-
ing the best interests of all other communities. Within

189

a Chinese wall may be stagnation. Any policy that re-
stricts the freest distribution of products must prove
harmful both to the railways and the commerce of the
country — the commerce of Chicago. "Carrying coals to
Newcastle" is exceedingly profitable to the carriers, as
it is to the country's buyers and consumers. The com-
merce and industry of Chicago as well as of the country
at large have been built up in recognition of this prin-
ciple. Transportation charges for years have been so
adjusted as to permit of the most extensive distribution
whereby all have been benefited to a greater or less ex-
tent. Now, however, come evidences pointing to serious
restriction of distribution, the outcome being far-reach-
ing and possibly fraught with results unfavorable to all
communities.

Problem of Railroad Consolidition

The federal transportation act of 1920 instructs the
Interstate Commerce Commission to propose a plan to
be submitted to congress for the consolidation of all the
railroads of the country into a limited number of sys-
tems. It is now thought that the report of the com-
mission finally submitted may propose about twenty
systems for the entire country. Such a proposal is, of
course, not only unique but may be looked upon as
somewhat revolutionary. Nevertheless, Chicago and the
country must face it, having in mind two vital phases
of the question — first, will such a reconstruction scheme
tend to bring greater efficiency in operation so that trans-
portation charges may be materially reduced and at the
same time adequate revenues produced for the carriers;
and second, will such a plan tend to encourage the
broadcast distribution of the commerce of the country
and will a few large systems be as considerate of the
welfare of the individual shipper as are the present
many smaller systems? These points are of equal im-
portance. The welfare of the carrier means or should
mean better and more service, and the widest distribu-
tion of commerce at a cost comparable with fair return
to the carrier is in the interest of both carrier and ship-
per. This book expresses no convictions on this mat-
ter, its purpose being to invite attention to this new and
highly important phase of the transportation question,

190

one of vital concern to Chicago and all sections of the
country. It is to be expected that the business interests
of Chicago will approach judgment on this great issue
from a broad point of view — what is best for the com-
merce and industry of the country as a whole must ulti-
mately benefit the carriers.

Things Practical to Do

The normal growth of this great market and work-
shop finds constant stimulus in the rivalry of other ad-
vancing centers of population, trade and industry, not
to speak of the operation of forces expressed in prob-
lems resulting from the great war. To meet such new
situations there must be policies and facilities and the
future invites concentration upon certain practical
projects. The business success of the Pageant of Prog-
ress in 1920, considered with the distant background of
the trade and sample fairs which are increasing in Great
Britain and Europe, counsels Chicago to make an or-
ganized effort to create periodic international great fairs.
Place and time are opportune and this city's interest in
the extension of its world trade urges serious study to
develop such an enterprise.

Another new institution which students of Chicago's
foreign trade problem advocate, and which is as yet un-
known to this great market, is a commercial museum
containing a permanent exhibit of goods in demand by
foreign countries and which can be supplied by Chi-
cago. Chicago requires the benefits of world trade pro-
motion, of market advertising, of foreign trade organi-
zation. Not enough foreign business men are familiar
with the Great Central Market in its true extent as a
source of supply of goods required throughout the
world.

Chicago's Vast Foreign Trade Uncredited

The statistical methods of the United States govern-
ment permit the disclosure of but a meager portion of
the export trade of Chicago, because exported goods are
credited not to the place of origin but to the port of
exit. Inquiries by The Chicago Association of Com-
merce lead to the conclusion that this city's foreign trade
in 1920 may have been as great as $1,750,000,000 or

191

Tower of business strength to be raised as keystone of LaSalle
Street stronghold.

See opposite page.

192

$2,000,000,000, and indeed possibly as great as $3,000,-
000,000. In that year the enormous foreign trade of
the United States amounted to $13,358,963,000, of which
perhaps the very considerable portion of 20 per cent is
to be credited to the Chicago district. One Chicago in-
dustry alone in 1920, that is the packing industry, ex-
ported not less than $1,160,000,000 worth of products
and the amount of Chicago's grain exports in the same
year was 285,000,000 bushels.

Chicago as a Free Port

A new facility which may in time distinguish the Great
Central Market as a point of export is a free port such
as is now being discussed for the great port of New
York and as is now in operation in such foreign cities
as Hamburg and Danzig. It is reasonably contended
that such an institution would greatly stimulate Chi-
cago's foreign trade and would be easy of establishment
by virtue of the practical creation of Chicago as a sea-
port by the development of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
waterway project. When Chicago becomes connected
with the Atlantic and the Gulf by deep sea ship services
additional steam.ship companies will establish offices here
and it will be possible to book freight over any route
and to any port of the world right here in Chicago, and
that day consular and commercial representatives from
every nation in the world will be active promoters of
trade on this spot. Meanwhile, Chicago should be sys-
tematically active in sending its own trade emissaries
abroad from this city; and Chicago should also sys-
tematically prepare to inform its local merchants, man-
ufacturers and exporters of the visit of foreign buyers
to this country, so that their coming to Chicago shall not
be casual and accidental but in fulfillment of a calcu-
lated American business program.

The establishment of a foreign trade bank under the
Edge act, supplementing the services of local institu-

On the opposite page appears the massive structure to be erected by the Board
of Trade, with possible modifications and when business conditions favor, at the
southern end of Chicago's financial fortress, LaSalle Street. On diagonal corners
■will be respectively the Federal Reserve Bank, approaching completion, and the
bank supplanting that of the Illinois Trust and Savings, resulting from consoli-
dation of the Illinois Trust, the Merchants' Loan and Trust and Corn Exchange.

By perrai88ion of B. A. Eckhart, chairman of building committee, and Holabird
& Roche, architects. Mr. Eckhart's associates are George M. Reynolds, James A.
Patten, John H. Jones and Joseph Simons.

193

tions, might make more effectual the purposes of this
city in foreign trade development.

Two agencies of progress springing out of the re-
quirements of business, and calculated to be of much
service in the future as they have already proven to be
in the short period of their existence, the Commer-
cial Arbitration Court and the Advertisers' and Investors'
Protective Bureau, both services having been started for
the general welfare by The Chicago Association of Com-
merce, the former designed to adjudicate business dis-
putes without resort to the public courts, and the latter
operating already with striking effect in the regulation
of misrepresentative advertising and the control of the
flotation of unprofitable and fraudulent investment se-
curities.

Commercial Arbitration Court

The Commercial Arbitration Court has been acclaimed
both at home and abroad as one of the most unusual
business undertakings ever assumed by a group of pri-
vate individuals. The movement began in 1917 in an
effort to promote the adjudication of commercial cases
by voluntary tribunals very much as is done in England.
Appropriate new legislation has been secured from the
state of Illinois and the Supreme Court of Illinois has
this year sustained the constitutionality of the act and
passed on certain matters of procedure thereunder. The
Commercial Arbitration Bureau was established May 4,
1921. The manager has already arbitrated a number
of important causes, and a corps of 165 arbitrators has
been formed, three trade experts from each of the fifty-
five subdivisions of The Chicago Association of Com-
merce, giving to litigants a wide range of selection of
arbitrators. But the most important work yet done has
been drawing the attention of business concerns to the
benefits of this form of adjudication. It is not possible
to estimate the total number of causes that are being kept
from the public courts as a direct result of the bureau's
operations, but it is known that as a result of this move-
ment many disputants have selected their own arbi-
trators and hearings have been heard in private. Re-
sults so far obtained have exceeded the greatest expec-
tations of those who have been responsible for the

194

establishment of this new facility for the promotion of
justice with peace.

Advertisers and Investors' Protective Bureau
Also unusual, effective, too, but little heard of, is the
Advertisers and Investors' Protective Bureau, the func-
tions of which relate to and control in way of cen-
sorship financial exploitation and commercial publicity,
to the end that the offering and sale of fraudulent and
hazardously speculative securities are prevented and
misrepresentation in merchandise advertising is elimi-
nated. The manager of the bureau, a special investi-
gator for the secretary of state in administering the Illi-
nois blue sky law, has in the past two years reviewed
for the Illinois secretary of state proposed flotations of
securities amounting to $660,000,000, approximately
40 per cent of which was declined approval for sale in
this state. The bureau has also the unreserved co-opera-
tion of the Chicago newspapers in excluding undesirable
advertising of every character. The triple powers of
state, press and The Chicago Association of Commerce,
with actual membership of nearly 7,000 and an asso-
ciated and influenced membership of not less than 50,-
000, enable this bureau to function successfully with-
out threat, coercion or prosecution to a degree which
has won great and wide commendation.

A new and important service to the Great Central
Market is found in the organization this year by The
Chicago Association of Commerce of the Interstate Mer-
chants' Council, of which the first general convention
will be held early in 1922. Twenty-six states are now
represented in the growing membership. It is planned
to hold conventions in Chicago twice each year. The
purchasing power of the merchants concerned is great.

195

CHICAGO IN BANKING

This City's Financial Strength Cares for Its Commerce

and Industry and Assures Adequate Growth to Meet

National and World Requirements

In banking resources and financial strength Chicago
has grown even faster than in industries and commerce,
and never in her history has the ability to finance all
of her commercial activities with a surplus of funds for
permanent investment been more evident.

New wealth from the soil, the forest and the mine is
the wellspring of Chicago's happy condition. Chicago
may never hope to displace New York as the country's
money center, but the time is rapidly approaching when
it may, at least, share the honors with New York more
evenly than today.

Recently an officer of an old Chicago bank visited
New York to discuss the feasibility of opening in that
city a working agency or branch of his bank, not to
receive deposits but to perform such other functions
and establish such other relationships as a Chicago in-
stitution might have need to establish in New York. He
found in banking circles that while his personal pres-
ence there, as a representative of his bank, would be
entirely acceptable, the establishment of an actual phys-
ical agency would not be so welcome, and furthermore
he learned that under a recent interpretation of the
banking laws of the state of New York, by both super-
intendent of banking and attorney general, a license
to locate such an agency could not be secured, although
it was less certain that this same barrier would be raised
against a branch or agency of a bank incorporated under
the laws of a foreign country.

Reciprocity ?

Considering the cordiality with which eastern banks
have been permitted to enter Illinois for the operation
of those logical banking functions consistent with our
own banking laws, it may be suggested that the time

196

has arrived for Chicago to recognize her own financial
power and to insist as between hers and the eastern
money center a like exchange of privileges and a like
consideration in the field of investment as well as com-
mercial banking.

The right of the older city to retain all of the advan-
tages and give none may well be challenged. Chicago's
power to distribute investments and to parallel every
power now possessed by New York may seem remote,
but the rapid growth of wealth in the Central West will,
sooner than we think, bring the time when the "I Will"
spirit of Chicago will demand equal rights with respect
to all forms of financial operation.

As the financial center of the West, with banking re-
sources high and expanding, and with a tendency if not
a confirmed practice among the business men of sur-
rounding states to float their securities in their geo-
graphic market, Chicago banks are fully meeting realized
requirements and lending proportionate aid to the coun-
try's development and a war-torn world's rehabilitation.
Rivalry w^ith the larger money center, strong in years
and capital accumulation, endowed with the peculiar ad-
vantages of the greatest place of export and import,
need not excite in young Chicago passionate emotions,
and yet at the same time financial conditions unfavor-
able to Chicago's growth and supremacy and not due
to incompetence of her own should be regarded as sub-
ject to favorable change through the great and increasing
powers of this city.

New York and Chicago as Financial Centers

A Chicago student of the characteristics of New York
and Chicago as financial centers makes these interest-
ing observations:

"Chicago's financial judgment is not influenced by
adventitious circumstances. This is characteristic of all
centers of production. The humor, business tempera-
ment, judgment, initiative and resourcefulness of the
New York financiers veers or functions with the rise and
fall of prices on the stock exchange. Prices of securi-
ties are not an assured criterion of values. Chicago's
financial judgment is based on fundamentals. It is the
center of realities born of pioneering, imagination and

197

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, now under construction.

Permission of Bank, and Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.

198

courage. It is creative and productive in motive and
fact.

"In New York the fluctuations of the stock market are
dominating in influence. In Chicago they are incidental
if considered at all. Great commercial centers and mar-
kets are not, and never have been, commanding in their
financial importance. Chicago, however, has proven in
such a number of ways that it is a creator and breaker
of precedents that it is safe to assert its coming suprem-
acy in finance while maintaining its dominant position
as the greatest producing and distributing market in the
United States."

