ILLINOIS (see 14.304). The pop. by the 1920 census was 6,485,280, as compared with 5,638,591 in 1910 and 4,821,550 in 1900. The rate of increase 1910-20 was 15%, as against 14.9% for the whole United States and as against 16.9% for the state in the preceding decade. The increase of 1910-20 was urban, rural pop. continuing to decline. In 1900 the percentage of urban pop. in towns and cities of 2,500 or over was 54.3%; in 1910 61.7%; in 1920 67.9%; 35.2% of the total pop. in 1900, 38.8% in 1910, and 41.7% in 1920 was in Chicago. In 1920 52.5% of the state's pop. was in cities greater than 25,000. Population in villages of less than 2,500 declined from 12.6% in 1900 to 12% in 1910 and 10.5% in 1920. Purely rural pop. fell from 33.2% in 1900 to 26.4% in 1910 and 21.6% in 1920. The rapid growth of towns of 25,000 to 100,000 is significant, their gain in the decade being 29.2%.
Population of Cities of over 25,000.
| City | Population 1920 |
Population 1910 |
Increase per cent |
| Aurora | 36,397 | 29,807 | 22.1 |
| Bloomington | 28,725 | 25,768 | 11.5 |
| Chicago | 2,701,705 | 2,185,283 | 23.6 |
| Cicero town | 44,995 | 14,557 | 209.1 |
| Danville | 33,776 | 27,871 | 21.2 |
| Decatur | 43,818 | 31,140 | 40.7 |
| East St. Louis | 66,767 | 58,547 | 14.0 |
| Elgin | 27,454 | 25,976 | 5.7 |
| Evanston | 37,234 | 24,978 | 49.1 |
| Joliet | 38,442 | 34,670 | 10.9 |
| Moline | 30,734 | 24,199 | 27.0 |
| Oak Park village | 39,858 | 19,444 | 105.0 |
| Peoria | 76,121 | 66,950 | 13.7 |
| Quincy | 35,978 | 36,587 | -1.7 |
| Rock Island | 35,177 | 24,335 | 44.6 |
| Rockford | 65,651 | 45,401 | 44.6 |
| Springfield | 59,183 | 51,678 | 14.5 |
Agriculture.—While the census of manufactures of 1914 showed Illinois to be an industrial rather than an agricultural state, the value added to her manufactured products by manufacture making a total of $907,139,412 as against a value for agricultural products of $586,517,053 for 1910, there has been no absolute decline in her agriculture. True, the population gainfully engaged in agriculture fell from 32% of all employed in 1890 to 19% in 1910; but the average annual value of field crops grew from $129,890,293 for 1895-9 to $518,227,210 for 1915-7. One cause, other than higher prices, for this increase, in the face of a decreased number of farm labourers, appears in the increased efficiency and utilization of farm machinery; from 1890 to 1910, in spite of price reductions, the value of implements on farms increased from $34,456,938 to $73,724,074. The machine replaced the man. The cereals are still Illinois' main crop, and maize is the leading cereal. The crop of 1917, 418,000,000 bus., grown on 11,000,000 ac., was the largest. In 1918 and 1919 crop and acreage decreased, the 1919 crop being 301,000,000 bus. grown on 8,600,000 ac. That Illinois in these last two years ranked second to Iowa for the first time since 1890 was due to her turning her efforts to war-time wheat production. First in the Union in wheat production in 1889, she had fallen in 1900 to 14th place, but from a product of 30,850,000 bus. grown on 1,650,000 ac. in 1917, she rose to 60,991,000 bus. grown on 2,774,000 ac. in 1918, and in 1919 to 65,675,000 bus. grown on 4,184,000 ac., an achievement which placed her second only to Kansas. In oats her production declined steadily from the high-water mark of 1900, 164,909,129 bus., until the outbreak of the World War. In 1917 she produced 239,200,000 bus., which had fallen off by 1919 to 123,060,000 bus. from an acreage slightly larger than that of 1900. Since 1917 Illinois has been second only to Iowa in the production of this crop. In 1919 she
ranked 8th in the production of barley and rye, producing 3.45% of the barley and 4.66% of the rye grown in the United States. In live stock Illinois, Jan. 1 1920, with 1,060,000 milch cows, ranked 7th among the states; and in other cattle, numbering 1,290,000, ranked 13th. On the same date she ranked 18th in number of sheep, with 1,010,000 of the 48,615,000 in the United States. In swine she ranked second only to Iowa, having 5,323,000, a little over 7% of the total for the nation. In total value of cattle, sheep, and hogs on farms Jan. 1 1920, $294,000,000, she fell below Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin only. In value of the 1,422,000 horses and 147,000 mules on her farms on Jan. 1 1920 she was second only to Texas.
