Bank clearings in 1920 were $32,669,233,535, as compared with $16,198,985,174 in 1915 and $13,939,689,984 in 1910. The com- bined resources shown by the figures of the Chicago banks in 1920 amounted to $1,883,154,592.
The City Plan. The most striking feature of Chicago's recent history is the formulation of the plan for the physical recon- struction of the city and the progress of the movement for its execution. This plan had its genesis in a report, issued by the Commercial Club of Chicago in 1909, which was prepared largely under the guiding spirit of Mr. Daniel H. Burnham, Director of Works of the World's Fair of 1803. The first step was the appoint- ment of the Chicago Plan Commission, created by ordinance of the city council, and composed of aldermen and citizens. In furtherance of the Chicago Plan, Roosevelt Rd. (formerly i2th St.) was widened to more than 100 ft. between Ashland Ave. and Michigan Ave., a distance of 2 m., at a cost of $8,303,284. Michigan Ave. was widened to 130 ft. between Roosevelt Rd. and the river and to 141 ft. between the river and Chicago Ave. Widening that part of the street between Randoph St. and Chicago Ave. was a difficult matter, involving the taking of valuable private property, and the construction over the Chicago river of a large two-level bascule bridge. The cost of the Michigan Ave. project was in excess of $16,000,000, paid for out of bond issues and special assessments. The new thoroughfare was opened to traffic in 1920. Other street-widening and street- opening projects were under way in 1921.
The situation with respect to railway terminal facilities had long been unsatisfactory. The fact that Chicago is the greatest railway centre in the world, and that the interests involved were conflicting, made the problem exceedingly difficult. In 1911 the new passenger station of the Chicago and North- western railway was opened to service, at a cost of $25,000,000. This station, which is a dignified structure, was the project of a single railway. Other terminal projects authorized later repre- sent greater cooperation, though they materially conflicted in some respects with the ideas of the Chicago Plan Commission.
The railways using the so-called Union Station the Pennsyl- vania, the Burlington, the Chicago & Alton, and the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul had under construction (1921) a new passenger station estimated before the war to cost $65,000,000. The actual cost probably will be nearer $80,000,000. This station is to have a large office building above it. The proposed passenger station of the Illinois Central railway, on the lake front, was planned on a scale large enough to accommodate all the roads 17 in number using the Illinois Central, Dearborn, La Salle and Grand Central stations. The Illinois Central project also involved a programme of electric operation, beginning with the suburban service in 1927 and includ- ing all service, freight and passenger, by 1940. The estimated cost to the railway of the Illinois Central improvement was $80,000,000.
As a part of the combined move for terminal improvement and lake-front development, the Board of South Park Commissioners planned to spend $60,000,000; of which $20,000,000 has been authorized by referendum vote. The board was, in 1921, proceed- ing to make land by filling the lake outside the Illinois Central right of way, this land to be used for parkways and bathing beaches. The new building for the Field Museum, located on made land on the lake front at the foot of Roosevelt Rd., was completed in 1920 at a cost of $6,000,000, which was provided by the will of Marshall Field. The museum was formerly housed in the old Fine Arts Building, first erected for the World's Fair of 1893, in Jackson Park. The new building opened in May 1921 is 350 ft. wide and 700 ft. long. It is built oi Georgia white marble, in the Ionic style of architecture. South of the Field Museum is to be located a large stadium with a seating capacity of 100,000, for which a bond issue of $2,500,000 has been authorized by referendum vote. The outside dimensions of this structure of reenforced concrete will be 2,000 by 1, 080 feet. Other important buildings erected or completed during the decade 191020 include the following, (name, height in storeys and approxi- mate cost given in order): Atlantic Hotel, 20, $1,400,000; Butler Bros., 14, $1,750,000; Continental and Commercial National Bank, 20, $4,500,000; Fort Dearborn Hotel, 17, $1,100,000; Insurance Exchange, 22, $4,000,000; Karpen, 12, $1,400,000; Lytton, 18, $2,250,000; Mandel (department store), 15, $2,000,000; Monroe, 14, $1,500,000; Morrison Hotel, 22, $2,000,000; North American, 20, $1,800,000; Peoples Gas, 20, $3,000,000; State-Lake, 13, $1,600,000. The present limit of the height of buildings by city ordinance is 260 feet.
