Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/632

612 per annum. Not only will the facts be shown relative to the cost per capita of each method of lighting the streets of a city, whether by gas, electric light, or oil, etc., but the relative advantages of lighting streets by works owned by the city and works owned by private corporations will be shown. It is a fact that the gas-light is gradually giving place to the electric light; for, while the facts for the cities named in the tables already published by the census office show that gas-lamps comprise over sixty per cent of all classes used for street-lighting, it is evident that they are now rarely used exclusively for lighting. It is also learned that electric lighting is most favored in those cities that have less than 100,000 inhabitants each; for, in 278 such cities, out of a total of 91,667 lamps, 35,127 are gas-lamps, 35,191 are electric lamps, and 21,149 are lamps burning oil, etc. Taking the total cities from which reports have been received relative to light, being 309 cities, with a population of 16,335,569, the total number of lamps of all kinds is 293,847, the gas-lamps numbering 182,671, the electric lamps 53,696, and the oil-lamps 57,480.

The interest which now centers in the question as to whether quasi public works shall be controlled by private corporations or by the municipality itself is illustrated more specifically by the facts connected with water-works than by those surrounding any other character of city works, and the difference as to cost of maintenance and receipts between public and private works is very noteworthy. The facts are already given quite fully by the census for fifty cities, and of these thirty-five own their own water-works. The average cost of construction in the thirty-five cities owning their own water-works to each head of population is $21.35, while in thirteen cities where the water-works are owned by private parties the cost of construction to each head of population is $31.20, or nearly ten dollars more per capita than where the cities construct their own works. Out of 273 cities reporting to the census on their water-works, fifty-six per cent own and operate their own works, the remainder depending on private companies for their water-supply; but the fifty-six per cent represent seventy-seven per cent of the total population of the 273 cities. A greater proportion of private works perhaps are to be found in the smaller cities; for, out of 133 such cities, having a population of 3,708,994, 112 cities, representing 2,351,574 people, have their water-works operated by private parties.

The sewers of the cities of the country are under the control and direction of the municipal governments. The construction has been under public control. In Baltimore, where the sewers are intended for the removal of storm water only, is found the smallest percentage of sewers to streets in the larger cities, it being only 3-56. The cities of Washington and Cambridge have