Chicago Credits Based on Actual Business

A Chicago banker of general authority, discussing the
strength and prospects of the local money system, says:
"Banks like ours, whose credits are based on actual
business of corporations, are in a much stronger posi-
tion than those whose transactions are based largely on
the stocks of corporations." A vital distinction is here
involved aff'ecting the prestige and growth of Chicago
as a money center, and its future is also closely con-
nected with this established feature of Chicago banking.
Says the same authority: "The thing we are most proud
of in our local banking situation is our system of clear-
ing house examination, which was organized immedi-
ately after the Walsh failure in 1905. This system of
clearing house supervision has grown into the most com-
plete and eff^ective supervision enjoyed by any city in
the world, and there has not been a single failure of
any bank under this supervision in fifteen years. Of
course there is no pretense of guaranteeing deposits or
doing anything more than giving intelligent and careful
supervision, but the results are very impressive. Speak-
ing of our promotion of foreign trade, the banks of
Chicago have been very slow to encourage trade in South
American countries, and the experience of seaboard
banks has fully demonstrated the wisdom of the Chi-
cago banks."

Banking Facilities

On June 1 of the present year the twenty-four national
and nearly 120 state banks of Chicago reported aggre-

199

gate banking facilities as follows: Capital employed,
$265,446,592; deposits, $1,741,444,311; loans and dis-
counts, $1,493,178,193; cash resources, $481,885,562.
Corresponding items accounted for June 1, 1920, were
as follows: Capital employed, $239,361,570; deposits,
$1,805,228,994; loans and discounts, Sl.548.299.008;
cash resources, $474,529,476. One of the significant
changes of the last few years has been the growth and
distribution of savings deposits throughout the city, de-
posits this year reaching a total of $497,315,100, of
which 51.1 per cent, or $254,223,334, was in the banks
of the central business district. The growth of savings
deposits, while steady all over the city, has been largest
in the outlying banks, and these accumulating resources
of the smaller banks have served as a reservoir for cash
of great value to the business community in periods when
the commercial banks had loaned to their capacity. The
bulk of accounts in the large downtown banks is in com-
mercial deposits.

Financial Team Work

More and more Chicago is purchasing and distributing
the securities of this richly productive central region,
although the resources of the eastern money center will
for an indefinite time be employed in national develop-
ment. Chicago is becoming able to care and should
care for the investment business of that vast industrial
and manufacturing area, the Mississippi Valley. A Chi-
cago producer of world renown says: "Always a group
of financial men can be formed to swing any deal that
is too large for a single institution, and always our men
work well with bond houses or other financial agencies.
Every sign points to the further development of Chi-
cago as a financial center and its ultimate supremacy in
the field."

Charges are not any greater in consequence of syn-
dicates organized by eastern bankers in which Chicago
and other western investment bankers participate.

There is only a commission charged by the originat-
ing banker, who also participates in the syndicate on the
same basis as other members. There is also the advan-
tage of a wider distribution of the securities, which
broadens the market and stabilizes it. Let it be said

200

that Chicago, increasing as it is in its numbers of issuers
of securities in large amounts, will soon become an in-
itiatory banking center, offering participations to invest-
ment bankers of New York and other eastern cities.

Today, but a hundred years removed from the village
and the wilderness, Chicago can handle its own great
projects — and a $60,000,000 flotation has been accom-
plished here — and offer financial facilities throughout
the country. Banking authorities emphasize the fact that
in the last four or five years Chicago has enjoyed a sig-
nificant growth with reference to the sale of investment
securities, and it is felt that today this city is doing a
reasonable percentage of the volume of business which
Chicago could expect to do in this class of banking.
Great, however, as are the possibilities here, greater will
be this business in the no distant future. This will be
true in part because of the spirit of co-operation between
banks and investment houses. Here is the heart of
America; here is the center of production and manu-
facture, and here the corresponding growth of banking
wealth and its instrumentalities. The East may still
say that there is a "West," but this imperial area no
longer recognizes boundaries as fixed and immutable.

Chicago and the Liberty Loans

As to Chicago bank stocks, these have won an estab-
lished place among investors, and as for Chicago as a
banking training school not alone are the distinction and
authority of its banking veterans striking evidence, but
other evidence exists in the contributions which this city
has made to the banking personnel of New York.

Up to the close of 1919 the United States had issued
five Liberty loans with subscriptions which greatly ex-
ceeded allotments and aggregated $24,016,141,750. The
total war disbursements were $32,427,469,054.72. Chi-
cago's share in these five loans with percentage of sub-
scriptions was as folloAvs:

Chicago's
Total Chicago Percentage

First $3,035,226,850 $357,195,950 1L7

Second 4,617,532,300 585,853,350 12.6

Third ** 4,158,599,100 608,878,600 14.8

Fourth" 6,954,875,200 969,209,000 13.9

Victory 5,249,908,300 772,046,550 14.7

201

The resources of Chicago banks have kept pace with
the general growth of the city. In 1861, when the Chi-
cago Clearing House Association was first organized, the
total deposits of its members amounted to S17.000.000,
In 1871 these had risen to $31,000,000, and by 1896
to $138,000,000, while now they exceed SI. 600.000,000.
In the meantime the capital and surplus of all the Chi-
cago banks has increased from $14,500,000 in 1871 to
over $234,000,000.

Foreign Trade

Foreign trade has not been, perhaps, as important a
factor in Chicago as in the case of some of the cities
on the seaboard whose entire business prosperity depends
on the export and import trade of the country. Never-
theless, although an interior city, Chicago has not failed
to play its part in our trade with countries outside of
the United States. Especially in the handling of bills
of exchange based upon exports of raw materials, Chi-
cago banks have been of primary importance. And in
this connection they have not failed to make use in an
ever-increasing degree of acceptances, an instrument of
credit relatively new in this country. The acceptance
market, which plays such an important part in the financ-
ing of the foreign trade of European countries, is con-
tinually growing in favor, and Chicago banks have been
doing their best to develop a broad acceptance market
in this region. As more direct communications by water
are developed by means of the Great Lakes-St. Law-
rence canal and other bodies of water, the part which
Chicago plays in the country's foreign trade will become
more and more important as time goes on and may rival
even the trade of those cities on the sea coast which now
regard this part of our commerce as their sole province.

Confidence in the banks of the state has in late years
been vastly improved and stabilized through the elim-
ination of private banks, at one time a very serious men-
ace, by legislative enactments requiring all banks to take
out national or state charters and become subject to na-
tional or state regulation and examination.

As has recently been said by the president of the
Chicago Stock Exchange, no broad, open market for
securities exists without the speculator, and speculation

202

should not be confused with gambling, because it is not
only a legitimate but a necessary part of the business
system of the country and has been so recognized by the
Supreme Court of the United States, The standing of
the Chicago Stock Exchange is high and authoritative
and performs an essential function at the great central
financial and commercial capital. It aims to maintain
and does maintain a high standard of business morality;
it observes approved standards of legitimacy in securi-
ties; it aids in directing into the channels of trade and
industry the much needed capital of the public; the
quoted prices of its market can be accepted as a measure
of value and an index to general business conditions;
it keeps in liquid form and ready for use where most
needed the surplus wealth of the community. Second
only in importance in the United States to the New York
Stock Exchange is the Chicago Stock Exchange.

203

CHICAGO AS COTTON MARKET

Certain Reasons Why Chicago Is Entitled to Aspire to
Develop a New and Great Business

Some ten years ago The Chicago Association of Com-
merce sent a member of its staff to ask the most repre-
sentative man — officially the governor — in seven of the
cotton-producing states how the South would look upon
an effort of Chicago to hold a cotton exposition. Seven
governors were interviewed and conclusions reported to
a special committee of the association. While such an
enterprise was not undertaken, the findings of the rep-
resentative were not prohibitively discouraging. As a
matter of fact, the inquiry had been conducted at the
suggestion of a great southern cotton city. Time has
passed. Let us now, considering a Chicago cotton ex-
position as but an industrial incident, discuss Chicago
as a permanent cotton market.

Chicago has the opportunity of becoming in the near
future the leading cotton market of this country. Many
favorable conditions point to this development within a
period of ten years. At the outside some believe that
Chicago will become the leading cotton market before
twenty years have passed.

America's cotton crop has been estimated as worth
about $2,200,000,000 annually. This country produces
between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the world's sup-
ply of this staple. It is estimated that the cotton business
of the world represents an investment of about $30,000,-
000,000. Thirty per cent of the cotton produced in this
country is consumed in the South, the remainder is
shipped to New England mills or exported to Europe.

Relation of Chicago to Producing Area

While cotton is marketed during about three months
of the year, distribution of the country's crop is a twelve
months' operation. The sale of cotton is conducted in
exactly the same way as the sale of grain, in which
"hedging," or the purchase and sale of "futures," is

204

conducted as a form of insurance, protecting both the
seller and purchaser of the commodity.

At the present time the country has two principal cot-
ton markets, New Orleans and New York City. The New
Orleans cotton market possesses a well developed ma-
chine for the purchase and sale of the commodity, finan-
cial accommodations are adequate, and excellent ware-
house facilities are provided. From the standpoint of
warehousing a sufficient reserve supply of cotton to liqui-
date contracts, the New York cotton market has latterly
been decreasing in importance, although there has been
little diminution in the amount of trading on the ex-
change.

In the cotton-producing territory lying nearer to New
York than Chicago, the development in recent years of
cotton mills has brought about a condition where almost
the entire crop is consumed locally. The greater part
of the cotton crop, about 72 per cent, is now produced in
territory nearer to Chicago than New York City.

The completion of the Welland Canal and other parts
of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway is certain to
make Chicago a great cotton market, for it will then be
possible to ship cotton to New England for local con-
sumption or export it direct to Europe more econom-
ically than by way of New York.

Superior Advantages of Great Central Market

There is even the possibility that a cotton market may
be developed in Chicago before the Great Lakes-St. Law-
rence waterway project has been realized. Should the
Illinois waterway be completed and in operation be-
fore the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway, as seems
probable, the lower water rate between the southern
cotton fields and Chicago might make it possible to de-
velop at that time a Chicago cotton market. Even to-
day the cost of shipping by rail is but little more than
by water, and there is little prospect of immediate re-
ductions in water rates.

As a cotton market, both for American consumption
and for export, Chicago possesses outstanding advan-
tages over New York City as well as New Orleans. New
Orleans has an excellent cotton market for the territory
immediately tributary. It is not a logical market for

205

cotton held at points outside New Orleans and destined
for shipment to New England or Europe.

Less than .5 of 1 per cent of the cotton bought and
sold on the New York Cotton Exchange is actually held
in New York warehouses. Small cotton reserves tend
to create a speculative market. As already indicated,
this situation is due to the fact that southern cotton mills
now consume nearly all the cotton produced in the
southern states of Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas
which are closest to New York.

Geographical Considerations

Ninety-three of 145 important cotton shipping points
in the South are nearer to Liverpool via Chicago than
by way of New York City. Of fifty-two remaining
points, all are located in the Carolinas, Georgia and Ala-
bama, where the amount of cotton available for export
is small by reason of large local consumption.

From the standpoint of New England consumption the
distances from southern shipping points, except those in
the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, are greater only
by an average of 99 miles than by the present direct
route. Thus the expense of shipping cotton to New
England mills from a market in Chicago does not in-
volve an appreciable increased transportation cost.

Summarizing, Chicago is nearer than New York to the
territory now producing most of the cotton available for
shipment to New England and Europe. The distances
from this territory to New England and Europe are
shorter via Chicago than any other route and it is there-
fore practicable to establish a Chicago cotton market.
The Chicago Board of Trade, now handling the na-
tion's grain crop, possesses all the machinery needed
to market the cotton crop for the South. Warehouses
required to hold cotton reserves could be built in Chi-
cago with rail and water connections, operated at a
profit, and at storage rates probably one-third those of
New York City.

To Chicago's merchants a local cotton market would
mean a substantial expansion in the city's marketing
territory. To financial interests it would mean increased
business and new opportunities for the employment of
capital. To the Board of Trade it would mean increased

206

business and the opportunity of making Chicago the
country's leading cotton market, as it is now the greatest
grain market.

