This feeder, formally opened in 1907, runs nearly due S. to a point on the canal N.W. of Sheffield and N.E. of Mineral; there are important locks on either side of this junction. At the general election in November 1908 the people of Illinois authorized the issue of bonds to the amount of $20,000,000 to provide for the canalizing of the Desplaines and Illinois rivers as far as the city of Utica, on the latter river, and connecting with the channel of the Chicago Sanitary District at Joliet. The situation of Illinois between the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains has made it a natural gateway for railroads connecting the North Atlantic and the far Western states. The first railway constructed in the West was the Northern-Cross railroad from Meredosia on the Illinois river to Springfield, completed in 1842; during the last thirty years of the 19th century Illinois had a larger railway mileage than any of the American states, her mileage in January 1909 amounting to 12,215.63 m., second only to that of Texas. A Railway and Warehouse Commission has authority to fix freight and passenger rates for each road. It is the oldest commission with such power in the United States, and the litigation with railways which followed its establishment in 1871 fully demonstrated the public character of the railway business and was the precedent for the policy of state control elsewhere.[3] _Population._--In 1870 and 1880 Illinois was fourth among the states of the United States in population; but in 1890, in 1900, and in 1910, its rank was third, the figures for the last three years named being respectively 3,826,351, 4,821,550, and 5,638,591.[4] The increase from 1880 to 1890 was 24.3%; from 1890 to 1900, 26%. Of the population in 1900, 98.2% was white, 79.9% was native-born, and 51.2% was of foreign parentage (either one or both parents foreign-born). The principal foreign element was German, the Teutonic immigration being especially large in the decade ending in 1860; the immigrants from the United Kingdom were second in importance, those from the Scandinavian countries third, and those from southern Europe fourth. The urban population, on the basis of places having 4000 inhabitants or more, was 51% of the total; indeed the population of Cook county, in which the city of Chicago is situated, was two-fifths of the total population of the state; during the decade of the Civil War (1860-1870) the population of the state increased only 48.4%, and that of Cook county about 140%, while from 1870 to 1900 the increase of all counties, excluding Cook, was about 36%, the increase in Chicago was about 468%. Of the 930 incorporated cities, towns and villages, 614 had less than 1000 inhabitants, 27 more than 5000 and less than 10,000, 14 more than 10,000 and less than 20,000, 4 more than 20,000 and less than 25,000, and 7 more than 25,000. These seven were Chicago (1,698,575), the second city in population in the United States, Peoria (56,100), Quincy (36,252),