"An Act to provide for the printing and distribution of ballots at public expense and for the nomination of candidates for public offices, to regulate the manner of holding elections and to enforce the secrecy of the ballot," approved June 22, 1891, in force July 1, 1891, commonly called "Australian Ballot Act." The voter shall indicate his choice by making a cross mark in the square before the name of each person voted for, as near as may be in the same manner as provided in said Australian Ballot Act. Each contributor to said fund and each annuitant as aforesaid shall be entitled to one vote for each office to be filled at such election.

§3. December 27, unless said day fall on Sunday, and in that event, December 28, in each year, is herein designated as annual election day. On said annual election day the envelopes addressed and mailed to the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be publicly opened at his office. The name of the person voting, as shown on the enclosed slip, shall be checked off on the roll of contributors and annuitants as aforesaid, and a list of such voters shall be made, and the envelope marked "For Ballot Only," accompanying such slip, shall then be set aside to be later publicly opened and the ballot therein counted by a board of canvassers. Said board shall consist of seven members to be selected from the contributors and annuitants as aforesaid, in such manner as the board of trustees shall by by-law provide, one from each of the seven districts in which this State has been divided for the election of judges of the Supreme Court. No ballot shall be counted unless accompanied by said slip, properly filled out as heretofore provided by a contributor or annuitant as aforesaid, nor unless received by the Superintendent of Public Instruction before 10 o'clock a. m. on said annual election day. When the names of all voters shall have been checked, the envelopes marked "For Ballot Only" shall be opened and the ballots removed therefrom and counted. The person or persons receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected. In case more persons than one have the same number of votes, the choice shall be decided by lot. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall make and keep a record of the result of the election and furnish a copy thereof to the board of trustees, and shall notify the persons elected of their election. At the first annual election there shall be elected one member of said board of trustees for the term of one year, one member for the term of two years, and one member for the term of three years, and annually thereafter there shall be elected one member for a term of three years in the manner heretofore provided.

§ 4. In case of a vacancy in the board of trustees, the remaining members of said board shall fill such vacancy by appointment until the next annual election, when a trustee for the unexpired term shall be elected.

§ 5. After the passage of this bill and until the elective members of the first board of trustees shall assume office, as provided in section 1 of this Act, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Auditor of Public Accounts and the Secretary of State shall constitute a temporary board of trustees of the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund. Such temporary board shall account for all its transactions in the same manner as hereinafter provided for the board of trustees.

§ 6. Said board of trustees shall organize by the election of one of their number as president. The State Treasurer shall be ex officio treasurer of said board, and shall receive and make payments from and account for said funds in the same manner as for other State funds, except as hereinafter provided. Said Treasurer shall safely keep such funds, subject to the control and direction of the board of trustees, and shall keep his books and accounts in such manner as may be prescribed by said board; and said books and accounts shall always be subject to the inspection of said board, or any member thereof. Said Treasurer shall be liable on his official bond for the proper performance of his duties and the conservation of the fund created by this Act. Said board shall employ a secretary, for such term as may be determined, who shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by the board.

§ 7. The board of trustees shall meet regularly four times a year at such times as said board may by by-law provide, or at the call of the president or any three members. Said board may adopt rules for the government of its meetings and for the administration of the fund, in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

§ 8. Members of said board shall receive no compensation, except their necessary expenses incurred in attending the meetings, to be paid from the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund. If said board shall elect one of its members secretary, such member may receive compensation for services rendered as secretary. The secretary may receive a salary to be fixed by the board. The compensation of the secretary and other necessary expenses incurred by said board in carrying out the provisions of this Act shall be paid from the fund. The Auditor of Public Accounts is authorized to draw warrants payable from said fund upon the State Treasurer for all salaries and expenses provided for in this Act upon the presentation of vouchers approved by the president and the secretary of said board of trustees.