One of the most important municipal undertakings of the decade was the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanatorium, consisting of several buildings erected after 1909, in which year a site of 164 ac. was acquired in the north-western part of the city. Its revenues, derived
mainly from taxation, amount to more than $1,000,000 a year; in 1920 there were about 1,000 patients. A notable structure, com- pleted late in 1915 at a cost of nearly $4,000,000, is the Municipal Pier. It projects 3,000 ft. into Lake Michigan just north of the mouth of the Chicago river. The outer portion, 660 ft. in length, is a three-decked structure devoted to recreation purposes. Up to 1920 the new pier had not been extensively utilized by shipping interests ; the recreation part of the pier, however, proved extremely popular from the outset.
Education, Art and Music. The school census of 1916, though not completely reliable, was of interest as showing that the total pop., under 21 years of age, in that year was 996,059. Of these 304,547 were of compulsory school attendance age i.e. over 7 and under 14 years. Between the ages of 14 and 16 there were 96,949 of whom 1 5-393 were at work and 885 unaccounted for. The total en- rolment in the public schools in 1919 was 377,058 (8,558 teachers) ; in 1910 the enrolment was 300,893 (6,383 teachers). In 1920 there were 288 public schools, in many of which night courses were given to adults as well as to minors. The number of students registered in the Art School of the Art Institute in 1920-1 was 4,267. The number of visitors to the Institute during the year was 1,100,000.
The trustees of the Art Institute administer the Ferguson Monu- ment Fund, consisting of the income from $1,000,000, left by the will of Benjamin Franklin Ferguson, a Chicago business man, to be used for the erection of enduring statuary and monuments in Chicago. Among others, two notable pieces by Lorado Taft have- been purchased ; one, " The Fountain of the Great Lakes," stands just to the S. of the Art Institute ; the other, " The Fountain of Time," will stand at the head of the Midway, between Washington and Jack- son parks.
Chicago was the first American municipality to adopt the policy of giving direct official encouragement to local art by using public funds for that purpose. In 1914, at the suggestion of Mayor Har- rison, the city council appropriated $2,500 for the purchase of paintings and works of plastic art, the production of resident artists and sculptors, and an appropriation for this purpose has been made each year since. The purchases are supervised by a commission named by the mayor; it consists of seven members, of whom six are ap- pointed on the recommendation of different art groups of the city, including the Art Institute.
The most notable development in music since 1910 has been the establishment of the Chicago Opera Association, at first known as the Chicago Grand Opera Co. The company gives a 10 weeks' season of grand opera each year in Chicago, five weeks in New York and five weeks in other places.
Parks and Bathing Beaches. Before 1910 the facilities for bathing in Lake Michigan within the city limits were meagre. In 1920 there were 12 public bathing beaches, 3 maintained by park boards, and the rest by the city government. Clarendon Beach, managed by the city, is the largest. It has nearly 10,000 lockers and has been used by as many as 23,000 bathers in one day. The small park and playground movement, which was well under way in 1910, devel- oped largely in the following decade. In 1920, in addition to several large parks, there were 195 small parks and playgrounds maintained by the city and by park authorities. Outer park areas for Chicago were enlarged by the purchase, beginning in 1916, of wooded tracts in Cook county, nearly all of them outside Chicago, to the extent of 18,028-77 ac.; these tracts are known as the Forest Preserve Dis- trict. The total purchase price was $7,221,754.78, or an average of $400.57 per acre. The members of the Board of Cook County Commissioners arc ex-officio the commissioners of the Forest Pre- serve District. The plans call for the acquisition of about 30,000 ac. all told. A 3OO-ac. tract of land near Riverside was donated by Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick for the establishment of the Chicago Zoological gardens.
Finance. The city's corporate finances suffered severely from causes incident to the World War, and more particularly from the loss of revenue from saloon licences, which once contributed as much as $7,000,000 annually. A summary of the more important city revenues and expenditures in 1919 follows:
Purpose.
Corporate purposes .... Sinking-funds for bonds . Municipal water- works .
Schools
Public Library . . . ...
Municipal tuberculosis sanatorium Special assessments (street improve- ments)
All purposes 1
Revenue. Expenditure.
$32,541.75? $32,084,658 4,200,342 6,643,958 24,167,362 848,764
4,324,346
8,007,851
27,701,826
847,095 1,054,076
10,757,148 129,432,896
1,287,755
9,449,038 99,142,349
1 This does not include expenditures for the larger parks, for the sanitary district, or for some other purposes which are in the hands of separate taxing bodies. The division of each dollar of taxes in 1918 was as follows: city corporate, i;J cents; state, 14^; county and towns, 9!; sanitary district, 5^; schools and education, 19, school buildings. 10; parks, 10; tuberculosis sanatorium, ij; pen- sions, 2; public library, ii; and interest, 9i.