Manufactures.—In value of manufactures Illinois since 1893 has ranked third, being exceeded only by New York and Pennsylvania. In 1914 the total value of her manufactured products was $2,247,322,819 and the value added by manufacture $907,139,412. Manufactures employed 506,943 wage-earners, working in 18,388 establishments. There were 124 distinct industries reporting products yearly in excess of $1,000,000 each. The 25 exceeding $20,000,000 ranged as follows:—
Manufactured Products, Illinois, 1914
| Number of Establishments |
Average Number of Wage-earners |
Value of Products |
Value Added by Manufacture | |
| Slaughtering and meat-packing | 98 | 31,627 | $489,230,324 | $77,215,741 |
| Foundry and machine-shop products | 1,371 | 55,261 | 141,328,624 | 80,722,363 |
| Printing and publishing | 2,722 | 32,838 | 112,833,427 | 79,555,8l2 |
| Clothing, men's, including shirts | 604 | 35,119 | 89,144,448 | 47,833,982 |
| Agricultural implements | 73 | 19,556 | 65,337,663 | 32,460,102 |
| Iron and steel, steel-works and rolling-mills | 25 | 15,408 | 64,995,121 | 25,057,057 |
| Cars, steam-railway, not including operations of railway companies | 23 | 18,000 | 61,315,638 | 20,886,871 |
| Liquors, distilled | 7 | 855 | 51,596,022 | 42,989,814 |
| Flour-mill and grist-mill products | 406 | 2,398 | 49,493,224 | 6,652,317 |
| Electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies | 142 | 16,483 | 45,667,456 | 26,288,292 |
| Bread and other bakery products | 2,278 | 10,404 | 45,250,060 | 21,611,189 |
| Lumber and timber products | 618 | 14,870 | 42,064,008 | 17,939,874 |
| Cars and general shop construction and repairs by steam-railway companies | 94 | 28,682 | 41,496,130 | 23,177,666 |
| Liquors, malt | 89 | 5,749 | 39,435,995 | 29,029,583 |
| Furniture and refrigerators | 283 | 13,766 | 32,999,567 | 17,286,793 |
| Gas, illuminating and heating | 75 | 3,890 | 28,170,560 | 20,135,071 |
| Tobacco manufactures | 1,622 | 7,653 | 26,036,729 | 15,982,887 |
| Iron and steel, blast furnaces | 5 | 1,450 | 25,861,528 | 4,067,381 |
| Copper, tin and sheet-iron products | 508 | 7,445 | 24,815,389 | 10,990,536 |
| Paints and varnishes | 72 | 2,110 | 24,488,449 | 9,011,951 |
| Confectionery | 147 | 5,009 | 22,138,559 | 10,043,926 |
| Coffee and spice, roasting and grinding | 34 | 1,193 | 22,044,588 | 4,950,998 |
| Butter, cheese and condensed milk | 267 | 1,755 | 21,792,220 | 3,556,588 |
| Soap | 27 | 2,144 | 21,420,035 | 6,167,142 |
| Clothing, women's | 241 | 8,113 | 20,750,550 | 9,531,354 |
In four of these industries—slaughtering, agricultural implements, distilled liquors and railway cars—Illinois in 1914 ranked first among the states. In the relative importance of the industries in Illinois there have undoubtedly been great changes since 1914. War-time demands had far-reaching effects; and prohibition greatly curtailed the output of distilled liquors, firms engaged in their manufacture often turning to some related line such as the production of alcohol for industrial purposes. The tendency in manufacturing is toward large-scale production and corporate ownership. In 1914 the 32.6% of manufacturing establishments that were corporations produced 90% of all manufactured products. Of the 18,388 establishments in the state in the same year, the 336 producing $1,000,000 or over turned out 59.7% of products. Of the mergers during the boom period 1902-3 those in harvesting machinery and iron and steel have endured; but the National Packing Co., made up of three great Chicago packing-houses, was dissolved in 1912. Chicago, with its tributary manufacturing suburbs of Maywood, Harvey, Cicero, Blue Island, Chicago Heights, and in Indiana Hammond and Gary, is the greatest manufacturing centre of the state. A