158 SHOULD SCALE SLIDE OR NOT 



think it is the fairest and best adapted for general use. Even 

 so, the results reached by it are not to be taken as conclusive, 

 but rather as an aid to judgment. 



For the systems selected for study, examined in this way, 

 this method indicates that from one-fourth as a minimum to 

 three-fourths as a maximum of the whole cost of distribution 

 should be taken as the cost of fire service. The percentage 

 of the cost of distribution assignable to fire service is higher in 

 small systems than in large ones. It is also higher in systems 

 where buildings in the city are largely of wood than where they 

 are of brick and stone. It is higher as the town or city is com- 

 pactly built, and a scattered or rambling town is safer from fire 

 and needs less fire protection. 



In each of the cases which I have considered there is a record 

 of the amount actually paid for fire service for that year. In 

 every case the amount of money that was so paid is less and 

 usually much less than the estimated fair value of the service. 

 However that may be, it cannot usually be assumed in fixing 

 meter rates that inequalities in the amounts paid for fire service 

 under contracts will be readjusted. Whatever amount is re- 

 ceived for fire service is to be credited to what appears to be the 

 whole cost of distribution, and whether that amount is too much 

 or too little, it is to be subtracted. All the remaining cost of the 

 distribution must be raised in some way from the water takers. 



As a practical matter, this means that a part, and often 

 a considerable part, of the cost of the fire service is actually 

 contributed by the water takers, and if the takers pay by meter 

 rates, then the meter rates must be made large enough to cover 

 that part of the value of the fire service. 



So far as fire service cost is carried in this way, there is 

 no doubt that meter rates are a crude, inequitable way of dis- 

 tributing it, but even so, it is one way of distributing it, and any 

 other way that is in practical use also involves some inequalities. 



For instance, if the value of the fire service is paid "to the 

 water works with money raised by taxation, then the tax is 

 assessed in proportion to the valuation of the property. Under 

 this method, if a person puts up a fireproof building, he will 



