viii REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY

mind is that efficient government and economical government
are not incompatible. Efficiency is the most desirable thing in
government, economy one of the most necessary. It is thoroughly
practical to determine the proper cost of efficient government,
and for that purpose I have made a very careful comparison of
the cost of government in the various States of the Union. It is,
so far as I am aware, the first time that a comparison of this kind
has been made by any State official. The tables which I have
used do not all belong to the same year, because the reports of
many State Auditors and Comptrollers are made under different
circumstances and at different times. It is therefore impossible
to have the cost data for the same time in each State. The ac-
counting system of the various States differs measurably, and the
analysis of the reports requires the closest study and scrutiny.
I have tried to give the work the attention which it deserves, and
I believe that it will furnish to the people of Maryland informa-
tion which will be of much value. I hope the work which I have
begun may be taken up in other States, and that the result in the
near future may be a uniform system of accounting in all the
States of the Union; that all reports may be uniform, and that
the same terminology may be used, so that like expenditures may
thus be easily compared. If a concerted effort is made by the
various States along this line, the taxpayer and those who bear
the cost of government can always recognize the efficient and
capable public servant, because of the service he renders, and of
its cost to the people.

In presenting the Table " M,': which gives a summary of the
cost of government in those departments in which a comparison
can be made, I do not do so stating it to be an absolutely accurate
cost of government, but as near perfect and as near accurate as
can be made from the data obtainable in the reports made by the
Auditors and Comptrollers of the various States of the Union. I
can say that it is at least a careful study of comparison of costs
in different States. Its chief value will be in the effort made to
establish the idea in the minds of those interested, that an ac-
curate cost of government can be established.

The United States Bureau of the Census in Washington, for
the past few years, has been making an effort to present the costs
of government of the various States. It is a work of great im-
portance, and is being capably handled; and it is possible that
through this Bureau a plan may be evolved for uniform reports
from all the States of the Union. I know of nothing in govern-
ment more important than to try to determine what it should