A Correspondence School in 
 Municipal Accounting 
 and Reporting 
 Founded by Herman A. Metz 
 
 To be conducted by the directors of the 
 New York Bureau of Municipal Research 
 
 Ex-Comptroller Herman A. Metz 
 has written from his branch factory in ** 
 Hamburg, Germany, that he has de¬ 
 cided to establish a fund of $10,000 a 
 year for three years “to make avail¬ 
 able to American cities the best prin¬ 
 ciples and practice worked out in mu¬ 
 nicipal accounting and reporting.” 
 The fund is to be administered by the 
 directors of the New York Bureau of 
 Municipal Research. Comptroller 
 Prendergast has assured the heartiest 
 co-operation by New York City’s de¬ 
 partment of finance. 
 
 Before informing the Bureau of his 
 decision, Mr. Metz wrote to a number 
 of city comptrollers, asking for their 
 advice as to making the fund of great¬ 
 est service. Following is a copy of his 
 
O.S\ 
 
 letter to Alonzo Tweedale, president 
 of the American Society of Comp¬ 
 trollers and auditor of the District 
 of Columbia: 
 
 “During my present trip on this 
 side of the ocean, I have been im¬ 
 pressed by the fact that, in Germany 
 especially, the uniformity of account¬ 
 ing methods among the larger cities 
 gives a much better basis for compar¬ 
 ison as to cost of administration, main¬ 
 tenance, etc., than we have at home. 
 As even under our various systems 
 of administration of municipal affairs, 
 all our cities are dependent upon their 
 ability to float their bonds, and appar¬ 
 ently in ever increasing amounts, it 
 would seem only natural that bond 
 buyers should have a means of as¬ 
 certaining what financial and account¬ 
 ing methods are in force in the re¬ 
 spective cities and be able to make 
 comparison as to credit ability, based 
 on something more than a general 
 legal provision as to borrowing ca¬ 
 pacity. 
 
 “I am writing you therefore to ask 
 your personal and official co-opera¬ 
 tion in some educational work in 
 which we both have an interest, and 
 to apprise you of my purpose to pro¬ 
 vide a fund of $10,000 a year for three 
 years to make available to American 
 cities the best principles and practice 
 worked out in municipal accounting 
 and reporting. 
 
 “The fund is to be administered by 
 the directors of the New York Bureau 
 of Municipal Research. But having 
 in mind its national application through 
 the co-operation of various comp¬ 
 trollers, I am keeping it as a separate 
 fund. While it is obvious that the 
 $10,000 will not reorganize the ac- 
 
fBUDGET EXHIBITJUY BE SHOWN 
 
 Id<tf la Approved by Civic Commission President, 
 y Comptroller Morrow and Others 
 
 INSTRUCTIVE TO THE PUBLIC 
 
 Good Results from the Display of Two Years 
 Said to Justify Holding Another 
 
 A “budget exhibit” may be held In Pittsburgh in 
 the autumn. The city budget conference will take 
 early action toward considering the municipal appro¬ 
 priations of 1911 and at the meetings the project to 
 hold a budget exhibit will be discussed. • • • 
 
 “I am in favor of a budget exhibit,” said H.D.W. 
 English, president of the Pittsburgh Civic Commis¬ 
 sion. “I think it is a splendid Idea.” ... 
 
 Oliver McClintock said, •‘The exhibit will arouse 
 the interest of the public in this important phase of 
 municipal activity and lead the taxpayers to study 
 the city’s needs and expenditures.” 
 
 “It would be a good idea to have a budget exhibit, ” 
 said Comptroller Morrow. “I believe directors of 
 departments would approve it. My last report is 
 made out on the plan followed in the preparation of 
 the government’s accounts, a plan illustrated in the 
 civic exhibit shown here. The civic commission now 
 has a man who is going through the books in my of* 
 f ice, and his report to the commission ought soon to 
 be ready, ... 
 
 “Superintendent J. P. Edwards of the bureau of 
 infectious diseases could furnish interesting and in¬ 
 structive data. . Director E. R, Walters of the de¬ 
 partment of public health has many good executed 
 ideas which the public ought to know. The budget 
 might show some things in which the municipality is 
 yet deficient, but it would show many things in which 
 Pittsburgh is efficient.” - Pittsburgh Gj{eit Times 
 
 Efficient Citizenship No. 864 
 IUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH, N.Y. 
 
CITY WORK IN PARADE 
 
 At the monthly conference of department heads 
 at city hall, plans were discussed for the Boston 1915 
 parade of men and floats representing 1 city depart¬ 
 ments. (The majority of department heads were 
 in favor of the plans) and pointed out the progress 
 they had made in preparation by stating what they 
 1^ expected to exhibit. - Boston Herald 
 
 MUNICIPAL EXHIBITS 
 ..Therecanba littleqi-3*fc?osof the value of munici¬ 
 pal exhibits. In the modem effort to secure reform 
 in municipal administration by developing a direct 
 and intelligent individual interest in the various com¬ 
 munal functions, it has been found that appeal 
 through the eye is Quite as convincing as the appeal 
 through the ear. In Nov/ York the Bureau of Mun¬ 
 icipal Research has done some of its most effective 
 work in its departmental exhibits in connection with 
 budget discussions, and preparations a-e now being 
 made for a still more extensive display another year 
 (by city officials themselves). ... 
 
