which acted in an advisory capacity, met and considered the special subjects referred to them. Some of these committees were frequently in session and thoroughly discussed their particular fields of municipal government. Others did little or nothing. All of their results were transmitted, however, to the committee on rules, procedure, and general plan (October, 1906). A sub-committee of five was then appointed to consider all of the reports submitted to it, and to draw up for the convention an outline of a charter. A skeleton charter was drawn up in this way and presented to the entire convention. This outline covered all important proposals made in regard to the content of the charter in alternative form. Elections, for example, was covered in the following form:

1. The elective city officers shall be nominated only by a petition of qualified voters.

First alternative to 1: Elective city officers shall be nominated under a system of direct primaries.

Second alternative to 1: Elective city officers shall be nominated as now prescribed by law.

2. The names of all the nominees for each office shall be printed on the ballot under the title of the office for which they are candidates. 3. The charter shall contain no provision for conferring the right of suffrage on women.

4. (a) The election of all city officers, including those for the municipal court, shall be held in the spring.

Alternative to a: The election of all city officers, except those for the municipal court, shall be held in the spring.

(b) Spring elections for city officers shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May.

5. Candidates and political committees shall be required to make sworn statements of receipts and expenditures of any campaign for nomination or election.

This outline was freely debated and an agreement reached on the main features of the scheme, early in January.

Having determined, in this way, the framework of the charter, a complete draft was made under the direction of the sub-committee on rules. Professor Freund, of the University of Chicago, was secured as the official draftsman, and, following the general lines agreed upon

by the convention, a careful draft was worked out. This was discussed at length in committee, and then presented to the charter convention for final debate and decision.

Early in the work of the convention, a charter digest had been prepared under the direction of Mr. A. R. Hatton, covering in a comparative way the principal points in the charters of American and European cities. A copy of this was placed in the hands of every member of the convention, and the material served a useful purpose during the debates. It should also be said that the convention had secured headquarters of its own with a permanent secretary and office force. A considerable collection of charters and other material of interest was placed at the headquarters, and every effort was made to secure all information that might assist the members of the convention in deciding the many difficult points which came before them. Stenographic reports of all committee meetings were made, while the debates of the convention were reported and printed from day to day.

The main features of the charter as prepared by the convention covered the subjects of consolidation, home rule, and revenue. In order to make clear the consolidation features of the charter, it should be stated that the government of Chicago consists of the city corporate, a board of education, a public library board, five park boards, the Sanitary District, and Cook County. Each of these bodies has taxing and governing power of its own. The members of the board of education and the public library board are appointed by the mayor; the West and Lincoln Park boards by the governor; the South Park board by the judges of the circuit court of Cook County; while the Sanitary District and Cook County boards are elective. Although Cook County and the Sanitary District lie almost entirely within the limits of Chicago, yet under the terms of the constitutional amendment they could not be consolidated and were, therefore, left out of consideration. The remaining taxing and governing bodies were consolidated with the city government; and the control of their finances was placed in the hands of the city council and the mayor, who would then naturally become responsible for their policy. The appointment of all boards was vested in the mayor.

The second important feature of the charter was the granting of broad powers of local government to the city of Chicago. For many

years the city had suffered from lack of local authority. In its first session, the convention had indicated its desire to secure a "comprehensive, simple, and elastic charter for the city of Chicago, granting to the city the largest practicable measure of local home rule, subject only to such general statutory safeguards and restrictions as may seem necessary to protect the general interests of the State as distinguished from the local interests of the municipality." The distinction between the municipal charter and the municipal code to be enacted under that charter, it had been insisted, should also be constantly borne in mind, and also that a municipal charter should be a grant of broad powers and definite limitations under which municipal codes and the methods and agencies of municipal government could be constantly adapted to meet the changing needs and wishes of the city. In pursuance of this purpose, the charter convention agreed upon the following section:

"The legislative power of the city shall extend to all matters of local legislation and municipal government which can be constitutionally delegated to it by the legislature, subject to the provisions of this charter and to all general laws of the State that are not modified or superseded by this charter, it being the intent hereof that the specifications of particular powers by any other provision of this charter shall never be construed as impairing the effect of the general grant of powers of local government hereby bestowed; but no taxes shall be imposed or levied except as hereinafter authorized."

But the home rule provisions of the charter were not confined to any one of its articles. The act was drawn in a liberal spirit and broad grants of power were scattered through the document.

The city was given a grant of police power, as follows:

"9 1. The police power of the city shall extend to the prevention of crime, the preservation and promotion of local peace, safety, health, morals, order and comfort, and to the prevention of fraud and extortion within the community, by measures of regulation, licensing, requirement of bonds, examination, inspection, registration, restraint and prohibition, as well as by establishment of municipal services."

It was also provided that the regulation by State law of a matter within the police power of the city should not prevent the council from making additional regulations on the same subject, if they did not

conflict with State law. An example of this would be found in tenement house regulation.

Under Public Education (art. xix) it was declared that:

"19 26. The specification of the powers herein granted is not to be construed as exclusive, but the board of education shall exercise all powers that may be requisite or appropriate for the maintenance and fullest development of an efficient public school system."

Under Finance (art. xi) the council was authorized to appropriate money for any corporate purpose; and this was defined as including "any legitimate object of municipal interest or activity not contrary to the provisions and limitations of this charter, for which the legislature has power to authorize the expenditure of city funds or the exercise of the power of local taxation." (Section 1.)

Under Corporate Powers (art. viii) the scope of the city's power of action was greatly extended.

Art. viii, sec. 20, provided that:

"8 20. Municipal services may be performed and municipal works carried out either through contracts entered into for that purpose or by the city directly by means of its own material and of labor employed by it."

Under Public Utilities (art. xvi) the city was authorized to own and operate, or to regulate and require adequate publicity regarding all public utilities.

The city was given broad power to provide for aid, relief and correction (art. x), including authority to care for the indigent, to maintain almshouses, municipal lodging houses and farms for the unemployed, free employment bureaus, crèches, dispensaries, hospitals, institutions for juvenile delinquents and dependents, and workhouses or jails; and to coöperate with Cook County in the work of charities and corrections.

It was also provided that:

Any act of the general assembly that shall be passed after the going into effect of this charter relative to the government of the affairs of the cities of this State in general or of cities containing a stated number of inhabitants or over, or allowing the formation of new municipal corporations in any part of the State, shall, in the absence of an express declaration of a legislative intent to the con

trary be construed as not applying to or operative within the city of Chicago."

In addition to this, the charter contained provisions granting the city of Chicago full and exclusive power to pass ordinances relative to the observance of Sunday, notwithstanding any general laws of the State. For a generation the Sunday closing law had been a dead letter in Chicago, and this clause was designed to permit the city to provide for such legal regulation as it might see fit.

The charter also provided that the city council might amend any section of the charter, excepting the provisions on taxation and public utilities, and such other sections as contained express prohibitions or restraints on the power of the city. The section read as follows:

"5 4. Wherever this charter makes any provisions or regulations with regard to a matter, the regulation of which the legislature has power to delegate to the city council, the city council may adopt an ordinance regulating such matter in whole or in part, and submit to the voters of the city, in the manner provided for the submission of propositions to popular vote, the question whether the provisions of the charter (which shall be designated in the ordinance by title, article, chapter, and section as the case may be) regulating such subject matter shall be discontinued and the ordinance adopted by the city council be substituted in their stead. If the voters of the city shall vote in favor of such discontinuance and substitution, the provisions of the charter so designated shall from thenceforth be inoperative within the city, and the ordinance so adopted shall take effect. No ordinance amending or repealing such ordinance or amending or repealing any ordinance that may subsequently be substituted for it, shall go into effect until such ordinance shall have been approved by a majority of the voters of the city voting upon the question.

"This section shall not apply to the provisions on taxation or to the article on public utilities, or to any provisions of this charter expressly prohibiting or restraining the exercise of particular powers by the city or any department or officer thereof."

The third important feature of the charter was the provision respecting revenue. The lack of adequate funds to carry on properly the work of the municipality had been for many years one of the most serious drawbacks to the advancement of Chicago. The revenue of