When the first colonists of America undertook to organize governments for their local settlements, they naturally adopted forms with which they had been familiar in England. There were two such forms which met their needs, the TOWN, OR TOWNSHIP, AND THE COUNTY. These have remained to this day the chief units of our local government.
Geographical conditions were such in New England that the colonists settled in compact communities. There the township, or town, was adopted as the more convenient unit. It included a central village and the neighboring farming region with irregular boundaries. It is still the unit of local government throughout rural New England, and in many communities that have grown to the proportion of cities. It has been said of the New England town government that it is "the fullest and most perfect example of local self-government either then or now in existence … . The state might fall to pieces, and the town would still supply all the wants of everyday government." [Footnote: Henry Cabot Lodge, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN AMERICA, p. 414.]
The chief feature of the New England town government is the TOWN MEETING, which is an assemblage of the voters of the town at the town hall (formerly often at the church), the regular annual town meeting being held in the spring or autumn, and special meetings as necessary. These meetings are called by the SELECTMEN (see below) by means of a WARRANT which contains a statement of the business to be transacted. At the annual meeting, reports are heard from the officers of the preceding year, officers for the new year are elected, by-laws (town laws) are enacted, taxes are levied and appropriations made for the various purposes of government. It is direct self-government.
Among the officers elected by the town meeting are the selectmen, varying in number from three to nine, who have charge of the town property and are responsible to the town meeting for the conduct of the town's business; a town clerk, who keeps the town records, issues marriage licenses, registers births and deaths, and performs other clerical services; an assessor of taxes; a treasurer; several constables, who have police duties, execute warrants issued by the selectmen and by the justices of the peace, and sometimes act as tax collectors; school committeemen; overseers of the poor; members of the board of health and of other boards for public service. In some of the New England states the justices of the peace, who are not strictly town officers, are elected by the town meeting.
There is here given a copy of portions of a warrant for a special town meeting. This warrant is very brief as compared with those issued for a regular annual meeting; but it gives an idea of the variety of business transacted.
Town Warrant
To Henry Atchison, one of the constables of the Town of Framingham or to either of them,
In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby required to notify and warn the inhabitants of the Town of Framingham, qualified to vote in elections, and Town affairs, to meet at the Casino in said Framingham, on WEDNESDAY, JULY 16TH, A.D. 1919 at eight o'clock P.M. Then and there to act on the following articles, viz.: Article I. To hear and act upon such reports of any of the officers of the Town or Committees of the Town as may be then and there presented, appropriate money to carry out the recommendations thereof, or any of them, pass any vote or take any action relative to any of said reports, or any part thereof.
Art. 2. To hear and act on the report of the Committee directed to investigate school needs in the Apple Street District. …
Art. 3. To see if the Town will vote to instruct the Town Treasurer to place to the credit of the Park Department … for the care and maintenance of parks and playgrounds, any and all sums of money which may be received by him … on account of said Department, and authorize the use of the same by said Department. …
Art. 4. To see if the Town will grant or appropriate a sum not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars ($2500) for the purchase by the tree warden of a new tree spraying machine. …
Art. 5. To see if the Town will authorize its Board of Park Commissioners to sell and dispose of two of the unused schoolhouses placed in charge of the Park Commission some years ago. …
Art. 6. To see if the Town will appropriate the sum of fifty-five hundred dollars … to be expended under the direction of the following committee … for the purpose of selecting a site, location and erection of a temporary memorial tablet, and cause to be inscribed thereon the names of the Framingham soldiers, sailors, marines … and nurses, who gave their lives in the late war. …
Art. 8. To see if the Town will vote to install and maintain incandescent electric lights on following named streets … .
Art. 9. To see if the Town will vote to raise the pay of itsPolice Officers fifty cents a day. …
Art. 10. To see if the Town will vote to appoint and instruct a committee to petition the County Commissioners to relocate Marble Street. …
Art. 12. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate a sum … to reimburse Wellington H. Pratt for expenses incurred in the construction of a sewer and laying of water pipes. …
And you are directed to serve this warrant by posting an attested copy of the same at each of the Meeting Houses and Post-Offices in said Town, eight days at least, including two Sundays, before the time of holding said meeting.
Hereof fail not, and make due return of this warrant, with your doing thereon, to the Town Clerk at the time and place of said meeting.
Given under our hands this first day of July in the year of ourLord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen.