lesser manufacturing centre has grown up in the net of railways that centres at St. Louis in the cities of Alton, Belleville, East St. Louis, Collinsville, Granite City and Edwardsville. A third centre is formed by Moline and Rock Island with Davenport, Ia. Peoria and Joliet were second and third to Chicago in value of products in 1914. Of manufactures at these various points, those of Chicago, as might be supposed, are completely diversified. The same is usually true of the smaller cities, though a few are noted for special products. Thus Rockford is best known for its furniture manufactures, Elgin and Springfield for watches, Moline for automobiles and farm implements, Kewanee for boilers and steam tools, Peoria for distilled products, and Aurora for railway repair, and foundry and machine-shop products.
Minerals.—In mining and allied interests Illinois occupies an important position. Her petroleum production in 1917 was 15,776,860 bar., valued at $31,300,000. In this field she was 5th, being exceeded by Oklahoma, California, Kansas and Texas. In coal
production, with 86,000,000 tons valued at $162,281,822, she was exceeded only by Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Communications.—For transportation Illinois mainly relies on its steam railways. With 12,140 m. of main line she was in 1914 second only to Texas. For over 30 years little new main line has been built. The important extension has been in double-tracking and improvement of the right-of-way and terminals. The field of passenger and light freight and coal transport since 1900 has been invaded by electric lines, which by 1916 operated 2,415 m. of main track. The Illinois Traction System operates a ramification of electric lines crossing the state from Danville to East St. Louis and radiating through central Illinois; on certain runs it operates sleeping and parlour cars. Illinois' most important water transportation system is that of the Great Lakes. Receipts of grain at Chicago by lake have steadily declined of late years, though the lakes are still the usual route for shipment of wheat to eastern points. Flour shipments by lake are comparatively insignificant, an important fact in view of the increasing quantity of grain milled at Chicago. Iron ore still comes to Chicago and South Chicago by boat. Other water transportation in Illinois is comparatively insignificant. Trade on the Ohio is small; on the Mississippi negligible. The Hennepin canal, completed in 1907 to connect the Illinois and the Rock rivers, is unused. The Illinois and Michigan canal, though exercising a restraining effect on freight rates, has steadily declined in usefulness for the last 30 years and has not paid expenses of operation and maintenance for more than 40 years. The Chicago sanitary and ship canal, opened in 1900 as far as Lockport, has had a little more traffic. The improvement of Illinois roads has of late years engaged attention. A state highway commission was created in 1905 to investigate the subject, various laws facilitating local road improvement were passed, and in 1914 state appropriations for hard roads were made from the proceeds of automobile licence fees. Actual construction was begun in 1914. Road-building has continued, certain counties, such as Vermilion and Cook, making bond issues and constructing hard-road systems of their own. Acts of Congress of 1916 and 1919, apportioning Federal aid in behalf of roads, allotted to Illinois $3,300,000 and $8,700,000 respectively. The question of issuing $60,000,000 in bonds based on automobile licence fees for the construction of 4,800 m. of hard roads was submitted to the voters of the state in Nov. 1918 and approved by them, and work has begun on Federal aid and bond issue.