The completion of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
waterway, the Illinois waterway and the creation of
large harbor facilities provided in the plans for the
Illiana and Calumet harbors, as well as the industrial
development of the territory along the sanitary canal,
make certain that Chicago will not overlook this oppor-
tunity of further increasing its commercial and indus-
trial leadership.

207

NEW INDUSTRIES

Printing Drawn to Country's Center — Paper, Wool, Auto-
mobiles, Etc., Lines Finding Good Production
Point Here.

Chicago is known as a city of balanced industry, and
this fact constitutes one of its strongest industrial assets.
The city producing a wide variety of manufactured prod-
ucts is always in a stronger and more strategic position
in times of business depression than the city with but
one or two predominating industries.

With perhaps a greater diversity of output than any
other producing center, there are yet important industries
not represented in Chicago, or if present, on a smaller
scale than the importance of the market merits. New leg-
islation, new processes and changing conditions frequent-
ly bring Chicago the opportunity to expand industrially.

As an example of opportunities which comes through
legislation and changing conditions, the publishing in-
dustry may be cited. The new parcel post zoning law
placed eastern publishers of magazines having national
distribution at a distinct disadvantage, particularly those
whose publications carried a large proportion of adver-
tising matter. The printers' strike in New York City,
about a year ago, caused a number of these magazines to
make temporary contracts with Chicago publishers. Ex-
cellent service and material savings have caused these
contracts to be made permanent. An eastern magazine
of national circulation has placed with a local concern
a contract for publishing its entire western edition in
Chicago and is finding that publication and distribution
in the center of the Middle West effects a saving of at
least $300,000 annually. These are but indications of a
trend which will bring to Chicago as the time goes on
more and more magazines of national distribution.

Paper from Chicago's Waste

Beginning of construction of the first unit of a paper
mill which, when completed, will cost $1,500,000 marks
the initial step in paper manufacturing locally. The

208

plant, to be known as the Waterway Paper Products
Company, will produce news print and wall paper using
largely as raw material waste paper collected in the city.
Later other paper lines will be added. The production
of paper in Chicago is the logical outgrowth of an in-
teresting business developed to large proportions in re-
cent years and engaged in the collection and sale of waste
paper. Chicago is thus conserving natural resources
and beginning an industry certain to expand because of
an almost unlimited local market.

With 75 per cent of raw wool of this country produced
west of the Mississippi River, it has always seemed an
economic waste for this wool to be shipped to eastern
mills along the Atlantic coast, and then shipped back to
the Middle West as wool cloth to be consumed by manu-
facturers of clothing who produce about 50 per cent of
the country's output. Production in proximity to raw
material supplies, and in the center of a great market,
are local advantages which have been given emphasis
with the increased freight rates brought about by the
war. Indeed, one large woolen manufacturer had plans
for a $5,000,000 plant in Chicago under preparation
when the business slump developed a year ago. That
this plant will be built when business revives cannot be
stated authoritatively, but it is certain that woolen manu-
facturers will not be slow to recognize the advantages
Chicago possesses and will ultimately locate industries
here where local raw material and a great market make
for economic production and distribution.

Automobile Manufacture

With 50 per cent of the automobiles and motor trucks
of the nation owned in the middle western states, of
which Chicago is the leading distributing center, it is ap-
parent that the local market offers large possibilities for
manufacturers of automobiles, motor trucks, rubber tires
and automobile supplies. All of these lines are now rep-
resented in Chicago, but in all of them the opportunities
for further development are almost without limit. Of
significance to automobile and motor truck manufac-
turers is Chicago's strategic railroad situation. Here
the manufacturer can be assured of adequate transporta-
tion at all times. Business prosperity can never clog

209

the city's many trunk and belt lines and drive-a-ways will
be unnecessary.

Among many other industries in which a favorable
situation with respect to transportation, raw materials,
market, labor and economical production costs suggests
opportunities for further expansion may be mentioned
glass products, hospital supplies, machine tools, heavy
and light cutlery, hardware lines, aeroplanes and equip-
ment, shoes, chemicals, knitted goods and drugs and
medical supplies.

210

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Current Demonstrations in Chicago's Industrial World

Point to Improvement in Working Principles and

in Standards of Industrial Morality.

Americanism in industrial relationships is the de-
mand of the day, and "freedom" and "independence"
with all the significance of national traditions are its
watchwords. The employer asks for himself no prin-
ciples of advantage which he does not concede to the
employed. In the current year in Chicago two events
have done much to guide public thinking about a com-
plex local situation, and to make more convincing the
function of arbitration in settlement of labor troubles.
What Chicago anxiously seeks is the general resumption
of work at a just wage, and also the correction of fla-
grant evils in the building industry.

These two influential events have been an investiga-
tion by a state legislative committee, and a decision by
Judge K. M. Landis, of the federal court, in determina-
tion of wages and regulations in the building industry.
These are current and local events signifying progress —
back of and beneath these manifestations of the march
toward industrial freedom has been and is the national
movement to attain relations of liberty, co-operation and
fellowship in all industry, and indications of this pur-
pose appear in acts of the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States and in the policies of the employers of
Chicago.

Investigations and Decisions

Chicago's building industry seems emerging from an
impossible state of corruption and blockade by virtue of
the investigations of a joint committee of the Fifty-sec-
ond general assembly of the state of Illinois, known as
the Dailey committee, John Dailey, chairman; and by
virtue of important adjudications, leading to resumption
of work in the building trades by co-operation of the
parties at interest, at the hands of Judge Landis as arbi-
trator. The invited intervention of Judge Landis as arbi-

211

trator has been a constructive episode in the drama of
industrial progress and of like service have been the in-
vestigations of the legislative committee. The decision
of Judge Landis if accepted tends to unbind a shackled
industry. He reduced the wages of skilled and unskilled
labor in the building trades from 10 to 36 per cent, and
promulgated new rules and conditions designed to re-
store this industry to a sound basis.

The decision, Thursday, September 8, of nation-wide
interest, was in arbitration of wage differences between
employers and employes in building construction, the
matter of arbitration having been submitted to the jurist
June 10, 1921, and followed an agreement entered into
between the Building Construction Employers' Associa-
tion, the Associated Builders and the Chicago Building
Trades Council, authorizing, after several weeks of idle-
ness in the industry. Judge Landis as umpire to fix the
wages to be paid in the several trades represented, the
award to become effective when made and remain in force
until May 31, 1922. It was also agreed that on or before
February 1, 1922, the umpire should determine the rates
to control from May 31 that year for the period of one
year. The agreement also contained other provisions.
The following trades were not parties to the arbitration:
Carpenters, elevator constructors, plasterers, sheet metal
workers, painters, glaziers and fixture hangers.

Findings of Dailey Committee

Evidence before the Dailey committee indicated pay-
ment of tribute to grafting labor business agents, and
resort to many devices by associations of employers and
material men to stifle competition and increase prices.
The committee said:

Working rules, jurisdictional disputes, and agreements of va-
rious unions and crafts have furnished a fertile field for crim-
inal operations of dishonest business agents. The evidence ad-
duced along this line convinces the committee that scarcely any
building, large or small, erected in the city of Chicago within
the last two years, has been immune from the imposition of graft.
The methods employed in exacting graft have been infinite in
disguises. It has been exacted in the form of insurance against
strikes by the payment of money before construction of buildings
has been begun, or by the payment of large sums of money to
prevent strikes called upon the slightest or no pretext whatever,

212

by the payment of money to call oif strikes, whether such strikes
had any foundation or not from the union labor viewpoint.

Associations of material men have been guilty of practices as
hurtful to building operations as the criminal practices of crooked
business agents. These associations, by cunningly devised schemes,
have endeavored to avoid the conspiracy laws of the state. Ex-
change of cost information, pooling of bids, exchange of bids and
of price lists, reporting to each other of bids and contracts,
average cost systems, restrictive agreements with labor unions,
agreements with dishonest labor leaders, and many forms of "co-
operative competition" and other euphemisms, have served as de-
vices for the restraint of trade and the inflation of prices of
building materials. The financial burdens imposed upon the
building industry by these associations are greater even than those
imposed by grafting business agents.

The opinion expressed by many witnesses is that the artificial
burdens placed upon building by crooked business agents and
criminal associations connected with the building industry have
increased the cost of building in Chicago at least 30 per cent.
These agencies are largely responsible for the housing shortage
in Chicago, the almost complete cessation of building, and in-
creased rentals.

Trade Associations Under Scrutiny

The committee has inspired recent legislation to break
up the "piratical practices of dishonest business agents"
and has been compelled to witness the defeat of a bill
designed to correct what in the opinion of the committee
was "the most malignant malady of the building indus-
try." The bill was patterned after the federal anti-trust
laws and the anti-trust laws of the leading states of this
country. It was a bill for an act in relation to contracts,
combinations and conspiracies in restraint of trade and
commerce. In view of the desperate efforts made to de-
feat the measure, the Dailey committee feels that investi-
gations should seek all of the methods employed for
price-fixing by associations proposed to be affected by
the bill, and the committee feels that the permanent com-
mission established by the present legislature should de-
vote much of its efforts to this service. Some fifteen
important trade associations have been under investiga-
tion by the Dailey committee. A special grand jury in
Cook County has returned many indictments and the fed-
eral special grand jury has been carrying on appropri-
ate investigations. The aforesaid commission which suc-
ceeds the committee on investigation is given even greater
powers than the committee itself, and the commission,

213

says the committee, "should continue vigorously until the
evil and the sinister situation hampering the building in-
dustry is completely eradicated. The committee feels
that the disclosures unearthed by it, together with the
speedy and successful prosecution of the indictments al-
ready obtained, will destroy the grafting business agents
and price-fixing associations, and bring an early resump-
tion of building operations."

The National Problem

A production situation such as the above, which has
imposed hardship upon hundreds of thousands in a
housing crisis, and has otherwise worked great loss to
this city, is an industrial calamity which can and must
be arrested, but it is the nation-wide program of labor —
its policies and operation — which constitutes the greater
problem and which in its manifestations in Chicago as
throughout the country can be settled permanently and
therefore justly only by labor's recognition of the su-
preme general principle which should govern both em-
ployer and employe, that of freedom and independence.
Seeking this end the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States in 1919 issued a proposed liberty pro-
gram, a program submitted by business for the common
advantage of labor and capital, and in 1920 the labor
policy committee of The Chicago Association of Com-
merce arrived at certain principles of industrial liberty.
These principles may be said to govern the employing
forces of Chicago at large. The merits of these prin-
ciples invite general understanding and strenuous sup-
port. A Chicago industrial policy based upon these
principles will —

A Chicago Industrial Policy

Protect the employer and employe in the right of free-
dom of contract.

Prevent any interference with persons seeking to work
and earn a living.

Protect the public right in the free and uninterrupted
use of streets and transportation of persons or goods.

Oppose restrictions of output, discrimination in the
use of materials, limitation of apprentices, sympathetic
and jurisdictional strikes and boycotts.

214

Oppose the payment of money or other considerations
for settlement of strikes or special privileges.

Before the many hundreds of commercial and trade
organizations of the Chamber of Commerce of the United
States that great body placed certain principles which,
if in effect should, it was believed, bring about peace
and justice in industrial relations. These principles pre-
suppose a generosity of sentiment actuating both bodies
and the need of peace in industrial adjustment. Regu-
larity and continuity of employment should be sought
to the fullest extent and the right of workers to organize
is clearly recognized as that of any other class or part
of the community. The need was stressed of adequate
representation of the parties at interest and the faithful
observance of agreements when made. Agreements
should contain provision for prompt and final interpre-
tation in event of controversy regarding meaning or ap-
plication. Wages should be adjusted with due regard
to their purchasing power and to every man's right to
an opportunity to earn a living at fair wages, to reason-
able hours of work and working conditions, to a decent
home and enjoyment of proper social conditions.