(Signed by the Selectmen)
It has been said that
The thing most characteristic of a town meeting is the lively and educating debate; for attendants on town meeting from year to year become skilled in parliamentary law, and effective in sharp, quick argument on their feet. Children and others than voters are allowed to be present as spectators. In every such assembly, four or five men ordinarily do half the talking; but anybody has a right to make suggestions or propose amendments, and occasionally even a non-voter is allowed to make a statement; and the debate is often very effective. [Footnote: Albert Bushnell Hart, ACTUAL GOVERNMENT, p. 171.]
Another writer says,
The retiring officers present their reports, which in the larger towns have been previously printed and distributed. Any citizen present is free to express any criticism or ask any question. No better method of checking the conduct of public officers has ever been discovered than this system of report in open meeting. Keen questions and sharp comment rip open and expose to view the true inwardness of the officers' behavior.
At its best, the New England town meeting has never been equaled as a mechanism for local government. No mere representative system can give the opportunity for real participation in government which a town meeting affords. Even the small boys who come to enjoy the fun from the gallery are taught that government is a living reality. By grappling first-hand with their own small local problems, men are trained to take part wisely in the bigger affairs of state and nation. [Footnote: Thomas H. Reed, FORM AND FUNCTIONS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, pp. 218, 220.]
Changing conditions, however, have tended to bring about changes in town government. In the early days the town meeting was a matter of great interest, and everybody attended, including the women and children. Many of the towns have now acquired large populations, the people are no longer acquainted with one another, and interest has declined. A few years ago it was reported that
In Brookline, Mass., with about 2500 votes cast, there are from 300 to 500 at the business sessions. In Hyde Park, Mass., with 2500 voters… from 500 to 600 attended the annual appropriation meeting. In Leominster, Mass., with 1400 voting, the normal attendance is about 800.
The same writer says that:
In many places the town meeting is being undermined by the caucus, held beforehand, to nominate candidates for office. Here a small group of persons not only narrow the choice for officers, but often arrange the other business to be determined at the town meeting. Sometimes every thing is "cut and dried" before it comes up for popular discussion; and that discussion thus becomes a mere formality. [J.A. Fairlie, LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN COUNTIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES, p. 148.]
This illustrates what was said in the preceding chapter (p. 388) about the necessity for leadership and the tendency of the people, under certain conditions, to accept self-appointed leaders, sometimes not of the best, outside of the government. Conditions in large towns are likely to favor this. The questions that have to be acted upon are more complicated than formerly, and often involve the expenditure of large sums of money. The candidates for office are not known to many of the voters. There may be a considerable number of uneducated people in the town, and perhaps a foreign population that is unfamiliar with the English language and with American methods. These things make intelligent self- government by direct methods difficult.
Various means have been adopted to meet these changing conditions. One of these is the creation of a FINANCE COMMITTEE, before which are brought for consideration questions involving the expenditure of money. This committee holds hearings, at which citizens may present arguments for and against proposed measures. Thus important matters are sifted out by the committee which then reports to the town meeting. The town meeting usually votes in accordance with the recommendations of the committee. While this arrangement tends to secure careful consideration of financial measures, and to result in wise decisions, provided the committee is composed of reliable men, it tends, on the other hand, to prevent discussion in open town meeting, to make the vote in the latter a mere matter of form, and to destroy interest in it. In other words, while it tends to better SERVICE, it reduces the value of the town meeting as a means of EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY.
Another arrangement that has been adopted in a good many towns is the TOWN PLANNING BOARD. This is a committee which, after careful study of existing conditions and tendencies of community growth, formulates a definite PLAN for the promotion of the community's interests during a period of years. It considers such matters as the laying out of new roads and streets and the improvement of old ones, the location of parks, playgrounds, and public buildings, the construction of sewers, water works, and lighting systems, the style of architecture for public buildings, the enactment of housing laws. While town planning boards usually deal primarily with matters pertaining to the physical development of the town, they may also plan with reference to the improvement of the educational system, the promotion of public health, and of social needs generally.
The town planning board is usually composed of trained men, such as engineers, architects, and physicians, and it may call in expert advisers from other communities or from the state government. The advantage of having such a board is that it provides the town with a program of action carefully worked out from the point of view both of continuous community needs and of economy. It affords expert leadership.
