A complete engineering organization under the State Highway Engineer has been constructed, through which the State Highway Commission is enabled to provide plans for all road and bridge work and supervise all construction with the assistance of the county superintendents.

All the precautions which engineering science and modern business methods afford have been taken to insure that full value is given to the State for all money expended in highway construction and that the specifications of contracts are met in every detail.

I recommend that careful consideration be given to the provisions of the funds for the completion, in a reasonable time, of the construction of the fifteen thousand miles of State aid roads, consistent with the annual tax paying ability of the tax payers of the State.

CIVIL SERVICE.

At the beginning of my administration, two years ago, the State Civil Service law, so far as it applied to the more important positions in the service, was eighteen months old. Since by its provisions all the appointees holding office at the time it became effective were covered without examination and comparatively few changes in the personnel had been made, there was widespread unfamiliarity with the provisions of the law. The strain of enforcing this law, after the first complete change in party domination in sixteen years, has not been slight; nevertheless, with determined, honest, and fair enforcement, there has come a vigorous and gratifying growth in the Civil Service work of the State. In 1911, 4,685 applications for examination were received; in 1912, 6,671; in 1913, 8,839; in 1914, estimate to December 1, 11,307. In the past year, the commission has held 144 examinations and, it was estimated, had examined 7,500 applicants up to December 1, this being approximately one hundred per cent increase over the number examined in 1912. There has been a marked increase in the number of positions filled by certification from the eligible lists and of all the persons occupying positions in the classified service of the State. It is estimated there are now less than seven hundred who have not proved their qualifications by passing examinations.

It is with sincere gratification I report to you that the merit system in all State departments is now established upon a firm basis and I respectfully urge that your honorable body give careful consideration to all measures relative to civil service, its further extension to some positions, not now classified, which should be included within its scope, and other amendments which might make for the better operation or enforcement of the law. There are some few classes of employment where professional skill and implicit confidence is demanded, which might safely be excluded from the Civil Service list.

INDUSTRIAL BOARD.

Of all the progressive laws placed upon the statute books by the Forty-eighth General Assembly, perhaps none is more important to the workingmen of the State than that creating the Industrial Board for the administration of the Workmen's Compensation Act.

Upon this board rests the duty of arbitrating, in speedy hearing, disputes over compensation for injury and death incurred in industrial accidents. Successful performance of this duty will eliminate the great hardships, formerly imposed by the law's delay, upon those disabled in the performance of their duty, and upon the helpless dependents of men who have fallen in the struggle for existence.

The extent of this work is proved by the fact that the facilities of the board have been overtaxed from the beginning. There have been presented to and decided by the board, by committees of arbitration appointed by it, 584 cases, involving the payment of $155,101.11. Lump sum orders have been entered in 367 cases, involving the payment of $335,732.91. There are pending before the board 240 arbitration matters and 28 lump sum petitions.

It is evident that the volume of work to be handled will increase rapidly, and if the Industrial Board is to avoid a congestion already existing, which

will soon result in reproducing in its affairs the court delays which it is intended to avoid, increased facilities must be provided for its work.

I therefore recommend that careful consideration be given to the report of this board and to its request for a suitable appropriation with which to handle its most important work.

I am informed by the president of this board that its appropriations for rent are at present exhausted and that, unless an emergency appropriation for rents, and additional help is given, it will result in a suspension in whole or in part of the duties of the board.

I, therefore, recommend an emergency appropriation sufficient to enable the board to carry on its duties until the general appropriation bill is passed.

SEMI-MONTHLY PAYMENT OF STATE EMPLOYEES.

The last Legislature, upon my recommendation, passed a law compelling corporations and employers to pay their employees semi-monthly. I see no reason why the State should not follow the same practice. I am informed that the State can provide for such semi-monthly payment of employees by the employment in the Auditor's office and in the office of the Civil Service Commission of extra clerks at a cost of not to exceed $5,000 annually.

I recommend that provisions be made for such semi-monthly payment of State employees.

EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY.

Following the recommendation in my inaugural message the Fortyeighth General Assembly appointed a committee, composed of four members of each house, to examine into different departments of the State government for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not, by cooperation of the different departments and commissions of the State and the coordination of their functions, greater efficiency and economy in administration could not be attained.

This committee has been industriously engaged for the last eighteen months in making such investigation, and will make a report to the Legislature embodying the result of its labors, which report, I earnestly commend to you for your careful consideration.

While not agreeing with all of the recommendations of the committee in their entirety, it is in the main a very valuable and well-considered report of conditions prevalent at the present time, with very wise recommendations of changes.

