ter and greater, and, at the same
time, have resulted in frequently and steadily decreasing the output
and efficiency per employee.

The Washington situation, however, presents an admirable contrast to
this, because of the methods of administration of the public works
of the District of Columbia and their freedom from petty political
influence. The limited number of employees has tended toward
economy, and rendered this plant the envy of all who have desired to
obtain good management. Its cost items have been looked on as a
result long hoped for, but seldom obtained. It is to be regretted,
therefore, that such an abrupt change in methods of removing
clogging material and replacing sand has taken place without years
of experimental trial on filters not furnishing drinking water to
the public, and without an attempt, under such excellent conditions,
to maintain the efficiency by a better labor output and by improved
working and machine methods in the performance of the older and
established order of doing things.

In preparing water for the use of the people, the realms of the
unknown are so much larger than those which have been investigated
and developed that there may be many undiscovered factors affecting
the public health, and many ways in which it is dangerous to depart
from well-known and surely safe methods. Who can say that in some
subtle and, at present, unknown manner, the failure in some places,
where filtration is practiced, to reduce the death rate from typhoid
fever may not be due to the introduction of radical departures from
the older, slower, safer, and more efficient methods which have
produced such excellent results, both in America and in Europe?
Further, in cases where there has been a falling off in the typhoid
death rate, the failure to secure an accompanying improvement in
general health conditions, which follows so closely in communities
supplied by water filtered in accordance with the more conservative
principles, may be due to the introduction of some of these not
thoroughly tried processes. Some day full information may be
available as to the influence of these methods of plant operation on
the health of the community. Until that time, is it not a much
better policy to follow the principles which have been proven by
many years of experience to produce safe results, and to make the
foremost object the improvement of the methods of operation in
accordance with these established truths?

Th