 These exhibits of municipal administration might 
 profitably be made annual features, ... In fact. it 
 would be possible to make su'*h an exposition a cotv 
 densed course in g *nera!^and appiieel_ citin c nxh. 
 which would do very much toward making a more in¬ 
 telligent electorate and consequently a more ^effi¬ 
 cient government. .. The educational possibilities of 
 such a scheme are great and the beginnings of all ef¬ 
 fective reform must lie in the education ox toe indi¬ 
 vidual citizen and his inspiration to work icr the h :g^- 
 est standard of government. - Boston Ev'g Herald 
 
 hip No. 366 
 
 PAL RESEARCH, N. Y. 
 
THE WRONG FOCUS 
 
 •‘About this time,” says the Municipal Almanac 
 “watch for the tax-rate/* ... 
 
 In the average community the tax-rate is the 
 centre of interest in municipal administration. ... 
 
 The work of the mayor and city council in deter¬ 
 mining the amount of tax to be as sessed on the com¬ 
 munity in their budget making early in the year is i 
 practically neglected by the public while great inter¬ 
 est is shown in the work of the assessors in spring 
 and summer in the determination of the rate. . .. 
 
 Budget making, the discussion of appropriations 
 and the planning of municipal enterprise, is the point 
 on which public interest in municipal finance proper¬ 
 ly should focus. But a baker's dozen of citizens, and- 
 those net representing the largest tax-paying inter¬ 
 ests’of the city, attending a hearing before the city 
 council on the question of the annual appropriation 
 bill contrasts with general interest in and inquiry for 
 the announcement of the completion of the assessors' 
 ta 3 k and the declaration of the tax-rate. The city 
 council, voting its budget for the year, determines 
 the tax which is to be assessed on the community; 
 the assessors merely determine the rate. Jt ea3rs 
 the burden none, and often works injustice if a lo.v 
 tax-rate requires an abnormally high valuation, 
 which is the natural tendency resulting from this 
 wrong focus. Even if the tax-rate Boston shon'd 
 be reduced twenty cents this year, it still would be 
 less important for consideration than the tact that 
 Boston exceeds all the large cities of the country in 
 
 the per-capita expenditure for government. 
 
 - Boston Herald 
 «• 
 
 Efficient Citiz 
 
 i 
 
 BUREAU OF MUN: 
 
counts of all American cities, it should, 
 however, be sufficient to make avail¬ 
 able to all cities the results of the ex¬ 
 perience which is being acquired in 
 each. For example, New York City 
 has spent for the last several years 
 past, thousands of dollars in working 
 out principles and in demonstrating 
 the practical application of accounting 
 methods to municipal business. A 
 good deal of progress was made dur¬ 
 ing my administration as comptroller, 
 and I am glad to see that my succes¬ 
 sor in office is continuing the work 
 which began under me. Every city 
 in America should have the benefit of 
 the work which is now being effect¬ 
 ively carried on, and New York 
 should have the benefit of the exper¬ 
 ience of your city and of other cities. 
 
 “City comptrollers, as you know, 
 continually receive letters of inquiry, 
 requesting just the kind of informa¬ 
 tion which I have in mind to acquire 
 and circulate through such an agency. 
 Only to-day I received, through my 
 New York office, an inquiry from the 
 deputy comptroller of Milwaukee 
 asking for information as to the 
 changes made in New York methods 
 and as to what legislation, if any, had 
 been necessary to bring about the im¬ 
 provements. To-day it is nobody’s 
 business, and nobody has either the 
 funds or organization, to give the 
 kind of answer that ought to be given 
 when one comptroller writes to an¬ 
 other comptroller for information. 
 
 “I might cite a personal experience 
 which illustrates the difficulty which 
 I have in mind: An inquiry recently 
 made by the Bureau of Municipal 
 Research for Comptroller Prendergast 
 showed that my own records of what 
 
the bookkeepers were doing in my 
 personal business establishment, and 
 the records of what the bookkeepers 
 in the comptroller’s office were doing, 
 were widely divergent; that bookkeep¬ 
 ers were doing five times as much 
 work for me every day as an employer 
 as they did for me as comptroller and 
 did not complain of being over-worked 
 at that. As every business man knows, 
 the quantity of work performed by 
 his employees is largely determined 
 by the methods and conditions under 
 which their work is done. The point 
 is, that the only way to correct such 
 discrepancies is to provide cities with 
 businesslike methods of accounting 
 and reporting that will keep the facts 
 before the officers and the people who 
 elect them, and do it by up-to-date 
 and easily understood balance sheets 
 and statements. 
 
 “I expect to be back in New York 
 during the latter part of August, and 
 I am arranging to have responses to 
 letters sent by me to a number of 
 comptrollers with regard to this 
 matter, forwarded to me, so that I 
 may be able to know how they regard 
 the plan, and proceed accordingly on 
 my return. 
 
 “I shall be very glad if you could 
 spare the time at an early date to 
 tell me candidly how you think this 
 fund can be made of greatest service.” 
 
 For additional copies address 
 Efficient Citizenship No. 371 
 
 Bureau of Municipal Research, 
 261 Broadway