Financial Statistics Of Cities Having A Population Of Over 100 000

Excerpt from Statistics of Cities Having a Population of Over 30, 000: 1908 Need for uniformity in city accounts and reports. Until the cities keep their accounts and publish their reports in a uniform manner it will be impossible to compare, from the cities' printed reports, the financial experience of one city with that of other cities. Such comparisons are valuable, and the demand for com parable statistics was largely responsible for the present census reports. The compilation of compar able financial statistics of cities is at the present time attended with many difficulties and large expense, owing to differences in the accounting systems and methods of the various cities. The movement toward the uniform classification of payments and receipts has been given great impetus by the publication of the census reports presenting the financial statistics of cities, but the publication of these reports will not alone suffice to render easy of attainment comparable financial statistics of cities. Before that end can be secured accountants and governmental officials must reach some common understanding as to the funda mental principles of governmental business and accounting, as accountants have already done with reference to the fundamental principles of commercial accounting. That result can be secured only as the outcome of study and intelligent discussion of these principles. Standard city accounts and reports are desirable not only as prerequisites to significant comparisons of one city's finances with those of other cities, but also to enable the officials and citizens of a given city to compare its expenditures, outlays, and reve nues for a given year with those for other years. If a standard system is in use, the transactions must be analyzed and recorded according to their charac ter; in the case of payments they will be classified according to their object, as for expenses of a giv'en department or for outlays for a specified improvement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.