Industry and Commerce.—Chicago’s situation at the head of the most south-western of the Great Lakes has given it great importance in trade and industry. The development of its extraordinary railway facilities was a recognition of its supreme advantages as the easiest outlet for the products of the Middle West, on whose wealth its prosperity is founded. The growth of its trade has been marvellous. The last years of the 19th century showed, however, an inevitable loss to Chicago in the growth of Duluth, Kansas City and other rivals in strategic situations. In particular, the struggle of the North and South railway lines in the Mississippi Valley to divert to ports on the Gulf of Mexico grain and other freight caused great losses to Chicago. An enormous increase in the cereal trade of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Newport News and Norfolk was partly due to the traffic eastward over lines S. of Chicago. The traffic of the routes through Duluth and Canada does not, indeed, represent in the main actual losses, for the traffic is largely a new growth; but there has been nevertheless a considerable drain to these routes from American territory once tributary to Chicago. Altogether the competition of the Gulf roads and the lines running S.W. from Duluth had largely excluded Chicago by 1899 (according to her Board of Trade) from the grain trade W. of the Missouri river, and in conjunction with southerly E. and W. routes had made serious inroads upon trade E. of that river. Its facilities for receiving and distributing remain nevertheless unequalled, and it still practically monopolizes the traffic between the northern Atlantic seaboard and the West. New York alone, among American cities, has a greater trade. Chicago is the greatest railway centre, the greatest grain market, the greatest live-stock market and meat-packing centre, and the greatest lumber market of the world. The clearings of her ‘associated banks amounted to $13,781,843,612 in the year 1909. The wholesale trade was estimated in 1875 at $293,900,000 and in 1905 at $1,781,000,000. The average annual grain receipts (including flour in wheat equivalent) in the five years 1900-1904 amounted to 265,500,000 bu. (12,902,310 in 1854; 72,369,194 in 1875), and the shipments to 209,862,966 bu. The first shipment of wheat was of 78 bu. in 1838. The grain elevators are among the sights of Chicago. They are enormous storehouses into which the grain is elevated from ships and cars, sorted into grades and reloaded for shipment; all the work is done by machinery. Their capacity in 1904 was 65,140,000 bu.[13] In the same quinquennial period, 1900-1904, the average yearly receipts of lumber aggregated 1,807,066,000 ft.,[14] and of shingles, 410,711 thousand; of cattle, 3,078,734; of hogs, 8,334,904; of sheep, 3,338,291; of butter, 239,696,921 ℔; the exports of hides, 167,442,077 ℔; of dressed beef, 1,126,995,490 ℔; of lard, 410,688,319 ℔; of pork, 191,371 bbl.; of other hog products, 600,503,394 ℔. The combined tonnage in and out averaged 14,135,406 tons.[15] There is a large direct trade with Europe, mainly in goods that come in bond by rail from Atlantic ports. In 1907 the value of Chicago’s imports was $27,058,662, and of its exports, $5,643,302.
The value of manufactures (from establishments under the “factory system”) in 1900 was $797,879,141, 71.2% of all those of Illinois, and in 1905 was $955,036,277, 67.7% of all those of the state; in both these years Chicago was second only to New York City. Wholesale slaughtering and meat-packing (not including many by-products), valued at $256,527,949 (32.2% of the city’s total) in 1900 and at $269,581,486 (28.2% of the total) in 1905, are the most important of the city’s industries; in 1905 the product value in Chicago was 29.5% of that for the slaughtering and meat-packing of the entire United States. Other important manufactures are foundry and machine shop products, $44,561,071 in 1900, and $51,774,695 in 1905; and other iron and steel products, $35,058,700 in 1900 and $27,074,307 in 1905; clothing ($58,093,572 in 1900, and $64,913,481 in 1905); cars and other railway construction, $28,369,956 in 1900 and $36,080,210 in 1905; malt liquors ($14,956,865 in 1900, and $16,983,421 in 1905), and furniture ($12,344,510 in 1900 and $17,488,257 in 1905). The Illinois Steel Company has the largest rolling mills in the world. The McCormick Harvesting Machine Company is the largest concern in the world manufacturing agricultural implements. Pullman in southern Chicago, in the sparsely settled outskirts of the city, is a model little “labour town,” planned and constructed with regard for both appearances and conveniences by the Pullman Palace Car Company, which has its works here. The town consists mainly of workmen’s cottages. Most of the population are dependent upon the car works. The Pullman Company owns and operates dining and sleeping cars on practically all the railways of the country. In addition to its own cars it builds ordinary passenger and freight cars on contract.