§ 9. The board of trustees shall have charge of the administration of said fund, and shall have power to invest the same upon the approval of the State Treasurer in the same manner and subject to the same terms and conditions as township trustees are permitted to invest school funds under the law, and shall have power to make payments from said fund of pensions or annuities granted in this Act.

10. The board of trustees shall report annually at the first meeting after June 30th. A copy of said report shall be transmitted to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall include the same in his biennial report to the Governor.

§ 11. Said board shall not be a corporation, but may sue and be sued in the name of the board. All actions brought by or against the board shall be prosecuted or defended, as the case may be, by the Attorney General or other counsel, as the board of trustees may from time to time decide.

§ 12. The board of directors, board of education, or other governing body of public schools in each school district of the State, coming under the provisions of this Act, shall retain on every pay day from the salary of each teacher the amount hereinafter provided: Provided, that such amount shall not be retained from the salary of any teacher employed in said public schools when this Act takes effect who has not

elected to come within the provisions of this Act as provided for in section 15. Each teacher shall be furnished a statement by such board showing the amount deducted from the salary of said teacher.

§ 13. All persons who shall be employed to teach in the public schools of the State, coming under the provisions of this Act, shall, after this Act takes effect, be entitled to the benefits of the fund upon complying with the provisions of this Act, and for the purposes of this Act such persons shall be divided into the following classes:

First-Those who have taught ten years or fewer than ten years. Second-Those who have taught more than ten years and not more than fifteen years.

Third-Those who have taught more than fifteen years.

After this Act shall take effect there shall be set apart from the salaries of all such persons so employed as teachers in the public schools of this State, coming under the provisions of this Act, $1.00 per month for the first five months taught after July first of each year by such teacher while he or she remains in the first class; $2.00 per month for the first five months taught after July first of each year by such teacher while he or she remains in the second class; $6.00 per month for the first five months taught after July first of each year by such teacher for the first ten years while he or she remains in the third class, which amount shall be deducted by the managing body of the school taught by such teacher from the salary of such teacher at the regular time for the payment thereof, and the same shall be paid into and constitute a part of the said Teachers' Retirement Fund. The total amount paid into said fund by each teacher shall be based upon twenty-five years of service as teacher as provided in this section: Provided, that such total amount shall not be less than the full amount of the annuity to which such teacher shall be entitled for the first year. Said assessments shall cease after 25 years of service.

All teachers becoming contributors to said Teachers' Pension of [and] Retirement Fund for the first time shall submit to the managing body of the school taught by them evidence which has been approved and accepted by the board of trustees of said fund, attesting and proving service rendered in public schools, and such evidence shall be the basis for placing such teachers in the proper class of the classes provided in this section.

§ 14. Any person becoming a teacher in the public schools of this State coming under the provisions of this Act, after this Act takes effect, shall be conclusively deemed to undertake and agree to pay such amounts. and have such amounts deducted from his or her salary as herein provided.

§ 15. Any person employed as a teacher in the public schools of this State, coming under the provisions of this Act, when this Act takes effect, or who has previously taught in the public schools of this State and resumes teaching, may at any time before the first day of September, 1920, elect to come within the provisions of this Act by notifying in writing the board of trustees of the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund.

At the time of giving said notice to the board of trustees, as herein provided, such teachers shall notify in writing the local school board or

managing body of the school taught of his or her election to come within the provisions of this Act; and said notice shall authorize said school board or managing body to deduct from the payments of salary due him or her a sum equal to the amount to be deducted from the salary of such teacher, as provided in section 13.

§ 16. The board of directors, board of education, or other governing body of public schools in each school district of the State, coming under the provisions of this Act, shall each year within seven days after the thirtieth day of June, forward to the State Treasurer a statement, verified by the secretary or clerk thereof, of the moneys so retained in accordance with the provisions of this Act, together with said moneys so retained.