I particularly call your attention to the very valuable recommendations in reference to the consolidation of the penal and correctional institutions under one commission; the consolidation of the different mining boards into one department; the consolidation of the various agricultural and live stock boards into one department; the consolidation of the different normal schools under one board of trustees; the consolidation of the tax levying boards and the revenue collecting departments of the State into a department of finance under the control of a State Finance Commission, consisting of a State Comptroller, a State Tax Commissioner and a State Revenue Commissioner, the Auditor of Public Accounts and the State Treasurer being ex officio members, and involving the abolition of the State Board of Equali zation and the creation of a State Tax Commission in lieu thereof.

CONVICT LABOR.

The last Legislature upon my recommendation enacted a law permitting the use of convicts upon road building in the State, limiting the employment of such convicts, however, to those whose terms of unexpired imprisonment did not exceed five years.

Liberal use of the convicts has been made for that purpose, particularly at the Joliet Penitentiary, with beneficial results both to the convicts and to the State. A very small percentage of the convicts have violated their pledge of honor, and the work done has been valuable and efficient.

I would respectfully recommend the amendment of the law, so as to permit convicts whose unexpired terms exceed the five-year limitation to be used for road building. The limitation, in my judgment, can be safely extended to ten or even fifteen years instead of five.

In order to bring about a more extensive use of the convicts for this laudable purpose, it might be wise to amend the Good Roads Act, so as to require the counties, who are recipients of State aid to avail themselves of convict labor, charging therefor the actual cost of feeding the men while so engaged.

During the last fifteen months, fifty-one convicts were employed at road building, from September 3, 1913, to February 10, 1914, at Camp Hope, near Dixon, Illinois, doing very effective road work. Not one attempted to escape.

Seventy-two convicts were employed at Starved Rock from April 27, 1914, to August 20, 1914, and afterwards at Mokena, Will County, Illinois, until December 23, two of whom escaped, and have not been re-captured.

Sixty-five men were employed at Beecher, Illinois, from June 15, 1914, to November 24, 1914, none of whom attempted to escape.

One hundred and five convicts were utilized at the Joliet Honor Farm from February 27, 1914, until recently. Twenty-four have had their sentences commuted; nine returned to the prison; two paroled, and nine transferred to road camps, leaving sixty-one still on the farm operating same.

In view of the small percentage of escapes, and the general observance of their pledges by the convicts, the warden of the Joliet penitentiary has recommended that the convict labor act be amended so as to permit the use of convict labor upon the public roads, by removing the clause specifying that a man must have less than five years to serve before he is eligible for road work.

CHICAGO PARK COMMISSIONS CONSOLIDATION.

In my Inaugural Address to the General Assembly, I recommended the consolidation of the Park Commissions of the city of Chicago.

At present there are three separate commissions: the Board of South Park Commissioners, the Board of West Park Commissioners, and the Board of Lincoln Park Commissioners.

All of these quasi-municipal bodies are conducted as wholly separate institutions, with different offices, different executives, and under different managements.

These park boards should be consolidated. At your last session, a bill was passed consolidating the park boards, and I was constrained to veto same on being advised by the Attorney General that the bill was unconstitutional.

I again recommend the consolidation of the different park boards of the city of Chicago and I trust constitutional legislation to that end will be enacted at the coming session.

THE STATE BOARD OF LIVE STOCK COMMISSIONERS.

Foot and Mouth Disease in Illinois.

Since November 1, 1914, when the first case of foot and mouth disease was discovered in Illinois, live stock producers within the State have necessarily been subjected to great inconvenience and economic losses incidental to the establishment and the enforcement of quarantine regulations to prevent one of the most highly contagious diseases known from infecting every farm within the State.

During this time the services of two hundred veterinarians constituting the cooperating forces of State and Federal governments have been constantly engaged. An additional force of over five hundred laborers 11competent supervision has also been engaged in cleaning and disinfecting infected premises after the slaughter of affected herds. In doing this work the State and Federal governments have been acting in complete harmony and cooperation.

In waging this fight against the unrestricted spread of the contagion of foot and mouth disease, much opposition and failure to promptly report infection has been encountered, and to this fact can be charged at least fifty per cent more outbreaks than would have otherwise occurred. The culmination of the opposition against effective work in completely eradicating the disease previous to this date was reached when the State Veterinarian was served with threatening notices by the owners of herds infected and their lawyers and finally with an injunction against the further slaughter of affected herds, thus preventing the best known method of successfully eradicating the disease from being utilized to protect the live stock interests in this and other States. Unless this injunction is soon dissolved all of the work so far done will be of little or no avail and the live stock interests will be confronted by rigid Federal quarantine of this State for years to come.

Up to this time 591 herds consisting of 18,348 cattle, 26,613 hogs and 903 sheep bave been slaughtered, the total appraised valuation of which is $1,494,528.67. Of the 591 infected premises 523 have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected under official supervision, the remainder being now in course of disinfection or in preparation for disinfection.