Principles of National Chamber

The principles enunciated condemned as a subterfuge
the fixing of a basic day as a device for increasing com-
pensation. The principles called for efficient production
in conjunction with adequate wages, and further de-
clared that consideration of reduction of wages should
not be reached until possibility of reduction of costs in
all other directions has been exhausted. The principles
further set forth that administration of employment and
management of labor should be recognized as a distinct
and important function of management and accorded its
proper responsibility in administration organization.
Finally the national chamber called for a system of na-
tional employment offices subject to civil service law with
policies determined in conjunction with the national,
state and local advisory boards, and equally representa-
tive of employers and employes.

The Chicago Association of Commerce is now con-
ducting preparatory work to qualify it for a study of
the present unemployment situation in this city.

215

CHICAGO'S DRAINAGE

How Health and Perpetuity of Chicago Have Been Assured

by Great Drainage Engineering, and What Are

the Sewage Treatment Projects for

Metropolis of Tomorrow

Chicago's sewerage system contemplates sanitary serv-
ice for about 3,000,000 people, but the look forward is
provision for 4,000,000. What has been done and what
has been projected is the substance of the following
sketch of a municipal fundamental:

The Sanitary District was organized in 1889, its pri-
mary object being the protection of Lake Michigan from
pollution by sewage. The first work of the district was
the construction of the main drainage channel across
the Lake Michigan-Mississippi divide from the Chicago
River at Robey Street to the Desplaines River at Lock-
port. This work was accomplished between 1892 and
1900 and in January, 1900, the Chicago River was re-
versed, sufficient water flowing from Lake Michigan to
properly dilute the sewage of the city. The city of Chi-
cago reversed the sewers which discharged into the lake
and turned this sewage into the river. The Sanitary Dis-
trict widened and deepened the Chicago River and, co-
operating with the federal government and the city of
Chicago, removed center-pier bridges from the river.

The second accomplishment was the extension (1903-
1907) of the main drainage channel from Lockport to
Joliet and the development of power from the water
used for sewage dilution. This power is sufficient to
light, at cost, practically all of the parks, boulevards
and streets of Chicago. It is also used for pumping
water and sewage and some is sold to commercial con-
sumers.

Protecting North Shore Water Supply

Next in order was the construction (1908-1910) of
the north shore channel from the lake at Wilmette to the
river at Lawrence Avenue, and the building (1912-1915)
of intercepting sewers along the lake front from Glencoe

216

to Evanston. This project turned back all the sewage
of the north shore towns away from Lake Michigan.

The last canal project is the Calumet-Sag channel
from the Little Calumet River, at Blue Island, to the
main drainage channel at Sag. This channel, the con-
struction of which was begun in 1911 and was much de-
layed by the world war, is practically completed and its
operation will reverse the flow in the sewage-laden Calu-
met River. The Calumet intercepting sewer, built in
conjunction with the Calumet-Sag channel, will intercept
the sewage of the Calumet region and deliver it to the
channel, whence it will be carried to the main drainage
channel.

With the completion and operation of the before
mentioned channels and sewers, the primary object of
the Sanitary District is accomplished. Lake Michigan,
the source of our abundant water supply, is protected
from pollution by sewage originating in the Sanitary
District, which is the whole region between the Indiana
state line and the north line of Cook County. A move-
ment is on foot to organize the towns along the lake
shore further north, in Lake County, into another sani-
tary district to co-operate with the Sanitary District of
Chicago in keeping the waters of Lake Michigan free
from pollution by sewage from any of the communities
within the limits of the state of Illinois. Going beyond
the southern portion of Chicago, efforts are being made
to organize Indiana Harbor, East Chicago, Hammond,
Gary and other towns into a district to handle the prob-
lem along the shore in Northern Indiana.

Navigation Advantage

In addition to the accomplishment of the primary ob-
ject of the Sanitary District, and incidentally the use
of its waste water for power, we have a Chicago River
widened to 200 feet, deepened to 26 feet, with all sharp
bends eliminated, spanned by modern bascule bridges;
in fact, so improved that the largest boats on the Great
Lakes can navigate it safely. Beyond that we have a
ship canal with a minimum width of 160 feet and depth
of 24 feet cut across the divide between Lake Michigan
and the Mississippi River for a distance of 33 miles,
the most important link in the long desired waterway

217

from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The Calu-
met-Sag channel is an important auxiliary branching
off from the main channel at Sag and leading directly
to the proposed new Calumet harbor, the Illiana har-
bor, and the industrial region in the Calumet District.
By this canal through traffic can pass around instead
of directly through Chicago.

Before the operation of the main drainage channel
there were recorded in a year 174 deaths from typhoid
to each 100,000 inhabitants of Chicago. Now the
typhoid death rate is less than one.

Plans That Look Far Forward

So much for past accomplishments. The canal and
sewer systems before mentioned provide adequately for
approximately 3,000,000 people, which is about the pres-
ent population of the Sanitary District. By 1950 this
population will be increased to probably 5,000,000. To
provide for the increase the Sanitary District has laid
out an elaborate program and has begun the construc-
tion of sewage treatment plants. To determine the best
method of sewage disposal, other than dilution, the Sani-
tary District has been studying the problem experi-
mentally since 1908. Elaborate experiments have been
conducted on domestic sewage (from the region south of
Thirty-ninth Street, 1908-1912), on Stockyards and
Packingtown wastes (1912-1918), on tannery wastes
(1919 to date) and on other special industrial wastes,
such as those of the Corn Products Company, etc.

There are now under construction two large sewage
treatment plants. One at Twelfth Street and the Des
Plaines River (begun in 1919 and to be completed early
in 1922) will treat the sewage now going into the Des
Plaines River from Maywood, Forest Park, part of Oak
Park, River Forest and other towns along the Des
Plaines. This will clean up the Des Plaines River and
make it a fit stream to run through our forest preserves.
The other, the Calumet sewage treatment plant, begun in
1921 and to be in service by 1923, will treat practically
all the sewage in the Calumet region.

Sewage Treatment Projects

The start toward sewage treatment having been made,
the carrying out of sewage treatment projects will be

218

pushed as rapidly as the finances of the Sanitary Dis-
trict will permit. There are four immense projects now
under consideration, viz., the North Branch, the West
Side, the Stockyards and the Southwest Side, which, com-
bined with the Des Plaines and the Calumet, will cover
the entire Sanitary District.

Land has already been purchased west of Evanston
for the North Branch sewage treatment plant, which is
now being designed to take care of a population of
1,000,000 people. Construction will be started before
the end of the present year on intercepting sewers to lead
to this plant the sewage of the area north of Fullerton
Avenue and south of the north line of Cook County.

The West Side plant will take the sewage of all the
district south of Fullerton Avenue, the Loop district and
the area west of the Chicago River. This project will
handle the sewage of 2,000,000 people and its construc-
tion will logically follow that of the North Branch
project.

Negotiations with the packing interests are now under
way to determine the basis on which the Stockyards
sewage treatment plant will be constructed and operated.
The points in dispute should be settled and construction
started in the near future. The wastes from this industry
are equivalent to the domestic sewage of 1,000,000 peo-
ple, so this plant will be a project of some size.

Finally will come the Southwest Side treatment
project, which will handle the sewage of about 2,000,000
people who will live south of the Loop and river and
north of Eighty-seventh Street.

All the sewage treatment plants will be designed with
a view toward future expansion. Sufficient land is pur-
chased at each site to make room for the future growth.
The population to be served will be near 5,000,000 peo-
ple by 1950, but it will not stop at that figure. When
the above outlined program is carried out the Chicago
River and the drainage channels, instead of receiving
raw sewage as at present, will receive clear effluent from
the treatment plants and the improvement over present
conditions will be as great as the present is over the past,
when the Chicago River was in fact an open sewer and
a menace to the health of the community.

219

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220

CHICAGO NEEDS CONVENTION HALL

Cities Seeking to Dispute Chicago's Lead as Convention

Center Build Fit Meeting Place — Exposition Hall —

Municipal Pier — Public Garage

Chicago greatly needs a convention hall which should
be a town meeting hall, auditorium and exhibit hall com-
bined, with smaller meeting and exhibition halls in-
cluded. It should have a seating capacity of upwards of
7,000 in the main auditorium with smaller halls seating
50, 200, 500 and 1,000 respectively. It should have rail-
road connections and so located as to be convenient of
access from all parts of the city. Chicago is each year
losing a number of valuable conventions and exhibits
with and without conventions because of lack of suitable
facilities in which to hold such gatherings. Other cities
such as Milwaukee and Cleveland have facilities to care
for the larger affairs beyond Chicago's accommodations.

An earlier Chicago boasted on the lake front posses-
sion of an exposition hall which as one function in its
use was the scene of an industrial exhibition. For many
years Chicago, mindful of its own past and of successful
practice in other communities, has declared that an in-
stitution of this nature should be revived, and now with
the recent successful accomplishment on the Municipal
Pier of an enterprise of this nature, as a gratifying busi-
ness and pleasure event of the summer of 1921, Chicago
is asking itself again whether it should not systematically
set about creation of seasonal as well as annual industrial
shows. A spacious and convenient exposition hall suit-
ably located would fulfill, apart from a separate conven-
tion hall as such, many of the conditions which constitute
the requirements of the Great Central Market. Aside
from such an idea, however, is the adaptation of the Mu-
nicipal Pier, further distinguished as a public utility by
the late Pageant of Progress, to the uses of an exposition
building and a convention hall.

Mayor Thompson and others concerned in the produc-
tion of the late industrial exposition on the pier, the
Pageant of Progress, express the hope that means will

221

be found to develop this shipping and recreational prop-
erty as follows:

First: Extend the floor of the upper level across the
present open space, providing for heavy floor loads and
proper roof to insure ventilation and protection against
heat and cold.

Second: Install a heating plant for winter operation.

Third: Insulate the side walls and roofs of the two
present wings to admit of winter use.

Fourth: Provide partitions or movable dividing walls
so that any separate unit of space may be used without in-
terference by another part.

Where Park Multiplying Cars?

Since the automobile has come to be regarded as a
utility in addition to being a pleasure vehicle Chicago
has done nothing to meet the requirements of the thou-
sands who daily drive through the downtown district.
With increased travel in its streets we have been forced
to place restrictions upon parking without compensating
in any way. Each year there is an increasing number
of people who come into Chicago on pleasure or business
bent in automobiles. They are bewildered and may be
fined if they are forced to leave their machines long
enough to spend the money they have appropriated for
pleasure or merchandise. Some of the best thought in
this community has studied this problem. It is hoped
by many that an underground garage may be built in
Grant Park or elsewhere which will remove from the
streets and swallow up the waiting automobile. A big
private garage enterprise, involving erection of a high
building, has been one of the announced projects of the
recent past. An impressive sight from any building on
the lake front is the acres of automobiles in orderly
alignment in Grant Park, Chicago's emergency mod-
ernization of the hitched teams of visiting farmers sur-
rounding the business and official center of less metro-
politan communities yesterday, and, with a striking in-
crease in the number of automobiles, necessary today.

222

RAILWAY CLEARING YARDS

Twelve Trunk Lines Operating With World's Largest

Facility of Kind Expedite Chicago's Freight

Movement

With thirty-nine railways, including twenty-four great
railway systems, terminating in Chicago, it is not strange
that among the many railway yards which handle the
vast interchange business which the Great Central Mar-
ket creates there should be one yard notable in concep-
tion and in the facilities offered.

At the southwest corner of the city lie the great clear-
ing yards of the Belt Railway of Chicago, adjacent to
the Clearing Industrial District.

These yards constitute the largest facility of its kind
in the world. They stretch for a distance of five and
one-half miles in length, one-half mile in width, and
contain 150 miles of track with a handling capacity of
10,000 cars daily. Chicago's clearing yards are built
on the gravity system, that is, cars destined for a given
road are brought up a grade to the crest of a hill or
hump and released to coast under their own weight down
grade, where at a given point an intricate system of
switches diverts them to the proper classification tracks.
In this manner trains of miscellaneous cars brought into
the yards by the Belt Railway are broken up and the
individual cars sent over the hump to the classification
tracks of the outgoing lines. Complete trains are thus
made up in a remarkably short time for each trunk line
and sent on their way.

The Belt Line Railway and its transfer yards at Clear-
ing is owned by twelve of Chicago's important trunk
lines serving the east, west, north and southern sections
of the country. Thus there has been created here a great
service, beneficial alike to local business and industry, to
the participating roads and to the outside shipper into or
through Chicago.

