Fordham and Gouverneur. The amount appropriated for supplies for these four institutions is $515,560-almost as large as the appropriation for supplies to the street cleaning department. The appropriation to the four big hospitals for food supplies alone amounts to $306,300, which is larger than the total of any class of supplies in the street cleaning department, except that of forage and veterinary supplies, amounting to $503,548.39.

This is shown for "carting and stables" and subdivided on borough lines. As a matter of fact, the attempt to put in functional analysis has either forced an accounting for horses not used for carting or stables or left them out of account entirely. Under general plant supplies in the street cleaning department, there are eight different subdivisions :functions subclassified by boroughs, whereas in Bellevue there is only one item, although the two amounts are practically equal. Bellevue has four large institutions that are quite separate and quite as distinct in their administration as are the three boroughs of the department of street cleaning. If there is reason for functional subdivision in one, there is in the other. In neither case, however, is such an itemization of any advantage. On the other hand, there are several forms of positive disadvantage.

Lack of Uniformity of Treatment

The same lack of uniformity of treatment is found in the appropriations for the several borough presidents. In Manhattan there is an itemization of fuel supplies as between municipal building" and general"-meaning for all other purposes. For the Borough of Brooklyn there is no limitation whatever placed on the purchase or use of fuel supplies, but in the case of Queens, to which there was appropriated only a small fraction of the total amount that was granted to Brooklyn, four different kinds of uses are indicated, as follows:

In street cleaning there was still further subdivision, as follows:

Except for purposes of publicity or the limitation of administrative discretion over purchases, it is hard to conceive why an appropriation of $50 should be made for highly specialized kinds of things like "medical and surgical supplies." The fact is, however, it operates to interfere with the use of discretion that is essential to efficient management.

Conditions Attached in Act of 1914

Among the conditions attached to the appropriations for supplies, materials, equipment, etc., by resolution of the board in 1914, is the following:

"Resolved, That wherever an appropriation under the classification of 'Supplies,' 'Purchase of Equipment,' 'Materials,' 'Contract or Open Order Service,' 'Contingencies' or 'Fixed Charges and Contributions' is supported by a schedule, all expenditures against such appropriation shall be made in accordance with such schedule and no voucher shall be passed by the Department of Finance for a sum exceeding the amount shown in said schedule, except when such schedule shall have been changed by twelve (12) votes of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, and that the Heads of the several Boards, Offices, Bureaus and Departments of the City and County Governments shall transmit to the Department of Finance on the first day of each month, or as soon thereafter as possible, a statement showing, firstly, the aggregate liabilities incurred against such schedules for which vouchers have been transmitted to the Department of Finance, and, secondly, all additional liabilities incurred against such schedules for which vouchers have not as yet been transmitted.

Be it further

"Resolved, That wherever an appropriation under the classification of 'Supplies,' 'Purchase of Equipment,' 'Materials,' 'Contract or Open Order Service,' 'Contingencies'or 'Fixed Charges and Contributions,' is supported by a schedule, such schedule shall be conclusive as to the amount allowed for each function or subdivision."

It is contended that none of these can be effectively administered in so far as they have to do with the character of the use of the supplies, materials, and equipment purchased. The only possibility of administration lies in the restriction placed upon the drawing of vouchers in excess of the amount authorized for the things to be purchased. Every subclassification, therefore, which does not serve a useful purpose in the limitation which it places on the trading relations of the city is a useless encumbrance, and serves only to defeat the very purpose of the enactment.

Proposed Method of Appropriation

As against the present method it is proposed that the total amount appropriated to a department, bureau, office, or commission be itemized in such manner as to show the funds available for the purchase of each present classification may obtain, but without segregation of functions or kind of use. Aside from the proposal to eliminate all functional classification of the items of appropriation for supplies, materials, and equipment, the constructive proposals would provide for the utilization of added instruments of control to assist and protect officers in their trading relations without impairing their direction and control over or responsibility for efficient management of the work; i.e., the utilization of these things in obtaining results.

Standard Specifications as a Condition

One of the added instruments would be a catalogue of standard specifications and standard regulations governing contracts and purchases. These would be enacted by the board of estimate and apportionment and by resolution and reference would be made a condition attached to the amounts made available for each of the several purposes. Among the conditions it might be well to provide for central review by the bureau of standards and by the bureau of contract supervision of the board of estimate, in so far as specifications are not established. Provision would be made for a catalogue of standard specifications and contract price lists. These would be made up in form to carry with them all the accounting symbols and reference numbers needed both for purposes of analysis of purchases, and for purposes of specification or other use; as, for example, in a catalogue or list of this kind, in alphabetical arrangement, cheese cloth might appear as follows:

Article.

Price.

Unit.

Contractor.

Cheesecloth (on specifications):

(b) Unbleached

The specifications prepared by the bureau of specifications and adopted by the board of estimate and apportionment would not only give uniformity to proposals for purchase specifications and contracts, etc., but would lay the foundation for broader competition in bidding through the listing of these articles of the specifications, in form or order of purchase catalogues. The catalogue itself would carry with it such abbreviations as to enable those who are preparing orders, invoices, vouchers, and other documents to refer to the specifications by code designation that will be just as exact in meaning as the specifications themselves. Furthermore, by adopting an analytical code as an abbreviation, the code itself would serve as a means of accounting and analysis of cost; as, for example, in the illustration given:

m would indicate that the articles listed belong to the general class "materials "

mf would indicate that they belong to the class " fibrous materials " mfc would indicate that they belong to the subclass " cotton fibrous

materials "

mfcc would indicate that each of the items was within the more minute class of "cheesecloth "

Added to this classification code would be specification numbers, and the person making the order, invoice, or voucher or making entry in the cost or stores account would know by such code and number the exact price and quality of the thing which is entered. Such a code would enable the comptroller at the central office by automatic, mechanical methods to obtain analysis of all of the purchases of the city at a very small cost, and in any detail or summary desired.

As indicative of the cost of making such an analysis, after a uniform code has been adopted, the entire purchases of the city of Philadelphia are analyzed by the punched card method with the labor of one clerk. This card shows the date, name of contractor, appropriation, the classification, the quantity, the price, and the amount. An analysis of this kind, summarized, would give to officers and the public the best possible data for judging whether things had been economically purchased. The question of economy and efficiency of use could be effectively controlled in the manner described below.