Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/403

 PRODUCTIVITY OF MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISES

389

feet of gas. This makes three classes, the large coal gas com- panies, the small coal gas companies, and the oil gas companies. For each of these the average price of gas per thousand cubic feet has been reported for each year since 1887. The facts are collated in the following table :

Date

Average Price of Coal Gas

Average Price of Oil Gas

Large

Companies

Small Companies

1887

$1.59 .50

45

39 .31 32 .27

.20 03

$2.17 2.26

1-93 2.02 1.96 2.01 1.94 1.79 1.74

54-13 4-26 4-16 3-81 3.76

3-75 3-74 3-8i 3-90

1888..

1889..

1890..

1801..

1802..

i8or.

1894.. ,

i8o<;.. .

The large companies sold gas in 1895 on the average 56 cents cheaper per thousand cubic feet than they did in 1887, the smaller companies sold it 43 cents cheaper, and the oil gas companies sold it 23 cents cheaper. But, as the prices of the smaller companies were originally much higher, the reductions made by the large companies involved a fall of 35 per cent, from the price in 1887, that of the small companies a fall of 20 per cent., and that of the oil gas companies of only $% per cent.

These reductions in price must have been affected by the prices of coal, but upon that point, unfortunately, the reports of the gas commissioners are silent, and I have not been able to secure the facts elsewhere. One important change, however, may be traced through the reports, and that is an increasing income from the sale of the residuals. For each year the com- panies report the percentage of the cost of their coal which was obtained for their residual products. It has quite uniformly increased. Between 1886 and 1895 thirty-eight companies showed an increase and only five a decrease. The results are not given in such a form as to make the average for the entire state obtainable from them, but the facts for all the companies