CHICAGO year 1,061,868,376 1) of dressed beef, 505,834,067 ft> of lard, 203,454 barrels of pork, and 863,363,437 lb of other hog products. The receipts of sheep were 3,682,832. The Union stock-yards include 475 acres of land, of which 320 acres are floored with planks or brick. Within the yards are 13,000 pens, 8500 of which are covered, for housing hogs and sheep. These covered pens occupy 75 acres. There are also within the yards 25 miles of streets, 38 miles of water troughs, 90 miles of water pipes, and 50 miles of sewerage. The receipts of grain and of flour in the grain equivalent were 320,670,440 bushels, and the shipments were 246,369,099 bushels. The port of Chicago showed 8048 arrivals, with a tonnage of 6,281,355, and 8126 clearances, with a tonnage of 6,317,884. The duties collected on imported goods at the Chicago customhouse amounted to $7,551,400. The greater part of these imports came by rail in bond. The bank clearings were $6,612,311,611, as against $60,761,791,901 for New York, $7,086,285,271 for Boston, and $4,811,079,611 for Philadelphia. The gross receipts of the post office for the fiscal year ending 30th June 1899 were $6,131,123, as against $8,881,547 for New York, $3,143,929 for Philadelphia, and $2,920,383 for Boston. Government.—The constitution of the state of Illinois forbids the legislature to grant special charters for municipal corporations, and requires that all such incorporations shall be in accordance with a general law. The government of Chicago, therefore, is framed by the statute which provides for all cities in the state alike. The city is divided into thirty-five wards. Each of these elects two members of the city council, one being chosen each year for a term of two years. Thus the council is a continuous body, one half of its seventy members being renewed annually. The powers of the council are very extensive, including the granting of franchises for the supplying of light and locomotion. The supreme executive officer is a mayor, elected by the qualified voters of the city for two years. Legislation requires his assent to be valid, unless a two-thirds vote of the council adopts the measure notwithstanding his veto. The mayor has large power of appointment and removal of officers, and it is his duty to enforce the laws. The administrative departments are organized in general on the plan of a single head for each, appointed by the mayor with the approval of the council, the subordinates being appointed by the head with the approval of the mayor. These departments are those of finance, law, public works, fire, police, health, and buildings. The department of education and the public library are administered by boards, whose members are appointed by the mayor with the approval of the council. The courts of law are courts of the state of Illinois, but a certain number of justices of the peace .are designated by the mayor to act as police magistrates. Local Works.—The water supply is derived from Lake Michigan, there being a series of pumping stations from one mile to five miles from the shore. The system belongs to the city, and is maintained and operated by the department of public works. The main drainage of the city has been into the lake. In order to preserve the lake water from pollution a drainage canal has been constructed from the south branch of the Chicago river to the Desplaines river, a total distance (including the improved portion of the river) of 34 miles. By this means the water flows from the lake into the Desplaines, and thence by way of the Illinois river into the Mississippi. The water was turned into the channel on 2nd January 1900. The present flow is limited to 360,000 cubic feet per minute, but the canal is designed to have a maximum capacity of 600,000 cubic feet per minute. The entire cost (1st January 1900) was $34,000,000. The cost is defrayed
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from taxes paid by the owners of property in the sanitary district, which includes the greater part of the city and certain suburban areas, a total of 185 square miles. The work is in the hands of a board of trustees elected by the people of the district. Parks.—An extensive system of parks and connecting drives girdles the city from the shore of the lake on the north to the shore on the south. There are three distinct divisions of the system, known as the north, west, and south parks, each being managed by a board of trustees. The trustees of the north parks and those of the west parks are appointed by the governor of Illinois, while the south park trustees are appointed by the judges within Cook county. There are also several minor parks, which are controlled by the city government. The entire park area comprises 2232T acres—323‘7 on the north side, 627,3 on the west side, and 1281T on the south side. Lincoln Park on the north side, and Jackson Park on the south side, are on the lake shore. The parks contain some interesting monuments—especially noteworthy being the bronze statue of Lincoln, the equestrian statue of Grant, and the memorials of Lassalle, Schiller, and Linnaeus in Lincoln Park, and the equestrian statue of Logan in Lake Front Park. The monument dedicated to the Ottawa Indians, in Lincoln Park, and that commemorating the Indian massacre of 1812, are also of interest. In the Oakwoods cemetery is a monument to the memory of the Union soldiers of the Civil War, and also one to the memory of the Confederate soldiers who died while prisoners in Camp Douglas in the suburbs of Chicago between 1861 and 1865. Finance.—The total receipts of the city for the fiscal year 1900 were $34,962,473. They were derived from taxation on real estate and on personal property, and from various other sources. The main items of the receipts, in addition to $2,956,734 cash on hand at beginning of the year, were—property tax, $14,295,829 ; liquor licenses, $3,174,003; other licenses, $538,092; special assessments, $3,246,124 ; water-works, $3,292,759 ; loans, $5,138,000. The total expenditures for the year were $28,733,848, of which the expenditures for construction and other capital outlay amounted to $9,215,772, and those for maintenance and operation to $19,518,076. The main items of the former class of expenditures were—schools, $608,109; streets, $898,699 ; and loans repaid, $6,060,511. The main items of the latter class were—police department, $3,773,423 ; fire department, $1,617,225 ; schools, $6,200,433; parks and gardens, $643,089; street cleaning and sprinkling, $588,662; water-works, $1,240,001; and interest on debt, $1,313,916. The assessed valuation of real property in 1900, on a basis of about 20 per cent, of the full value, was $202,884,012; of personal property, on the same basis, $73,681,868. The general tax-rate was $74,87 per $1000. The net debt was $32,989,819. By an anomaly in the laws, the rural towns over which the city has extended retain their political structure and some of their functions. It is also true that the dual system of city and county government—the city area paying nine-tenths of the city taxes—is clumsy and burdensome. The rapid growth of the city makes it necessary to provide public improvements on a large scale, and under the laws of the state the income heretofore has been insufficient to cover necessary expenses. How to provide an adequate income without an excessive burden on taxpayers, and without incurring a crushing debt, is one of the grave problems of the near future. The World’s Fair, 1893.—The four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America was commemorated
