160 SHOULD SCALE SLIDE OR NOT 



fected within reasonable limits by changes in the rate of draft by 

 takers. 



From a theoretical standpoint, there is a great deal to be 

 said in favor of this proposition of putting the cost of the dis- 

 tribution so far as it is not charged to fire service, on the ser- 

 vice charges. If it could be carried out in a simple and equitable 

 manner the writer would be quite content to see it disposed of 

 in that way. 



If that were to be undertaken the most natural way of dis- 

 tributing it, and the only one that seems to be readily available, 

 is to distribute it in the manner which has already been men- 

 tioned for distributing that part of the gross income which 

 represents the cost of taking care of the services; that is to say, 

 by dividing it among the meters, but taking into account the 

 size of the meters so that the larger meters will pay a greater 

 relative proportion of it. 



As far as the takers who use the, larger meters are concerned, 

 this method may not be unjust. It is true that it results in a 

 very high service charge, but in connection therewith the price 

 per 1000 gallons may be less than it would otherwise be, and the 

 high service charge is offset by the lower price per 1000 gallons. 

 If the larger meters only were concerned, we could let it go, but 

 when we come to the smaller meters an obstacle is found. 



On the whole number of services in the system, 90 per cent 

 more or less are served by f-inch meters. There are very 

 practical reasons why it is not worth while to vary the size of 

 those | -inch meters according to the amount of business done by 

 each service; that is to say, we find that 90 per cent of the 

 whole number of services, more or less, are supplied by meters of 

 the same size, and under the proposed arrangement every one of 

 these would be assessed the same relatively high service charge. 



Now, these 90 per cent of the services do not represent 

 equality of conditions. On the other hand, they represent a very 

 wide range of conditions. The range is between the smallest 

 houses that there are and some of the larger residences and 

 small business establishments. Some of these f-inch meters are 

 on services that handle twenty times as much water as is handled 



