The state is divided into four Appellate Court Districts as Shown on the accompanying map. Justices for these courts are appointed by the Justices of the Supreme Court.
The state outside of Cook County is divided into 17 circuits, in each of which three circuit judges are elected for a term of six years. The map on page 321 shows the number and boundaries of the judicial circuits. Special provision is made for the courts of Cook County, and for this reason Cook County does not appear as one of the numbered districts.
Efforts to reapportion the congressional districts of the state based on the census of 1910 have failed. The 25 districts remain, therefore, as apportioned in 1901 based on the census of 1900. Since the census of 1910 gives Illinois 27 representa tives in Congress instead of 25, it has been necessary since 1910 to elect two congressmen-at-large. The first nine con gressional districts are wholly in Cook County. The tenth district includes the northern part of Cook County and all of Lake County. The other districts follow county lines as indi cated on the map shown on page 323. The number of counties in a single district varies from 4 to 11.
The Administrative Code.—The executive branch of the state government was reor ganized on July 1, 1917, under a law known as "The Civil Administra tive Code of Illinois." This law provides for nine departments as follows: 1. Finance; 2. Agriculture; 3. La bor; 4. Mines and Min erals; 5. Public Works and Buildings; 6. Public Welfare; 7. Public Health; S. Trade and Commerce; 9. Registration and Education. A director of each department is appointed by the gov ernor. More than a hundred separate boards and commissions were consolidated under these nine departments.
State institutions.— There are many things which contribute to the welfare of the people that can be carried on better by the state as a whole than by private or local interests. These include the state university and the state normal schools as higher institutions of learning; the state hospitals for the care of the insane; schools for boys and girls who are blind, deaf, feeble-minded, or unruly; homes for soldiers, sailors, their widows, and orphans; and penitentiaries for those who violate the law. Illinois established and supports by general taxation
32 state institutions. The five state normal schools and the state university are listed among the higher institutions of learning of the state, page 325. The 26 other state institutions arc given in the accompanying table and their locations are indicated on the map. Number 27 is a national, not a state, institution. Its service, however, is of the same character as that of the State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Quincy. It is open to soldiers from any state of the Union. The popu lation of these institutions as given in the table suggests the large service which they render the state.
State constitutions.—The first state constitution was adopted in 1S1S, the second in 1848, and the third in 1870. For several years preceding 1917, various civic organizations of the state had agitated the question of calling a constitutional convention for the purpose of making such changes in the constitution of 1870 as would better meet the present needs of the state. Governor Lowden, in his inaugural message of 1917, submitted the importance of constitutional changes to the General Assembly in the following words: The time has come for a new state constitution. The constitutions framed since the Civil War, including our own, have not been limited to those things which properly constitute the fundamental law of the state; but have contained many matters which are properly the subject of legis lation. Legislation always depends upon existing conditions, and condi tions change. A constitution which seems to legislate will inevitably be outgrown. This is our situation today. Therefore, we strongely urge prompt adoption by the General Assembly of a resolution calling for a constitutional convention.
In 1917 the General Assembly adopted a resolution sub mitting to the voters of the state at the election in November, 1918, the question as to whether or not a convention "to revise, alter, or amend the constitution of this state" should be called. The proposition carried; delegates to a constitutional conven tion were elected in November, 1919; and the convention assembled in Springfield in January, 1920.