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 ILLINOIS

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ILLINOIS

country was 4.72 per cent. In 1S96 the rate in the Catholic provinces of North Brabant and Limburg in Holland was 2.8 and 2.20, respectively, but 3 for the whole of that country. All of the foregoing figures are taken from the work of Father Krose (pp. 46-54). It has already been noted that in Ireland Protestant Down had in 1880 ten times as many illegitimate births as equally populous Catholic Mayo, a difference that is certainly not sufficiently explained by the presence of part of a large city in Down. In 1894 the illegitimate births were twice as high in domi- nantly Protestant Belfast as in dominantly Catholic Dublin. It seems safe to say that none of the differ- ences described in this paragraph can be satisfactorily explained by any other factor than religion.

It may not be amiss to set down some general con- siderations which account, in part at least, for the comparatively high rate of illegitimacy in some Catho- lic countries. We have called attention above to the powerful influence of perverse legislation in Bavaria and Austria ; in the latter country there has for a long time been in operation an additional factor, namely, those ecclesiastico-political forces, summed up under the name of Josephinism, which have gone far to de- moralize the seminaries, the clergy, and the public life of the country, and which have in a hundred ways prevented the Church from exercising her normal influence. France, Italy, and Belgium have a con- siderably higher rate than England and Wales, but France is no longer a Catholic country in the normal and vital sense, while Italy, as already noted, has an unfavourable civil marriage law. In England the registration laws permit many illegitimate births to be counted as legitimate; moreover, the proportion of marriages between the conception and birth of the first cliikl, the comparative prevalence of prostitution, and the use of immoral preventives of conception and birth, are all undoubtedly greater in that country than in Italy or Belgium. Indeed, competent observation and statistics, in so far as they are available, show that these three important causes of a low rate of illegiti- macy are, generally speaking, much more prevalent among Protestant than among Catholic peoples. Fi- nally, the very low rate in Protestant Holland seems to be explained by the astoundingly large percentage of still-births set down in the statistics of that country. They are one huntlreil per cent more numerous than in Austria-Hungary. If this excess of still-births in Holland, that is, one-half the whole number, be reck- oned as illegitimates who were killetl either before or immediately after birth — and this is a reasonable in- ference — the rate of illegitimacy would be almost twice as high as the existing statistics indicate.

The most important factors which tend to increase illegitimacy are, therefore, bad laws, bad economic conditions, lax public opinion, lax customs of social intercovu'se, late marriages, and lack of sound moral and religious convictions. The most important in- fluences that tend to lessen and check it are religion, especially, the true religion, immoral practices, and marriage between the conception and birth of the first child. Most of the first set of factors go to prove that illegitimacy is not a correct measure of the moral char- acter of a people or class in the presence of temptations against the virtue of chastity; the last two factors in the second set show that illegitimacy is not a true index of the actual violations of this virtue. Never- theless every illegitimate child that is born represents at least one grievous sin against the sixth command- ment, and forebodes many harmful consequences for itself, its parents, and the community. The child is frequently deserted by its parents, or by the father, and is deprived of many of the social, economic, edu- cational, and religious advantages which he would have obtained if he had been born in wedlock. In- fant mortality among illegitimate children is at least twenty-five per cent higher than among those that are

legitimate, while the proportion of criminals among them is also considerably larger. The parents, par- ticularly the mother, suffer a greater or less degree of social ostracism, which, in the case of the woman, often includes inability to find a spouse. In addition she bears by far the greater portion of the burden of rear- ing the child. On the other hand, where the parents fall but slightly in social esteem the public regard for chastity is deplorably lax. In any case, the presence of illegitimacy in a community always tends to weaken the popular appreciation of chastity, and the popular disapproval of its violation.

Leffingwell, Illegitimacy (London, 1892); Idem in The New Encyclopedia of Social Reform, s. v.; Young. Catholic and Protestant Countries Compared (New York, 1S9S); Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics (London, 1S98); Krose, Dcr Einjiu^s der CoTijession auf die Sittlichkeit (Freiburg, 1900); Oettingen, Moralstatistik (Erlangen, 18S2); The Statesman's Year Book (London, 1908).

John A. Ryan.

Illinois, one of the United States of America, bounded on the north by Wisconsin, on the west by the Mississippi, which separates it from Iowa and Missouri, on the south by the confluent waters of the Mississippi and the Ohio, which separate it from Kentucky, on the east by Indiana and Lake Michigan. It extends from 36° 56' to 42° 30' N. lat., and 87° 35' to 91° 40' W. long. The extreme length of Illinois is 388 miles and its ex- treme width is 212 miles. Its area, not including any part of Lake Michigan, is 56,650 square miles. Its total area, including that part of Lake Michigan within its boundaries, is 58,354 square miles. Illinois is the most level state in the Union, except Louisiana and Delaware. It is the lower part of a plain, of which Lake Michigan is the higher. Lake Michigan is 5S2 feet and the southern part of the state is about 300 feet above sea-level. The slope is from the north to the south, and is gradual, except in the south, where there is a hilly range, which rises to the height of a thousand feet. The surface of the state is slightly rolling, except along the rivers, where it is broken. Beautifully undulating prairies, without forests, characterize the northern and central parts of the state, and these prairies sometimes ter- minate in well-wooded lateral ridges, especially near the river courses, which give to the landscape a sjdvan beauty.

All the large rivers of Illinois flow southward. The Kankakee and Desplaines Rivers meet and form the Illinois, which flows into the Mississippi. The Chi- cago River, which formerly flowed into Lake Michigan, is made by a unique engineering feat to flow in the opposite direction and is a part of the Chicago drain- age canal which joins the Desplaines River near Joliet. The State of Illinois voted in 1908 in favour of a bond issue of .$20,000,000 for the great waterway to con- nect Lake Michigan with the Mississippi. This, when completed, will be the realization of the mission- ary's prophecy made two hundred years ago. The soil of Illinois is rich, well-watered and adapted to the production of grain. Illinois has the central position in the great Mississippi Valley — the most fertile valley in the world. The waterways connect it equally with the south and tlie north; the numerous railroads reach not only the territorial limits of the nation, but tap the richest lands of Canada and Mexico. Coal

Seal of Illinois