Information Department Conducted by the Municipal Reference Bureau, General Extension Division, University of Minnesota, The Municipal Reference Bureau is at the service of all Minnesota municipalities for the answering of questions concerning municipal government and administration, for making researches, drafting ordinances, and sending suggestions to municipalities with particular problems. A number of selected questions of general municipal interest which are answered by the Bureau will be published in this Department of each number of MINNESOTA MUNICIPALITIES. No Ordinance Needed Question: We received received "Order Number Fourteen" by the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety, relative to pool, billiard, and dance halls. We have no pool or billiard halls in our village and the only dances conducted are those conducted by some club or society and invitations are sent. The Village Council were divided in their opinions as to whether it was necessary for them to pass such an ordinance. If it is necessary for us to pass such an ordinance, have you one in your "Reference Bureau" that we could get a copy? Answer: I do not believe that there is any necessity for your council to pass an ordinance in conformity with the terms of the Public Safety Commission's Order No. 14, inasmuch as you have no pool or billiard halls nor public dance halls. It appears to me that there would be no more reason for you to pass this ordinance than there would be to pass an ordinance regulating street car fares when you have no street cars. I am confident that the Public Safety Commission did not intend to require such ordinances where they are not needed. Schools and Courses in Municipal Subjects Question: Does the University of Minnesota, or any other university, have a school for city managers or administrators? Answer: So far as I know there is no university with such a school as you indicate. The nearest approach to it is the Training School for Public Service in New York City. However, it is not at all difficult or impossible for one who wishes to prepare for responsible work as a municipal officer or administrator to find good courses for his purpose in the University of Minnesota, or in other universities. A neighboring state university offers the degree of Master of Arts or Master of Science in Municipal Administration to those who complete a given course. I have checked these courses, which are given in the regular departments of the University, with courses which are offered by the University of Minnesota, and I find that by selecting courses in the Departments of Political Science, of Economics, of Sociology, and in the College of Engineering, one could get a course quite as comprehensive and useful. Many students, of course, take particular courses of these, but not all. As the public service becomes more generally recognized as a field for trained men to work in more will doubtless be attracted to take the en tire group. Sewer System Needed Question: We would like to obtain some information regarding our drain situation. We are a village of about six hundred inhabitants. Our drainage system consists of a ten inch tile which empties into a creek about a mile distant. We use this as a drain by first running the sewage through septic tanks, individually owned. Most of our houses have sanitary indoor toilets. and bath. However, many of our houses have basements and most of the drains from these basements are connected direct with tile drain and are not run through a septic tank. Consequently we are getting much wash water in our drain and are rather uneasy as to what effect this soap water will have on our drain. Now many of our septic tanks are not put down deep enough to take the basement drains. Can you suggest some way of handling these basement drains? Would building other septic tanks deep enough to take the basement drains be a satisfactory solution of the problem? This is mostly water. from washing clothes in the basements, etc., and we wondered if there would be enough solid matter in it to work a septic tank satisfactorily. Answer: As you describe your situation you have a problem which should be attended to, but not that of the soap water from your basement drains. That water is not of itself likely to clog or otherwise injure the drain. However, your village does need a sanitary sewer system. Instead of having a small septic tank at each residence you should have a larger tank to handle the entire sewage of your village at one place where it should be brought by a system of tight sewers. Your citizens would find that this would be a great deal cheaper as well as more efficient than maintaining a large number of small tanks. It is not impossible that your present drain should some time be clogged up by solids escaping into it from the septic tanks which you have already. At any rate the carriage of sewage matter in a tile drain without tight joints is a situation which should be avoided if possible. ROLL CALL Statements prepared for presentation to the St. Cloud Convention, about League members, by men who know. BARNESVILLE By Mayor N. B. Hanson The City of Barnesville in Clay County lies at the extreme eastern edge of the Red River Valley. It has about fifteen hundred inhabitants made up mostly of persons of German, Norwegian, and Irish blood respectively. and all are loyal. Barnesville had a large loyalty meeting two days after the present war was declared, which was, SO far as I know, the first loyalty meeting held in Minnesota after the war was declared. Quite a number of our high school students left school and volunteered, and many of our younger graduates volunteered early, which is a testi monial that our public schools have taught straight Americanism. The receipts of potatoes, corn, and dairy products in our local markets are constantly increasing in volume. We have a soil that is especially adapted for the production of early Ohio potatoes near Barnesville, and the market facilities to handle such products are ample. Barnesville has a Farmers' Cooperative Creamery, a Farmers' Elevator, and a Co-operative Live Stock Shipping Association. In 1914 Our creamery received 326,918 lbs. of cream; in 1916, 429,808 lbs. We have a new $60,000 public school building. The city owns its own telephone exchange, electric light and power plant, and opera house. The right of the State to collect a gross earnings tax upon the earnings of our municipal telephone exchange is to be decided by the Hon. William L. Parsons, district judge, before whom an action involving that issue has been tried. No decision has been handed down as yet. We firmly believe in owning our public utilities. P. S. The case concerning the gross earnings tax on the municipal telephone exchange has been decided in favor of the city since the St. Cloud Convention. NORTHFIELD By Alex MacKay, Councilman Roy H. Moses, City Clerk We extend greetings from a community center with a community spirit that is embodied in the minds of all the farmers surrounding Northfield and the citizens in Northfield, and is the