cost of 97.1 per cent. The ratio for Group I was 90.6 per cent; for Group II, 110 per cent; for Group III, 105 per cent; for Group IV, 109.5 per cent. Thus, the excess of cost over value for all cities combined is due altogether to the influence of Group I, which contains none of the cities noted in the last paragraph as showing a large excess of present value, although Group II shows no less than 6 of those cities.

The column showing "outstanding debt" includes floating as well as funded debt. For 3 cities-Newark, and Atlantic City, N. J., and Woonsocket, R. I.— this amount slightly exceeds the reported cost, each of these cities having a large sinking fund, among whose assets are bonds still counted as part of the outstanding debt. For Atlantic City, N. J., moreover, the debt includes a bond issue of $300,000 in 1907, unexpended at the close of the year.

Earnings. The amounts shown under this head include, in addition to the receipts from the public for services, an estimate of the value of services to the city, computed on the basis adopted for the 1906 report of 44 cents per capita for all cities of Group I; 46 cents for Group II; 48 cents for Group III; and 50 cents for Group IV. The population figures used are the estimates for 1907 as given in Table 1, but necessary adjustments in the estimated value of the water used by the city were made where the water was furnished to a part of the city only, and the allowance was doubled for Washington, D. C., to cover the value of water used for buildings and grounds of the United States Government.

Costs of services.-Under the head of "expenses of operation" are included for every city, besides the payments appearing in Table 7 under the head "watersupply systems," an estimated charge for depreciation equal to 2 per cent of the present value, as shown in this table, and a tax calculated on the same present value at the rate of general property taxes for city purposes on the "reported true value," as shown for the several cities in Table 29. The life of each system is thus assumed to be fifty years and each is put as nearly as possible on the same standing with regard to income and costs of operation as a privately owned enterprise. The total costs of services are made up of the expenses of operation and the annual interest on the present value of the system, the latter being computed for each city by use of the mean rate of interest paid on its debt for water-supply.

Relation between earnings and costs.-Under this head are given (for all cities except New Orleans, La., where the system is not yet in operation) statistics showing the relation between earnings and costs, calculated on four different bases:

(1) The difference between total earnings and total costs of services, 37 cities showing an excess of earnings and 79 an excess of costs. In Group I, 3 cities

show an excess of earnings and 10 an excess of costs; in Group II, 9 show an excess of earnings and 15 an excess of costs; in Group III, 10 show an excess of earnings and 24 an excess of costs; and in Group IV, 15 show an excess of earnings and 30 an excess of costs.

(2) The difference between total earnings and total expenses of operation, 106 cities showing an excess of earnings and 10 an excess of expenses. In Group I, 11 cities have an excess of earnings and 2 an excess of expenses; in Group II, 23 an excess of earnings and 1 an excess of expenses; in Group III, 29 an excess of earnings and 5 an excess of expenses; and in Group IV, 43 an excess of earnings and 2 an excess of expenses.

(3) The difference between total earnings and total expenses, less estimated taxes, 112 cities showing an excess of earnings and but 4 an excess of expenses, exclusive of taxes.

(4) The difference between collections for services to the public and payments as reported in Table 7, 113 cities showing an excess of collections and but 3 an excess of payments.

Since the distribution of the cities showing excesses of earnings or of collections on the one hand and of total costs, of operating expenses, or of payments on the other does not for any of the four methods of comparison employed show any relation between these excesses and the size of the cities, it is reasonable to conclude that neither larger nor smaller cities have any advantage with respect to the economical management of water-supply systems. Nor is the excess distributed geographically, although as stated in the report for 1906 there is a slight tendency toward excesses of earnings, according to the first method, of comparison, in the Northeastern states; that tendency is, however, not strongly enough marked to permit the making of any generalizations upon this point.

