has been created by the fault of men, an innocent victim of their malfeasance would have some reason and more law on his side if he insisted upon the state proceeding against the culprits singly. Accordingly, the Chicago Plan deals only incidentally with this subject. The city can, as has been done in some European capitals, open wide thoroughfares and avenues through congested areas, or take the heart of the district for a public park; and the legislature might authorize the condemnation of a zone of reasonable width around these open spaces on the principles already laid down. It may be doubted, however, whether the courts would sustain as constitutional a statute designed to appropriate a whole congested area merely for the purpose of renovating it. If the power to do so in a flagrant case were sustained by the Supreme Court of the state, or if such a project were authorized by constitutional amendment, the measure would probably not be condemned by the federal courts as contravening the Constitution of the United States. To the opening of wide streets, however, through congested districts, as proposed in the Plan, there is no obstacle unless it be the lack of financial resources. PRESENT BORROWING AND TAXING POWERS In carrying out so comprehensive a scheme of development as is outlined in the Plan of Chicago, some subsidiary sources of revenue may be found, but the main dependence must be upon the taxing power of the state and its agencies. Current expenses are properly met by current taxes; but it is a main principle of economics that the cost of permanent improvements should be distributed over a series of years commensurate with the probable duration of the benefit. Lest, however, the existing generation should lay inordinate burdens upon posterity, limitations have been set upon the amount and duration of indebtedness which may be incurred by any municipal body. Section 12 of Article IX of the constitution of the State of Illinois declares that no municipal corporation shall become indebted for any purpose to an amount exceeding five per cent of the value of the taxable property therein, as ascertained by the last assessment; and that, at or before the time of incurring such debt, the municipality shall provide for the collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and to discharge the principal within twenty years from the time when the debt was contracted. Under the present revenue laws applicable to Cook County, all taxable property is valued by assessors at its “full value,” and one-fifth of that figure is entered in the books as the “assessed value,” and, as afterwards equalized, is made the basis on which all tax and debt limitations are computed.[89]