Meat-packing is the greatest local industry and is that for which Chicago is best known. In the enormous stock-yards from two-thirds to four-fifths of the cattle and hogs received are killed, and sent out in various forms of prepared meats and by-products (lard, fertilizers, glue, butterine, soap, candles, &c).[16] This industry is remarkable for the extraordinary division of labour in its processes. In the preparation of a bullock more than thirty specialties are involved, and some twenty different rates of pay. This system enabled the packing companies, until checked by the development of labour unions, to save money not only by paying low wages for crude labour and high for skilled, but to develop wonderful expertness in every line, and so “speed up” the workmen to a remarkable pace.[17] No more interesting field can be found for the study of the qualities of foreign races. The introduction of the refrigerator railway car in the ’seventies of the 19th century, making possible the distant marketing of dressed meats, enormously increased the business. The workmen of the yards were organized in a national union of meat packers in 1897, and all the different classes of workmen have their separate organizations, formed mainly between 1900 and 1902. The number of women employed more than doubled in the decade 1891-1900, constituting probably about 9% of the total in the latter year.
Administration.—Chicago is governed under a general city-charter law of Illinois of 1870, accepted by the city in 1875. In November 1904 the people of Illinois adopted a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature of the state to provide a complete new system of local government for Chicago, but the old system continued and is here described, the new charter, from which so much had been hoped, being rejected by the voters of the city by an overwhelming majority in September 1907. A common council chosen by wards and renewed in half each year controls the budget, police, liquor licences, city contracts and the granting of franchises; it also confirms appointments made by the mayor and by a vote of two-thirds may pass legislation over his veto. The mayor, chosen for four years, is the executive head of the city, and has large power of appointment and removal, limited by a civil service law, under which he must submit reasons for removals, while two-thirds of the council may prevent them. On the other hand the mayor can veto separate items in the council’s budget. The administrative departments are generally headed by single commissioners; but those of elections, education and the public library are exceptions. The council was once all important, but as early as the charter of 1851 it began to lose power to the mayor, whose directive and executive powers have steadily increased, beginning first in the financial department. Administration was once performed entirely by boards as in other American cities: every specific problem or demand for municipal activity was met by an appeal to the state legislature for special legislation and the creation of a board. The substitution of single commissioners began in 1876. The state constitution of 1870 forbade special legislation, prescribed a general city charter law and forbade special amendatory acts for Chicago. This stopped grave abuses, but because a large part of the state has not been interested in Chicago’s special needs and demands for betterment it also saddled upon the city an organization which in 1901 remained practically the same as in 1870, when Chicago was an overgrown town of 300,000 inhabitants. Chicago was the only large city of the state, and a charter generalized from village experience was unsuitable for it. The parts of Cook county outside the city have also been very jealous of forwarding its reorganization, important features of which must be either, the complete absorption of the county or at least the reconstitution of the county government,[18] which the constitution left unchanged, and which, with the city’s growth, has caused clash of interests and authority. Nor is this dual government—though the city has above nine-tenths of the population and pays ninetenths of the taxes of the county—the only anomaly. Illinois has had since 1848 a modified New England “township” local-government system, and various townships have been absorbed by Chicago, yet they all retained till after 1900 their political structure and some of their functions. There are three park commissions, two appointed by the governor and one by circuit court judges, created for different parts of the old city, differently constituted and all independent of the city; their jurisdiction was not enlarged as the city grew, so large portions remained free of charges for parks and boulevards. A special park commission now supplements them and lessens this anomaly though increasing administrative diversity. A sanitary and drainage district, not larger than the city area but quite different from it, was created in 1886 (present form 1890) to carry through the drainage canal. The school board has been nominally separate from and almost independent of the city government in power since 1857. 