Bridgeton pioneer., 1907-05-16
FAILURE IN BOSTON,
Municipal Ownership Tried by the
Hub, but Found Wanting.

1t Was Voted In 1906 Not to Try to
Establish Municipal Gas and Electric
Light Works Because the City Had
Already Shown Its inability to Carry
on Public UtiIties-History of the
Unsuccessful Attempts.
In 1906 the city council of Boston
voted against attempting municipal gas
and electric lighting on the ground that
the city had already proved it's inabil-
ity in such matters by a succession Of
failures in various trading enterprises.
In 1897. for instance. Boston estab-
lished municipal printing plant. Five
years later. in 1902, Harvey Chase, an
expert accountant who was examin-
ing all the city departments for Mayor
Collins, and Thomas P. Nichols, an ex-
pert printer, reported that the plant
had already lost over $4,000 and that
a greater loss was avoided only by
charging other departments more than
they would have had to pay outside
printers.
They also reported that at the time
of the investigation the stock room was
crowded with unnecessary paper, inks,
etc. bought at great expense and la
BILE to depreciation by handling or dam
age by fire; that some valuable stock,
then very recently bought, could not be
found, nor could there be found any
record of it's use; that excessive rates
were paid for ruling and binding done
outside; that there was an entirely un-
necessary number of employees in all
divisions of the department, who add
ed to the expense and subtracted from
the efficiency: that a disposition to kill
time was manifest, and that in spite of
the fact that the hours of employees
were shorter than in private plants
less was accomplished per man per
hour worked.
The operation of two ferry lines
from Boston to East Boston, which
We're bought by the city in 1859, loom
ed up as another object lesson. Until
1870 the ferries were leased at a loss
and since then have been operated by
the city at anseven greater loss. In
1877. to be sure, the city made the mag
niicent profit of S93.SS, but in each of
the other forty-seven years up to Feb
ruary, 1906. there was a deficit vary
ing from $3.50 to S292, GOO and amount
ing in all to $3.743,54S, or an average
of almost $4,000 a year.
Boston's water supply. though far
famed for quantity and quality, fur
nished but another proof that the city
cannot do business as we'll as pri-
vate corporation. Boston receives pure
water from the metropolitan water
board, distributes it through the city,
collects the charges and each year pays
its assessed share of the total expense
This would seem simple proposition,
but Harvey Chase in 1902 in his report
on the water department said: "The
lack of proper methods for handling
transactions of such magnitude and,
indeed, the general crudeness and
looseness of the capital accounts in the
waterworks bookkeeping ever since
the foundation of the plant are aston
ishing There has been excess
i've expenditure for work done through
the employment of unnecessary men.
by the employment of aged and infirm
men and by other means whereby the
costs of work have been heavily in
creased"
Four years have now gone by since
the evils in these three departments
were made public in free city docu-
ment but nothing has been done to
remedy them. Even in those depart
ments especially Investigated and re-
ported upon in considerable detail"
said Harvey Chase in 1906, "the an
nual expense today is as large as be-
fore and in some cases even relatively
larger" What surer proof of inefi-
cheney could be given?
But even had there been no printing,
no ferry no water fascos, the amounts
paid recently for services of veterina-
rians to care for the horses in the
street and police departments of Bos-
ton would alone have been sufficient to
indicate that it would be we'll to limit
rather than extend Bostons municipal
activities.
The police department in 1904 paid
$19.34 for veterinary services and med
icine for each OF its sixty or more
horses. an outrageous price, and the
next year paid nearly $25, The street
department. where wasting the tax
payers money in excessive veterinary
payments had come to be a habit, easily
topped its own high figures in 1905 by
paying $24.20 for each of $50 horses.
These figures We're so obviously ex-
cessive that some change had to be
made. Accordingly the police depart
ment under new single headed COM
mission reduced its veterinary ex-
penses in 1906 to about $13 per horse
and the mayor Instituted a plan by
which the cost per horse in the street
department came down to S14.
That these reductions were possible
is itself sure proof that Boston is
anything but efficient in business, and
further proof, if any is needed, can be
found by comparing even these re-
duced figures with, say, the average Of
$40 per horse paid under able manage