The statistics contained in the four columns under the head "relation between earnings and costs of services" have been prepared as an aid in deciding the complex question whether or not municipal watersupply systems are on a paying basis. In view of the different policies followed by the different cities and the diverse standards adopted by them, a single table is not sufficient to provide for all the tests applied by city officials. For example, the comparison is sometimes made between the collections for services to the public and the sum of payments on account of salaries, wages, materials, and miscellaneous objects, together with those for interest on outstanding water debt. The water surplus" in these cases consists of the excess of the collections over all such payments. The effect of applying this test can not be precisely shownpayments for interest on debt for water-supply not having been separately reported-but a near approximation to it may be had by subtracting the annual interest charge on such debt from the excess shown in

the fourth column under "relation between earnings and costs of services." The interest charge for each The interest charge for each city is such proportion of the "interest on present value" (tabulated in the last column under "costs of services") as the "outstanding debt" represents of the "present value of the system." Deducting the interest charge from the total excesses referred to would reduce them by about one-third, the grand total becoming about $20,700,000, and those for the individual groups about $12,500,000, $4,100,000, $2,400,000, and $1,700,000, respectively. But, if the city's object is to realize a profit over all expenses, including interest on investment and all such allowances as would have to be made by a private enterprise, the appropriate test is that used in the first column under "relation between earnings and costs of services." many instances, the figures there presented are unsatisfactory, being estimates instead of exact amounts obtained from records, and, further, the table fails to allow for appreciation in the value of the plant, a quantity not ascertainable but of unquestioned signifi

cance.

Earnings and costs per capita, and per million gallons supplied. The last six columns of Table 39 give a comparative exhibit of average earnings and costsfirst, per capita, and second, per million gallons of water supplied to pipes. The average earnings and expenses, and to a less extent the average interest, for the several groups of cities show an increase with population at a rate more rapid than the increase of the population itself. The averages per million gallons all show a similar increase from Group IV to Group II, but the figures for Group I are in each case the smallest of the four groups, and the inference is that earnings and costs increase less rapidly than aggregate consumption of water. The city averages appear more regular on the first than on the second basis of comparison; for example, in Group I, per capita earnings vary from $2.17 to $4.75, and expenses from $1.22 to $3.02, while earnings per million gallons vary from $19.02 to $94.33, and expenses from $16.22 to $106.06.

TABLE 40.

Receipts from public service corporations.-Table 40 includes such of the receipts shown in Tables 11, 14, 15, and 17 as were contributed by public service corporations, i. e., such corporations as furnish those utilities which, in cities, are provided principally by persons or corporations enjoying special uses of, or privileges in, the streets and alleys. With these utilities are naturally included toll bridges, ferries, and subways for the transportation of passengers and merchandise, and subways for pipes and wires. For some cities reports of receipts from delivery and

express companies, companies operating a messenger service, storage plants, and a few other public service corporations not having special privileges in highways were obtained, but this information being incomplete is excluded from this table. A more important omission is that of steam railroads, whose transactions are fully reported by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

The cities are grouped by states, arranged geographically, so as more clearly to illustrate the effect of differences in tax laws on the revenues from public service corporations. The corporations reported for each city are grouped in the table according to the character of the service furnished; those with closely related functions, such as companies furnishing light, power, or heat, or telephone and telegraph companies appearing together. Where a single corporation furnishes services or utilities not so closely related, and no separate statement for each class of business can be obtained, the total receipts appear after some designation combining the several functions, such as "street railway and light" or "water and gas;" but when sufficient information is available, the receipts from a given corporation on account of its several functions are reported under separate heads.

Taxes. The larger part of the taxes reported in the first column of Table 40 are "general property taxes," i. e., those taxes upon real and personal property which are paid by all individuals or corporations. In addition, this column includes for the Massachusetts cities the following "special property taxes" levied upon the capital stock of corporations:

The taxes shown in the above statement are derived wholly from street railway companies, except in Boston, where the amounts contributed by the several classes of corporations are as follows: Street railway, $354,582; light, $114,268; and telephone and telegraph, $61,523.

For Washington, D. C., there are included in the first column of this table percentage taxes amounting to $333,351, considered as business taxes. For some cities this column also includes taxes upon franchise valuations, which are assessed in New York state as real property and in Georgia, Kentucky, and California as personal property. An exhibit of the taxes so

Augusta...

5, 194

Light....

11,088

Telephone and tele

Telephone and tele

graph..

