A similar group of facts relating to municipal plants is also here drawn from Table XI, the final table of the water works series, in which the cost of the water to the municipality is the measure of profit or loss in operation:

Cost and Price of Water Delivered by Municipal Plants.

a Nothing: income from private users exceeds cost of production.

Cost and Price of Water Delivered by Municipal Plants-Concluded.

a Nothing; income from private users exceeds cost of production.

Here the cost per annum per 1,000 gallons of water to the cities operating their own water works is stated in figures indicating the widest experience. Primarily it is observed that a number of these cities report no cost whatever for water used for municipal purposes. These are the 18 plants which appear in table VIII as making a profit on their business in addition to securing municipal water free of cost. Aside from these the range of cost is from a little more than half a cent to $9.74 per 1,000 gallons. More specifically, the cost to 17 cities and towns is less than 10 cents per 1,000 gallons; to 13, from 10 to 20 cents; to 10, from 20 to 50 cents; to 5, from 50 to 90 cents, while the cost to 6 municipalities ranges from $1.33 to $9.74 per 1,000 gallons. Special inquiry addressed to the plants showing excessive cost of municipal service establishes the fact that this result is generally due to one or more of the three following causes: Small income from water sold to private consumers, the rate usually being low; high fixed charges; the small quantity of water used by the municipality itself. The latter is the leading and sufficient cause for the great gallon cost in the six cases where the cost is highest. A very small consumption necessarily makes an abnormal cost per gallon. In the case of plant No. 20, for instance, in which the cost of city water is found to be $9.74 per 1,000 gallons, it is also found that the city uses only one half of 1 per cent of the total output; two other cases, Nos. 38 and 49, for which high cost is reported, deliver only 0.40 and 0.41 of 1 per cent respectively to the cities. owning and operating them. It is doubtless true that in these and. similar cases the fixed charges would be no greater if the city consumption were many times greater and the cost per gallon very much less; but it is also true that in a number of these cases the fixed

charges are unusually high, and in others that the private consumption is small. The rate of private users, moreover, is in most of these cases, below the average for other cities and in some very low -in four of them the price being 1, 2, 3 and 5 cents per 1,000 gallons, respectively, in cities where the cost to municipality is as many dollars per 1,000 gallons used.

Further figures taken from the final table afford the following partial view of the effects of public and private ownership on prices and the cost of water service to the citizen and the city:

Price and Cost of Water Delivered by Private and Municipal Plants.

a Nothing; income from private users exceeds total cost of production.

This exhibit is suggestive rather than conclusive as a comparison between private and public plants. For private plants alone the statement is complete for average price to private users and price to municipality in each case. The columns for municipal plants contain the record of an equal number of establishments of approximately corresponding magnitude, so far as that is indicated by volume of output. This affords a fair opportunity for comparing the average price to private users made by the two groups respectively, but is not so satisfactory a showing for cost to municipality as the whole list presents in the preceding table, as this includes a number of the profit-making enterprises, but none of those in which an excessive cost appears. On the other hand, one instance of excessive price to municipality is observed in the column for private plants. This conspicuous price of $3.50 per 1,000 gallons, like similar cases in the preceding table, is made exceptional by the small quantity of water used, which by reference to table VII is found to be only 1.5 per cent of the total output of the plant.

Something of interest, however, attaches to this table, and it will doubtless be observed that, notwithstanding the considerable di

versity in prices in both columns for private users, there is substantial correspondence between them. An average taken of both gives 5.23 cents as the price made by private plants, and 5.4 cents as that made by municipal plants to private users as a class. A difference distinctly noticeable is discovered, however, between the price to municipality and the cost to municipality, even omitting from consideration the plants which show no cost whatever for city water. Without attempting precision of statement it is evident from the face of this table that the price paid by municipalities for water bought from private companies is, as a rule, far greater than the cost of water to those cities which operate their own plants, and the contrast is emphasized by extending the comparison to the entire list of municipal plants.

Reviewing the facts gathered concerning water works plants in Illinois, it appears that there are in all 165 plants in the State, 35 of which are under private and 130 under municipal ownership; of these, 82 have been examined and scheduled for these tables, 13 of which are private and 69 public plants; that in the matter of the relative size of the plants considered, while both the largest and smallest are municipal, there is substantial conformity in the representation of both classes; that in general the bonded indebtedness incurred in the construction of municipal plants is in process of gradual extinction as a result of municipal management; that some differences appear in the distribution of cost of production in the two groups, the principal of which are that a smaller proportion of that cost is expended by municipal plants for general expenses and a larger proportion for wages and for repairs and renewals than by private plants; that cities having plants of their own make a much more liberal use of water for municipal purposes than those which purchase city water from private companies; that the operation of private water companies is almost uniformly profitable, and their prices to the municipality usually much higher than to private users; that the establishment of municipal plants operates to reduce the cost of water service to the city in almost all cases, and in some to extinguish it altogether and produce a revenue besides, but the municipal plant does not ordinarily afford lower prices to private users; that the highest success in operation is found in the largest plants; finally, that while the exceptional cases are not of sufficient weight or number to materially disturb these observations, the real interest and instruction afforded by the tables is likely to be found in the specific study of individual plants, both exceptional and otherwise.