had become a habit within the Department to borrow from one general fund to carry on work under another in an effort to meet the particular need whether for milk inspection, medical care for school-children, tuberculosis work, or what not-that seemed at the moment most pressing. In August, 1906, the Department officials were sorely perplexed as to how they were to make a convincing appeal for the next

for example rather than precept. In the summer of 1906 the situation of one department appealed to the Bureau as especially offering an opportunity for the introduction of a better system. The Department of Health had been one of the heaviest sufferers from the patchwork financial methods described, having had its appropriations cut in recent years anywhere from eighteen to forty-two per cent; and it

gated budget of the following

year might be set up for all departments.

Exactly what the change thus inaugurated means may perhaps be made clear by an example. One of the eleven items of the Health Department budget for 1906-all of which together formed about two inches of printed matter-read, "Hospital

SO WERE

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fund (excluding payments to private hospitals)." What proportion of the sum voted under this general title was to go to each of the hospitals maintained in that year by the Department of Health no reader of the budget could guess; nor could any one discover what amount was to be expended for salaries of superintendents, nurses, domestics, and so on -and what amount for supplies. On the other hand, the budget of the same Department for 1909, covering six full pages and voted under 154 titles, specifies exactly how much may be spent on salaries, supplies, vehicles, fuel, and so forth, by each of four hospitals and by a hospital clinic for contagious eye diseases. Again, the health budget for 1906 did not mention the division of communicable diseases, and it was a matter of conjecture what proportion of moneys voted under other heads would actually be expended for carrying on the campaign against tuberculosis and other important activities of this branch. In the 1909 budget all such ambiguities disappear in the light of clear and full classification.

During 1907 the Bureau of City Betterment, having been incorporated as the Bureau of Municipal Research, rendered important service by preparing for many of the leading city departments, in co-operation with the Comptroller's office, restatements of expenditures according to classes of work performed, thus making possible the preparation of a fully segregated budget

for the following year. for the following year. The new schedules furnished to the Board of Estimate and the public information never before available, and made impossible unbusinesslike practices long prevalent. For example, many department heads had been accustomed to swell their pay-rolls by the appointment of new employees in June, and then to demand, on the basis of this abnormally large force, enlarged appropriations to meet the needs of the next year, only to discharge these superfluous employees soon after, and apply the increase secured to raising salaries of favored subordinates. This practice was put a stop to by requiring that the estimate of new employees needed for any class of work should no longer be based simply on the number employed on June 30 of the current year, but should take account also of the number