Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1918 — HIGH COST OF GOVERNMENT [ARTICLE]

HIGH COST OF GOVERNMENT

Operation Expense Has Increased 35 Per Cent in the Last Fifteen Years. Washington.—Now we have the high cost of government. It has risen 35 per cent In the last 15 years, according to a recent department of commerce report on financial conditions of 219 cities in the country. The report shows that the average American city is In a healthy financial condition, run on good, business-like lines. The total revenues were $1,065,537,142, or $32.04 per capita, and total expenditures $821,491,575, or $24.70 per capita. The total outlay for the 219 cities was $286,529,990, or $8.61 per capita. From this last returns could be expected which, on the average, would still further reduce the expenditures. Next to taxes, the largest Item of which was the tax on the liquor traffic, the greatest source of revenue for the cities was public service enterprises, the bulk of which came from public water systems, which doubled the amount of money spent on them. The net Indebtedness of New York city alone, $987,347,610, was threefifths as great as all other cities of over 30,000 inhabitants taken together. The per capita indebtedness for Chicago was $28.70, and St. Louis $25.07, both of these pities having an Indebtedness which was smaller than most of the small cities and far below the large ones. .