Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/71

 THE FIRST GERMAN MUNICIPAL EXPOSITION 59

ful architecture, suited to the modern sanitary building, will be developed a style growing out of needs and conditions. The good pavement and the cleanliness of the streets, and the purity and clearness of the air, add their own share to the beauty of the city, and make possible a public art decoration which would otherwise be destroyed or be covered over by dirt.

A certain phase of municipal art, though of historical interest chiefly, was "represented by a variegated group of medals, diplomas of honorary citizenship, lord mayors' chains, drinking- horns, golden goblets, and other objects belonging to the Rats- silber; paintings, statuettes, and other art works belonging to the municipality; and examples of the locksmith's art. A great number of the paintings were of the cities themselves, in the past and in the present, and also as planned for the future; and these, supplemented by numerous drawings and photographs, gave a good idea of the city architecture. This was fortunate, for models, without color and with no suggestion of the sur- roundings, give little or no idea of accord in color scheme and symmetry, with the environment.

H. PUBLIC FINANCE.

Bookkeeping. The German municipal corporation has adopted strict business principles in all its undertakings, as is essential, particularly where business operations are undertaken. Municipal employees must be well trained ; and though excessive formulation is to be avoided, they must work according to well- defined plans. Breslau has a centralized finance department, Stadtkauptkasse. This unification decreases the number of employees necessary, and allows complete supervision of the whole field of municipal finance. The city treasurer has charge of receipts and expenditures for charities and hospitals, educa- tion, health and safety, municipal land, taxes, and general administration, and for the institutions under the control of the municipality; and, further, must keep the accounts of all such receipts and disbursements. The offices of the gas-works, water- works, electrical works, stock-yards, slaughter-houses, harbors, and street railways all of which are municipalized are aifili-