taining to municipal problems and so to interpret the facts as to secure an increased confidence on the part of the public in the activities of its officials and a more intelligent support for legitimate municipal projects and administration.

To act as a clearing house and point of contact between the citizens of Minneapolis and their public servants for the purpose of securing a better understanding and coöperation between them.

The first work undertaken by the bureau after its organization was an examination of the newly-organized civil service office of the Minneapolis city administration. By giving service and advice to the Civil Service Commission, it enabled that body to complete its records of the city employees, to secure uniformity in returns from the departments and to effect other economies.

The bureau has made surveys of the City Health Department, garbage and ash collection and disposal, the city hospitals, the business administration of the public schools, the comptroller's office, business procedure of the Institute of Arts, the Park Board and the Police Department. Special assistance has been given to the city purchasing agent, the Water Department, the Board of Tax Levy, the city assessor, the Fire Department, the administration of municipal baths, and to various committees of the city council and to the state legislature. A community survey was made of one city ward for the benefit of the social agencies at work there and the administration of one settlement house in the ward was stud

ied.

At the request of the University of Minnesota a survey was made of the business administration of the medical school, and on its completion the bureau was asked to detail a member of its staff for a four months' study of the general business administration of the university.

Following are some of the more important constructive results of the bureau's work:

The bureau prepared a uniform expense classification which, for two years, has been used by the city departments in presenting their budget estimates, and it has given assistance to several of the departments in their work of analyzing

their expenditures and preparing their estimates. This classification is to be used in the accounting systems of all the city departments as soon as they can be reorganized.

The bureau has assisted the comptroller in the installation of a new system of appropriation control which keeps the heads of departments informed of disbursements and encumbrances under their appropriations. This system enabled the departments operating under the current expense fund to decrease the over-expenditures at the close of the year from $35,578 in 1914 to $14,422 in 1915.

The entire accounting system and business procedure of the comptroller's office has been modernized in so far as changes could be made without legislative enactment, and the process of reorganization has so awakened the interest of the employees of this department that they organized a class to study under the instruction of a member of the bureau staff the problems of modern municipal accounting.

In 1915, a legislative act was approved providing for the complete centralization of the purchasing for the city government. In the drafting of an ordinance prescribing the procedure under which the city purchasing agent should handle the purchasing for all the city boards and departments, a committee of city officials was appointed of which the director of the Bureau of Municipal Research was a member.

In March, 1915, the bureau was asked by the special council committee on finance to investigate a charge made by the newspapers, that the city clerk was unlawfully retaining fees taken in by his office. The bureau found that no records were kept of fees charged for acknowledgments, drawing papers, satisfactions, etc., fees which the city ordinances did not specially state should be turned in to the city treasury. The council immediately passed an ordinance requiring that all fees taken in by any city employee be turned over to the city treasurer.

In 1914, the bureau made a survey of the Health Department, and it was found that 68 per cent. of the so-called health appropriation was being spent for garbage and ash collection and disposal. On recommendation of the bureau, the city council transferred the administrative supervision of

this function from the commissioner of health to the city engineer.

Numerous other changes in administrative methods for the reorganization of the complaint system and of the system of accounting, etc., were made at the suggestion of the bureau.

At the request of the city hospital, the bureau assisted in preparing a system of daily and monthly reports from the heads of divisions to keep the head of the hospital currently informed of the work done and the occurrences which required his attention. The bureau coöperated with the hospital in the installation of a disease index and a new disease nomenclature. It also assisted in effecting economies in the hospital.

As a result of the bureau's report on the business administration of the Minneapolis public schools, the Board of Education consolidated its two business divisions, placing the auditor under the business superintendent. A system of job costs was installed to show the complete cost of each piece of work performed, also a system of stores accounting which increased the storehouse facilities and enabled the business superintendent to inspect more carefully goods received and to maintain a closer control over goods issued. The purchasing system was revised and a new accounting system conforming to the uniform accounts in the comptroller's office was installed. The bureau's assistance was used both in planning the reorganization and in putting the plans into effect.

The surveying of the business administration of the University Medical School resulted in the transfer of the departmental stores to the central university storehouse and in reducing the size of the machine shop force.

The Board of Park Commissioners accepted the recommendations as to its business procedure contained in the survey report of the bureau and asked that a member of the bureau staff take charge of the office during the process of reorganization. As a result, a complete new accounting system, a stores system and a central filing system were installed and other changes of administration were made.

A ward survey, the first of a series of sectional studies,

was made for the purpose of determining what sort of conditions, socially and governmentally, the city of Minneapolis provides for its citizens. This survey included a study of the park, school and library facilities, a provision of sewer and water, fire and police protection, housing conditions, the work of social agencies, and suggestions for needed changes were given to those concerned.

A police survey was begun in the fall of 1915, resulting in the reorganization of a number of departments, changes in methods, and a revision of the entire system of police records.

In 1916, the bureau engaged upon a comparative study of the cost of building inspection at the request of the building inspector; it assisted an officer of the United States Public Health Service in a survey which he made of the public health situation in Minneapolis; and it assisted the superintendent of the city hospital in the organization of the city physician service. The bureau keeps in close touch with departments already surveyed and gives them special service when called upon. Several requests for surveys have also been received by it from social and charitable agencies.

While the original purpose of the bureau included the same type of service for the county that has been rendered to the city, the pressure of municipal work has, as yet, prevented work with the county officials except some assistance rendered in preparing budget estimates for the County Board of Tax Levy. There is also an increasing demand that the state departments shall be given the opportunity to make use of the bureau's facilities for improving government administration.

The bureau has issued but one printed report and that is a reprint from Citizen Agencies for Research in Government, the issue of Municipal Research, No. 77, September, 1916. All the other reports of the bureau are in manuscript form.

PUBLICATIONS

Budget bulletin No. 1-August 5, 1916Comparison of force employed on building inspection and the salaries paid in various cities. Comp. by the Bureau of municipal research of the Minneapolis civic and commerce association. [Minneapolis, 1916] 2 charts on 8 sheets.

Report on analysis of five year building program of Board of education; proposed two and three year school building programs by the Committee on municipal research. [Minneapolis, 1917]

24 P. The Bureau of municipal research of the Minneapolis civic and commerce association. n. p., 1916. II p.

Reprinted from Citizen agencies for research in government. the issue of Municipal research, No. 77, Sept., 1916.

Springfield, Mass.: Bureau of Municipal Research. Under date of December 26, 1913, an offer was made by public-spirited citizens to the mayor and city council of Springfield to bear the expense of an expert survey of the city with a view to determining the advisability of establishing a permanent bureau for the introduction of efficient and economical methods of municipal administration. The offer was accepted and the services of experts from the New York Bureau of Municipal Research obtained, who made a report of 93 pages entitled Organization and Administration of the City Government of Springfield, Massachusetts.

As a result of this survey the Springfield bureau was established in January, 1914. It is supported by the contributions of fifty or more persons designated as members and supporters. The manager is the only salaried officer. The functions of the bureau as defined in its articles of incorporation are:

To collect, classify, analyze, and publish facts as to the administration of municipal governments, to study scientific methods of municipal accounting and methods of efficient and economical municipal administration, to hold meetings for the discussion of such subjects and the education therein of the members of this corporation and to publish such information and discussions and such other matter as may be deemed to be conducive to the education of the public on such subjects, and generally to do everything necessary, suitable, and proper for the accomplishment of any of the above purposes and the attainment of any of the above objects provided the same be not inconsistent with the laws under which this corporation is organized.

These functions are further defined in the following statement issued by the bureau: