Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/635

Rh directly, by an assessed tax, or indirectly, through the increased cost of articles of consumption, of rent, etc., the cost specified.

The column for water is not particularly satisfactory, although it is indicative of the actual expense. The census tables show only expense of annual charge for water for an average dwelling, meaning by an average dwelling one that is occupied by one family and not exceeding seven rooms, with one bath-room, including hot and cold water, and one water-closet. If an average dwelling is one occupied by one family, then one fifth of the annual charge for water as given in the census reports would show with reasonable accuracy the charge for each individual, and on this basis the column for water has been constructed.

Looking at the items for each of the fifty cities named in the last table and the total, we easily ascertain what a man receives for the tax which he is obliged to pay directly or indirectly, and also in which city he receives the most for his money, or, rather, where he receives all his protection of police, his use of streets, his protection from fire, etc., for the least expenditure, and the analysis also leaves in each man's mind this question: Could he secure so great a return for his money by any other method of expenditure?

There are a few blanks in the table just given; as, for instance, in New Orleans the expense for the maintenance and repairs of sewers is missing, and this item is also omitted from the reports for Newark, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Toledo, Fall River, Trenton, Los Angeles, Lawrence, Mass., Binghamton, Canton, Taunton, La Crosse, Wis., and Newport, Ky. There are also a few other points missing; as, for instance, the expense of street-cleaning in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, and some other cities. These points, however, comprehend nearly all the omissions, and in so far as they occur the total expense in the cities named is vitiated, although to a very small extent.

Taking the table as it stands, it is seen that Rockford, Ill., offers the most for one's taxes of the smaller cities, it being $4.14 per capita. Camden, N. J., comes next, with $4.22; and Trenton follows, with $4.24. Among the larger cities, those having over 300,000 inhabitants, Baltimore offers the very lowest expense for her great departments of government, the per capita expense for all being $4.66. Brooklyn, N. Y., comes very close, the expense being $4.71, and Philadelphia ranks third as to cheapness of municipal government for the items named, the expense being $4.96. The great city of New York, about which so much is said relative to her expensive government, furnishes the seven items of expense named in the table at $7.05 per capita, being lower than St. Louis, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Cincinnati, or New Orleans, and ranking almost exactly with Washington. The most expensive