Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1884 [PAGE 74]

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78 Say one million workers. Iffcwe divide the total product of all industries by this total number of workers, we have an annual return of $392 for each laborer. If we go back and compute the average wages of the manufacturing workmen by dividing their total wages by their total number, we find that they received each $397 per year. The total value of property of all forms is not found in the census returns. It would be interesting to know what results would have been attained by the machinery of the census which has given us the other conclusions cited. We can do no better than go to the assessment rolls of the State, as made by local assessors, and corrected by the State Board of Equalization, and multiplying their figures by three, their results are: Eeal estate Personal property Total Eeturned. $575,441,053 211,175,341 $786,616,394 Actual. $1,726,323,159 633,526,023 $2,359,849,182

Very many other items might be added to this list, which would greatly increase the grand total of the reckoning of the material wealth of this noble State. The railways , were reported by the Eailway Commissioners as having within our borders in 1882, 8,541 miles of roadway and 10,463 miles of track. The average cost per mile of these roads is given at $39,041, which would make the total cost of the railways in the State $333,449,000. The total passengers carried in Illinois in the year reported was 16,902,000 The local freight ,..., 24,788,811 The total earnings in Illinois were $56,396,287.58 The total operating expenses in Illinois were $37,628,704.77 The number of public schools in the State, elementary and high, is given at School buildings Sittings Expenditures • Teachers Pupils enrolled Persons of lawful school age : 15,208 11,880 694,106 $7,536,682 15,912 704,041 943,658

In spite of all the opportunities for instruction, it appears that 132,426 white persons could not write, and that 88,519 of them were born in the State. It would be interesting to collate the statistics of colleges, including all higher and professional schools; of churches and all benevolent organizations; of newspapers and periodicals; of public and private indebtedness; of defective, dependent and delinquent classes•; of disease and mortality; of the manufacture and sale of malt and