80 THE MINIMUM RATE 



When used to steady and insure revenue during the period 

 of change from flat rates to meter rates, the minimum should 

 ordinarily be somewhat less than the old flat rates, thus giving 

 each taker a chance to secure some reduction in his bill, if his 

 use of water is low enough to warrant it. 



The amount of the minimum rate will always be greater than 

 the amount of a suitable service charge. The amount by which 

 it is greater will normally be the estimated worth of a minimum 

 daily draft of water, as for example, 50 or 100 gallons per day. 



Mr. Leonard Metcalf writes of an unusual case where out of 

 3200 domestic services, there were 2500 families supplied by these 

 services in excess of the one family normally attributable to a 

 service, there being many cases of not only 2, 3, 4 and 5 families 

 per service, but even as high as 10, n, 12, 13 and 14 families 

 per service in a population over 80 per cent of which was foreign 

 and the per capita consumption of flat rate basis without meters 

 being about 225 gallons per day. Under the circumstances he 

 stated that he found it necessary to establish a family charge of 

 $3 per family for each family in excess of one served by a single 

 service, and a service charge of $5, thus making the family 

 charge vary from $5 to a little over $3 in households with from 

 one to fourteen families served by one service. For this minimum 

 charge he gave no water. In estimating probable revenue 

 figured the value of the water on the basis of the estimated 

 registerable consumption of approximately 15 gallons per capita 

 per day for the domestic services. 



