The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-03-09
SHOWS CIVIC
ADVANCEMENT.
Census Bureaus Report for 1873
Cities Shows Great Outlay for
Public Work.
MILLIONS SPENT FOR
MUNICIPAL WATER WORKS
Per Capita Running Expenses for
City Governments Shown to
Incresse--Some of the Stats
tics.

WASHINGTON. d. c., March s.
The U. S. Census Bureaus annual re-
port of the statistics of the 1853 cities
which had in 1907 a population of
over 10000 each, is being printed.
1t Is explained in the report that
payments for land, new buildings,
now work on the streets and other
additions and improvements are de-
| fined by the bureau as "outlays."
Such payments comprise a much larg-
er percentage of the total payments of
| the governments of 14S of the 1853
largest cities in 1907 than 1902, being
34.3 per cent of such costs in the later
| year as compared with 273 per cent
in 1902.
In other words. payments for out
lays increased S6.6 per cent in the in
terval, while paym ents for expenses
and interest increased only 35.1 per
cent. Receipts from revenues in
creased 35.5 per cent so that in 1907
much larger proportion of the out
LAYS had to be paid from loans than
in 1902.
Many of the western cities had
usually large outlay expenditures;
more than 20 per cent of the pay
ments for meeting governmental
costs in Seattle falling in that CLASH
fication.
OF the total OUTLAWS for the entire
1853 cities in 1907, more than one
third were for highways and more
than one-fourth for public service en-
terprises, chiefly water supply sys-
TENS. New York spent $9,629,117 in
extension of its water supply system
Philadelphia $5,193,37S, Chicago So
794,195, Pittsburg $2,499,27O, and
New Orleans $2,OS5,7 $50.
The total payments for outlaws in
all the cities was $244.117,29S and the
increase in net debt was $120,930,-
631 1t will thus be seen that practi-
cally one-half of the OUTLAWS were paid
for without increasing the net debt
This is in marked contrast to the
practice in English cities.
The report states that in any con-
sideration of the credit of cities the
increase in the net debt should prob
ably be reduced by a portion of the
amount of OUTLAWS expended on pub
lie service enterprises, inasmuch as
the revenues from such enterprises
are, in general, sufficient to pay the
interest incurred in OUTLAWS on their
account. Thus, the increase in the
net debt of New York City for the
year of 1907 was $66,238,799, while
pawn ents for OUTLAWS for public SER
vice enterprises amounted to $685.
51O,794. Hence. the increase in the
net debt for general Improvement pur-
W yxrh IN hn tav
chiefly concerned, was less than $4O,-
600, 900.
Cost of City Government.
In the U. S. Census Bureaus special
annual report for 1907 on the sta
tistics of 15S of the largest cities,
which is in press, it is shown that the
per capita running expenses of the
government in 14S of the largest cities
increased from $13.36 in 1902 to
1851 in 1907. There has been a pro-
gressve increase in nearly every de-
partment of the government. The
per capita increase in the fire de-
partment was from $1.33 to $1.61;
in the health department from $022
to $0.29; in charities and corrections
from S0.S6 to $1.O6; and in education
from $3.S5 to $40.
OF special interest in a comparison
of the general expenses of the cities
are payments for the maintenance of
the health departm In several
cities the state maintains a dispens-
airy or health bureau, but in most
cities nearly all the expense of the
care of the public health is borne by
the city alone. New York paid ST.
n q inf nf re
health department, or more than six
times as much as any otter city. The
other cities paying more than $780,
600 for the maintance of this depart
ment We're Chicago ($261, 614), Phil
adelphia s253.709), and San Fran
cisco (s240,1sS.)
Cities over 100000 population with
notably small payments for their
health departments We're Detroit
($32,9SD, Milwaukee ($4O,41O, and
Buffalo ($44,S5S). In the smaller
cities the large expenditures of Los
Angeles and Oakland, California, re-
fleet payments for the suppression of
the Bubonic plague.
The payments for schools, libra
ries and art galleries of the cities
considered We're 29.6 per cent OF the
total running expenses of the gov
eminent OF the cities of over 300,-
600 population, the percentage spent
for education was highest in Cleve-
land, Ohio (33.1; in cities from 1907
600 to 100000 population the highest
percentages We're in Scranton, Pa,
| OLD, and Seattle, Wash, (46.2); in
cities from $4,000 to 100000 popula
ton, in Salt Lake City (4S.2), and
Des Moines, Iowa. (46.3). and in the
smaller cities, in Topeka, Kan, (54.5),
and Lincoln, Neb., (53.5). Payments
for OUTLAWS are not included in the