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. The initiative and referendum in local matters has been made possible under a state law, and has been several times exercised in important questions. Financial arrangements have been loose and inefficient. Independent taxing power has been lavishly granted. State, county, city, three park boards, the school board, the public library board, the drainage board, and as late as 1903 ten townships,[19] exercised this sovereign right within the municipal area. Tax assessment valuations have been excessively irregular (e.g. the “equalized” value for 1875 was $55,000,000 greater than that for 1892), and apparently very low. The average assessment valuation for the years from 1904 to 1908 was $438,729,897 (403.28 millions in 1904, and 477.19 millions in 1908), and in 1907 the highest taxing rate was 8%. The bonded debt in 1908 was $25,157,400, about half of it old ($11,362,726 in 1870; 4.5 millions contracted to aid the World’s Fair of 1893). In the early years following 1900 the city paid more than half of its income on police; this expenditure, per capita of population, was not high (in 1901 Boston $5.03, New York $3.21, Chicago $2.19), and the results were not exactly efficient. The difficulty is that the city is poor and can pay only for strict necessities. Its poverty is due mainly to state laws. The taxation limit on property is 1% on the cash value, thus compelling special dependence upon all sorts of indirect taxes; the debt limit is 5% on the assessed valuation. Since 1900 relief has been given by state law in some matters, such as for the park system. The water system has been operated by the city since 1851, and has been financially very successful from the beginning: rates are far lower than in the other great cities of the country, and a handsome net revenue accrues to the treasury.[20] A municipal electric-lighting plant (1887), which was paid for gradually out of the general tax levy and was not built by the sale of bonds, gave excellent results in the city service. The city, like the state, has power to regulate the price of gas sold by private companies. The elevation of the railway tracks within the city was begun in 1892; at the close of 1908 the railway companies had accepted ordinances of the City Council for the elevation of 192.77 m. of main tracks and 947.91 m. of all tracks, and the construction of 724 subways, at an estimated cost of $65,000,000; at that time the railway companies had completed the elevation of 133.83 m. of main tracks and 776 m. of all tracks, and had constructed 567 subways, at a total expense of $52,500,000. The system of intercepting sewers begun in 1898 to complete the service of the drainage canal has been constructed with the profits of the water system.
In addition to the movement for a new charter to remove the anomalies and ease the difficulties already referred to, two great problems have been in the forefront in recent years: the lessening of municipal corruption and the control of local transit agencies.
The traction question may be said to have begun in 1865, in which year, and again in 1883, public opinion was bitterly aroused against an attempt of the traction companies to secure a ninety-nine year extension of franchises. Following 1883 all lines were consolidated and enormously over-capitalized (in 1905 about $150,000,000 of stocks and bonds on a 6% basis, two-thirds of which rested only on the franchise). In 1895-1897 bold attempts to secure a 50-year extension of franchises were defeated by Governor John P. Altgeld (1847-1902), by the formation of a Municipal Voters’ League, and by a representative committee of 100 sent from Chicago to attend the legislature at Springfield. The transit service of the city had for years been antiquated and inadequate. At the mayor’s elections in 1897, 1899, 1901 and 1903 the victory lay with the opponents of the companies, and in 1905 the successful party stood for immediate municipal acquisition of all roads. Meanwhile, under the state referendum act, the city in 1902 voted overwhelmingly for municipal ownership and operation (142,826 to 27,990); the legislature in 1903 by the Mueller law gave the city the requisite powers; the people accepted the law, again declared for municipal ownership, and for temporary compulsion of adequate service, and against granting any franchise to any company, by four additional votes similarly conclusive. At last, after tedious negotiations, a definite agreement was reached in 1906 assuring an early acquisition of all roads by the city. The issue of bonds for municipal railways was, however, declared unconstitutional that year; and at the municipal elections of 1907 there was a complete reversal of policy; a large majority voted this time against municipal ownership in favour of leaving the working of the street railways in private hands, and strengthening the powers of municipal control.
The active campaign for the improvement of municipal service and politics may be said to have begun in 1896. A civil service system was inaugurated in 1895. The salaries of the councilmen were raised with good effect. Numerous reform associations were started to rouse public opinion, such as the Citizens’ Association of Chicago, organized in 1874, the Civic Federation (1894), the Municipal Voters’ League (1896), the Legislative Voters’ League (1901), the Municipal Lecture Association (1902), the Referendum League of Illinois (1901), the Civil Service Reform Association of Chicago, the Civil Service Reform Association of Illinois (1902), the Merchants’ Club, the City Club (1903), the Law and Order League (1904), Society of Social Hygiene (1906), and many of the women’s clubs took an active part. They stood for the real enforcement of the laws, sanitation, pure food, public health, the improvement of the schools and the widening of their social influence, and (here especially the women’s clubs) aesthetic, social and moral progress. The Merchants’ Club reformed the city’s book-keeping, and secured the establishment (1899) of the first state pawnbrokers’ society. The Civic Federation demonstrated (1896) that it could clean the central streets for slightly over half what the city was paying (the city has since saved the difference); it originated the movement for vacation schools and other educational advances, and started the Committee of One Hundred (1897), from which sprang various other reform clubs. The Municipal Voters’ League investigated and published the records of candidates for the city council, and recommended their election or defeat as the case may be. Moreover, a “Municipal Museum” was organized in 1905, mainly supported by private aid, but in part by the board of education, in order to collect and make educational use of materials illustrating municipal administration and conditions, physical and social.
