The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-10-13

partment of public service-the Assist
ancia Publica-are partly national In
character. These institutions will be
examined later.
How the City Is Governed.
The city, municipality itself, Is d.
vided into 20 parishes (parroquias),
corresponding to the wards of a
North American city. From these par
ishes, on basis of population, repre-.
sentatives are chosen by ballot Of the
citizens to form a body called the
Concejo Deliberate, corresponding in
most details to our common council.
These officials serve without pay for
a term O. four years, one-half of their
number being elected every two
years, however. This so-called DELHI
erative body chooses from among it's
members a president. These officials
serve as provisional substitutes for
the intendente whenever occasion re-
quires.
The great departments of the NUM-
c1Dal government may be classified as
lollows: Finance, which includes the
functions usually understood in such
a department; public works, having
charge Of municipal buildings, water
supply, sewers, streets, paving, re-
pairing and opening of streets and al
leys, administration of building laws,
control of public markets, bridges,
parks, squares and monuments; Sc
curity and hygiene, giving particular
attention to buildings like theaters,
where public meetings are held;
street cleaning, food supplies, regula-
tlon OF weights and measures, certain
authority over hospitals and asylums,
prevention or control of epidemics and
the municipal side of the public relief
service. Rules for the preservation of
public morality are enforced through
this department. A law department Is
also maintained.
Buenos Aires is about equal in size
to Washington, d. c. (Which in this
respect is coextensive with the Dis
trict of Columbia). but smaller than
London, Marseilles or Manchester,
Greater New York, New Orleans, Phil
adelphia and Chicago, and larger than
Paris, Berlin or Vienna. Ample prep
aration has been made for future
growth, because the open spaces, ex-
elusive Of an extensive park system,
will permit a much greater population
than lives at present within its con-
fines. In the city ten years ago there
were $1,000 houses; $4,000 building
permits were issued since then to
1906; and in 1907 there were 14,4S9
building permits issued, which is the
highest figure reached in the city's
history.
The city is laid out on the rectangu-
lar plan, each square measuring 100
meters (almost 400 feet) on a side.
The rectangular pattern is more evil
dent away from the older portion of
the city, where, despite the radical
improvements within the past genera
ton, some ~irregularity was ~unavoida-
bly, left. Every corner of street inter-
sections is marked in clear letters by
the name of the street, easily readable
by the foot passengers; street num-
bering is on the century system. At
the end of 1907. 1000, 900 square yards
of pavement had been laid, the most
generally used being granite blocks
with mortar foundation, stone, wooden
blocks. macadam and asphalt.
Over 800 Streets.
The number of individual streets
passes the 800 mark, but some of the
longest have separate names for sep
arate sections. If extended in a
straight line they would measure
about 600 miles. Many of them are
fine, broad 100 feet or more
in width, only a few of the narrow
passages of the earlier city being left
after the reconstruction of the city
from 1889 onward.
The municipal evenu is derived
from many of the same sources that
furnish funds to all cities. Among the
sources of revenue included under the
tax lists are imposts upon street cars,
carriages, dogs, theaters, billiard halls,
telegraph and telephone messages,
the use of spaces beneath city streets,
on provisions and wagons conveying
them about the city, peddlers, hotels
and such public houses, cellars, etc.
Such a special taxation as cities In
the United States impose upon what
are here called saloons, the intent of
which is often quite as much for the
purpose of prohibition as 1t Is to raise
revenue, is not applied Ia Buenos
Aires, because the people are, in the
main, temperate, and the business of
dispensing beer. wine or stronger al.
coholic drink Is not SO specialized
there. Many shops sell drinkables.
but saloons or barrooms are to be
found only in the congested center of
the city, where foreign habits have
~popularized themselves In q cosmo.
politan sense.