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PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS.

and responsible positions, discharging public duty faithfully and well.

There will be an opportunity during this meeting of hearing some words from each of the original members who may be present.

As there has been no session of the legislature during the past year, there are no changes in the legislation of the State to be embodied in the address of your presiding officer. In a few instances, statutes and city and village ordinances have been found obnoxious to the State or Federal Constitution, and have, therefore, been properly declared void by the Courts. An examination of these cases will disclose that generally the legislative authority has acted hastily and inconsiderately; but occasionally a deliberate attempt has been manifested to conserve particular interests, or unfavorably affect others. All such statutes and ordinances appropriately fall under the head of "class legislation." They are by no means confined to Illinois. The desire that State or Nation should give to us some legal advantage over our neighbors is quite as universal as in the olden time, when favorites sought and obtained special privileges, under the assumed prerogative of King or Emperor. We are, however, more fertile in excuses for such favors in the present day. They are asked, and not infre.quently granted, on the alleged ground that the public good will be thereby conserved; or, that the many will be protected against the oppressions or exactions of the few; or, that citizens of some particular calling or avocation are entitled to certain favors or immunities in legislation that others more affluent, or perhaps fortunate, may not have. As a last refuge we seek shelter under "the police power of the State," when legislation is demanded to shield us from the inconvenient and annoying competition of those of larger enterprise, capital or capacity than ourselves.

A few instances might be appropriately referred to here as illustrations.

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In cities of 50,000 inhabitants, the selling of goods at retail by one management, in the same building, where sixteen or more persons are employed, was regarded, by the legislature of an adjoining State, as so great a menace to the public good as to require that the establishment should be taxed out of existence. The exployment of no greater number than fifteen salesmen in such store would remove all such dangers, and free the proprietor from that species of tax.

In another State, where no period of service was fixed by contract, the law recognized the mutual right of employer and employe to terminate their relations at pleasure, except that it was made a misdemeanor to discharge a workingman for belonging to a labor organization. The right, however, of such employe to quit his employment for no other reason than the failure of his employer to peremptorily discharge another workingman for refusing to join such organization seems to have been preserved.

In still another State, where the Constitution requires absolute uniformity in taxation and prohibits exemptions, the legislature saw fit, in the interest of what it regarded as the deserving poor, to exempt from inheritance tax $5,000.00 in each estate.

In another State, not so far away, the right to mix harnıless coloring matter with pure milk, cream, or butter, is especially preserved by statute; but the admixture of the same harmless coloring with other not unwholesome articles of food, is made a misdemeanor, which might subject the of fender to imprisonment for sixty days, as well as a fine of two hundred dollars.

Another law of the same State gave full damages to any employe who might be injured, or to the heirs of any one killed, in a coal mine, the manager of which had no certificate of competency, no matter whether or not the injury was due to the negligent or wrongful act of manager or proprietor, or indeed whether or not the manager was, in fact, competent.

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The legislatures of at least two states have enacted laws requiring railroad companies to transport all who are able or willing to pay in advance the price of a thousand miles travel, at a less rate than those who have neither such ability nor disposition.

It is not surprising that city councils and village boards should follow the example of legislatures from which they so largely obtain their powers. Perhaps an instance or two, in a city near at hand, will be sufficient to show the peculiar character of ordinances of this species.

In any building where dry goods, clothing, jewelry and drugs were exposed for sale, by one person, firm or corporation, meats, fish, butter, lard, vegetables and other provisions, could not be sold. Intoxicating, malt and fermented liquors, though in "original packages," were not permitted to be sold in any building where dry goods, clothing, jewelry and hardware were kept, or offered for sale. No prohibition was placed upon the sale of any other species of merchandise. Provisions could be sold in the same room, or building, with hardware, but not with jewelry. Intoxicating liquors, sold in connection with jewelry and hardware, was deemed so dangerous to the good order of the city, as to require preventative action by the city council. But the sale of the same liquors in a building with vegetables, or drugs, or notions, was permitted.

It is not very remarkable that, under such circumstances, officers charged with the administration of law should seek to get in line with General Assemblies and Common Councils. They are continually besieged for special favors in the discharge of their public duties, and too often grant them. tracts, in which the interests of the State or municipality are insufficiently guarded, are sometimes obtained, and generally by aid of "influence," political or otherwise. Statutory requirements are too often disregarded and sound principles of public policy violated. There is always an excuse for such

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action, and the claim is usually made that it is in the interests of the people. Even where a letting to the lowest bidder is absolutely required by law, the past year has seen, in sev eral instances, the condition of successful bidding imposed that goods made, or labor furnished, by a particular class of mechanics or workingmen, must be used.

The Courts, in many of the States, have during the past year passed upon this species of legislation, and the ministerial acts of officers in the discharge of public duty. In nearly every instance the judgment has been that of condemnation. Some decisions are based upon the ground that the "subject was not embraced in the title of the act," but the larger number for the bolder and more consistent reason that the distinctions made are purely arbitrary and unreasonable, and that property rights have been unwarrantably affected.

I have selected, at random, the foregoing instances of the character of laws and ordinances too frequently found in our statute books. This is not done for the purpose of condemning any proper legislation on the objects attempted to be reached by them, but to show the evident disposition of lawmakers to favor, or unfavorably affect, particular interests or classes. If the investigation were pursued farther, it would be found that the interests intended to be benefited were generally represented by a very much larger number of voters than those against whose interests the legislation was aimed. It is probably true that good faith and a desire to accomplish laudable ends, as well as to improve existing conditions, characterize most efforts in this direction. But they are largely creatures of times of unrest and local excitement, and when deliberately construed in the light of reason, justice and precedent, appear simply ridiculous. The courts must be depended upon in the future, as they have been in the past, to correct the evils which such enactments might bring upon the people. While courts do not enact laws, they practically have the power to repeal those against which there are well founded

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constitutional objections. A reference to recent changes in "the law of the State," is hardly sufficient, without some notice of the adjudication of the courts upon such legislation. Illinois has fared at the hands of her legislators and judges about as her sister states. The policy of the State, as determined by the law making power, has remained undisturbed by the courts so long as there has been no infringement upon individual rights. A great many constitutional questions have been raised, and some decided.

In none of

the cases does it seem that there would have been serious danger to the people, or their interests, had the decision been the other way. But the judiciary of the State has uniformly been quite jealous of the rights of citizens. The ancient constitutional privilege of electing their own constables, has been restored to the electors of villages, during the past year, by the judgment of our Supreme Court, and Presidents and Boards of Trustees may no longer monopolize this species of public patronage. It has also been solemnly adjudged that each municipality in the State, shall be as unlimited in power to create indebtedness for posterity to pay as any other, no matter whether the county, in which it is situate, has more or less than one hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The constitutional right of the people in any locality, to burden themselves with as high a rate of taxation as in any other portion of the commonwealth, has also been judicially affirmed, and this without regard to the population of the county.

The subject of trusts, monopolies and combinations is now a matter of great concern among the people, and during the present year, perhaps, it has become a political question. Probably no discussion of them ought to be indulged in here. But the platforms of all the parties arraign and condemn them, and contain promises that the evils, growing out of their existence, shall be removed. It is not a matter of surprise to find each party insisting that all the others are insin

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