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SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER

TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE EIGHTH BIENNIAL REPORT.

INTRODUCTION.

The appendix in the original edition of the eighth biennial report consisted of:

1. A chapter on the Great Coal Strike of 1894.

2. The Decision of Our Supreme Court on the "Sweat Shop Law."

3. Mrs. Potter Palmer's Address, delivered at the opening of the Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition.

4. Gov. John P. Altgeld's Address to the Graduates of the University of Illinois in 1893.

Inasmuch, however, as the Supplemental Chapter prepared for this edition has required considerable time and expense, it has been deemed best not to delay the report any longer and for that reason the original appendix will be substituted by the chapter that follows, which is a further inquiry into the growth of land values in the business center of Chicago, the degree to which they are monopolized and the unequal burdens which our present mode of taxing property imposes on citizens at large. This chapter also contains maps, charts and diagrams, which, it is hoped, will aid the reader in more thoroughly assimilating the information carefully compiled in the tables and analyzed by the context.

PART I.-CORNER LOTS IN CENTRAL PART OF CHICAGO, THEIR OWNERS AND ESTIMATED VALUE.

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Chapter V of this report deals with the subject of "Centralization of Land Ownership" of the central business district of the city of Chicago. This territory is bounded on the north and west by the Chicago river, on the south by Twelfth street and on the east by Michigan avenue. The chapter shows that, after excluding the properties owned by the United States, Cook county, the city of Chicago, churches, educational and charitable institutions and railroads, there are 2,196 pieces of land listed for taxation. That this land is owned by 1,198 individuals, firms or companies, and that of this number, 257 own 1,034, or 47.09 per cent. of the total number of pieces, being 59,347.9 front feet, or 59.99 per cent. of the total frontage, and 7,090,941.7 square feet, or 61.13 per cent. of the total area.

For the purpose of showing to what extent the corner lots of the business district are monopolized by the 257 owners above referred to, the Bureau has prepared a chart of that section. Corner lots, especially in commercial centers, are immensely more valuable than inside locations, hence when corners, like those now under consideration, fall into the hands of a few owners, it is land monopoly of an acute form. That is what has happened in Chicago's business center, as the chart which follows will demonstrate. This shows all the blocks, streets and corners in the district now under consideration:

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