first
requirements is to have well-defined ideals and standards. When one
knows how to secure a good and safe result, it is unwise to depart
therefrom for a mere whim, or to secure a supposedly lessened expense,
unless other facts be also determined favorably. The desire for economy
must be tempered by good sense, which means that one should be willing
to change a method only when the wisdom of such has been clearly
demonstrated. Efficient service can only be secured by strict
discipline, accompanied by fair dealing. This means employing no more
men than are actually necessary, paying them on the basis of the
standard of service and output produced, taking an interest in the
working conditions, and providing for their health and welfare.

About twelve years ago, the writer made some investigations of the
efficiency of laboring gangs in scraping and handling sand at filter
beds,[1] and found that ten men was the most economical number to
use in scraping the surface of the Lawrence filter, as then built
and operated. This result was determined by numerous studies of the
output per man per minute, with different numbers of men working
under different conditions. This same sort of study has been carried
further by adepts in the art, in reference to shop and similar
management, but one fails to find corresponding development along
this line in municipal organization except by a few of the scattered
Bureaus of Municipal Research. These results, also, have related to
a few of the more common and general factors, such as determining
the cost per mile, or per square yard, of street cleaned, or per
million gallons of water pumped.

[Footnote 1: _Transactions,_ Am. Soc. C. E., Vol. XLVI, p. 291.]

The cost of the management of water-works, one of the largest
factors of public enterprise, has never been investigated
extensively and thoroughly. There is much possibility in planning
for greater efficiency and in determining what can be accomplished
under economical administration. Every one is aware of the
multiplicity of men in municipal service. Some of these are entirely
incompetent, others partly so; the recent appointees may be more
efficient, but the majority of them gradually deteriorate under the
subtle influence of the prevailing atmosphere, and each new incoming
administration places more and more men on the work, without reason
or necessity. All these tendencies have made the cost and
maintenance of public work grea