COMPARATIVE MUNICIPAL STATISTICS.

The second session of the Fifty-fifth Congress authorized the Department of Labor to prepare annually a compilation of the official statistics of all cities in the United States with over thirty thousand population. Provision is thus made for a comprehensive presentation of comparative municipal statistics, the value and importance of which need not be emphasized to those interested in the problems of municipal government. The only previous attempts at any comparative statement of municipal statistics in the United States have been in the decennial censuses in the volumes on Wealth, Debt, and Taxation, and on Social Statistics of Cities. But these, apart from their inadequacy in appearing only after ten-year intervals, have been so defective- especially in their methods of classification and arrangement as to have little

real value. A well-weighed criticism of these census statistics has been recently made by Professor H. B. Gardner in his paper on "Municipal Statistics in the Twelfth Census," read at the New Haven meeting of the American Economic Association, and to be published in vol. xii. of the monographs of the association.

In other countries the importance of municipal government and the value of comparative statistics of their operations have been more fully recognized, and in several countries special publications on municipal statistics are regularly prepared. It may be of interest at this time to call attention to some of the most important of these compilations, and to note how far they are successful in presenting the information most wanted.

The question of comparative finance statistics of municipalities formed a subject of discussion at several sessions of the International Congress of Statistics, as a result of which it was determined in 1878 to establish an annual bulletin of the finances of the largest cities of the world. The preparation of this was placed in charge of M. Josef Körösi, director

of the Statistical Bureau of Budapest; and the first Bulletin Annuel des Finances des Grandes Villes, containing statistics for the year 1877, appeared in 1879. The list of questions for this had been sent to some fifty cities of continental Europe, but complete answers were received from only fourteen. The tables showed for these fourteen cities the total receipts and expenditures, the detail of receipts from principal sources, the detail of expenditures for the most important branches of administration-as police, street-cleaning, education, the value of municipal property, and the extent of their indebtedness. Figures were given showing both the total amounts for each city and also per capita. The cities were arranged in the tables in the order of population. The bulletin, containing the tables with explanatory notes, formed a pamphlet of forty pages.

Other issues of the bulletin on the same general plan were published annually for eight years, the fifth number including also synoptical tables for the quinquennial period. Twentysix cities were represented in the second issue; but there was little further increase, the highest number included in any one year being twenty-eight. With the exceptions of Washington, D.C., and Providence, R.I., which appeared in some of the later bulletins, only cities of continental Europe were represented in the tables. The British towns were intentionally omitted on account of the important differences in their administrative system from that on the Continent.

After the number published in 1889 (containing statistics for the year 1884), the bulletin was discontinued on account of the insurmountable difficulties in the way of securing the data from a sufficient number of cities. No subsequent attempt has yet been made to secure a permanent international comparison of municipal statistics. More successful, however, have been the comparative statistics for cities within particular countries, this success being due in part to the greater influence of governmental over private action, and in part to the larger degree of uniformity in administrative systems among the cities of each particular country.

Both the French and Italian governments publish annually

statements of the finances of communes, and summaries of these showing totals appear in the statistical abstracts for these countries. The summary in the French Annuaire Statistique gives only the aggregate receipts and expenditures for all the communes in each department, with similar aggregate figures, but no figures for any particular city, as to the amount of centimes additionels and the receipts from octrois. The summary in the Annuario Statistico Italiano gives only aggregates for the entire kingdom; but, in addition to the totals of receipts and expenditures, gives itemized aggregates according to a careful classification of receipts and expenditures. Thus the total expenditures for all Italian communes for general administration, for public works, for education, and the like, are given.

The facts for particular Italian cities are to be found in the Bilanci Comunali, published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. The first number appeared in 1863, and, with few exceptions, it has been issued each year since that time, though with some changes in the system of classification. As now presented, there are ninety items of receipts, grouped together under ten main heads, and one hundred and seventy items of expenditure, grouped under eight main heads. The large number of items of expenditure is caused by the triplication of each item under each of the three divisions of obligatory, facoltative, and extraordinary expenditures. In accordance with this elaborate scheme the figures are given for all of the communes in each compartment, and also for the chief town in each province. The latter include all of the considerable towns in Italy, and there are thus presented for the comparative study of the municipal finances of these towns both detailed statistical data and the totals for the main heads of receipts and expenditures.

The arrangement and grouping of the figures can, however, be criticised. The towns are arranged in alphabetical order by provinces, with the aggregate figures for each province in alternate columns with the figures for the chief towns. Thus adjacent figures in the tables are not at all those likely to be compared, as would be the case were the statistics for the

large towns grouped in one separate series of tables having the towns arranged in the order of their population. Another disadvantage is the absence of any per capita figures or of any statement of municipal indebtedness. It is also clear that the value of the compilation would be much increased, were it to include, in addition to finance statistics, the most important facts of municipal equipment and the results accomplished by the various municipal departments. These would make clear how far differences in expenditure in different cities were justified by the different scope of work undertaken.

The Local Taxation Returns, prepared by the English Local Government Board, present a mass of information concerning the financial operations of the local authorities in England even more complete than that presented in the Italian Bilanci Comunali and the French Situation Financière des Communes. Such financial statements for the English Poor Law authorities have been prepared and published annually since the establishment of the Poor Law Board in 1834; but it is only since the creation of the Local Government Board in 1871 that returns from all the various local authorities have been collated.

The English local government system presents, in its confusing chaos of authorities, a striking contrast to the simple and machine-like administrative system in France and Italy. This confusion of authorities necessarily affects seriously the character of the financial statements. In consequence, the statistics of municipal finance cannot be found in one series of tables. Poor relief and public schools form distinct series of tables, and are entirely excluded from the municipal accounts; while the latter are not presented as a whole, but are sharply divided into borough accounts and urban sanitary district accounts. The county boroughs have still another division, known as the Exchequer contribution accounts. In addition there are in many towns special authorities dealing with specific municipal functions,- burial boards, baths commissioners, library trustees, market commissioners, bridge and ferry trustees, joint boards,- and the accounts of these are also distinct and independent of the municipal accounts.

This situation makes impossible the presentation of any figures showing the total municipal receipts and expenditures for particular towns; and, in fact, no attempt is made in this direction. But complete details as to receipts and expenditures for all the manifold fields of local governmental activity are presented, in which the ordinary financial operations are carefully distinguished from accounts dealing with loans and investments of capital. The arrangement of the large towns into three groups county boroughs, municipal boroughs, and urban districts not boroughs-is an important step in the direction of a scientific classification; but within each of these divisions the arrangement is geographical. No per capita figures are given, nor are the financial statistics supplemented by other information concerning the operations of the various authorities.

In addition to the detailed figures for the many local authorities, tables of aggregates for the entire kingdom are appended. These show the total receipts and total expenditures by each class of local authority, the total receipts by all authorities from each of the principal sources of revenue, and the total outgo by all authorities for each of the important departments of expenditure. These, again, are differentiated into ordinary operations and those arising out of loan transactions.

Much the best collection of municipal statistics is presented in the Statistisches Jahrbuch Deutscher Städte. This was first published in 1890, and has been continued at almost yearly intervals since, the last number appearing in 1897. It is prepared, not by the central government, but through the collaboration of statistical officers in the large cities, under the general editorship of M. Neefe, the director of the statistical bureau of Breslau. The Jahrbuch is composed of a large number of chapters, each dealing with a special field of municipal activity. Thus there are chapters on fire protection, street cleaning, street lighting, parks, charities, waterworks, baths, savings-banks, education, libraries, taxation, and other municipal functions. There are also chapters giving general information about city conditions, such as those