PREFACE. HE ILLINOIS BLUE BOOK, during the twenty years in which it has been issued by the Secretary of State, has grown from what was little more than a legislative roster to the present volume of a thousand pages packed full of information relative to the State Government. An effort has been made, especially in the past few years, to enlarge and improve the biennial edition of the book, and new features have been added in each publication. Much space in the 1919-1920 Blue Book was devoted to articles on the part played by Illinois in the World War, the Centennial Celebration of 1918, and the operation of the new Administrative Code law. The present volume describes the great strides made in road building, the development of the extensive State Park system, the beginning of work on the waterway, the humane methods in use in the State institutions and contains articles on a number of other timely subjects. But it is as a State encyclopedia of useful information that it invites special attention. The scope of information included in this volume is much wider than has ever before been attempted in a Blue Book. There is, in addition to other helpful information, a descriptive article on Illinois, United States Census figures for counties and cities of the State and a table showing the date of incorporation of cities, a list of the public libraries of the State giving the librarian of each, a table giving statistics of county fairs in the State, extensive statistics of the public school system, University of Illinois and the State Normal Schools, a list of colleges and universities of the State, historic and other data relative to the 102 counties, crop statistics, vital statistics, discussions of the Natural History and Geological Surveys, a biographical article on former chief clerks of the Illinois House of Representatives, a list of the newspapers and periodicals of the State compiled by counties, a list of the presidents and secretaries of the Commercial Associations of the State, and much more of a similar nature. The book is very profusely illustrated. Among pictorial features in addition to the usual portraits, are halftones of scenes in the State parks, monuments in Illinois and on Civil War battlefields where Illinois 485727 |