This is one of the subdivisions of the form prescribed by the Inter-state Commerce Commission, for the classification of the operating expenses of a railroad. It includes the salaries paid clerks and attendants and general officers, insurance, legal expenses, general office expenses and supplies, stationery and printing properly belonging to the same, and other expenses.

1 Under "Electric Light Company Securities" will be found further information relating to city contracts, which applies with equal force here.

2 The tendency of gas companies is to reduce the price, as is shown by the fact that in 1886 the average price paid by the consumers of Massachusetts was $1.72, from which time there has been a steady decline down to 85 cents in 1913, and a slight increase since to the present time, when it is a • little in excess of $1.00.

3 For an able treatise against municipally owned electric lighting plants, see "The Results of Municipal Electric Lighting in Massachusetts," by Dr. E. E. Lincoln (Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1918).