Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/70

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62
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
way facilities (including power supply, as well as a clear path); and, finally, education and recreation."

The tremendous advances of municipal government during the present century can be best and most graphically demonstrated by a comparison of the respective budgets of a single city for the years 1800 and 1899. Let us take Philadelphia as an example. According to Allinson & Penrose, in their work on the 'Government of Philadelphia' (pages 115-116), the budget for the former year as contained in the ordinance of February 20, 1800, was as follows

To meet the deficiency of the tax of 1799 $1,315.44
Interest on water loan 4,200.00
Interest on debts due the banks 1,200.00
Purchase of paving stones and repair of old pavements 1,600.00
Repairs to unpaved streets, &c., paving intersections 2,400.00
For cleansing city 11,250.00
Cleansing and repairing sewers and docks 1,850.00
Lighting and watching the city 18,000.00
Repairs of pumps and wells 2,500.00
Regulating streets 400.00
Center Square improvements 1,650.00
Salaries of City Commissioners and clerk 2,800.00
Expenses of City Commissioners and clerk 100.00
Salaries to Mayor, Recorder, High Constable, clerks and messengers of Councils 3,000.00
Pay of constables for patrolling streets on the Sabbath day 156.00
Incidental expenses of Councils 600.00
Residuary fund for preventing and removing nuisances 4,478.56
Reimbursement from tax fund to corporate fund, 1799 165.92
Other advances by citizens 360.00
Salaries of clerks of markets 1,200.00
Menial service in markets 560.00
Repairs, &c. 700.00
Meeting contract engagements for maintenance of two steam engines 8,000.00
Total $68,485.92

The expenditures for 1899 (exclusive of the amounts appropriated for the maintenance of the county offices) were:

Mayor's Office $587,770.00
Bureau of Charities 500,308.00
Bureau of Correction 203,295.00
Department of Public Safety—
Director's Office 18,721.25
Bureau of Health 251,838.08
Bureau of Building Inspectors 46,636.75
Bureau of City Property 777,751.73
Electrical Bureau 1,118,017.78