Education and Charity.—The school board is appointed by the mayor. Since 1904 a merit system has been applied in the advancement of teachers; civil service rules cover the rest of the employees. Kindergartens were maintained without legal sanction in connexion with the public schools for several years, and for more than twenty-five years as private schools, before their legal establishment as a part of the system in 1899. Free evening schools, very practical in their courses, are utilized mainly by foreigners. Vacation schools were begun in 1896. So far as possible the school buildings are kept open for school, lectures and entertainments, serving thus as wholesome social centres; and a more adequate use is made of the large investment (in 1908 about $44,500,000) which they represent. In all the public schools manual training, household arts and economy, and commercial studies are a regular part of the curriculum. A department of scientific pedagogy and child study (1900) seeks to secure a development of the school system in harmony with the results of scientific study of children (the combination of hand and brain training, the use of audito-visual methods, an elastic curriculum during the adolescent period, &c.). The expenditure for all purposes by the city in 1903 for every dollar expended for schools was only $1.713; a ratio paralleled in only a few cities of the country.
Hospitals, infirmaries, dispensaries, asylums, shelters and homes for the defective, destitute, orphaned, aged, erring, friendless and incurably diseased; various relief societies, and associations that sift the good from the bad among the mendicant, the economically inefficient, and the viciously pauper, represent the charity work of the city. Among public institutions are the Cook County hospital (situated in the “Medical District” of the West Side, where various hospitals and schools are gathered near together), asylum and poor house. Since 1883 a Lincoln Park Sanitarium has been maintained for infants and small children during warm weather. Two legal-aid societies, the Chicago Bureau of Justice (1888) and the Protective Agency for Women and Children, collect small wage claims and otherwise aid the poor or helpless. The most important charitable societies of the city are the United Charities of Chicago (1909), the United Hebrew Charities (1857), and the Associated Jewish Charities (1900). The first is the union of the Relief and Aid Society (1857) and the Bureau of Charities (1894), and tries to prevent overlapping of efforts and to weed out fraud. Following the gradual development of New York state laws on behalf of children was enacted the Illinois Juvenile Court Law, which came into force on the 1st of July 1899 and was largely the result of Chicago’s interest in juvenile reform. Much philanthropic work centres in the West Side with its heterogeneous population. A famous institution is Hull House, a social settlement of women, which aims to be a social, charitable, and educational neighbourhood centre. It was established in 1889 by Miss Jane Addams, who became the head-worker, and Miss Ellen Gates Starr. It includes an art building, a free kindergarten, a fine gymnasium, a crèche, and a diet kitchen; and supports classes, lectures and concerts. It has had a very great influence throughout the United States. The Armour mission (1886) for the poor is organized with similar breadth of scope.
Population.—Of the total population in 1900 not less than 34.6% were foreign-born; the number of persons either born abroad, or born in the United States of foreign parentage (i.e. father or both parents foreign), was 77.4% of the population, and in the total number of males of voting age the foreign-born predominated (53.4%). Of the latter category 68.2% were already citizens by naturalization. 3.9% of the inhabitants of ten years of age or upward were illiterate (unable to write), while the percentage of foreign-born whites was 8.2% (93.9% of illiterate males of voting age). Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes and Bohemians made up respectively 29.1, 12.6, 8.6, 8.3 and 6.2% of the foreign-born population. It was estimated in 1903 by a very competent authority that above 500,000 persons spoke German, 125,000 Polish, 100,000 Swedish, 90,000 Bohemian, 50,000 Norwegian, 50,000 Yiddish, 35,000 Dutch, 25,000 Italian, 20,000 Danish, 17,000 French and 12,000 Irish (Celtic), and that each of fourteen foreign languages was spoken by more than 10,000 people: “Newspapers appear regularly in 10 languages, and church-services may be heard in about 20 languages. Chicago is the second largest Bohemian city of the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Norwegian, the fifth Polish, the fifth German (New York being the fourth). In all there are some 40 languages spoken by ... over one million” persons.[21] The death-rate of Chicago is the lowest of the great cities of the country. Births are but slightly in excess of deaths, so that the growth of the city is almost wholly from immigration. The death-rate is the lowest of the great cities of the country (16.2 in 1900; New York, 20.4; Boston, 20.1, &c.).