In view of the widespread extent of this very contagious disease, involving such serious consequences to the live stock owners of the State, and the large expense entailed upon the State of Illinois in the effort to furnish assistance to the Federal government in eradicating the disease, and in view of the great losses entailed upon the owners of the cattle infected and destroyed, I recommend the early attention of the Legislature to the question of making an appropriation sufficient to cover the unusual expenses entailed upon the State of Illinois in the effort to suppress this disease, and that it should further take official action in the way of making appropriations to reimburse in some way the owners of the cattle killed.

In my opinion because of the fact that this disease has already infected eighteen States of the United States, the expense and responsibility of handling this nation-wide calamity ought to fall upon the Federal government. No one or more States can effectively suppress this contagion throughout the United States. Arbitrary State lines are not effective in preventing the spread of the disease. It is as though war were declared upon this country by a foreign foe. The National government is charged with the duty of defending the country from foreign invasion.

The foot and mouth disease has declared war not upon the State of Illinois, but upon the live stock interests of the United States, and the consumers of the nation dependent thereon, and, I believe the Federal government ought to shoulder the responsibility of this nation-wide calamity, and compensate those that are entitled thereto, but in the meantime until action is taken by the Federal government, some action should be taken by the State of Illinois to relieve its own citizens, and thereafter the State should demand reimbursement from the Federal government for the expenses entailed thereby.

THE STATE CHARITIES COMMISSION.

The State Charities Commission, whose duties are those of inspection and recommendation, suggests and recommends:

First: That the Alton State Hospital and the Dixon State School and Colony, the two institutions now in course of construction, be completed at the very earliest date.

Second: The establishment of a State home or school for adult feebleminded women and the enactment of a law providing for legal commitment of the feeble-minded of all ages and for discharge of such defectives from institutions designed for their care only upon order of the court. Such law should give courts discretion to commit a feeble-minded person to a private institution, as insane are often committed to private hospitals, when the reasons for such commitment warrant it.

Third: Attention is called to the almost indescribable condition of the jails, lockups, calabooses and workhouses of this State. Legislation is urged which will vest in State authority, preferably the Governor, the power to close a jail or other local place of detention or an almshouse which does not comply with the law and conform to the standards which the law prescribes.

Fourth: The creation of a State Housing Commission to study the housing situation in Illinois and to report back to the next General Assembly recommendations for a comprehensive statute covering this highly important

subject.

Fifth: Endorsement of the recommendation of the Efficiency and Economy Commission that the State Charities Commission be empowered to inspect and supervise the three State penal institutions of Illinois, in the same manner and for the same purposes, as it now inspects and supervises the State charitable institutions.

INSPECTION OF PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES.

New life has been injected into the supervision and inspection of private employment agencies during the fiscal year 1914. Three hundred sixty-seven licenses were issued to private agencies, an increase of thirty-eight over 1913. The amount of revenue from licenses was $17,750, an increase of $1,775. During the year, $6,785 were refunded by agents to complainants, a gain of $4,832. Inspectors made 1,973 reports on general conditions of agencies, an increase of 557. One thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven complaints were investigated, as against 432 in 1913.

The department has discovered that it is a practice among "straw bosses" on railroads and factory foremen to charge a fee to men for the privilege of holding their jobs. This practice is probably an outgrowth of the scarcity of work. It is being dealt with vigorously; several convictions have been had in Chicago, one in East St. Louis, four in Granite City, where four cases are pending in the courts. The department reports the necessity of drastic methods to regulate the booking agents who are sending young girls as entertainers to saloons, cafes, etc.

THE PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION.

Illinois will be represented at this great exposition by a display of its industries and a State building where its people may gather. The last General Assembly made an appropriation of $300,000 with which to erect a building and to bear the expenses of the commission. At the time this message is written, the building is practically complete.

It is 96 feet deep and has a frontage of 136 feet, with principal entrances on its north and south sides. The contract price was $89,000, exclusive of furnishings, decorations, and lighting fixtures.

The plans were drawn by State Architect, J. B. Dibelka, and the contract was let to Lange & Berkstrom, of San Francisco, the lowest bidder.

The friezes on the north and south fronts are embellished with ornamental sculpture, designed after prize competition by young Illinois sculptors, their work being supervised by Lorado Taft.

The building contains twenty-five rooms.

A room is set apart as a memorial to Lincoln. There is a ball room, where dances and other entertainments may be held, a recital hall for musical entertainments, a motion picture theater, reading, writing, and lounging rooms.

Among the features of the entertainment program is a large pipe organ which has been donated to the State on condition that it defray the cost of packing and shipping.

In the moving picture theater, the State's manufacturers and industries, its parks and buildings, its public institutions, agricultural, live stock, and dairying resources will be displayed daily.

The commission has divided itself into fifteen standing committees, each having in charge a certain department of exhibits.

Special attention is to be given to the agricultural, live stock, and dairying interests.

The commission has made a strong effort to have every manufacturing and commercial industry of the State represented by an exhibit, and as a result every exhibition hall will house some substantial evidence of the State's commercial and industrial activities and supremacy.