As has been said many times in these pages, government is the community's official organization to secure cooperation; but it is effective only to the extent that the people COOPERATE. It is a machine that is valuable as the people USE it. The weakening of town, government, or of any other government, is due largely to a lack of interest and of actual participation by the people. Many people think they have done their share toward good government when they have helped elect their officers and have paid their taxes. But when they take this view they are likely to lose both interest in their government and control over it.
In many New England towns the decline in popular control of town government has been largely counterbalanced by COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION FOR VOLUNTARY COOPERATION. Much community service is, and probably always will be, performed by private enterprise and initiative rather than by government; and the efficiency of government depends to a considerable extent upon the efficiency of voluntary enterprise. Government must have the cooperation of the latter, and to some extent work through it. In practically every community there are groups of people organized to cooperate for one purpose or another; but they are often self-centered and act independently of one another, if not actually at cross purposes. The situation that exists in many communities is illustrated by the chart on page 402. [Footnote: This chart and the one on page 403 are taken from Extension Bulletin No. 23, Massachusetts Agricultural College, by E.L. Morgan.]
In a good many Massachusetts towns this situation has been very largely remedied by means of community organization for which the leadership has been provided in many cases by the Community Organization Department of the Extension Service of the State Agricultural College. The organization varies in detail in different communities to meet local needs, but the main features are the following:
First: a COMMUNITY COUNCIL, consisting of representatives of the various community interests and organizations including the town officials. This council serves at first as a sort of "steering committee" to bring the various interests together and to plan the organization and the work to be done.
Second: a COMMUNITY MEETING, the first one of which is called by the community council to consider the questions: Is it possible for a community to plan for its future development? Do we care to do it? Is it worthwhile? How can it be done? The community meeting becomes a sort of UNOFFICIAL TOWN MEETING, and is often more largely attended than the official town meeting, partly because it is attended by the women of the community.
Third: a number of WORKING COMMITTEES, appointed as a result of the first community meeting. They may include:
A committee on farm production.
A committee on conservation.
A committee on boys' and girls' interests.
A committee on farm business.
A committee on community life (education, health, recreation, etc.)
These committees make a study of the conditions and needs of the community in their respective fields, and prepare plans and projects, which are submitted to the community meeting in due time.
Fourth: a COMMUNITY PROGRAM, which has been agreed upon by the community meeting, is supervised by the community council, and is carried out by the various community organizations represented, including the public officials.
This organization is entirely outside of the official govern mental organization. It may be asked why it is necessary to have a "community meeting" when the official town meeting already exists. The answer is that the official town meeting has its work pretty definitely cut out for it. It meets for a half-day or a day at a time, and its time is occupied BY THE VOTERS in passing laws, electing officials, levying taxes, making appropriations, and doing other official business. The "community meeting," on the other hand, is attended by non-voters as well as voters, the women taking an active part, and the young people being represented. Many matters are discussed that could not properly be taken up in town meeting.
A large part of the program of the community organization is carried out by the voluntary agencies of the community. But a great many of its proposals must have the approval of the official town meeting, require appropriations which can only be made by the town meeting, and are finally executed by the public officials of the town. The organization naturally stimulates interest in the official government, and brings to its support all the organized agencies of the community working together.
The township is found as a unit of local government in many states outside of New England, but in most of these cases its government is entirely representative in form. While the town meeting is found in a few of these states, [Footnote: As in New York and New Jersey; and farther west in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Illinois, and Nebraska.] it nowhere holds the important place that it does in New England. One reason for this is the larger size and more scattered population of the township. In the public land states the congressional township, six miles square, is also the political township. At the head of the township government in its representative form are TRUSTEES (sometimes three, sometimes only one) who, with the town clerk, the constables, the tax assessor, the treasurer, the justices of the peace, and such other officers as may be required, are elected by the people. The powers of the township government outside of New England vary in different states, but are always quite limited, relating most commonly to the maintenance of roads, school administration, and the care of the poor. In these circumstances there is at least as great need for community organization to support and supplement the work of government as in the New England towns.
Investigate and report on the following:
The services performed by your township government.
A complete list of your township officers, and the duties of each. (Committees of pupils may interview some of the more important officers to get a description of their daily routine, kinds of service performed, etc. Also discuss with parents.)
Officers of the colonial New England town that do not exist now, and their duties.
What is parliamentary law? (Valuable training may be secured by conducting school meetings, club meetings, or occasional regular class exercises, in accordance with parliamentary procedure.)
Why public discussion is a check upon the conduct of persons holding responsible positions.
The popular interest in public questions in your township.
If there is a finance committee in your township (p. 399), how does it serve the community? Does it hold hearings? (Attend and report upon some such hearing.)
Town planning in your community (what has been, or what might be, done).
The value of having a plan.
Is your community more like that represented by the chart on page 402, or by that on page 403?
The extent to which voluntary organizations in your community co operate with and through the local government.
The extent to which your state agricultural college promotes community organization.
The feasibility of organizing your town (or community) by some such plan as that outlined on page 402.
The value of a community "forum" as a means to good government.
Why the official town meeting should (or should not) be encouraged in your state.
Procure and examine recently published official reports of your township government. What do these reports tell you? What is the value of such reports? Are the reports of your township generally read by the people of the township? Why? Discuss ways in which your township reports could be made more useful.
The other unit of local government with which the colonists were familiar was the county, which in England embraced a number of townships. In the colonies of New York and Pennsylvania the county and the town ship were developed together as in England; in the southern colonies the county was organized without the township. Today the county exists in every state of the Union, including the New England states. In Louisiana it is called the PARISH.
There are two main types of county government. According to one plan, as in New York, each township elects a representative to a county BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, which is sometimes quite large. According to the other plan, as in Pennsylvania, the people of the county as a whole elect a small BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, the townships not being represented as such even when they exist. The board of supervisors or commissioners levies taxes and makes appropriations for various county purposes, such as constructing and maintaining roads, bridges, and county buildings, paying the salaries of county officers, caring for the county poor, and conducting the county schools. It is sometimes spoken of as the county legislative body, but it is rather an administrative body, its lawmaking powers being very slight.
Among the important county officers are the sheriff, who is chief guardian of the peace in the county, has charge of the jail, is the chief executive officer of the county court (see p. 439), and sometimes acts as tax collector; the county prosecutor (also called the prosecuting attorney, the district attorney, or the state's attorney), who prosecutes all criminal cases in the county and represents the public authorities in civil suits; the county clerk, who keeps the county records; the register of deeds, who records all transfers of property; the coroner, who investigates the cause of violent and mysterious deaths; the tax assessor; the treasurer; the auditor, who examines the accounts of county officers; the surveyor; the school superintendent; the health officer. Some times there are others.
Although practically every citizen of the United States is also a citizen of a county, the people have as a rule shown surprisingly little interest in county government. As generally found it affords a striking example of poor service resulting from a lack of teamwork. County government has the reputation of being one of the weakest spots in our whole system of government.
We seem to have gotten into the habit of not expecting much service from the county government. Where the township government is strong, as in New England, it takes the place of county government. Where people live in cities, they look to the city government to serve them rather than to the county government. In rural districts the people have come more and more to look to the state and national governments for such service as they expect government to give. These facts might suggest the question whether or not we really need county government.
One recent writer says,
There are some parts of the country where I can see that the county will pass out of existence entirely in a very short time, unless it does adjust itself to the new conditions. [Footnote: H.S. Gilbertson, in the University of North Carolina RECORD, No. 159, October, 1918, p. 37.]
The same writer says,
Unless the county does measure up in this way, the powers of government and the services which it renders will have to drift away from local control and be placed in the hands of some government more fit and which will probably be further away from home.
Students of county government attribute many of its defects to the "long ballot." In one county in North Carolina, at a recent election, there were twenty-five different candidates for county offices on each of three party tickets, making seventy-five candidates among whom each voter had to choose. Township and state officers were also elected at the same election, bringing the number of persons to be voted for up to about fifty out of 150 candidates. It is apparent that the average voter would have difficulty in voting intelligently.
The long ballot has other results than the mere difficulty of intelligent voting. One of these is a GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A HEAD. While the board of supervisors or commissioners is nominally at the head of the county government, it has to work through the various administrative officers. These are also elected by the people, and may be of the opposite political party. At all events, they are independent of the board, not responsible to it, and may or may not work in harmony with it. A former member of a county board in North Carolina says,
Most persons are under the impression that the board of commissioners, with its chairman, is at the head of the county government. … The board does have authority to say how about 19 cents of the entire tax levy may be spent, but its authority over the balance of the levy, over any county official, such as the sheriff, clerk of the court, coroner, constable, county judge, or recorder, is nil. The chairman of the board does have the honor … of smiling and trying to look pleasant when complaints are made about bad roads, excessive tax assessments, or the delinquency of some county subordinate, over whom neither he nor the board has any control.[Footnote: M. S. Willard, North Carolina Club Year Book, 1918, p. 87.]
