Community Civics and Rural Life Part 57

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 its Police Officers fifty cents a day. ...

Art. 10. To see if the Town will vote to appoint and instruct a committee to pet.i.tion 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 our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen.

(Signed by the Selectmen)

It has been said that

THE VALUE OF THE TOWN MEETING

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 a.s.sembly, 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 partic.i.p.ation 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.]

WEAKENING OF GOVERNMENT BY TOWN MEETING

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, Ma.s.s., with about 2500 votes cast, there are from 300 to 500 at the business sessions. In Hyde Park, Ma.s.s., with 2500 voters... from 500 to 600 attended the annual appropriation meeting. In Leominster, Ma.s.s., 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.]

INFLUENCES LEADING TO DECLINE

This ill.u.s.trates 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.

THE FINANCE COMMITTEE: A MEANS OF BETTER SERVICE

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.

TOWN PLANNING

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.

NEED FOR CITIZEN COOPERATION

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 partic.i.p.ation 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.

VOLUNTARY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

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 ill.u.s.trated by the chart on page 402. [Footnote: This chart and the one on page 403 are taken from Extension Bulletin No. 23, Ma.s.sachusetts Agricultural College, by E.L. Morgan.]

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION IN Ma.s.sACHUSETTS

In a good many Ma.s.sachusetts 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.

OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL TEAMWORK

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 pa.s.sing 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.

TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT OUTSIDE OF NEW ENGLAND

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 a.s.sessor, 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 circ.u.mstances 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: