NOTES.

Restriction of Municipal Earnings. Of the eighteen gas and electric plants under municipal ownership in the State, nine have been purchased since the Act of 1891 became law. The other nine municipal plants have been built by the towns in which they are established. A good opportunity is thus offered to compare the financial results attained by these two groups of plants.

Four plants were built before the end of 1892, and 1895 saw the completion of four more. By the end of 1895, only four plants had been purchased, the first of these having come under municipal ownership in 1893. Since 1895 five plants have been purchased and one original plant has been built, by cities and towns. So far as depreciation may have adversely affected earning capacity or increased expenses of operation, the odds have been decidedly against the plants built by the towns.

The work done by municipal plants is of two distinct sorts, street lighting for which there is no money return, and commercial service. The amount of street lighting done by each plant is measured by the total number of kilowatt-hours supplied to arc and incandescent lamps for this purpose. For each town or city, the entire cost of street lighting is the sum of interest and depreciation charges against its plant, plus operating expenses and minus the money income from commercial service. Interest is computed on the total investment in each plant at the rate paid on the municipal bonds. Depreciation is charged at 5 per cent. yearly on the cost of each plant. The kilowatthours supplied to incandescent street lamps is determined on the basis of 0.0035 kilowatt-hour per nominal candle-power hour. Energy used in arc street lamps is based on 0.00025 kilowatt-hour per nominal candle-power hour.

All figures are derived by computation or taken directly from the reports of the Gas and Electric Light Commissioners of Massachusetts.

In each town and city the total cost of street lighting, found as above, is divided by the number representing the entire amount of energy supplied, to obtain the cost per kilowatt-hour for that place. In six of the plants built by the towns, street lighting cost less than nine cents per kilowatt-hour, but in the towns and cities where plants were purchased, the cost was more than nine cents for all except two plants.

In the nine towns where the original plants were built, the total cost of electric street lighting for the year was $75,714.43, giving an average cost of 8.43 cents for each of the 897,395.2 kilowatt-hours supplied to these lamps. The nine cities or towns where plants were originally purchased were at a total expense of $78,247.33 for electric street lighting during the year, so that the average cost was 11.8 cents for each of the 662,626.4 kilowatt-hours furnished for this purpose. From this it follows that the average rate of cost for street lighting, in cities and towns where plants were originally purchased, was 40 per cent. greater than the rate for the nine towns that built their plants. This result seems to be due to the greater interest and depreciation charges on the larger investments in purchased plants.

The next step is to compare the ratio of earnings to investments in the purchased plants with the like ratio for plants originally built by the towns. In order to determine the money value of the street lighting done by municipal plants, it is necessary to select some fair rate per unit of service. The rates selected for the present case are those paid to private electric corporations by cities and towns having about the same populations as those in which the municipal plants are located.

According to the census of 1900, the population of Chicopee was 19,167, and of Taunton 31,036. For comparison with these two cities all those in the State with populations between them are taken, except two cities where the gas and electric plants are under the same ownership. The cities of Gloucester, Quincy and Pittsfield, with populations of 26,121, 23,899 and 21,766, are thus selected to furnish a rate on which to compute the value of electric street lighting in Chicopee and Taunton. The total sum paid for electric street lighting in Gloucester, Quincy and Pittsfield during the year ending June 30, 1900, was $41,022.00, and of this amount $17,577.00 was paid.

for arc lamp service, which thus cost 42.8 per cent. of the total. The sum of taxes paid by the electric corporations in these three cities was $4,388.13, and 42.8 per cent. of this amount is $1,878.12, which deducted from the $17,577 paid for arc service leaves $15,698.88. During the year the electric corporations paying these taxes supplied 122,772.27 kilowatt-hours to arc street lamps in the three cities, so that the average price less taxes was 12.78 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In Middleboro, Wakefield and Westfield both the gas and electric plants are under municipal ownership. The populations of these three towns are 6,885, 9,290 and 12,310 respectively. In each of ten towns of the State, generating and distributing plants for gas and electricity are owned by a single private corporation. In one of these towns illuminating gas is sold during only six months of the year, and the amount paid for electric street lighting seems to be uncertain. This town is not, therefore, considered.

On the average prices for arc and incandescent street lighting in these nine towns the values of the electric street lighting in Middleboro, Wakefield and Westfield are computed. The nine towns paid $34,691.86 for arc and $10,434.28 for incandescent street lighting, and collected $3,275.53 in taxes from the gas and electric corporations during the year. Deducting the taxes from the costs of street lighting, in the way indicated for the three cities, the net charge for arc service is $32,176.25, and for incandescent $9,674.36. In the nine towns 226,359.9 kilowatt-hours were supplied to arc and 104,206.5 to incandescent lamps during the year. The average prices paid were, therefore, 12.66 cents for arc and 9.28 cents for incandescent service per kilowatt-hour, taxes being deducted.