Another result of the long ballot is the opportunity it gives the political "boss" to control the selection of officers. It is not uncommon to hear rural citizens ask such questions as, "What's the use of farmers taking off time for politics when the whole thing is run by political bosses anyway?"[Footnote: Graham Taylor, in Rural Manhood, October, 1914, p. 328.] "In such counties office- seeking has become not the means to the end of performing service, but exists for the immediate reward, and whatever service is rendered to the people is incidental to that other object. "[Footnote: H. S. Gilbertson, Forms of County Government, in the University of North Carolina Record, No. 159, October, 1918, p. 37.]
Along with these defects, and largely because of them, bad business methods have characterized county government, resulting in poor service and wastefulness of the people's money. A faulty system of keeping accounts is as unbusinesslike and disastrous in public business as in private business.
When I was first connected with the government of my own county, I became very much interested to know whether we were doing better or worse in the management of our road finances; in the cost of maintaining our county prisoners; in the maintenance of our county home and numerous other county institutions, than were other counties. I was anxious to find out what was being done in other counties in the way of appropriations for hospitals and I selected twelve or fifteen counties and wrote letters to the county officials asking for information. In answer to probably two of my letters I received intelligent and satisfactory replies. Probably half a dozen more gave me some figures which were of very little use for purposes of comparison, and to my other letters I received no replies, although the first request was followed up by a second and a third letter. I then began an effort to secure copies of the newspapers in which had been printed the financial statements of the counties. I succeeded in securing probably ten statements and, after a fruitless attempt to coordinate these statements so that I might secure information which would enable me to know whether we were doing better or worse than our neighbors, I became hopelessly lost in a jungle of statistics and reluctantly gave it up as useless, and turned my attention to doing what I could to place our own county affairs in such condition that they could be understood by those of our taxpayers who might be inquisitive enough to want to know how the money was handled which they paid for taxes. [Footnote: M. S. Willard, County Finances in North Carolina, in the University of North Carolina RECORD, No. 159, October, 1918, p. 80.]
The practice of compensating county officers from FEES received for special services and of allowing them to retain the interest on public money is one illustration of extravagant business methods.
For many of the services performed by county officers fees are charged, on the principle that the person served should pay for the service. It did not occur to the people to inquire how much their officers were getting in this way. In one county, in which there was a large city, investigation showed that the sheriff had a net income from fees and commissions of $15,000, the county treasurer $23,000, and the county auditor over $50,000.
From the point of view of economy and efficiency it is better to pay all officers an adequate salary and to require that all fees, commissions, and interest on public money be returned to the county treasury. It keeps the tax rate down and makes possible an increase of service.
The county office fees and commissions in North Carolina amount to something like one and a quarter million dollars a year, if they are collected according to law. The total is large enough to pay all salaries in at least 58 counties of the state, and leave large balances to apply to schools, roads, jail expenses, interest, and sinking funds. These large surpluses are being wasted in most of the salary counties. [Footnote: E.C. Branson, The Fee System in North Carolina, in the University of North Carolina Record, No. 159, October, 1918, p. 69.]
Such faulty business methods are gradually being corrected by the introduction of the short ballot, as in California and elsewhere, by businesslike methods of keeping accounts, by the appointment of county and state auditors, and by giving full publicity to reports of county business.
"But after all," says the county official quoted above, "a great part of the shortcomings of county officials and a great deal of the looseness which prevails in the management of county affairs can be charged to the citizen people themselves." Another student of the situation says,
Among the country people themselves there is no demand for better local government or almost none; they are satisfied or content themselves with grumbling about taxes and in fierce partisan politics. … The country people of America lack an adequate sense of civic and social responsibility, and the deficiency is rising into critical, national importance. [Footnote 2: E.C. Branson, Report of subcommittee on local government, National Country Life Conference, Baltimore Proceedings, 1919, pp. 68, 69.]
Another says,
The first thing to be reformed in county government is not the officers down at the courthouse, but our own attitude toward the county, and particularly toward public office. For, after all, public officers in this country are just what the people make them … [Footnote 3: H.S. Gilbertson, Forms of County Government, in the University of North Carolina Record, No. 159, October, 1918, p. 38.]
