is ill and threatened with a severe sickness; the mother, recognizing the ailment, procures the medicine which is very unpleasant to the child to take and notwithstanding the protests of the child insists that it be taken; it must be and is taken by the child, to the end that the child may be well again. Unless your municipalities, gentlemen, differ much from my own, your experience in the making of any improvement in your respective communities is parallel with the illustration of the mother and the child.

The service rendered to our respective communities by those employed in the different departments of the city service is probably no more than that rendered through past years. Notwithstanding this fact we must all find some way of increasing the pay of these men for the sole reason that the same schedule of pay which prevailed three years ago does not give to them to-day the same pay that they then enjoyed within forty per cent, for the dollar intrinsically is good only for what it gets and its purchasing value in the open markets to-day makes it equal to about seventy cents in the markets of three years ago.

Granted, then, the necessity of increasing the amount required for our payrolls and facing the increased cost of all materials and supplies which each of our cities and villages must buy if we even maintain without increasing the service which we now render, it is perfectly plain to me that we must either reduce the service or increase our revenues. What shall it be?

A record of the attendance and membership in the league since its organization three years ago should be of interest.

Membership

At the first convention, held in Urbana in 1914, 37 delegates were present from 20 cities and villages; at the second convention, 69 delegates were present from 26 cities and villages; at the third convention, 83 representatives, from 32 cities and villages. At the three conventions representatives have been present from a total of 49 cities and villages.

During the first two years only about a half of the cities which sent delegates to the convention paid membership dues, and no city paid dues which had not been represented at a convention. During the past year, owing to the active campaign by Mayor Rodgers, not only have nearly all of the cities which have. attended the convention sent in dues and assessments, but 35 other cities which have not heretofore been represented at any convention also sent in their contributions. Including these, the total number of cities and villages which have been actively connected with the league during the last three years reaches 84. These include more than half of the cities of over 10,000 population, with a considerable number of smaller cities and villages.

Finances

The finances of the league for the past year, as shown in the following table, have been on a larger scale than heretofore. While the revenues have been much more than formerly, the expenses have been even greater; and there is an outstanding deficit. to be met. If further efforts are to be made to secure financial or other legislation at a special session of the general assembly, it will be necessary to provide for additional income, and the question of a change in the scale of dues should be considered.

H. J. RODGERS, MAYOR OF JACKSONVILLE

Mr. President and Gentlemen assembled:

I wish to submit the following report of legislative matters as I saw them for good and bad at the 50th session of the Illinois General Assembly.

The Committee on Legislation appointed at the meeting of December 8, 1916, were:

Mayor W. W. Bennett, Chairman....Rockford

Mayor H. P. Pearsons..................

Mayor B. W. Alpiner........

Mayor H. J. Rodgers......

Mayor J. L. Conger..........

.Evanston

..Kankakee

Jacksonville

.Galesburg

Bloomington

..........Moline

Mayor E. E. Jones........

Mayor M. L. Carlson...............

City Atty. A. D. Stevens......................Springfield

Mayor Bennett, Chairman, called a meeting of the committee, to meet at Chicago, where we were the guests of Mayor H. P. Pearsons at the University Club. The preparation of bills to be presented to the legislature in the interest of cities, was thoroughly discussed in regard to revenue, sewage disposal, sanitary districts, wheel taxes, regulation of building in residential districts, and other matters.

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Illinois Municipal League. (At the Chicago meeting of the League of Illinois Municipalities, practically these same resolutions were unanimously adopted.)

RESOLUTIONS

Unanimously adopted by the Third Annual Convention of the Illinois Municipal League at Urbana, December 8, 1916.

Whereas, The cities of Illinois find themselves seriously handicapped on account of obsolete and inadequate constitutional provisions and laws, which in many cases render efficient city government impossible; and

Whereas, We strongly favor the principle of home rule in municipal affairs; therefore,

Be it Resolved, By the Illinois Municipal League, representing the cities of this state, in convention assembled:

That we favor a constitutional convention for the revision of the state constitution; and urge the general assembly to submit to the people the question of calling such a convention;

That pending the full relief to be had by a constitutional convention from the demoralization which now exists in the application of our assessment and tax laws, there should be granted to cities the power to make necessary increases in their revenues; and the league authorizes and directs its committee on legislation to use all honorable means to secure an advance in the limit now placed by law upon taxes for general corporate purposes, from 12 to 20 mills on the dollar of the assessed value of property;

That in view of the necessity for additional legislation to enable cities to deal with problems of sewage disposal and sanitation, the league authorizes its committee on legislation to use its efforts to secure such legislation;

That, while we commend the efforts of the state public utilities commission to regulate the service and rates of privately owned public utilities, we are unalterably opposed to any legislation which will in any way curtail or diminish the powers granted to cities to own and operate their own utilities or to sell the products thereof, or which will in any way interfere with the operation and management by local city governments of the utilities owned by cities of this state;

That the league urgently recommends that the General Assembly make an appropriation of $10,000 a year for the maintenance and support of the municipal reference bureau at the University of Illinois, as a central clearing house of information for the cities and villages of the state.

The resolution for the constitutional convention was passed without much opposition, and will be submitted to a referendum vote at the November election, 1918.