New Gravity Switching Yard

The Illinois Central Railroad Company has under con-
struction about 22 miles from its terminal at South Water

223

Street in Chicago a large switching and classification
yard known as Markham Yard. This yard is to be the
northern terminal for steam service operation after com-
pletion of electrification within the city limits.

Markham Yard will be the southerly terminus of the
electrification of the Illinois Central lines in Chicago
except for the suburban passenger service, which will
be electrified to the southerly end of the suburban dis-
trict at Matteson, 28 miles from Chicago. At Markham
Yard the engines of through passenger trains will be
changed to electric engines when the through passenger
service has been electrified within the city limits. The
yards with its mechanical and other terminal facilities
and buildings is estimated to cost about $5,000,000.

224

GROWTH OF COMMUNITY CENTERS

Industrial and Domestic Influences Fashion Development
of New Centers of a Greater Chicago

Visitors to Chicago often remark that Chicago sug-
gests to them a group of cities, or communities, each
with its special interests, but all being bound together
for the common welfare. South Chicago is a striking
example of a well-developed community, fully capable
of standing by itself, yet part of the city. Several large
industrial plants are located in South Chicago, but their
offices are in Chicago. The suburbs are also examples
of separate communities whose interests are intimately
bound up with those of the city proper.

One of the significant developments of recent years
lias been the location of many factories in groups in
what were formerly outlying districts of Chicago. This
has brought about a decentralization of the industries,
which were once grouped in districts that were much
closer to the main parts of the city.

Manufacturers who have moved into the new districts
explain that they have gained several advantages. They
hold that the old districts were outgrown and had be-
come too congested, making the handling of freight diffi-
cult and being too far away from the homes of employes.

Industrial Advantages

The new districts are where the plants have the best
of switching facilities, which do away with the necessity
for teaming. Raw materials are unloaded directly from
the cars and shipments are sent out the same way. This
simplifies the handling of freight and reduces such costs
to the minimum. The loaded cars are switched to the
railroad yards, where they are attached to trains which
take them to their destinations. Less-than-carload ship-
ments are also handled in this way, as shipments made
by several factories are grouped until they fill a car.

Another advantage is that the plants in the outlying
districts are located close to the homes of employes, many
of whom are able to walk to and from their work. If

225

they ride the cars are not crowded in these localities
and, besides, the worker going home from these plants
usually goes in the opposite direction from the main
rush of travel. This plan also gives relief for the
crowded districts where the workers were formerly forced
to make their homes. The workmen evidently like this
plan, for they are buying homes and are settling down.
They are often helped by the employers in buying homes,
as there is then less chance of the workman leaving and
going to some other plant. These homes are much more
healthful than those where the workmen formerly lived.

Development of Little Cities

There are strips of big manufacturing plants along the
western side of Chicago, especially to the south. These
include some of the largest industrial establishments in
the West. In addition to having favorable business fa-
cilities these plants are located in an unusually attractive
district. They are close to Western Avenue boulevard.
The workmen live in localities which are suburban-like.
They have ample school facilities for their children.
There are stores, churches and banks within easy reach.
The presence of the big plants has caused rapid develop-
ment of localities which were merely prairies a few
years ago. Residents of these localities who wish to
reach the city can do so by trolley car. Bankers who are
familiar with conditions in these neighborhoods say that
the workers are thrifty, that they wish to own homes and
that they are evidently much better off than when they
lived in rented quarters in congested districts. The em-
ployers are pleased with this, as they hold that a con-
tented employe is the best workman. Home building or-
ganizations have been started at a number of plants. The
officials of the companies finance these building plans
and the workmen make payments in installments, much
as they formerly did in paying rent.

Several plants, formerly located in or near the down-
town district, chose outlying locations after taking a vote
among their employes. This was somewhat in the form
of a survey which showed the location of the home of
every employe. When these locations were determined
a site was chosen that was as near as possible to the
homes of the majority of the workers.

226

CHICAGO AS AVIATION CENTER

The Great Central Traffic, Commercial and Population

Center Needs a Farseeing Program to Establish

Its Proper Place in Continental Flying

Chicago's aviation program will be determined by its
own initiative and national co-operation. Here is the
logical center of great manufacturing and operating ac-
tivities, and here early in farther development of local
and continental aeronautics should be created a munici-
pal air port or harbor; indeed, say practical men, there
should be two ports, one near downtown for passengers
and express, and at the edge of the city an extensive plant
with hangars, repair apparatus, meteorological station
and wireless service. A primary necessity seems first to
be ground facilities rather than flying machines them-
selves. Needless to say, however, with terminals must
go properly marked air routes. At the University of
Illinois war needs developed activities related to the
general problem of the state's advance in aeronautics.

The Chicago Plan Commission has discussed the ad-
visability of landing fields provided on extensions of
the new lake front, these being merely for quick landing
and the handling of passengers, after which the machines
would go on to the above mentioned larger field, and
the Ashburn field is believed by many to be the best for
the purpose. Whatever the field's location, it must be
far enough removed from the city's building activities to
warrant broad and permanent development. Airplanes
are expected to come when facilities have been made
ready for them. At the present writing the would-be air
traveler on a hurried mission must take an hour to reach
this field from the business district. If it were possible
that such a person could start on such a voyage in the
neighborhood of this business district a pilot would put
him forward 100 miles on his way during the time of
his land movement to the distant terminal.

Chicago Needs Facilities for Night Flying

An important step in aeronautic progress would be a
downtown passenger station for out-of-town business.

227

People cannot become interested in owning airplanes
or hiring them until there are all the facilities of service,
and at the present time Chicago has no facilities for
night flying, and there must be flying by night.

The well advised insist that Chicago should make a
bid to the country for the manufacture of planes. Here
is the center of the country's transportation and here
should be the center of aircraft construction. In Europe
aviation companies are aided by subsidies to help them

In the spacious prairies where the wild onion ("Chicago")

grew has risen a colossal mercantile house with like nowhere

in the world. The business, in 1919, of this, the parent

establishment, amounted to $219,218,100.

Copyrighted photo taken from the air by Ralph C. Diggins Co.

get started, and financial help may be needed here. Sev-
eral plans have been suggested to make Chicago a manu-
facturing center, but no manufacturing is done here yet,
except in the making of parts by different firms. As to
the degree of business in this city in the selling of air-
planes, it may be said that during the last two years
about 200 machines have been disposed of and these

228

have been sent all over the country, especially to the oil
fields of the South.

Federal Legislation Necessary

While the airplane industry of Chicago is in an in-
cipient and unorganized state, thought is being given to
its development and to one basic difficulty in the fact
that there are no uniform laws in this country governing
aircraft and there has been little or no local legislation,
while to develop aeronautics as a national pursuit on
a great scale those who enter it must know their legal
status, and efforts are being made to lead the govern-
ment to establish federal control of the air just as a
nation now has control of the sea to a point three miles
from land. To this end may be necessary a constitu-
tional amendment. The present tendency, restricting
aviation development, is for each state or smaller com-
munity to pass its own laws, and these are likely to con-
flict with the laws of other communities. When air navi-
gation acquires a legal status real progress will begin.
Constructive federal legislation is a necessity, a parallel
being found in the regulation of waterways. Chicago
and New York have simultaneously passed ordinances
regulating flying within city limits, with the provi-
sion that these regulations shall be effective only until
federal laws are passed. At present flying at less than
2,000 feet of elevation is prohibited, although a lower
altitude can be taken when an airplane can glide to a
flying field.

It is contended that no manufacturer can develop new
designs that will be used in quantities warranting produc-
tion to pay a profit until this war material is disposed
of, the business protected by proper legislation, and puJD-
lic confidence established, all of which is now only in
its beginning. Now is the time, it is further contended,
to plan for the future of construction and operation —
rather than for the promotion of large undertakings which
must first be proved to the public as safe and time-saving
and commercially profitable. As for Chicago's relation
to aviation as an arm of military defense this is a prob-
lem in itself, and its consideration thus far since the
great war has probably been confined to federal authori-
ties.

229

WATER TRANSPORTATION

Illinois Waterway and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Project

With Suitable Harbor Improvements Promise

Establishment of Chicago as Seaport

in Seven Years

Indian and trader's canoe, pioneer's pack, ox-cart,
prairie schooner, canal boat, railroad, lake sailing craft
and steamships, these by virtue of the dispensations of
nature and of the will and vision of old world explorers
and new world adventurers r.nd settlers, determined the
birth and growth of a continental transportation center
and market, here where meet the natural routes of land
and water, here — Chicago.

Geography, transportation, climate and resolute men
are the primary conditions of Chicago's being. Rare
endowments these, but they must be fostered and en-
hanced. Lake shipping — many, many sails and none to-
day— the abandonment of that important economic
factor of a half century ago, the Illinois and Michigan
canal, the multiplication of railroads until all the conti-
nent has turned hitherward — all of these forces of prog-
ress have been interacting and advancing this city, but
great changes have occurred in their relations, and water
transportation does not supplement land transportation
to the degree required by the growing industry and
commerce of the country and by Chicago, the central
commercial and industrial capital.

Fluctuations of Lake Tonnage

In 1871 Chicago shipped by lake 12,121,000 bushels
of wheat; in 1891, 31,i03,000; in 1914, first war year,
56,456,000; in 1920, 11,193,000. Her heaviest corn
shipment was 97,167,000 bushels in 1898, and her
heaviest shipment of oats was 50,193,000 in 1897. Her
lake trade in flour, as great as 3,472,000 barrels in
1908, had fallen to 3,000 barrels in 1920. Entrances
and clearances of vessels at the port of Chicago in 1900
were 16,966; in 1920, 7,051. Within these years the
highest cargo tonnage received and shipped was 13,-

230

275,320 in 1913. The preponderant lake borne cargo is
iron ore, amounting in 1920 to 6,496,034 tons, received
in the Calumet River, heavy receipts at Gary and Indiana
Harbor not included.

In the Central West has matured a purpose, fostered
by such representative bodies as the Mississippi Valley
Association, to develop water communication with the
Gulf by the Illinois River and other streams, and with
the Atlantic Ocean by the Great Lakes and improved
St. Lawrence River waterways, the guiding American or-
ganization promoting the latter project being the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence Tidewater Association. Alread)' an
international joint commission has gathered in the United
States and Canada the views of authorities on the ele-
ments of such an undertaking, and engineers have been
appointed, in terms of official instructions, "to take
charge of the survey of the St. Lawrence River, Montreal
to Lake Ontario, for the purpose of preparing plans
and estimates for its further improvement to make the
same navigable for deep-draft vessels of either the lake
or ocean-going type, and to obtain the greatest beneficial
use from these waters." The report of the engineers is
in hand and there is awaited the recommendations to the
two governments of the International Joint Commission,
composed of three Americans and three Canadians.

Illinois Waterway Improvement

None before Chicago has greater interest in this revo-
lutionizing international project, with which is related,
although a prior conception and wholly independent of
it, the improvement of the Illinois River already au-
thorized as to financing and execution by the people of
this state. The work will consist of the canalization of
the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers from Lockport to
Utica, a distance of 61 miles, and the incidental devel-
opment of 75,000 hydroelectric horsepower.

The Illinois River below Utica must be improved, and
this can be done without difficulty within the necessary
time for the completion of the Lockport-Utica canaliza-
tion. This work falls within the jurisdiction of the
United States, and is still to be authorized by congress.
In fact, the exact character of this part of the whole im-
provements will somewhat depend upon the determina-

231

tion of the allowable outflow of water through the Chi-
cago drainage channel. Chicago is therefore interested
in securing proper action by congress covering these
questions. It is to be hoped that factional diff^erences
can be buried and that all our citizens will work to-
gether to this end. The money to be spent by the fed-
eral government will be small compared with what the
state of Illinois has authorized in connection with the
Lockport-Utica work, a total of $20,000,000.

There is every reason to expect that within seven years,
and perhaps within five years, the Illinois barge canal
will be completed between Lockport and Utica, so that

Ore is now a large item in lake tonnage; the vessels are big and

the unloading facilities have speed and gigantic grasp. This is

the steamer Harvester unloading at South Chicago.