§ 17. Said statement shall include the following: Name and monthly salary of each teacher; number of months of school taught by each teacher in said public schools of the district, village or city, over which said school board or said managing body of such school has jurisdiction during the school year for which the statement is made; the number of months constituting a school year in such district, village or city; the total salary of each teacher; the total amount withheld from the salary of each teacher in accordance with the provisions of this Act; the total amount so withheld from the salaries of said teachers for the school year next preceding, and the total number of years each teacher has taught in the public schools of the State.

§ 18. Said school board or managing body shall at the same time send a copy of said statement to the county superintendent of schools of the county in which is located the school house in which is taught the school under the control of such school board or managing body.

19. If no teacher in such city, village or school district comes under the provisions of this Act, the school board, or other managing body of such city, village or school district shall state this fact under the oath of the secretary or clerk thereof to the State Treasurer, and shall at the same time forward a copy of said statement to the county superintendent of said county.

$20. Each county superintendent shall each year on or before the first day of August report under oath to said board of trustees. Said report shall contain an itemized account of the statements received by him from the school boards and a statement of the total amounts so withheld from the salaries of all of said teachers in said report.

$ 21. The following shall keep complete and uniform records of the data contained in said report in such form and in such manner as shall be formulated and described by the board of trustees of said retirement fund: Each county superintendent, each school district board, each high school district board, and all other managing bodies, in cities and districts coming under the provisions of this Act.

22. The State Treasurer shall credit all moneys received under the provisions of this Act to the fund designated as the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund.

$23. There shall be set aside annually by the Auditor of Public Accounts from the common school fund of this State and paid into the State Treasury for the maintenance and administration of the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund an amount sufficient to

meet all the demands made upon said pension and retirement fund, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, which amount, until otherwise. provided by law, shall be equal to one-tenth of one mill upon each dollar of the assessed valuation of all the taxable property of the State, exclusive of cities and school districts not coming under the provisions of this Act: Provided, that that portion of the common school fund apportioned to cities or school districts not coming under the provisions of this Act, shall not be diminished or affected by the provisions of this section.

24. The moneys received under the provisions of this Act, together with any donations or legacies received therefor, or other moneys received from any legal source or increment, shall constitute a fund, to be known as the Illinois State Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund. § 25. Any person, who is a resident of Illinois, and who has complied with the provisions of this section may retire and receive the annuity provided for, in the following cases:

(a) After a period or periods aggregating twenty-five years of service as teacher in the public schools of the United States, of which fifteen years must have been spent in the public schools of this State, provided that the payments and deductions of his or her salary have been made and turned over to said fund as provided in sections 12 and 13. If said payments shall not have amounted to $100.00, the teacher shall pay into the fund the deficiency before receiving the annuity, with interest as provided by clause (b) of this section. No person while receiving a teacher's annuity from any other public school teachers' pension or retirement fund shall receive an annuity from the fund created under this Act. Nor shall any person under fifty years of age receive an annuity except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section.

(b) Teachers who elect to become contributors to and beneficiaries of the said Illinois State Teachers' [Pension] and Retirement Fund, under the provisions of this section may count past services in public schools as a part or the whole of the period of twenty-five years hereinafter specified, but no annuity shall be paid until said teacher shall have paid into the fund a sum equal to that which he or she would have contributed under the provisions of this section, had he or she been a regular contributor to said fund during said period of past service, together with simple interest thereon at the rate of four per cent. per annum from the time such payments would have been made, had such person during such time been a contributor to such fund, to the time such person shall by making such payments become entitled to the benefits and credit of such past service.

(c) After fifteen years of service as teacher in the public schools, two-fifths of which may be outside of Illinois but within the United States, any teacher who shall have been declared by two competent physicians, who have made a physical examination of the teacher, at the request of the board of trustees, to be suffering from any disability such as to disqualify him or her for teaching, may during the continuance of such disability retire, provided that the payments of said teacher to the fund shall have amounted to a sum, as provided in sections 12 and 13. If said payments shall not amount to $400,00, the teacher shall pay into the fund the deficiency before receiving the annuity. No person while receiving a teacher's annuity from any other public school teachers'