SOCIAL STATISTICS OF CITIES. 6u 



and unsatisfactory data — in fact, upon statistics that were not 

 within a large percentage of accuracy. When treating the vital 

 statistics of the whole country I shall take pains to call attention 

 to some of the exceedingly misleading if not thoroughly erroneous 

 conclusions in the past. It is exceedingly gratifying to know 

 that the experts in charge of such important facts under the 

 eleventh census are thoroughly alive to all the opportunities of 

 error which ordinarily and naturally arise under imperfect sta- 

 tistics. 



The discussions which are going on relative to municipal con- 

 trol will be enriched by a great many facts in the social statistics 

 of cities that are being published under the eleventh census. The 

 difference in the cost of building and maintaining streets and in 

 the cost of street-cleaning, the advantages of paved or unpaved 

 streets so far as health is concerned, and the general conditions 

 resulting from cleanliness — all these facts can be learned when 

 the complete statistics of cities are published. Boston, Worces- 

 ter, and Holyoke are cities in which all the streets are paved ; 

 but Dallas, Texas, has but 47 per cent of its streets paved, St. 

 Paul 4'1, and Minneapolis 31, while Denver's streets are not 

 paved at all. 



The average yearly cost of construction and repairs per head 

 of population in cities having over 100,000 inhabitants is $1.54, 

 while in twenty-seven cities for which the census has returns, 

 having less than 100,000 inhabitants each, the cost is $2.04. 



The average annual expenditure for street-cleaning varies from 

 five cents in Buffalo and eight cents in Chicago to seventy-one 

 cents in New York and sixty-two cents in Cincinnati ; but, as the 

 census officials remark, there is probably no definite relation be- 

 tween the cost per head of street-cleaning as shown by the figures 

 and the actual condition of the streets as to cleanliness. Ordinary 

 observation teaches us that in many cities where the cost is great- 

 est the streets are in the filthiest condition. 



The question as to economical street-lighting is an important 

 one in all municipalities. The facts already published indicate 

 that the annual cost of gas-lamps varies from $50 per lamp in 

 New Orleans, $43.80 in San Francisco, and $37 in St. Louis, to $15 

 in Indianapolis and Canton, $15.60 in Minneapolis, and $17.50 in 

 Hoboken ; while the annual cost of each electric lamp varies from 

 $G8 in Chicago and $58.46 in Denver to $237.25 in Boston and 

 $440.67 in San Francisco. When all the facts are collected and 

 published it is to be hoped that the public can ascertain the rela- 

 tive advantages of the different systems of lighting, so far as cost 

 per capita is concerned. At present the cost to each head of 

 population can only be stated for the total average annual cost 

 for the cities comprehended in the table. This is sixty-four cents 