Permission of International Harvester Company.

barges carrying up to 1,000 tons and even more can run
directly between Mississippi River points and Chicago.
It is also to be hoped that the work already authorized
b)^ congress on the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri Rivers
will be completed without delay so that barge transpor-
tation may become a reality. The Monongahela River,
where the improvements were completed about twenty
years ago, has been and is used so satisfactorily that the
practicability of this type of transportation seems as-
sured.

Chicago Can Be a Seaport in Seven Years

But the greater project, Chicago's new way to the seven
seas — when as an ocean port may she receive at her own

232

docks, direct from shipper, to market, the world's raw
and finished products and dispatch to distant markets
her own manufactures, and the assembled foodstuffs and
goods concentrated here by rail, lake and river and as-
sorted for domestic and overseas shipment in such a vast
clearing house as Illiana Harbor is devised to be? The
answer may be positive but of the nature of prediction.
Chicago ought to be a seaport within seven years. As-
suming that one more year will be sufficient for the ne-
gotiations between the United States and Canada and
the enactment of the necessary legislation, one additional
year for perfection of the engineering investigations and
the building up of an organization, and allowing an
additional five years for actual construction, Chicago
ought, as said, to be a seaport within seven years.

If it is assumed that the two governments agree and
authorize the improvement of the St. Lawrence, and that
the new Welland Canal, which is now approximately
40 per cent finished, will be completed within the same
time, Chicago may then expect to do direct a large for-
eign commerce. Chicago is therefore confronted imme-
diately with the problem of harbors. No time should
be lost in undertaking the improvements contemplated
under existing laws. It should be borne in mind that
while for the present the channels through Detroit River
and Lake St. Clair have a navigable depth of only 213/^
feet, one may expect progressive deepening in the future
the same as in the past. Our harbors should therefore
be planned so that not less than 30 feet navigable depth
will be available or easily attainable by dredging as re-
quired.

The sixteen states backing the St. Lawrence project
produce 75 per cent of the country's wheat, 65 per cent
of the corn, 100 per cent of the flax, 85 per cent of the
iron, 39 per cent of the copper, 74 per cent of the zinc,
46 per cent of the lead. The Great Lakes produce upon
their shores countless articles entering into foreign trade.
Present transportation routes to the sea are costly and
unreliable.

In January, 1918, there were 418 vessels held in New
York harbor for lack of fuel and cargoes because of car
shortage. In the fall of 1917 the Northwest suffered

233

The Mississippi Valley's proposed twofold outlet to the sea prom-
ises to make Chicago the world's great central inland seaport.
Here is to develop, by means of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
waterway and the Illinois waterway, an even larger transfer point
with facilities proposed or authorized of vast capacity and

efficiency.

Map by courtesy of H. C. Gardner

234

for lack of 6,000,000 tons of coal, and to supply the need
it was necessary to use 50 per cent of the freight cars of
forty-seven railroads for many weeks and later to use
them to make up the iron ore shortage.

For all of the export traffic from the Great Lakes
states and the Northwest, and for most domestic traffic
destined for the eastern seaboard, the St. Lawrence River
will furnish a direct route with average saving of 800
to 1,500 miles of rail haul and elimination of the exces-
sive costs of transfers involved at Atlantic ports.

The area which will benefit directly from the proposed
route for commerce with the United Kingdom and west-
ern Europe, including the Baltic Sea, has a population of
about 41,000,000, and the area tributary by commerce
with the Mediterranean ports has a population of about
36,000,000. An area having a population of about 30,-
000,000 will benefit by water traffic with South America,
while 20,000,000 will benefit through direct ocean trade
with the West Indies and Central America. Furthermore,
a territory of 21,000,000 will get advantage from coast-
wise vessel service to and from the ocean ports of the
United States. The direct water haul from Chicago to
Liverpool is 859 miles less than from New Orleans and
1,043 miles less than from Galveston. The area tributary
to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence deep waterway extend
to the western boundary of Montana.

Millions of Home Population Benefited

A total of over 41,000,000 people of the country's
105,683,108 would be benefited by the St. Lawrence
waterway improvement. The products of this area have
an annual value of over $26,000,000,000, the country's
entire production being estimated at over $70,000,000,-
000 annually.

The passage through the canals and dredged chan-
nels between Montreal and Duluth under the proposed
project will involve a total delay of about 12.6 hours as
compared with the navigation of an equal distance in
open waters. This loss of time will lessen the earning
ability of the vessel to about the same extent as an in-
crease of 120 miles in the length of the voyage. Such

235

an increase in distance of a voyage of between 3,000 and
5,000 miles is of no consequence.

Tonnage and Horse Power

It may be expected that within five years after the
opening of the St. Lawrence waterway it will carry a
commerce of not less than 20,000,000 tons a year. On a
basis of population it is estimated that 28,000,000 tons of
exports and 12,000,000 tons of imports originate in the
area tributary to the Great Lakes. The rail traffic in and
out of Chicago alone amounts to nearly 200,000,000 tons
without duplication.

By the St. Lawrence ship channel would be received
pulpwood, sulphur, china, clay, coffee, cocoa, sugar,
fruits and nuts, rubber, fertilizer materials, lumber,
hides, asphaltum, gums, tanning extracts, sago and tapi-
oca, fibres and textile grasses, flaxseed, seeds for planting,
spices, vegetable oil, granite and a great number of other
imports. Outward bound from the Great Central Mar-
ket and Mississippi Valley seaports would be grain, iron
and steel, coal, agricultural implements, automobiles and
other vehicles, salt, copper, meat, dairy products, linseed
oil, rubber goods, leather, furniture, paper, live stock
and manufactured goods other than enumerated.

The St. Lawrence River when fully improved would
develop 4,000,000 horsepower, worth about $60,000,000,
and saving from 35,000,000 to 50,000,000 tons of coal
annually. To haul this coal from the mines to the fac-
tory would require one trip of 700,000 to 1,000,000 cars.
If the power of the St. Lawrence were all used for manu-
facturing, the value of the raw materials would be
$2,600,000,000 and of the finished products $4,400,000,-
000.

The total volume of freight interested in this waterway
is the tonnage now moving entirely by rail between the
Great Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard, its volume being
annually about 250,000,000 tons.

236

ILLIANA HARBOR

Government Engineer Defines Interstate Location for
Great Transfer and Industrial Harbor to Provide
for Traffic Which New Waterways Will De-
velop in Making Chicago Seaport

It is the belief of Col. W. V. Judson, U. S. A., federal
engineer directing navigation improvements in the Chi-
cago district, that this city, already the world's greatest
railway center, will in ten years be the northern terminus
of an eight-foot barge canal connecting the Great Lakes
and the railways centering in Chicago with the coal
mines of Illinois, the cotton belt of the southern states,
the ocean port at New Orleans, and it is the expectation
of this authority that within fifteen years Chicago will
be connected with the great ports and sea routes of the
world by a channel from twenty-two to twenty-five feet
deep following the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.
Here, then, center of commerce, are to meet great facili-
ties of transportation, and here must be established in-
strumentalities for a great world port, and nature al-
ready has set her hand to its preparation.

The lands are low lying and flat and the submerged
lands of the foreshore are all publicly owned and can
in an area of nearly 100 square miles be raised into sur-
face land for any great purpose. Back of the lake shore
are some 92 miles of channel available within an urban
area for barges and lighters, that is to say, in the Chi-
cago River and branches, the Main and Sag Drainage
Canals, Calumet River and branches, and the Indiana
Harbor Canal.

Where Can a New Port Develop?

The requirements of a great future direct attention to
undeveloped resources, an outlook even the more logical
because the commerce of the Chicago River is now but
little more than one-fifth of what it was many years ago,
and the commerce that remains, through the operation
of bridges and interruptions of land traffic, impose in-
direct costs with which the future must reckon.

237

Where can the new port develop? — not along the city's
immediate lake front, not along those parts of the Michi-
gan shore already occupied by industrial plants. Lake
Calumet may be developed into such industrial sites as
may be found on the banks of the Calumet River and
the Indiana Harbor Canal, but that lake will not serve as
the center of a great transfer harbor because of the bends
and bridges interposing between it and Lake Michigan.
Harbor sites, however, do exist in the shallow lake known
as Wolf and George with their marshy margins lying
close to Lake Michigan upon the Illinois state line, and
such geographical circumstances have led the United
States engineer to designate his proposed greater port
project "Illiana Harbor." Here have been preserved
from industrial or urban development about 31/^ miles
of Lake Michigan frontage and some 6 square miles of
submerged and marshy land lying immediately shore-
ward.

Lake Michigan Shore Near Wolf Lake

It is the belief of this engineering and navigation
authority, whose general plans for harbor improvement
have been approved by the war department, that the
Lake Michigan shore near Wolf Lake and including it
offers the greatest opportunity of this region for the crea-
tion of wharf facilities of a character, magnitude and
location suited to the needs of Chicago's future. It is to
be borne in mind that if modern convenient port facili-
ties are not created in the Chicago district somewhat as
proposed these will be created somewhere else along the
southern end of Lake Michigan, and if thus created they
will be less convenient for commerce than they might be
if located at or near the state line, and just so much more
of the great commercial hinterland, south, west and
northwest of Chicago, which should belong to the south-
ern end of Lake Michigan, will be divided between the
ports of Toledo, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Duluth.

The engineer's general plan shows sixteen piers on the
Lake Michigan shore, each 3,000 feet long and 750 feet
wide and affording at the same time place for 232 ves-
sels of an average length of 500 feet. Behind the wharfs
on the lake front would be railway yards for the accom-
modation of 16,000 freight cars. Inside the shore line, in

238

Wolf Lake, would be nine piers 750 feet wide and aver-
aging 4,100 feet long, together with additional wharf
frontage, the whole providing for the accommodation of
212 vessels averaging 500 feet in length. Behind the
Wolf Lake piers would be yards for the movement and
storage of about 8,400 freight cars. The total wharf
frontage within and outside the shore line would pro-
vide for 444 vessels, averaging 500 feet long, and more
than 24,400 cars would be cared for within the yards.
The accompanying warehouses would store 2,473,500
tons of freight.

Illinois and Indiana Take Initial Steps

It is fair to assume that congress would consider build-
ing with federal funds the breakwater and entrance of
Wolf Lake. Barges from the Illinois and Mississippi
Rivers would reach the wharves by the Sag channel and

£>/Afvsro/v

The great Illiana harbor project of Col. W. V. Judson, U. S. A.,

which the states of Illinois and Indiana, by legislative action,

are about to study.

239

the Little Calumet and Calumet Rivers, either passing
out of the mouth of the latter into the area protected by
the breakwater, or being admitted to Wolf Lake by a
canal connecting the southern end of the latter with the
Calumet. Lake and ocean vessels might with but slight
deviation from their courses stop at the wharves near
the mouth of the Chicago River to put on and off pas-
sengers and certain express and local freight.

It is probable that a detour would be arranged for the
many fast passenger trains which now cross Wolf Lake's
channel of exit near the Lake Michigan shore line. To
realize this scheme of port facilities the states of Indiana
and Illinois have taken the first joint steps, that is, pro-
vision for creation of a harbor commission.

Today at the port of Chicago the principal existing
port facilities may be classed as industrial, whereas the
facilities at New York have for their primary function
that of transfer from railway to vessel and vice versa.
The Chicago industrial and commercial district has a
water-borne commerce of nearly 20,000,000 tons per
annum as compared with New York's 45,000,000, and
the great bulk of the Chicago movement consists of raw
materials. Chicago's port facilities for transfer purposes
are the grain elevators on the Calumet and Chicago
Rivers, but with the great waterway avenues in contem-
plation Chicago must plan on a large scale for modern
port facilities and for transfer purposes.

Wonderful Industrial Port Possibilities

After construction of the proposed waterways to the
sea terminating in Chicago, and after development of
proper transfer as distinguished from industrial port
facilities, lighters and barges will doubtless be required
to land at the industrial plants, and in one of the great-
est industrial districts of the world, along the Indiana
Canal and Calumet River, on the lake front at Gary, Indi-
ana Harbor and Calumet Harbor, and eventually in Calu-
met Lake are wonderful opportunities for industrial port
development, a small fraction of which is now used.

