Duties of local government. The county, town, and compromise CHAPTER IX TOWN AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT 104. The Three Types of Local Rural Government. The duties that we have been considering in the last four chapters are performed by three different governments - the rural local governments, the city governments, and the state governments. Some of these questions, like those of preserving order or supporting public education, interest all three governments, while others, like the waterworks problem, are of interest to only one - in this case, the city government. The rural local governments include the governments of the county and the governments of the town. types of local We usually distinguish three types of local rural government. government in the United States. (1) When the counties of a state are very important, and there are no towns within the county, that is, the county is not subdivided into important rural districts, we say that the local government of that state is a county government. (2) If, on the other hand, as in New England, the towns are much more important than the counties, we call the local government a town government. (3) But if, as in the middle Atlantic states and in the central West, there are both counties and towns, each of which does a part of the work of governing the community, it is customary to speak of the compromise type of local government. changes in the life of a people pro duce changes in the government. 105. How Governments Grow. In order to under- How stand why a particular government performs certain duties rather than others, or why it is organized in a particular way, it is usually necessary to learn something of its history. We shall find that at some time in the past, perhaps several centuries ago, some great change took place. This may have been the migration of an entire people from one land to another. In their new home it may not have been possible to establish governments like those that they had used before, and, in consequence, the character of the government was changed, although the new government was an adaptation of the old, since it is much easier to modify an existing institution than to invent a new one. From this starting point, a new kind of government was gradually developed, being altered as changes became necessary. In the history of the American people, such a change occurred when our forefathers came to this country in the seventeenth century. Because the climate was different on various parts of the Atlantic coast, their settlements were unlike, and, because their settlements were unlike and because they had different ideas about how they should be governed, local governments of the three types mentioned in the preceding sections were established. Why this was done, we shall now notice briefly. - As 106. Local Government in Colonial Virginia. we all know, the first permanent English settlement UNIV. How the English local government when trans planted to Virginia. in America was begun at Jamestown in Virginia in the year 1607. The settlers came to this hemisphere was changed because they desired to make money, and they were much more interested in commerce than they were in political matters. It was perfectly natural therefore that they should be content to establish in Virginia the kind of a government that they had used in England. But in England the country was thickly populated, whereas in Virginia the plantations were large and the population was scattered. In England they had had county governments and parish governments, the latter being very much like what we should call town government. But, because people lived far apart in Virginia, the county government was the only one that they needed. All the work of local government was therefore performed by county officials. In the other Southern colonies as well, county governments only were established, town governments being unnecessary. Why the Puritan congregations established towns. 107. Local Government in Colonial New England. Massachusetts and the other New England colonies were settled by English Puritans, a religious sect. These men did not approve many of the forms and usages of the established Church of England which every Englishman of that day was obliged to support. In order that they might use the ceremonies which they preferred, they emigrated to the new world. They did not come as individuals, but as congregations. Instead of separating when they reached America, the members of each congregation made a settlement of their own, with their meetinghouse on far away. a convenient hill, and the homes of the members not Meetings were held frequently at the church to look after religious affairs and to consider such matters as erecting defenses, constructing roads and building bridges. All church members were allowed to attend these meetings, which were exceedingly democratic, for every man present might speak and vote on any question. As each congregation looked after the government of its own district or town,1 no county government was necessary, and the local government of colonial New England was therefore from the beginning a town government. middle colonies borrowed from those to the south. 108. Township-county Government. More than How the a half-century after Jamestown was founded, the English conquered New Netherland, and twenty years later the vacant land between New York and north and Maryland was occupied by the Quakers sent out by William Penn. None of the colonists in this middle district were especially interested in their local governments, and in consequence they borrowed from their neighbors on the south the county government which the latter had tried with success, and, from those on the north, they obtained many features of a town government. This gave them a township-county government, a compromise type of local government, well suited to their needs. mise type in the West. Not only did the colonists of the middle Atlantic The comprosection adopt the compromise type, but the settlers in the Mississippi Basin a century or two later found 1 The words "town" and "township" are used in the same sense, meaning not an aggregation of houses, but an area of land. The county board. Other county officials. In this form of local government satisfactory. almost every state, however, a county government was more essential than a town government, and in consequence outside of the original thirteen states, the counties are more important than the towns. 109. County Government at Present. The officials who look after our counties are elected by the voters or are appointed by those elected officials. Elections occur usually every two or four years. The most important set of officials is called the county board, the members of which are usually known as commissioners or supervisors. They make county ordinances, determine the amount of money to be raised each year by taxation in order that the county may do its work, divide the county into school and road districts, look after the poor, erect public buildings, construct bridges and lay out public highways. A county board of education and a superintendent of schools attend to almost all school duties not performed by the local trustees. The sheriff, who is the chief executive official of the county, preserves order and enforces the decrees of the county courts. The public records are kept by the county clerk and copies of deeds and mortgages are left with the recorder. The tax collector, the treasurer, and the auditor take charge of the receipts and expenditures of money. When the county is a party to a suit in the courts, the interests of the people are represented by the district attorney. All cases of violent or mysterious death are investigated by the coroner, who |