Forty-four towns, comprising nearly all those in the State where the electric plants are owned by private corporations that do not own the gas plants, are taken to establish a basis of value for street lighting in the remaining thirteen municipal plants. Each of the forty-four, as well as each of the thirteen towns, has less than 12,000 population. The total cost of electric street lighting in the fortyfour towns was $87,411.50 for arc and $82,197.10 for incandescent service during the year. Electric corporations in these towns paid in the same year taxes to the amount of $16,613.50. These taxes, deducted from the charges for street lighting in the way before described, leave the net charge for arc service at $78,850.56, and for incandescent at $74,146.20. During the year these forty-four towns consumed 655,801.3 kilowatt-hours in arc and 764,980.5 kilowatt

hours in incandescent street lamps. It follows that the average prices paid by these towns were 12.02 cents per kilowatt-hour for arc and 9.69 cents per kilowatt-hour for incandescent street lighting.

For the entire group of nine towns where municipal plants were originally built, the value of the electric street lighting is computed with the average prices charged in the forty-four towns as a basis. In the group of cities and towns that purchased plants, the value of street lighting for four towns is computed on the rates charged in the forty-four towns. For the two cities, and for the three towns with both gas and electric plants under municipal management, which constitute the remainder of this group, the values of street lighting are computed on the prices found for cities, and for towns with gas and electric plants under common ownership.

In the nine towns where the original plants were built under municipal management, the total value of arc street lighting was $69,066.86, and of incandescent $31,279.50, for the year, or $100,346.36 for both. The nine cities or towns where municipal plants were originally purchased had arc service to the value of $67,195.21, and incandescent to the value of $14.983.55, or a total of $82,178.76 for their streets. All these values are determined from the figures for kilowatt-hours previously given for each place. To determine the net earnings of each plant for present purposes, its operating expenses are deducted from the sum of its money income from commercial service including jobbing and the computed value of its street lighting. Investments represent the entire sums expended in the construction of the plants.

In the nine plants that were purchased the total investment was $921,174, and the net earnings for the year $79,001.58. The ratio of these earnings to the investment is, therefore, 8.57 per cent. As the like ratio for the nine plants built by the towns is 13.13 per cent., the rate of their earnings on the invested capital is 54 per cent. greater than that of the purchased plants. A rate of cost for street lighting greater by 40 per cent. in the purchased plants, and a rate of net earnings greater by 54 per cent. in the plants built by the towns, certainly support the contention that the municipal act of 1891 has forced the payment of excessive prices for existing systems, and thereby operated to restrict municipal ownership.

ALTON D. ADAMS.

Movement of the Negro Population in the last decade. Census Bulletin, number 103, dated October 10th, gives a summary of the population of the United States by sex, nationality and color. Some of its data are of great interest to the student of the negro problem. Very wisely, the attempt was not made in the Twelfth Census to distinguish blacks from mulattoes, quadroons and octoroons; it must, however, be remembered, in computing the relative growth of the two races, that all persons having the least distinguishable infusion of negro blood are credited to that race in the census reports.

The outstanding facts are, that the blacks now number 8,840,789, of whom 7,706,387, or 87.17 per cent., are in thirteen Southern States; that they have increased during the decade by 1,352,001, or 18.1 per cent. (as compared with 13.5 per cent. during the previous decade), while the whites have increased by 11,824,618, or 21.4 per cent.; and that they now constitute 11.6 per cent. of the population, as against 11.9 per cent. in 1890, 13.1 per cent. in 1880, and 19.3 per cent. in 1790. That the negro is steadily falling behind the white race in growth is of course due in part to the immense reinforcements made to the latter by immigration. During the last decade some three and three-quarters millions of immigrants were landed, though there was a large refluent movement toward Europe and Canada. It is fairer, therefore, to compare the negro increase with that of native whites of native parentage. The former was 18.1 per cent., while the latter was 18.9 per cent., barely half as great-it is interesting to observe by the way as the increase of whites of foreign parentage. The negroes are thus steadily diminishing in number, relatively to the other elements of the population, as was the case throughout the last century, alike under slavery and as freedmen. That they have diminished less rapidly in the last decade than in the preceding is an interesting and encouraging fact, which may be commended to the attention of such students of the problem as the author of "Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro." The birthrate can hardly be relatively higher; it must be that the death-rate is relatively lower, and this means improvement, however slight, in the standard of living, in sanitary conditions, and perhaps in those moral and mental states which so greatly influence mortality. That the negro death-rate is in fact diminishing, not only absolutely but also relatively to that of the whites, at least in the cities of the South, is indicated in the reports sent us for a number of years by