483

3,200 3,200

2,080 3,200

426,890

426,890

330

18,000 29, 625

29,625

2,125 1,875

Licenses. The term "licenses," as used in Table 40, includes payments for the ordinary business licenses, and also, in some cases, payments based on the number of cars, mileage of wire, or number of supporting poles. The last-mentioned class of payments is found in Pennsylvania, where pole and wire taxes, paid by corporations using streets and alleys and city squares, are regarded as licenses when imposed under a state law permitting the licensing of certain classes of busi

Public service privileges.-Under this head are included those amounts collected from corporations for the special privilege of using the highways in providing some public service. Such collections may be in the form of (1) percentage taxes on gross earnings or receipts or upon dividends; (2) taxes or charges based on the number of cars, number of passengers carried, number of telephone lines, etc.; (3) rental privileges on streets or bridges at a fixed amount per annum; (4) sales of franchises or privileges for a fixed amount payable at once or in annual payments during a term of years. The cost of such privileges is in many cases based on the cost of construction of a bridge or the improvement of a highway, and since the object for which the corporation bears a share of the cost in these cases is the privilege thereby secured for itself, the receipts from this source are properly classified as from the sale of privileges. The footnotes to this column of Table 40 indicate in which of the four classes of privileges above described the several items belong and show that the receipts from percentage taxes are greatly in excess of the combined receipts from the other classes of privileges.

Reimbursements. The designation "reimbursements" embraces receipts from the various services performed by the city for which charges may be made. Among those commonly included are the following: Charges for the use of underground conduits; charges for street sweeping, sprinkling, or snow removal along the line of the street railway, where a contract with the city imposes the charge on the corporation; work on bridges; water rates when paid by the corporation and separately recorded; compensation for the work of inspectors, charged to the corporations inspected; receipts from corporations by sewer or park depart

ments; and compensation for street repairs and replacing disturbed pavements, the receipts for which constitute the largest class under "reimbursements." It is possible that in several cases the amount reported as for street repair may include receipts for bridges or for street cleaning. In some cases no separate account has been kept of receipts from public service corporations, so that a complete report would doubtless materially increase the amounts shown in the column headed "reimbursements." Receipts of another type tabulated under "reimbursements" are those from special assessments, as follows:

Services. In connection with the collection of data on receipts from public service corporations, the Bureau of the Census attempted to procure information regarding services performed free of charge or at reduced rates for the city governments. A full description of such services is needed to supplement and explain the data on receipts, since special services are sometimes performed by corporations as part payment for privileges or for use of streets. The returns for 1907 are too meager to justify their publication, but it is hoped that a report on this subject may be made in the future. Of the different types of services performed, the following were reported: Lights furnished the city by a corporation, either a certain number without charge or all that are needed at a reduced rate; telephones furnished the city under the same conditions; the free use of poles owned by the corporation for stringing wires belonging to the city; free hydrants or reduced rates for water used by the city; free transportation of policemen or other city officers by street railways; sweeping, flushing, or sprinkling streets along the line of railways; and constructing and keeping in repair the pavements between tracks and for a stipulated distance on each side.

Types of revenue received from public service corporations. The grouping adopted in Table 40 brings out the degree of uniformity among cities of the same state, and the differences between cities of different states due to the statutes governing public service corporations. As a general rule, the same types of service are provided by corporations throughout the country, and the question whether any particular service, as the water-supply, shall be furnished by a private corporation or by the municipality is in no

90196-10-7

way determined according to state lines. There are, however, certain combinations of different types of service, which are especially common in particular states, for example, the combination of street railway and electric light service which, though often found in other states, is especially frequent in Georgia; and the "public utility corporations" in New Jersey, which are recently formed combinations of several corporations performing different functions, rendering the distinctions of the adopted grouping peculiarly unsatisfactory for that state.

There are marked variations in both the form and the amount of taxes imposed on public service corporations, the amounts being unusually large in the Pacific states and Colorado, and above the average in New York and Massachusetts, but remarkably low in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. The exemption of corporations from local taxation is largely due to their liability to taxes imposed by the state. As an almost universal rule, the tangible property of corporations is assessed and taxed in the same way and at the same rate as that of individuals, although to this rule Pennsylvania furnishes a striking exception, the general property tax, forming elsewhere the most important source of municipal revenue cities. Wisconsin also exempts street railway and from corporations, being here denied by law to the telephone companies from the general property taximposing instead a "license fee" based on gross earnings. In Connecticut, property actually used in street railway business is almost altogether exempt from general taxes for local purposes because street railway corporations are subject to the state tax on capital stock.

Another variation from ordinary conditions is found in the absence of license collections from public service corporations by cities of the New England states, and from those of New Jersey, Indiana, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, and Washington, and in the fact that only one city in each of the states of New York, Iowa, Michigan, and California reports receipts from this source. In the majority of states, however, and more especially in the South, with the exception of Texas, this form of taxation yields an important part of the municipal revenues.