goal to which we are working. We think the Community Idea is a good working idea. We have progressed a long way toward this goal by remodeling our Commercial Club into a Community Club, with members from the country as well as the city. The farmers have several neighborhood clubs each having a bi-weekly meeting. Debates on many subjects are participated in both by the farmers and citizens of Northfield who attend each meeting and carry home many ideas that they put to practice. Our slogan is "Cows, Colleges, and Contentment." We are in the midst of a dairy center that is forty miles south of the Twin Cities on the Dan Patch. C. M. & St. P., Rock Island, and Great Western Ry. Another industry, which will be a great boost for Northfield is a large milk condensary. It will have a capacity of 80,000 lbs. of milk daily. In keeping with the times we are developing around Northfield many full blooded Holsteins and Shorthorns, and many Percheron horses. Our two colleges are also developing full blooded American citizens. Carleton College and St. Olaf College have an attendance of over one thousand, with large, new, up-to-date buildings and a force of teachers that have. the welfare of the students at heart. The business center of Northfield has been recently paved and a white way has been constructed along the main streets. We are extending our sewer system thus opening up a new addition where. new dwellings are being constructed. This helps our population which, with the students, totals to nearly forty-five hundred. PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY The League of Minnesota Municipalities Entered as second-class matter April 28, 1916, at the Post Office at It is part of the editor's work to scan the pages of a considerable number of periodicals, among them a few engineering and contracting trade journals. These publications have ground for a proper interest in the forms and terms of contracts under which work is done. The outstanding feature of their editorial comments and of the articles they chose for publication was their attitude of hopefulness for the "cost-plus" contract. They damned the straight purchase-and-rule contract by unanimous consent. The only matter for argument was in what should the plus consist, percentage on gross cost, percentage on unit costs, fixed sum on lump cost, fixed sum on unit costs, fixed sum plus a percentage of saving on estimated cost or minus a percentage of excess above the estimate-it seemed that every week brought forth a new form of more surpassing merit than the last. We used to wonder whether the publishers paid their printers on cost-plus contracts, MINNESOTA MUNICIPALITIES having adhered to the straight fixed sum contract despite much urging to let the printing on a cost-plus basis. When there came the time of the letting of many large war contracts by the Government the columns of our trade journals seemed exultantly to imply that the cost-plus contract had come to triumph, that Uncle Sam had definitely adopted it for nearly all contracts, and that there could no longer be any valid defense of a fixed-sum contract. So it was with a full expectation of receiving an official statement of the reasons for the superiority of the cost-plus contract that we sent for a government bulletin on uniform contracts and cost accounting definitions and methods. It was framed by a conference of delegates from the Departments of War, Navy, and Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Council of National Defense, and is the guidebook for contracting officers of the United States Government. The expectations which we entertained of it were not fulfilled. Here is the gist of what it says on the matter of contract forms: "These recommendations are intended to suggest to contracting officers some of the broad legal and equitable points involved in war contracts, and to express the preference of the conference for a straight purchase-and-sale contract at a fixed price, since it is simpler in terms, easier to work under, and generally speaking, productive of better and quicker results. The British Government, after several years' experience, has discarded the cost-plus contract plan and adopted the straight purchase-and-sale contract in every instance possible." "Although a straight purchase-and-sale contract for a fixed price adjusted as indicated is greatly to be preferred, nevertheless in numerous instances the United States will be obliged to obtain production by paying for the entire cost of the same and in addition a fair profit to the contractor. Such cost-plus contract may be necessary under the following conditions: "(1) Where the production is novel and the contractor has had no past experience upon which to base a price; for example, steel helmets, large caliber guns and shells for same, aeroplane motors, and the like. "(2) Where the production involves difficult and complicated manufacturing effort subject to changing plans and specifications, or wide fluctuations in material costs; for example, steel and wooden ships, aeroplanes. optical glasswork, and the like. "(3) Where the contractor, though deserving of confidence, lacks sufficient working capital and plant equipment to carry through the job. "(4) Engineering or building jobs for which the cost-plus contract has many years been standard. "It must be borne in mind that a cost-plus contract establishes a relation of trust between the United States and the contractor, in which the contractor is legally responsible at all times to work in the interest of the United States and receive no profit beyond that definitely specified in his contract. For all excessive costs, hidden profits in the form of depreciation, overhead, discounts, and the like, the United States may refuse to pay, or if the contractor has thereby profited may sue and recover. Practically, however, the interests of the United States and the contractor are inevitably opposed if the profit is based upon a percentage of cost. The temptation is great to the contractor to inflate his own costs, as well as the costs of subcontractors, and the task of the United States is difficult and burdensome in checking and determining proper costs." The bulletin goes in great detail into the elements constituting a fair price, and into the principles of cost accounting which are to govern in cases where cost-plus contract cannot be avoided. And the standard contract forms recommended are marvelous works of precaution to assure that the performance of such a contract shall not be slurred nor the costs raised either by padding or by ordinary inefficiency. If such minute supervision is necessary, few small municipalities could indulge in improvements under cost-plus contracts. The more we contemplate the Hog Island affair and the more we come to understand what the National Industrial Conference Board meant when it listed among the first of the causes of war strikes "The unsettling influence of the cost-plus-profit feature of many war contracts," the more do we appreciate the soundness of the principles set forth in the government's |