HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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it for examination and equalization, but it may not reduce the aggregate valuation nor increase it more than one per cent. Its powers over the returns of the assessors do not extend beyond equalization of assessments between counties. The Board is required to consider the various classes of property separately, and determine such rates of addition to or deduction from the listed, or assessed, valuation of each class as it may deem equitable and just. The statutes prescribe rules for determining the value of all the classes of property enumerated-personal, real, railroad, telegraph, etc. The valuation of the capital stock of railroads, telegraph and other corporations (except newspapers) is fixed by the Board. Its consideration having been completed, the Board is required to summarize the results of its labors in a comparative table, which must be again examined, compared and perfected. Reports of each annual meeting, with the results reached, are printed at the expense of the State
-and distributed as are other public documents. The present Board (1897-1901) consists by districts of (1) George F. McKnight, (2) John J. McKenna, (3) Solomon Simon, (4) Andrew McAnsh, (5) Albert Oberndorf, (6) Henry Severin, (7) Edward S. Taylor, (8) Theodore S. Rogers, (9) Charles A. Works, (10) Thomas P. Pierce, (11) Samuel M. Barnes, (12) Frank P. Martin, (13) Frank K. Robeson, (14) W. O. Cadwallader, (15) J. S. Cruttenden, (16) H. D. Hirshheimer, (17) Thomas N. Leavitt, (18) Joseph F. Long, (19) Richard Cadle, (20) Charles Emerson, (21) John W. Larimer, (22) "William A. Wall, besides the Auditor of Public Accounts as ex-officio member -the District members being divided politically in the proportion of eighteen Republicans to four Democrats.
BOARD OF PUBLIC CHARITIES, a State Bureau, created by act of the Legislature in 1869, upon the recommendation of Governor Oglesby. The act creating the Board gives the Commissioners supervisory oversight of the financial and administrative conduct of all the charitable and correctional institutions of the State, with the exception of the penitentiaries, and they are especially charged with looking after and caring for the condition of the paupers and the insane. As originally constituted the Board consisted of five male members who employed a Secretary. Later provisio
