82 



THE SERVICE CHARGE 



rates. The amount collected by the department from service 

 charges may be expected to be greater than the amount result- 

 ing from the excess collections under the minimum rates, and 

 consequently the amounts to be raised by the meter rates will 

 be reduced by a substantial amount. This means that the rates 

 per 1000 gallons will be lower where service charges are used 

 than where the minimum rate system is followed. 



For water sold at wholesale at manufacturing rates the prices 

 per 1000 gallons may be less by i or 2 cents more or less, depend- 

 ing upon whether the service charges are higher or lower and upon 

 other conditions of service, while for the smaller takers at 

 domestic rates the difference may be and probably ordinarily 

 will be at least several cents per 1006 gallons. 



While the service charge is separately collected and is in 

 addition to the amount collected for water rates, it is not to be 

 supposed that water rates will average higher where service 

 charges are used or that any more money will be collected in the 

 aggregate. Some popular opposition to the service charge grows 

 out of the erroneous idea that the service charge is an additional 

 charge and means higher rates. As a matter of fact it is simply 

 a different way of distributing the burden and of changing it 

 to correspond more nearly with the costs. As an illustration 

 ,a brief comparison of the two systems may be shown by the fol- 

 lowing table: 



ANNUAL BILLS 