The function of a transfer harbor means the shifting
of freights between ocean vessels, lake vessels, barges,
lighters, warehouses and railway cars. The piers would
be on the quay system with transit sheds. Railroad

240

tracks would traverse each pier. There would be vast
railway yards.

And there are other kinds of port facilities, and one is
a lighterage service. If a great transfer port becomes
operating in Chicago lighters will be used on a large and
increasing scale connecting transfer port facilities with
great and small industrial plants and with the ware-
houses of merchants everywhere about the district. It is
felt by some that the Chicago River as an avenue of light-
ers and barges would thus perform a much more useful
service to the commerce of the district than it does now,
even if in the future it proves best to replace movable
with fixed bridges. Barges plying to the Gulf of Mexico
would be able to deliver and receive cargoes wherever
lighters could operate and in scattered localities would
be needed minor terminals for lighters and barges.

Local Passenger and Package Freight

Another class of terminals would be to receive and
store bulky matter such as building materials and coal to
be locally consumed. Still another class of port facilities
would be required to care for the local passenger and
package freight steamers plying Lake Michigan and han-
dling package freight mostly originating in or destined
for the retailing or jobbing districts of Chicago. Facili-
ties of this class would be found at the Municipal Pier
and in harbor districts Nos. 1 and 2 at the river mouth
and in No. 3 extending southward from Sixteenth Street,
and in addition there would be port facilities of special
characters contemplating summer excursion service and
reception of Michigan fruits and vegetables. Finally,
Chicago should expect to provide for the service of ocean
vessels carrying passengers in large numbers.

The states of Indiana and Illinois have already enacted
laws providing for an interstate harbor commission to in-
vestigate and report upon the feasibility of a public in-
terstate harbor in Wolf Lake and upon the shore of Lake
Michigan near Wolf Lake lying partly in the state of
Indiana and partly in the state of Illinois. Each act con-
templates the addition of a federal member to the two
members of the commission to be appointed from each
state, and an appropriation is made by each state in the
sum of $25,000.

241

CALUMET INDUSTRIAL HARBOR

One of Chicago's Latest Constructive Decisions Is to Build
an Important Industrial Harbor in Lake Calumet

Adoption by the city council of an ordinance to create
an inland industrial harbor at Lake Calumet in July of
the present year marked another forward step in Chi-
cago's efforts to secure adequate water terminal facili-
ties in preparation for the era of waterway development
foreshadowed by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence and Lake-
to-Gulf waterway projects.

The plan for the creation of a vast industrial harbor
in Lake Calumet was prepared by the committee on har-
bors, wharves and bridges of the city council and con-
templates the creation of a deep water channel a third
of a mile wide and two and one-half miles long, with a
dozen deep slips on the side of the channel capable of
accommodating the largest ships now plying the Great
Lakes.

Completion of the plan will involve the expenditure
of between $3,500,000 and $4,000,000 and the creation
of more than 1,450 acres of land alongside the harbor
suitable for intensive industrial development. Details of
the plan provide for a system of belt line railway serv-
ice so that industries locating on the new harbor will
be afforded both rail and water connections.

The action of the council follows an act of the last
legislature turning over to the city the state's rights to
the submerged lands at Lake Calumet. No money for
construction purposes has so far been appropriated and
it is therefore probable that the public will be asked to
approve a bond issue at a later date to cover the financ-
ing.

It is important to understand that the plan pro-
vides for the creation of an industrial rather than a
transfer harbor. When completed the Calumet harbor
will supplement and fit in admirably with the Illiana
harbor which is planned to care for the large transfer
business between rail and water that will come to Chi-

242

cago with the completion of the two great waterway
projects in which the city is so vitally interested.

Authorized conversion of Calumet Lake into a great industrial

harbor.

By permission of Chicago Tribune

243

POSTAL SERVICE

Chicago's Great Need of New Post Office Shown by
Restricted Efficiency in Handling Vast Business

A new main post office is an essential not alone to
Chicago but to the business of the continent itself, and
by unanimous action of the Chicago Plan Commission,
May 24, 1921, Chicago has petitioned congress that
money be appropriated at once for purchase of the site
of two blocks between Canal, Clinton, Madison and
Adams Streets, reasons for acquisition being that the
site is universally accessible, not to speak of its relation
to the present post office by wagon or tube; that it has
adequate street room; that it fronts upon the two-level
portion of Canal Street; that it is located between the
Northwestern and Union stations, where 62 per cent of
Chicago's mail is handled.

Before the house of representatives — and similar
measures have been introduced at other sessions — is a
resolution providing for increasing the cost of the new
post office site from $1,750,000 to $6,000,000, estimated
cost of the proposed site. Unless congress acts favor-
ably in the near future Chicago's postal service will
cease to function to the required degree of efficiency.
When the Chicago Plan Commission acted as aforesaid
it came to its conclusions through consideration of the
following conditions:

Cogent Reasons for Improved Facilities

Chicago's postal facilities are inadequate with dark
and unsanitary working quarters.

Public sidewalks are used for handling and storage of
mail, a practice amounting to a nuisance in the congested
central district.

As long as four years ago thousands of firms and
commercial bodies in Chicago and 236 cities in nineteen
states petitioned congress for relief.

On January 21, 1920, the Chicago city council formally
deprecated congressional delay.

Chicago's postal receipts since completion of the

244

present office have increased 211 per cent, increase
greater than the combined postal business in 1919 of
Boston, Detroit, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Jersey City.
These receipts have increased $13,000,000 in the past
five years alone, $3,000,000 more than the total receipts
of Philadelphia, third largest post office in the United
States.

The approximate postal tonnage of all classes in 1895
was 27,267.9, and receipts were $4,594,319.36. In 1919
tonnage had risen to 269,875.7 and receipts to $35,674,-
466.79. The receipts for 1920 were $43,005,319.27. It
is estimated that in 1945 the tonnage will be 882,734.7
and receipts $121,930,885.59. The approximate square
feet of space required to handle Chicago's mail in 1919
was 915,337. In 1925 it will be 1,442,819, and in 1945
3,552,747.

The congestion of the present post office building has
caused the mail service of today to be 25 per cent less
rapid than it was a quarter of a century ago.

The postmaster of Chicago provides the following in-
structive advices suggesting postal growth and require-
ments :

Enormous Growth of Business

The postal receipts of 1920— $43,005,319.27— show
an increase over those of 1919 of $4,848,057.20, or 12.7
per cent. In 1878 the receipts were $975,500.65.

In 1920 the number of pieces of mail of all classes
originating in Chicago was 2,374,558,543, and the num-
ber delivered in Chicago 1,018,996,585. Registered ar-
ticles mailed here numbered 4,103,028 and registered
articles received 5,345,723.

A prospective postal improvement is the Van Buren
terminal to be erected west of the river between Van
Buren and Harrison Streets, a building 796 feet long by
75 feet wide and six stories high. It is proposed to con-
solidate in this building mail operations now performed
in local terminals and to install facilities for the sale
of postage stamps and the handling of registry and
money order business. Indeed, in general here will be
handled the bulky second, third and fourth class (parcel
post) matter.

The Quincy station is now fully equipped for the
handling of outgoing parcel post mail, and delivery of

245

local mail intended for the territory in which this build-
ing is located is made from this station, and money order
and registry business is also conducted in this building.
Parcel post mail for local delivery is sent to the Eleventh
Street annex.

Postal improvements in aviation service opens inter-
esting possibilities. It is not improbable that post office
buildings will be so constructed that it will be possible
for airplanes to alight on and depart from their roofs,
thus effecting direct delivery and dispatch of mails and
without loss of time in hauling to and from aviation
fields.

Airplane Postal Service

It is also possible that mail distribution may be made
in transit in airplanes operating between large cities, and
that the delivery of mails may be made to intervening
points without the need of planes making a landing. On
the transcontinental airplane route between New York
and San Francisco there will be placed in operation six
remodeled army airplanes to carry double the amount
of mail carried in the present type of machine. These
planes will carry 800 pounds of mail, or 32,000 let-
ters, wath no additional cost for fuel or pilots.

246

PUBLIC UTILITIES

Growth of Public Services from Simple Beginnings Prom-
ises a Future of Wonderful Accomplishments

The best informed about the tremendous growth of
Chicago's public utilities are willing to guess at devel-
opments of the next twenty-five years but frankly refuse
hazards of a prediction covering half a century. Already
well within a half century have come the practical mani-
festations of electricity, and what has happened in the
field of communication begets anticipation of future
miracles. In way of positive assertion based upon ac-
tual antecedents let it be here claimed that Chicago will
be the central hub of the electrical system of the nation.
Its northern power plant will be at Waukegan and its
southern at the most important distribution point in the
South Chicago-Gary district, where manufacturing fa-
cilities have grown to colossal size. This great electrical
belt will be connected with high-power transmission lines
of 200,000 to 500,000 voltage reaching far into the
Northwest, to the Mississippi River, to the coal fields of
Illinois, to like resources of Indiana and Kentucky, and
running east into the Pittsburgh district and through
Niagara Falls and beyond to the great electrical system
that will have been built up in the New England states.
In that not distant day few industries will develop their
own power, but this will come in concentrated form
from central electric plants, eliminating capital invest-
ment by individuals, economizing labor supplies, con-
serving the country's fuel resources and lowering pro-
duction cost. Gas will be no longer an illuminant and
will develop in its real field as a heating agent and part
of manufacturing processes. Railroads in and around
Chicago will be electrified.

Industrial Progress of Tomorrow

Home, street and industrial lighting will transcend
anything now imaginable. Food producing areas ad-
jacent to Chicago, even hundreds of miles away, will
have electrical service from the system with Chicago as

247

its hub. Little coal will come to this city, and the greatly
developed transportation systems of that day being re-
lieved of this burden will have increased capacities for
other services. Gas will then be the industrial fuel and
Chicago will be virtually a smokeless city. The great
source of gas manufacture will be in the South Chicago-
Gary district, where smoke and fumes will be converted
into pure gas. Residential buildings in Chicago of all
classes will be heated by gas from central plants and
with the consequent economies and sanitary benefits. At
the mouths of coal mines will be great gas plants, while
in Chicago will be central station plants supplement-
ing gas supplies received from the sources of coal and
oil.

In the near future electric transportation will have
exceeded the progress made in the previous quarter of a
century. Surface and elevated electric lines will have
become economically related, subways will reach from
the city's heart far outward, suburban lines and city
lines will have become unified, and express service will
be emphasized. Surface lines will be feeders of the main
trunk lines. Electricity will continue to be the pro-
pelling power.

Day of the Wireless Telephone

In the extension of world communication Atlantic and
Pacific cables will be connected directly with Chicago.
Chicago and down-state will be served by automatic tele-
phone systems, improving the present system, however
advanced it be with connections by operators. The wire-
less telephone w^ill continue to be perfected, and it is
not unreasonable to anticipate that the present commer-
cial advantages of the ordinary telephone will have be-
come so expanded that the greater portion of the solicita-
tion of business will be conducted over local and long
distance lines, eliminating much expense in the conduct
of business. As for the practical development of wire-
less telephony he will guess best who guesses last.

Properties such as these are basic to a community's
well-being and their administration should be far re-
moved from the adversities of politics.

248

CHICAGO'S FREIGHT TUNNELS

An Unseen Economic Instrument Affecting Surface Traffic

Conditions and Downtown Liveability Is

Freight Tunnel System

How many Chicagoans know that the city possesses
a subway system in successful operation? To most peo-
ple subways mean large underground passages, designed
to carry passengers, but Chicago's system was built to
carry freight and lighten the load upon its already abused
streets. Forty feet below the surface of every downtown
street lies a network of small subways or tunnels through
which, day and night, trains hurry to carry on an im-
portant part of the city's business.

More than 60 miles of these freight arteries not only
honeycomb the loop district proper, but extend north
to Superior Street, west as far as Green Street and south
to Sixteenth Street.

The service which they give extends, therefore, to the
wholesale and light manufacturing district, as well as
to the office building and department store section of the
central business district. Through these tunnels 132
electric locomotives haul trains laden with their full
quota of the city's freight. A total of 3,000 cars is op-
erated, which, if made into one train, would be seven
miles long.

