CHAPTER XIV 

 AS TO WHETHER THE SCALE SHOULD SLIDE OR NOT * 



It is an important question of* public policy whether exceptionally low 

 rates shall be made for large service not otherwise available, which would 

 result in large additions to income and some net profit. Thos. W. D. 

 Worthen, Jour. N.E.W.W. Assn., 1917, Vol. XXXI, p. 134- 



The sliding scales now in use in American Water Works 

 systems have largely come down to us from early times. The 

 forms and sometimes the rates themselves were established to 

 meet conditions that existed only in those earlier days. In part 

 they were framed to meet conditions which have ceased to exist 

 and they embody features that would hardly be otherwise 

 adopted at the present time. 



In the first place, the idea to be kept first in mind in estab- 

 lishing a system of meter rates is to distribute the total burden 

 of the service among all the takers as equitably as it can reason- 

 ably be done. We are not concerned in this discussion as to 

 that most important question of how much revenue is to be 

 raised. We will limit ourselves strictly for the present to the 

 distribution of the amount that is raised equitably among the 

 different takers. 



In the second place, the actual cost of furnishing service to 

 various kinds of takers is to be taken as the ordinary guide in 

 establishing the relative amounts of charge. This cost is not 

 necessarily to be taken as the sole guide in fixing rates, but 

 among all the things that may be taken into account it is by far 

 the most important. 



* The substance of this chapter was presented as an oral statement 

 to the Penna. Water Works Assn. at its meeting Oct. 19, 1916, and to the 

 N.E.W.W. Assn. at its meeting Nov. 8, 1916. 



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