ies in the United States, 148 companies
charge $2 per thousand cubic feet, and 145 companies charge $2.50 per
thousand. It is thus seen that rates have been fixed to make "even
figures," something which does not occur when margins of profit are
reduced by competition. The complete table shows this fact more fully as
follows:

7 companies charge $1.00 per thousand cubic feet.
32 " " 1.50 " " " "
24 " " 1.75 " " " "
148 " " 2.00 " " " "
57 " " 2.25 " " " "
145 " " 2.50 " " " "
20 companies charge 2.75 per thousand cubic feet.
86 " " 3.00 " " " "
25 " " 3.50 " " " "
19 " " 4.00 " " " "
120 companies charge various other prices per thousand cubic feet.

According to the same authority these companies in 1886 produced
23,050,706,000 cubic feet of gas, for which they received $40,744,673,
an average price per M. of $1.76-71/100. According to the statement of
good authorities, gas can be manufactured at a cost of 50 to 75 cents
per M. in this country. Prof. James, in his work before quoted, says:
"In England at the present time gas is manufactured at a net cost of 30
cents per thousand feet; some works in New England now manufacture it
for 38 cents per thousand feet to the holder." The President of the
American Gas-Light Association is quoted as stating in an address before
the Association that the cost of the gas delivered to consumers by the
South Metropolitan Company of London in 1883 was 39.65 cents per
thousand, and figuring by the relative cost of coal and labor there and
here, he stated that gas could be delivered in New York at a cost of 65
cents per thousand. In Germany the price of gas to consumers varies from
61 cents in Cologne to $1.02 in Berlin. Very recent improvements in
processes have greatly cheapened the cost of manufacture. Mr. Henry
Woodall, the engineer of the Leeds, England, gas-works, states that
coal-gas costs in the holder 22 cents per thousand. Of nineteen
companies doing business in principal English cities, the average rate
charged consumers is 521/2 cents, and the average cost of manufacture
is 37-1/3 cents.

The history of the gas monopoly is repeating itself in the matter of
electric lighting. The smaller cities of the country, in their ha