TABLE 41.

Electric light and power works and gas works.-Table 41 includes only such works as were owned by the cities. All of these systems are operated by the municipalities with the exception of the gas works in Philadelphia, which are leased to a private corporation, and hence are classified as an "investment" rather than an "enterprise" in the financial tables of this report.

Of the 158 cities from which reports were secured for 1907, 26 reported electric light and power works, while for 1905 only 22 cities reported such works. This, however, is a net increase of only 3, as Fort Worth, Tex., was not included in the report for 1905. The Cleveland, Ohio, works, though acquired by the city in 1902, were not reported till 1907; the Kansas City, Mo., works were acquired by the city in 1905, but not reported for that year; and the Fort Wayne, Ind., works were in course of construction in 1907.

For 1905, gas works were reported by 6 cities; for 1907, by 5. Toledo, Ohio, which reported gas works in 1905, is not included in the report for 1907, that city having sold its works and the larger part of its mains because of the failure of the supply of natural gas, while the mains still owned by the city are leased to a private corporation.

TABLE 42.

ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF POLICE DEPARTMENTS.

The following discussion of the data relating to the organization, methods, and employees of police departments is based upon a critical study of Table 42, prepared by Richard Sylvester, major and superintendent of the police force of Washington, D. C. Use is also made of the study of Major Sylvester in the text accompanying Tables 43 to 47, which follow.

What may be termed a "police system"-that is, a system having as its principal characteristic complete uniformity in the organization, equipment, and conduct of service of the police throughout the countryhas never come into existence in the United States, either through understanding or by the evolution of affairs. It would be next to impossible, under our form of government, to create a machine of this kind. What are termed local interests, or the varying social and commercial conditions in the several states and in the various municipalities and towns throughout the land, would operate against the attainment of such uniformity, and, even if it were practicable, complications would follow which would soon eradicate every vestige of a single system. Its establishment would also partake too much of the monarchical form of police administration, which would be antagonistic to the prevailing ideas of popular government.

The modern police was created on account of the increase in crime. Society, in its endeavor to prevent the commission of offenses and in order to detect criminals, provided police forces as its agents for these purposes. In London crime reached its maximum about the year 1828, when an enormous wealth and population required protection. During the seven years preceding, committals had multiplied 41 per cent, while the number of inhabitants had increased somewhat more than 15 per cent. These conditions resulted in the creation, against much opposition, of

the Metropolitan police force, which has been termed the first modern police force in the world, and which has been satisfactorily maintained ever since its organi zation.

The organization of the New York police was patterned, originally, after that of the London police to be modified and adjusted in the years succeeding so as to become modernized. The police forces of the principal cities of the United States, and of many of the lesser ones, were shaped fundamentally along the lines of the New York organization; that is, with a chief, inspectors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, roundsmen, and privates as the factors constituting the force. While a similarity exists in these respects, the method in which the head of the force is appointed has not been the same in different jurisdictions.

In New York, until a few years ago, a board of police commissioners determined upon the superintendent, or chief. Later legislation abolished the board and superintendent, and placed a single commissioner, whose appointment and removal were within the keeping of the mayor, at the head of the uniformed as well as of the detective forces.

The police department of the city of St. Louis has a chief of police who is amenable to a board of commissioners appointed by the governor of the state of Missouri, and the cities of Kansas City and St. Joseph are similarly provided for under the law. The forces of these cities, with reference to classification of officers. and subordinates, are arranged much after the manner of the New York force.

In Chicago, a general superintendent, named by the mayor of the city, supervises and directs a force of inspectors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and privates; on the other hand, Cincinnati has a chief of police guiding a force with a somewhat similar organization, the power of appointment being fixed in a bipartisan board of public safety which is appointed by the mayor.

Philadelphia and Pittsburg, with a somewhat similar official personnel in the composition of their police bodies, have each a superintendent of police, commissioned and operating under the director of public safety, who is appointed by the mayor.

There are other municipalities where the directing agencies of the police forces are elected by the people, some where they are named by the town selectmen or town council, while in the District of Columbia, the seat of the Federal Government, the superintendent is chosen by the commissioners, in whose hands the conduct of all municipal affairs relating to that territory is lodged.

There is no general fixed term of service for members of police forces in the cities of the United States, but in a number of the large cities they are insured positions during faithful performance of duty, and re