Community Civics and Rural Life Part 56

In each district under our present system, however, the representatives are ELECTED BY A MAJORITY, though they are supposed to REPRESENT ALL the people when elected. If proportional representation were adopted, it would be necessary to increase the number of representatives from each district, in order that each party should have at least one. Then we should have REPRESENTATION BY PARTIES, as well as by districts.

We now hear a good deal about SOVIET GOVERNMENT in Russia. The "soviet" is a representative body with a different basis of representation than either of the above. Soviet government is government by "workers" and each representative represents a TRADE OR OCCUPATION. It is as if, in our country, all the farmers in a county, as a group, should elect their representatives to the board of county supervisors, all the carpenters their representatives, all the merchants theirs, and so on. It would be, as it is in Russia, REPRESENTATION BY OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS, instead of by geographical districts as now. It would differ from proportional representation by parties, as described above, because each political party is made up of representatives of all occupations. Only in a few cases have political parties in our country tended to become identified with occupational interests, as in the case of "labor parties," and the old "greenback party,"

which was largely made up of farmers.

At election time visit the nearest polling place, observe the procedure of voting, and report. Get sample copies of the ballot used.

Who are the different persons on duty at the polling place, and what are their duties?

Why and how do voters "register" before an election?

Describe a primary election in your community.

How do discussion and debate protect the rights of minorities?

Is the "recall" used in your state? If so, what instances of its exercise do you know, and what were the circ.u.mstances?

What advantages and disadvantages can you see in representation by occupational groups as compared with representation by geographical districts?

READINGS

In Foerster and Pierson's AMERICAN IDEALS:

Contributions of the west to democracy (F.J. Turner), pp. 72-97. A charter of democracy (Theodore Roosevelt), pp. 114-132. Can democracy be organized? (E.A. Alderman), pp. 158-174. The sovereignty of the people (A. de Tocqueville), pp. 257-260.

General tendency of the laws (A. de Tocqueville), pp. 261-266. The activity of the body politic (A. de Tocqueville), pp. 267-272. The German and the American temper (Kuno Francke), pp. 273-281. The "Divine Average" (G. Lowes d.i.c.kinson), pp 282-284.

In Long's AMERICAN PATRIOTIC PROSE:

Farewell Address (Was.h.i.+ngton), pp. 105-123. The independent in politics (James Russell Lowell), pp. 241-243. Liberty is responsibility, not license (McKinley), pp. 254-255. The right of the people to rule (Roosevelt), pp. 272-273.

In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:

Series A: Lesson 16, Caste in India.

Lesson 19, Active citizens.h.i.+p.

Series C: Lesson 17, Custom as a basis for law.

Lesson 18, Cooperation through law.

Hart, A.B., ACTUAL GOVERNMENT, Chapters IV, V.

Ashley, R.L., THE NEW CIVICS (Macmillan), Chapters, VI, VII.

Reed, T.H., FORM AND FUNCTIONS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, Chapters V- VIII, (World Book Co.).

Bryce, James, THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH, Vol. II, Part III, The party system; and Part V, Chapters, XCVII-XCIX, The faults and strength of democracy.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, under the several topics referred to in this chapter.

Teachable Facts about Bolshevism and Sovietism, Inst.i.tute for Public Service, 51 Chambers St., New York City.

CHAPTER XXV

OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

UNITS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

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 TOWNs.h.i.+P, AND THE COUNTY. These have remained to this day the chief units of our local government.

THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN

Geographical conditions were such in New England that the colonists settled in compact communities. There the towns.h.i.+p, 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 TOWN MEETING

The chief feature of the New England town government is the TOWN MEETING, which is an a.s.semblage 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.

NEW ENGLAND TOWN OFFICERS

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 a.s.sessor 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.

THE TOWN WARRANT

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

MIDDLEs.e.x, SS.

To Henry Atchison, one of the constables of the Town of Framingham or to either of them,

GREETING:

In the name of the Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts, 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, pa.s.s 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. ...