Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-03
"Gross Expenditures. :


Explanatory of this table he said:
Gross expenditures include interest on
debt, amount set aside for the sinking fund,
amount to meet specific loans and other
extraordinary expenses. They are there
fore an unsafe basis for critical COMPARE
son. ! have already called attention to the
fact that it is little singular that Buffalo,
with % per cent more population and per
cent more property, should expend 80 per
cent less for all purposes. Also, that
Pittsburg, with greater population and 9S
per cent more property, should only ex
pend per cent more for all purposes,
while Newark, with but 10 per cent of the
property of Washington, has but a total
expenditure of 63 per cent of that of Wash
ingtcn.'
The Pennsylvania congressman well said
that gross expenditures" are an unsafe
basis for critical comparison" This is due
not only to the reasons which lie gives,
but the more important one he omits. One
winch appiles to all such comparisons is
that expenditures for public works of per-
rnanent Improvement and of extraordinary
character vary so greatly in amount in
different cities in different years to make
comparison, except as to totals for ten
twenty years in an aggregate, absolutely
worthless. The District of Columbia, pay
Ing for filtration plant, sewage disposal
system, railway terminal, District govern
ment building and other extraordinary i'm
provements, cannot be fairly compared
with cities which have less extensive pro-
jects on hand. Moreover. the making of a
national capital, absolutely required of the
people of the District by their situation, is
necessarily more expensive than would be
the work of a similar number of people
elsewhere.
But the fundamental reason why gross
expenditures in this particular case are
an unsafe basis for critical comparison
Is that under the head of gross expendi-
lures Washington is properly credited with
expenditures which in the other cities are
made by state or county. For example, the
District of Columbia pays the expense of
the militia. elsewhere borne by the states
with rare and partial exceptions 1t bears
the cost of the judiciary from the highest
to the lowest court, save the United States
only the municipal courts of high and low
degree are paid for by the city. In other
cities are courts supported entirely by the
national government and courts supported
entirely by the state government or by the
county. The insurance department is
everywhere except in the District supported
entirely by the state. Other functions per-
formed by state or county officers are here
performed by the officers of the District of
Columbia, In respect of schools contribu-
tons are usually made by the state or the
the normal school training for teachers,
while in a number of cities there is state
or county aid for city schools. Again, the
charities and correctional Institutions, IN
Guiding prisons and reformatories, are here
carried entirely by the District of CO.
lumbia. whereas. in the cities generally
they are carried chiefly and often entirely
by the state or county. The mere state
ment of these well-known facts shows the
uselessness of the comparison in Mr.. Nor
rell's table No. 2