There are those who advocate breaking up the county into smaller units for purposes of local self-government, as in New England. Thomas Jefferson, living in Virginia where the county was the sole unit of local government, was a great admirer of the New England town meeting, and said that "public education and the subdivision of the counties into wards," or townships, were the "two hooks" upon which republican government must hang. On the other hand, we have observed an opposite tendency to concentrate the administration of schools, roads, health, and other matters, in the county government (see pp. 294,325). The fact is that both the organization for centralized, county-wide government, and that for the government of local communities within the county, have their uses. Neither can do its best work without the other. The problem is to deter mine what the business of each should be and to establish a proper balance between them. One thing is sure, namely, that the government of the county cannot be effective unless the people of the various communities within the county are organized to cooperate both for their local interests and for the interests of the county as a whole. This may be provided for in part through township governments, where they exist, and in part through such unofficial organization as that described for the New England town (p. 402), or as that furnished by the farm bureau with its local community committees (p. 30).
One of the most progressive states in the matter of county government is North Carolina. One of the chief instruments by which this progress has been made is the NORTH CAROLINA CLUB, organized by the University of North Carolina for the study and promotion of the interests of the state. The North Carolina Club has affiliated with it COUNTY CLUBS, each of which studies its own county and promotes its interests. In North Carolina they are working in both directions suggested above: in the direction of an effective central county government, and in the direction of organization of all local communities for the study of needs and for teamwork in providing for them. See references.
Another important factor in county government is the control exercised over it by the state. The county is not only a local self-governing unit, but it is also a division of the state for the administration of state laws. Its powers of self-government are given to it by the state, and along with these powers it has imposed upon it certain duties for the state. First of all, the county is a STATE JUDICIAL DISTRICT. The most important building at the county seat is the courthouse. The COUNTY COURT is one of the state courts described in the next chapter. The county judge is sometimes chosen by the people of the county, but he is really a state officer. In New England the county is almost solely a judicial district, and in all states its judicial purposes are of supreme importance.
But more than this, the county schools are a part of the state school system and must be administered in accordance with state laws, though by county and township officers. County officers must enforce the health laws of the state. County authorities not only levy and collect county taxes, but also collect state taxes from residents of the county.
Here again we have an illustration of the necessity for a careful balance between matters properly subject to local self-government and those properly subject to state control. Counties have suffered both from too much state control in some respects, and from too little in others.
The whole state is injured … if one township lets its citizenship deteriorate through ignorance or drunkenness, and so the state has a right to say that at least six months school term must be given in every township and that no whiskey-selling shall be permitted. Or if one township is infested with cattle ticks, other townships are injured, and so the state may set a minimum standard here …
It often happens that the citizens of one county pay more than their share of the state taxes because it has better methods of assessing and collecting taxes and of keeping accounts than other counties in the state. One of the greatest needs of counties, and one least provided for, is uniformity among the counties of a state in methods of keeping accounts (see example on page 410). Some states have established state systems of auditing county finances.
On the other hand, state governments often interfere in matters that might better be left to local determination. Usually all the counties of a state have exactly the same form of government, with exactly the same officers who exercise exactly the same duties. Yet some counties within a state are almost wholly rural, some are almost wholly urban, others are mixed in character. A form of government adapted to one may not be suited to another. So there has arisen a demand for a larger degree of "home rule" in counties. In Illinois, counties have had the right to determine for themselves whether the township should or should not be given prominence in local government, and whether the "supervisor" or the "commissioner" plan of government should be used. California now has a law which provides that counties may apply for "charters" in the same way that cities do in all states. The "charter," like a constitution, determines the form and powers of the government, and is framed by the people of the county themselves, though it must then have the approval of the state legislature.
We have noted how the growth of cities with their elaborate organization for service tends to divert attention from the less conspicuous county government. While probably half the counties of the United States contain no city, or "town," or village of 2500 people, there is in almost every township at least one compact settlement that has grown up around the trading center. Sometimes there are several of them in a township and many in a county. In such compact communities cooperation becomes necessary to provide for needs that are not felt in more rural districts, such as paved streets, sewers, public water supply, fire and police protection, and so on. A separate government becomes necessary. The people of such communities may appeal to the authorities of township, county, or state, for incorporation as a village, borough, town, or city. "Village" and "borough" are simply two names used in different localities for the same thing. The difference between them and an incorporated town or city is principally one of size and corresponding complexity of organization.