In volume, the most important business is the handling
of merchandise which is hauled between the railroad ter-
minals, the industries and business houses of the Loop
district. The interchange of freight between railroad
terminals is another part of the business of no small
size. Totaled up, the volume of merchandise hauled an-
nually runs between six and seven hundred thousand
tons.

But this is not all. Our streets and our lungs are
cleaner because between 60,000 and 100,000 tons of coal
are delivered annually to office buildings and business
houses via the tunnel. In addition there is the handling
of excavated material, cinders and other forms of refuse.
Of these there is about 220,000 cubic yards handled an-
nually.

249

RAILWAY ELECTRIFICATION

Problems of Transportation, Cleanliness and Beauty

Involved in an Improvement of Progressive

Realization

Typical of Chicago's way of attacking large problems
is the beginning it has made toward the electrification of
railway lines and terminals. Closely following the ex-
haustive study of the electrification of railway terminals
made by a committee of The Chicago Association of
Commerce in 1916, came the three-party negotiations be-
tween the South Park Commissioners, the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad and the city of Chicago relative to the de-
velopment of park facilities along the lake front, as con-
templated by the Chicago Plan, the construction of a new
Illinois Central terminal, and the provision of a new
harbor district.

These negotiations made it possible for the city nol
only to take a big forward step in advancing a vital part
of the Chicago Plan, but also afforded the opportunity
to begin the realization of a dream in the heart of every
citizen, that one day Chicago's atmosphere would be re-
lieved of smoke, soot and other forms of pollution.

It is now a matter of history that in connection with
the lake front improvement ordinance passed by the city
council on July 21, 1919, and accepted by the railroad
companies February 18, 1920, there was included provi-
sions for the gradual electrification within the city limits
of the Illinois Central, the Michigan Central, the "Big
Four," the South Chicago Railroad Company, the Ken-
sington & Eastern Railroad Company, and the Blue Island
Railroad Company, comprising the group of roads now
using the present Park Row station.

According to the provisions of this ordinance, the
above railroads are to complete the electrification of all
their facilities lying within the city limits by 1940, or
within a period of nineteen years from the present date;
but within a much shorter period the greater part of the
services will already have been electrified.

Following a preliminary period of two years after the

250

acceptance of the ordinance, during which the Illinois
Central and its associated lines will lower their tracks,
rearrange utility services, and make general plans and
preparations, all of the suburban service is to be elec-
trified within the succeeding five years or by the summer
of 1927.

In 1930, or three years later, all of the freight service
north of Roosevelt Road, or Twelfth Street, is to be
changed to electrical operation. Within five additional
years, or by 1935, all of the freight service south of
Roosevelt Road and within the city limits is to be changed
over from steam operation. Finally, within another five-
year period, or by 1940, the through passenger service
is to be equipped for electrical operation.

Study of Electrification System

Large forces of engineers and draftsmen are now en-
gaged in making preliminary plans necessary to carry-
ing out the work authorized in this ordinance. A com-
mission of widely known electrical engineers has been
employed by the Illinois Central to recommend the sys-
tem of electrification to be adopted. In considering the
beginning of the electrification of the Illinois Central and
Michigan Central group of roads it is well to appreciate
that no electrification project of similar complexity has
ever been carried out before.

That the work will be successfully accomplished on
time, no one doubts. As a visible evidence of progress
the Illinois Central has recently installed twenty new
steel suburban coaches, designed for use under electrical
operation. These coaches embody a number of new ideas
and their performance will be carefully studied. Tests
are also being made of other forms of electrical equip-
ment, to the end that when construction begins the Chi-
cago project will utilize the latest and most practical
equipment that science has developed.

The next fifty years is certain to bring fundamental
changes in the operation of Chicago's railroads beyond
conception at the present time. In nineteen years the Illi-
nois Central group of roads will have been completely
electrified. Before this work is completed, efforts will
undoubtedly be made to induce other roads to follow the
example of the Illinois Central group.

251

STREET LIGHTING

Great and General Illumination Coming Out of Primitive
Gas Light Facilities of Year of Great Fire

What street lighting there was in Chicago at the time
of the great fire in 1871 was obtained from a few primi-
tive gas lights placed on street corners. Gas was fur-
nished from a small plant located on the near West Side,
but this new form of illuminant was considered such a
luxury that it was a number of years afterward before it
began to replace kerosene lamps in the homes.

Chicago streets were wholly lighted by gas for sixteen
years after the fire, and even after the introduction of
electric street lighting gas was used for a long period
throughout the greater part of the city. One reason for
the extensive use of gas in Chicago was that standards
could be more economically installed and operated in
residential sections and the further fact that the change to
electric lighting could not keep pace with the growth of
the city.

Chicago's first municipal electric lighting station was
placed in operation on Christmas eve, 1887, and con-
sisted of one hundred lights located along the river at
street intersections. From that small beginning the mu-
nicipal system was rapidly expanded until on December
31, 1918, there were 45,534 electric lamps in operation.

The number of municipally-operated street lights, how-
ever, at no time measured the extent of the city's lighting
system. So rapidly did Chicago grow that at all times
in addition to the municipally-operated lights the city
leased large numbers of gas, gasoline and electric lights
from commercial companies. This was particularly the
case in the outlying and less built up sections of the city.

The power for Chicago's municipal lighting system
w^as generated by the city in steam plants until the middle
of 1908, when they were abandoned and power obtained
from the hydro-electric plant of the Sanitary District
located at the terminus of the drainage canal near Lock-
port, Illinois.

From the time cheap power of the Sanitary District
became available the city's lighting system has been
rapidly extended year by year. Substation after substa-

252

tion has been built to serve residential and business areas,
and gradually the system has caught up with the growth
of Chicago and the number of rented street lights has
been correspondingly decreased.

As illustrating the rapid changes which the city's street
lighting system has undergone it may be recalled that as
late as 1915 the flaming arc lamp was believed to be the
most efficient high power type lighting unit. Large iium-
bers of such lamps were installed throughout the city by
the department between 1912 and 1915, and business and
improvement associations, desiring a greater intensity of
lighting than furnished by the city, were abandoning the
old incandescent cluster lights on low standards in favor
of flaming arcs on higher standards. The lighting of
Dearborn Street in the downtown district, in which The
Chicago Association of Commerce assisted, was a notable
example.

Progress Beyond Imagination

Today the nitrogen filled tungsten lamp, an incan-
descent type, is proving more economical than the flam-
ing arc. In consequence, the city's lighting plans are
already being changed from the use of high power units
on high standards at relatively great distances apart to
lower power units on lower standards more closely
spaced, with the result that for the same cost it is possi-
ble to obtain a greater amount of illumination more
evenly distributed.

The city's plans for extending the present electric
lighting system include the replacement of all gas and
gasoline lighting with modern, economical and efficient
electric lamps.

Judging from past developments in the art of street
lighting, it is fair to predict that the next half century
will bring improved facilities and equipment beyond
imagination at the present time. Among the more imme-
diate improvements which can be foreseen, the proposed
hydro-electric development at Brandon's Road by the
Sanitary District, which will double the amount of power
at present produced, will give the city of Chicago not
only the best lighted streets of any city in the world, but
make possible the obtaining of current for operation at
a cost that will permit unlimited illumination.

253

INDUSTRIES ON DRAINAGE CANAL

Navigation Improvements Will Turn Industrial Attention
to Sites Along Chicago's Ship Channel

Measured by its reserves for future industrial growth,
Chicago is indeed fortunate, for with the single exception
of the north shore there lie on all sides of the city large
areas already served by rail lines and only awaiting the
nearer approach of the city to be changed to manufac-
turing and residential uses. Of these there is one in par-
ticular worthy of mention because of the possibilities it
presents for development in the immediate future. Ref-
erence is made to the Sanitary Canal stretching from
Robey Street in Chicago to Joliet, a distance of 32 miles,
and presenting 64 miles of dock frontage on a channel
200 feet wide, 24 feet in depth, and capable of floating
the largest vessels that ply the Great Lakes. The entire
dock frontage along the main drainage channel, as well
as the Calumet-Sag channel, connecting the Calumet and
Northern Indiana manufacturing districts, is owned by
the Sanitary District of Chicago and is available for
lease to industries on terms extremely reasonable.

Already the main channel of the Sanitary District is
the site of a number of the city's large industries which
have found important advantages in a location served by
both rail and water.

When Chicago's dream as an ocean port nears realiza-
tion, as provided in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence and
Lakes-to-Gulf waterway projects, numerous industries,
warehouses and shipping concerns will find this virgin
territory along Chicago's ship canal an admirable loca-
tion for their business. Spanned and surrounded by Chi-
cago's network of railroads, and adjacent to the Great
Central Market, this territory is destined in coming
years to be a thriving center of industry and commerce.

Spoil banks along the channels, partly of clay and
partly of stone, are already being utilized to a certain
extent by industries, and plans now being developed call
for the more rapid preparation of these sites for their
ultimate use.

254

MUNICIPAL MISCELLANY

hicago Wastes Water — Garbage Disposal Methods Prim-
itive— Street Improvement — Track Elevation

With a daily consumption of 264 gallons per capita
of water, Chicago has established a record for wasteful-
ness. This is far more than the amount consumed by
the residents of any other city. It indicates that great
amounts of water vanish in a manner that has not been
accounted for, either being wasted indiscriminately or
being appropriated by industries to a degree that is not
appreciated. Figures for the year show that the average
daily consumption is 714,451,000 gallons, or 2,270 gal-
lons for each tap.

It is contended by many that the remedy for this situa-
tion is in the use of meters. At present only 8.9 per cent
of the service pipe is metered. All told, there are 2,915.7
miles of service pipe in Chicago. This pipe is from 4
to 48 inches and is of cast iron. The range of pressure
is from 15 to 60 pounds. In cities where meters are in
general use the consumption per capita is far less, the
number of large industries which consume water being
also less.

Disposal of garbage in Chicago is handled in a primi-
tive manner. The present system is one that might be
suitable for a village, but that is entirely inadequate for
a large city. The garbage is now dumped into the old
quarries and clay holes, which in time are certain to be
filled. The problem then will be even more difficult of
solution.

The present plan has been condemned as unnecessarily
expensive and as being decidedly unsanitary. During
the administration of Carter H. Harrison as mayor a start
was made toward building an incinerator quite a distance
out on the South Side. His term as mayor ended before
the incinerator was finished and the work was dropped
by succeeding administrations. The frame of the in-
cinerator is still standing. It was the intention to dis-
pose of the garbage by burning at this plant. The gar-
bage was to be handled in a scientific, up-to-date man-

255

ner, but this idea has been given up and now nothing is
being done to solve the problem.

Streets and Highways

At the time of the Chicago fire, Chicago's streets,
where improved at all, were covered with heavy plank-
ing to make traffic possible in wet weather. Shortly
afterwards, in 1874, cedar blocks were introduced, fol-
lowed by asphalt in 1882, brick in 1891 and creosoted
wood block in 1893.

Today Chicago has 3,257 miles of streets, of which
2,188 miles, or 68 per cent, are improved with modern,
substantial pavements. In a normal year Chicago im-
proves between 100 and 150 miles of streets, spending
as much as $6,000,000 in one year on this single item
of public works. At the rate Chicago's streets are being
improved it is a safe prediction that before another fifty
years shall have passed Chicago w^ill be a 100 per cent
paved city, unless in the meantime there are made con-
siderable additions of unimproved territory.

Connecting Chicago's improved streets the county to-
day has 194 miles of improved highways, which in turn
connect with the highways of adjacent counties as co-
ordinate parts of a state-wide system of hard surfaced
roads.

Track Elevation

FoT many years Chicago has given official recognition
to the safety first movement by carrying out a policy
of elevating main railway lines. Of these lines a total
of 4,000 miles have been mapped out as comprising the
task the city has set itself to perform.

To date 970 miles of this large total have been com-
pleted at a total expenditure of $95,000,000. In addition
280 miles have been provided for by city ordinances, but
not yet completed. The work completed has resulted in
the elimination of 963 grade crossings. There remain
536 crossings at grade to be eliminated in connection
w^ith pending and future work. Track elevation is a set-
tled part of Chicago's many plajis for making a greater
city and the work will be carried forward year by year
as rapidly as railroad finances permit.

256

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

REFERENCE DEPARTMENT

This book is
tak

under no circumstances to be
en from the Building

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