Banking.—The northern part of Illinois lies in the 7th Federal Reserve District and the southern part in the 8th, with headquarters respectively at Chicago and St. Louis. In 1919 there were 472 national banks in Illinois with aggregate capital of $79,415,000, surplus of $57,632,000 and total assets of $1,587,634,000; $845,925,000 of this was located in Chicago, where one bank had a capital of $21,000,000 and another $10,000,000. Side by side with the national banks was a system of state banks created by the Act of 1887 and operating under the supervision of the auditor of public accounts. The minimum capital required was $25,000 in towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants and $50,000 in larger ones. In 1920 there were 1,018 state banks with total capital of $116,879,205 and total resources of $1,861,466,834.23. Besides these there have been many private banks under no supervision. Their number has been
{{EB1911 Fine Print|uncertain, but in 1915 there were at least 586. Failures in this class have been frequent, and Acts passed in 1917 and 1919, and ratified by popular vote in the elections of 1918 and 1920, require all such banks to cease business or submit to state supervision.
Government.—Despite the difficulty of changing the organic law, in the period 1910-20 there were far-reaching changes in the organization of the machinery for government. Under the constitution of 1870 an amendment must be initiated by two-thirds of both Houses in the General Assembly and approved by a majority of all persons voting at the next election, a provision that in 1916 caused the loss of an amendment increasing the General Assembly's taxing powers because it received a majority only of those voting on the question. Further, in a session an amendment to but one article can be proposed and no two amendments to any article can be offered within four years. Revision of the constitution by amendment therefore proved too difficult, and in 1917 the General Assembly voted to submit to the people the question of a constitutional convention, which was approved at the election of Nov. 1918. Accordingly in 1919 an Act was passed for a convention to meet Jan. 6 1920. Difficulties arose between the delegates from Chicago and those from the southern part of the state over proposals to limit Chicago's representation in the General Assembly, and in Dec. 1920 the convention adjourned with its work unfinished to meet in Sept. 1921. Important changes in the state's system of appointments were effected. First in time was the extension by the Act of 1911 of the civil service system, established six years before in the state charitable institutions, to the greater part of the state's employees. Civil service now covers all state appointees except those appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, the scientific and academic staff of the university of Illinois and the normal schools, and a few others, such as special attorneys appointed by the attorney-general. All examinations are competitive, though for some scientific posts “unassembled examinations” are given which consist of questions as to training and experience. By an amendment of 1917 all appointees may be removed by the appointing authority, but are allowed an appeal to the State Civil Service Commission on allegation that the removal is due to race, politics or religion. Reorganization of governmental machinery had begun in 1909 with the abolition of separate boards for the various state charitable institutions and the establishment of one central board of control possessing also certain powers over private charitable institutions. In addition to this board a supervisory state charities commission was created. There remained, however, more than a hundred state boards, bureaus and offices, paid and unpaid, created to execute various acts and to supervise various state institutions; the result was disorder and waste. A reorganization recommended by an efficiency and economy committee in 1914 was in great part adopted in the State Consolidation Act of 1917. This Act necessarily left untouched the constitutional offices, secretary of state, auditor of public accounts, treasurer, attorney-general, and superintendent of public instruction, but set up in addition to them nine departments{{—Finance, Agriculture, Labor, Mines and Minerals, Public Works and Buildings, Public Welfare, Public Health, Trade and Commerce, Registration and Education. The heads of these various departments, who are appointed by the governor and Senate, have acted as a Cabinet for the governor.
Suffrage and Elections.—The most important development since 1910 has been the complete enfranchisement of women. Initiated by the Act of 1891, which allowed women to vote in elections of school trustees, it was continued by the Act of 1909, making women eligible to all offices under the school law of the state. In 1913 the General Assembly extended to women the franchise for presidential electors, members of the board of equalization, for all state offices not already open to them by the constitution and for offices in cities, villages and towns. Enfranchisement was completed by the Federal constitutional amendment of 1920. In legislation as to primaries the state has had difficulty in procuring constitutional laws. Acts of 1905, 1906 and 1908 were invalidated by the Supreme Court. An Act passed in 1912 stood the test, but a further Act passed in 1919 was declared unconstitutional.
