744 



REPORT — 1897. 



The resei-vation to the city of ownership of all public franchises -was charac- 

 terised as the most notable reform in municipal government. The charter limits 

 the term for which such franchises may be leased to individuals to twenty-five- 

 years, with renewal for the same period. 



The extension of the elective system to all the judiciary was recommended by 

 tie writer, in lieu of the system of appointment by the mayor, which is now the- 

 case with police justices. 



5. Local Differences in Discount Rates in the United States. 

 By R. M. Breckenridge, Ph.D. 



The annexed table of discount statistics for forty-three leading commercial cities 

 of the United States shows : 



(a) That there is no such regularity or generality in the prevalence of low rates 

 in the large cities, or of high rates in the smaller cities, as to permit the explana- 

 tion of local differences in discount rates by differences in population between the 

 cities appearing in the reports ; 



(6) That a similar lack of uniformity in the emergence of low rates in towns 

 where clearings are large, and vice vetscc, prevents the establishment of any close 

 connection between cheap discounts and heavy exchanges, as indicated by clearing 

 returns; 



(c) That rates of interest upon loans on the security of urban and suburban landed 

 property show a tendency, in their varying heights as between localities generally, 

 though not exactly or always at the same distance, to follow the movements of 

 discount rates ; 



(d) That discount rates appear to be high in proportion as the cities for which 

 they are quoted are remote in western or southern direction from the States on the 

 North Atlantic seaboard of the United States, more particularly from the foremost 

 commercial and financial centres of that region; the cities with heaviest clearings 

 and largest population in each of the other great divisions of the country, in other 

 words, the chief money markets of each section, show, however, somewhat low-er 

 rates than places of less consequence in such sections. 



Result (d) appears more clearly in the following tables. 



' The several divisions include the following States : — North Atlantic — Maine, 

 New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, 

 New Jersey and Pennsylvania. South Atlantic — Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West 

 Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. North Central- 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nortk 

 Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. South Central— Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Okeohamaand Indian Territories. 

 Western— Montana, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Washing- 

 ton, Oregon and California. 



