2. Describe the early New England town.

3. Illustrate how the affairs of church and state were blended in the early days of New England history.

4. Describe a New England town-meeting.

5. What are the powers of a New England town?

6. Name the officers of the New England town and state their duties.

7. What influence does town government have upon civic life in New England?

8. To what extent has town government of the New England type been adopted in other States?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

(FOR STUDENTS IN NEW ENGLAND)

1. Examine the constitution of your State for provisions respecting the government of towns and state these provisions.

2. Of the services of local government mentioned on page 72, which are performed by your town government?

3. Bound the town in which you live and tell when it was organized. Name all the towns in the county in which you live. Have these names historical interest? Name the boroughs or cities, if any, located within the borders of your town.

4. Make out a list of the officers of your town. Which one of these plays a most important part in town government? (Elect a committee to wait upon some town officer and invite him to give the class a talk upon town government.)

5. How may a special town meeting be called?

6. What influences are at work to make town government a less important feature of New England life than it has been in the past?

7. How many representatives has your town in the legislature? Has this apportionment been made according to the population of the town?

8. Is the town meeting a legislative or an executive body?

9. Are women and children represented in town government? 10. In what matters does the government of your town excel? In what respect is your town excelled by its neighbors?

11. How many towns in this State? What is the population of the largest town? of the smallest town? Is the largest too large for a pure democracy? Is the smallest too small for self-government?

Hints on Reading.-Fiske's "American Political Ideals,'' 17-56; Howard, 50-99.

XXVIII

THE TOWNSHIP

The County-township System. We have learned that in the Middle States and in most of the States in the West the county shares the business of local government with a minor civil division known as the township. The presence of townships in the county results in a compromise system of local government often called the county-township system. Under this system the county government attends to those affairs which interest the whole body of the people of the county, while the township administers the affairs of a small area. The township, like the New England town, provides a government for a neighborhood.

The Two Types of the County-township System. Countytownship government has had two sources, and has developed into two distinct types-the New York type and the Pennsylvania type. In New York, as in New England, small self-governing communities known as towns (townships) appeared at a very early date in the history of the colony. These towns had their town-meetings and elected a full set of officers, but their powers were at no time so great as those of the New England town. In 1703 the colonial assembly of New York passed a law that has had far-reaching influence upon local government in the United States. This law provided for the annual election by each township of an officer to be known as the supervisor of 1In Delaware, townships are called hundreds, a name that has come down from the Anglo-Saxon period of English history.

the township, and further provided that the supervisors of the several townships should meet at the county-seat as a Board of County Supervisors (p. 197). Here was a reproduction of the old hundred-village system of early England, when the representatives of the village met in shire moot (p. 18). Following this law of 1703, there has been evolved in New York strongly democratic local governments of small area, conveniently classed as townships, and along with these a strong county government, whose chief administrative body-the Board of County Supervisors-consists of representatives of townships. Villages and the wards of cities are also represented on the board of county supervisors. This type of the county-township system, known as the supervisor plan, has served as the pattern for local government in those new States that were settled largely by emigrants from New York. This is true of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

In the early days of Pennsylvania the prevailing form of local government was the county organized on the Virginia plan. Gradually the officers of the county came to be elected by the people, and when the township made its appearance the county was too strong to suffer encroachments upon its organization. It retained its board of county commissioners elected by the people of the county. Thus the townships in Pennsylvania were not allowed to conduct the business of the county through their representatives, as in New York. Moreover, the people of the townships in Pennsylvania did not hold their annual townmeetings and participate directly in the management of their local affairs, as in New York; they elected their local officers annually, and with the act of election their power was at an end. In other words, the township in Pennsylvania was a representative government.

The county-township system of Pennsylvania naturally spread to Ohio, and thence to Indiana. Later it was adopted by Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Local government in Illinois has had an instructive experience. When this State was admitted into the Union its people were largely of Southern origin and, consequently, local government of the pure county type was established. As time went on, the northern part of the State filled up with people from the North. These desired the county-township plan, and in 1848 the new constitution gave the people of the county the right to determine whether they wished townships or not. Taking advantage of this right, more than three fourths of the counties of Illinois have decided for townships, and are now under the county-township system.

Michigan furnishes another excellent illustration of how the character and habits of the people influence the form of government. In Michigan, at first, the county-township system of the Pennsylvania kind was established, but as emigrants from New York and New England moved into the State and changed the character of the population, the people became more and more dissatisfied with their local government, and finally changed it to the supervisor or New York plan. Such experiences teach that local government must above all things be acceptable to the people. who are immediately affected by it and who must personally conduct it.

The Powers of the Township. Why have so many States found it desirable to erect within the county another fully organized government? Because the township has been found to be an institution of great convenience. For a sparsely settled society the county is, perhaps, the only practicable form of government; but as population in-p creases the needs of the neighborhood multiply, and many of these needs are such as can be attended to by the people directly interested if they only have the power granted to them. It is not necessary to travel twenty miles to the county-seat to see an officer about the repair of a wash

out in a road, or about the purchase of a stove for a school-house, when we can have a government near at hand to attend to such things. The township has been introduced as an agency by which the needs of the immediate locality may be attended to.

Especially has the public school been a factor in the development of the township system. Local government, in the South developed around a court-house, and in New England around a church; in the Middle States and in the West it developed around a school-house. Then, too, the care of the roads, and the support of the poor are services that may most conveniently be rendered by the government of the neighborhood.

The powers of the township vary slightly in the different States, but as a rule where the county-township system prevails the township (1) supports the public schools, (2) cares for the roads and (3) helps the poor, leaving other matters of local government to the county. The taxes necessary for doing these things are levied by township authority.

The Organization of the Township. The names of the officers of the township are not the same in all the States, but its organization is practically the same and may be indicated as follows:

1. The Supervisors (sometimes called Trustees) resemble the selectmen of the New England town, only their powers are not so great. Their duty is to take care of the roads and bridges, erect and keep in repair guide-posts and watering-troughs, and plant shade trees along the roadside. They may build and keep in repair a town house, in which elections may be held and officers of the town may transact the public business.

2. School Directors or School Trustees have control of the public schools within the township. In some States the directors of all the townships in a county meet every second or third year and elect a superintendent of schools