Public Finance.—For the biennium 1916-8, the last for which statistics are available, the total revenue of the state in respect of the General Revenue Fund was $41,856,721. Of this the general property tax supplied $27,532,790, the 7% of Illinois Central Railroad earnings $3,775,240, the inheritance tax $3,848,174, subventions by the Federal Government $330,215; the balance was the proceeds of fees, fines, receipts from state institutions, etc. In addition to the General Revenue Fund the receipts of the state in respect of certain other special funds amounted to $19,912,132. Of these the receipts for the state school fund were $7,911,653, the proceeds of the special mill tax for the university of Illinois $4,847,202, the receipts from automobile licence fees used for hard roads $4,353,090, and receipts to be applied toward registered bonds guaranteed by the state $1,897,400. Expenditures for the biennium 1916-8 based on both groups of funds were $47,919,125; when classified by state departments the largest were those for registration and education, $15,409,692, which included disbursements for the university of Illinois and the state school fund. The expenditure of $14,831,833 for public welfare included expenditures on the charitable and penal institutions of the state. The other large totals were: state officers, $4,217,448; public works, $3,083,850; administration, $2,462,031;
registered bond fund, $2,062,823; military, $1,704,207; trade and commerce, $1,198,713; agriculture, $1,023,285.
Education.—In 1918 there were enrolled in the elementary schools of Illinois 490,762 boys and 478,185 girls; in the state high schools 50,107 boys and 62,450 girls. The total number of teachers was 34,597. The estimated value of school property was $154,619,859, of which $10,553,848 represented equipment, furniture, etc. Total funds available were some $68,000,000, and expenditures in school districts some $52,000,000, of which $1,294,537 was spent on administration, $29,001,198 for instruction, $5,961,635 for operating plant, $8,745,373 for new buildings and equipment, $3,236,889 for repairs, etc. Teachers' salaries were low. In 1918 over one-half the elementary-school teachers were paid between $300 and $700. Such conditions result in unsatisfactory professional standards: 1,015 teachers in 1918 had attended no school above elementary; 1,787 had attended, but not graduated from, a high school; 9,631 were high-school graduates. Even with such meagre qualifications, there was a serious shortage of teachers in the state. The most significant development in recent years has been in high-school education. Acts of 1913 and 1915 directed the payment by local school authorities of tuition for children who wish to attend high school elsewhere when there was none in their district. In 1917 an Act was passed making easier the establishment of country high schools and laying a tax on the community for the payment of tuition to other high-school districts in which the community's children attended high school. An adverse decision of the state Supreme Court caused the reënactment of the measure in different form in 1919. As a result of this legislation the numbers of high schools, students and teachers have doubled since 1906:—
| High Schools | Students | Teachers | |
| 1906 | 438 | 52,394 | 2,057 |
| 1918 | 840 | 112,257 | 5,476 |
There has been a corresponding increase in the enrolment in the universities and colleges of the state, notably in the university of Illinois, the capstone of the state's educational system. The university enrolment between 1910 and 1920 rose from 5,217 to 9,208. Appropriations have failed to follow this increase, with the result that, with an annual revenue of $3,967,848.20 as against $2,002,038.23 in 1910, the university found itself badly crippled. In spite of this it performs an ever-increasing variety of services to the state. Not only in its colleges and graduate schools does it train teachers, chemists, and engineers for the benefit of the state, but its special schools of agronomy, animal husbandry and dairy husbandry coöperate with the farmers of the state in solving their problems. Its schools of ceramics, civil, electrical, mechanical, mining, municipal, sanitary and railway engineering and architecture devote themselves to the study of the state's problems. By various research bureaus and surveys, such as the State Geological Survey, it conducts research for the benefit of the state. Of the other two large universities of the state, the university of Chicago in 1919-20 had a total enrolment of 10,880, with a faculty, exclusive of assistants, of 328. Its total assets exceeded $50,000,000; its library included 900,000 books and pamphlets (see Chicago, University of). Northwestern University, located in Evanston and Chicago, had a total registration in 1920-1 of 7,389, and a faculty of 389, exclusive of assistants. Its libraries included over 300,000 books and pamphlets. Its annual expenditure was $1,398,084.
