SIMPLICITY OF FORM 19 



of the problem will probably show that when all the equitable 

 considerations that practically can be taken into account are 

 considered and the rates growing out of these are ascertained, 

 it will be possible to adopt a schedule in simple form that 

 gives rates that coincide reasonably well with those that are 

 desired. 



To put it more specifically, a scale of rates can be adopted 

 in the general three-rate form adopted by the New England 

 Water Works Association, with service charges graded according 

 to meter size, and rates in this form can be selected to pro- 

 duce any distribution of the burden that, as the result of other 

 considerations, may be found to be desirable. The deviations 

 between the desired rates and the rates represented by such a 

 schedule most nearly approximating the desired rates will not 

 be very large at any point and will be equally divided between 

 those upward and downward. 



Ambiguity in Water Rates. It takes a good degree of 

 mastery of the English language to express all the ideas to 

 be incorporated in a water rate schedule in terms of unmis- 

 takable clearness and at the same time to be concise. In some 

 existing schedules clearness has been sacrificed to conciseness, 

 with the result that the expression is ambiguous. Those who 

 draw the rates in the first place know what they intend, and 

 the local interpretation is correct. It is therefore seldom that 

 local misunderstanding results. But there are some rates now 

 in use so drawn that an outsider cannot tell with certainty 

 how they are interpreted and what the bills for certain quan- 

 tities should be. The commonest uncertainty is as to whether 

 the rates should be classified under the jump scale or the sliding 

 scale. 



It is always safer in making a plotting of local rates to 

 have someone from the Water Registrar's Department assist, 

 to make sure that all the interpretations are in accord with 

 local custom. Several times the author has found, after care- 

 fully plotting rates shown on a printed schedule, that the local 

 interpretation was different from that which he had assumed 

 it to be. 