The chief governing body of a village, or borough, or incorporated town, is a small council, or board, elected by the people. It has legislative powers in a small way, enacting ORDINANCES for the regulation of local officers and in the public interest.
In Michigan … they may prescribe the terms and conditions for licensing taverns, peddlers, and public vehicles. They have control of streets, bridges and public grounds; and have authority to construct bridges and pavements, and to regulate the use and prevent the obstruction of the highways. They may establish and maintain sewers and drains. They may construct and control public wharves, and regulate and license ferries. They may establish and regulate markets. They may provide a police force and a fire department. They may construct or purchase and operate water works and lighting plants. They may own cemeteries, public pounds, public buildings and parks.[Footnote: John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns, and Villages, pp. 207, 208.]
The council also has limited power to levy taxes and to borrow money for public purposes.
There is a chief executive officer, sometimes called MAYOR, sometimes president, or by other names. Subordinate to him are various other officers, such as the police marshal, the street commissioner, fire marshal, tax assessor, treasurer, clerk, and so on. In larger villages boards of health and other boards and commissions exist to administer various forms of public service. The village may also have its minor court presided over by a justice of the peace.
When villages or towns reach a certain population usually fixed by state law, they may be incorporated as cities. The change that takes place is simply one of elaborating the governing machinery and giving to it larger powers to correspond with the larger needs of city life. The complex problems of city government we shall not attempt to study in this book.
Great improvement in the government of towns and cities has been made in recent years. The latest plan of government to be adopted, and it has spread to a considerable number of towns and cities in the United States, is the CITY MANAGER, or TOWN MANAGER, form of government. By this plan the voters elect a small council, or board of directors, who in turn appoint a MANAGER who serves as a superintendent over the affairs of the city or town. He is a trained specialist, often an engineer, and cities and towns sometimes search the country over for the best man available for the place. The manager appoints the heads of the various departments of government, such as health, police, public works, etc., and is responsible to the council for their work. It is the application to town government of methods long used by successful business corporations.
Investigate and report upon:
How the county in Louisiana came to be called a "parish."
Organization and powers of your county board.
A list of your county officers and their duties.
The sentiment in your county with regard to the efficiency of your county government. Is the sentiment justified?
Recognized defects in your county government.
The long (or short) ballot in your county.
Extent to which the people of your county study the reports of your county government (consult at home and with older friends).
What do you find of interest in your county reports?
Are reports of your county published in the newspapers? Do you understand them? Ask your father to explain them to you.
Extent to which your county board exercises control over other county officers.
Extent to which the farmers of your county interest themselves in politics.
Whether or not the experience of the officer quoted on page 410 could be duplicated in your state.
The fee system in your county.
How and why public officers "are just what the people make them."
The meaning of Jefferson's remark that "public education and the subdivision of counties into wards are the two hooks upon which republican government must hang".
The feasibility of a "county club" in your county similar to those in North Carolina.
The balance between county government and township government in your county.
State control of your county government—too much, or too little?Explain.
Difference between a charter and a constitution.
Number of incorporated towns and cities in your county.
Cooperation (or friction) between urban and rural districts in your county.
Organization of village, borough, or town government in your county.
Difference between the "town" as referred to in the last part of this chapter and the "town" as described in the first part.
Services in incorporated towns and villages in your county that are not performed by the county or township governments for rural residents.
How a village or town is incorporated in your state.
Town manager form of government in your state. Its advantages.
State Constitution.
County Government and County Affairs in North Carolina, NorthCarolina Club Year Book 1917-1918 (The University of NorthCarolina Record, Extension Series No 30, Chapel Hill, N.C. ).
County Government, ANNALS of the American Academy of Political andSocial Science, Vol XLVII, May, 1913. (36th and Woodland Ave,Philadelphia.)
Publications of the New York Short Ballot Association, 381 FourthAve, New York City.
Fairlie, J.A., Local Government in Counties, Towns, and Villages(The Century Co.).
Mobilizing the Rural Community, by E.L. Morgan, Extension BulletinNo. 23, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass.
In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:
Series B: Lesson 19, The commission form of government and the city manager.
Hart, A.B., Actual Government, Part IV, Local government in action.
Reed, T.H., Form and Functions of American Government, Part iv,Local government.