History.—In 1912, as a result of the Progressive secession, the Republican party for the first time in 16 years lost control of the state, the Democratic presidential electors winning by a vote of 405,038, as against 386,478 for the Progressives and 253,593 for the Republicans. The Democratic state ticket headed by Edward F. Dunne was elected by a somewhat larger plurality over Gov. C. S. Deneen, Republican, and Frank H. Funk, Progressive. The Democrats, however, did not control the General Assembly on joint ballot and had to compromise with the Republicans on the election of one Democratic senator, James Hamilton Lewis, and one Republican, Lawrence Y. Sherman, the latter to fill an unexpired term to 1915. By 1914 the normal Republican majority in the state reasserted itself, the popular vote for senator in that year being L. Y. Sherman, Republican, 390,661; Roger Sullivan, Democrat, 373,403; Raymond Robins, Progressive, 203,027. Wilson lost the state in the presidential election of 1916 by 160,000 votes, Frank O. Lowden, Republican, being elected governor over Edward F. Dunne. In spite of the appeal for the support of the Wilson administration on patriotic grounds, but five Democratic congressmen were elected in 1918, and Medill McCormick, Republican, beat J. H. Lewis, Democrat, for senator by 53,024 votes. In 1920, after an extremely bitter primary fight in the Republican party, Len Small was nominated for the governorship over John J. Oglesby, Small running on a platform opposing the action of the Public Utilities Commission in allowing increase of rates by public utilities, and advocating increased taxation of wealth. In the election Republican state and national tickets swept the state by overwhelming majorities, though Lewis, the Democratic candidate for governor, ran ahead of his presidential ticket.
The governors of Illinois after 1905 were: Chas. S. Deneen, 1905-13; Edward F. Dunne, 1913-7; Frank O. Lowden, 1917-21; Len Small, 1921-.
World-War Activities.—Under the vigorous leadership of Gov. Lowden, Illinois supplied 188,010 drafted men and 163,143 volunteers, a total of 351,153, to the armed forces. The 33rd Division, made up of Illinois National Guard units, saw service in France both on the British front and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The 149th Field Artillery, originally the 1st Illinois Artillery, was in the 42nd Division and took part in many engagements; the 13th, or Railway, Engineers and several other Illinois units also saw service in France. One divisional cantonment, Camp Grant at Rockford; the great naval recruit training depot at Great Lakes, Lake Bluff; Fort Sheridan, near Chicago, utilized first as an officers' training camp, then as a hospital; Chanute and Scott aviation fields at Rantoul and Belleville, together with various other camps and training centres, were located in the state.
The organization of the state for participation in the war was the work in great measure of the state Council of Defense, created by Act of the General Assembly, and representing capital, labour and other interests. Over 110,000 volunteer workers affiliated themselves with this body. Under its direction the agriculture of the state was turned with unexampled success to the production of wheat, barley and rye. The manufactures of the state also were reorganized for war purposes. Citizens of the state subscribed $1,586,227,500 to Liberty Loans, exceeding the state's quota by 28%, and gave more than $50,000,000 to war relief agencies. The universities and colleges of the state organized students' army training corps, gave their students to the officers' training camps and their specialists to all phases of Government activity, from experts' work at the Peace Conference to chemical experiment and railway operation.
See, in addition to the books listed in 14.311, Centennial History of Illinois (5 vols., published by the state 1918-20) and later volumes of the Illinois Historical Collections.
(T. C. P.)