CHAPTER IX
COUNTIES AND RURAL COMMUNITIES
The purpose of this chapter is to show how the counties, towns, and villages of the United States are governed, who their local officials are, and what they do.
What Local Government Is.—The functions performed by governments fall into two divisions. First, there are functions which relate mainly to the life and activities of the neighborhood, such as police administration, fire protection, the cleaning of streets, and the care of the poor. These things can best be managed by the local authorities. Second, there are functions of a more general character which relate to the life and activities of the entire state or nation, such as the regulation of the railroads, the coining of money, the maintenance of post offices, and the control of corporations. These functions we have committed, accordingly, to the state and national governments. In earlier days, before industry and commerce developed so greatly, local functions were the more numerous; but as population grows the whole country tends to become one great community, hence many functions formerly performed by the local authorities are being taken over by the states and the nation. It is impossible to lay down any rule as to what functions are local and what functions are general. A few years ago each town and village made its own regulations concerning the speed limit for automobiles; to-day that matter has been taken over almost everywhere by the state authorities.
The Beginnings of Local Government in the United States.—Local government is the oldest branch of government; both the state and the national government have grown out of it. When colonists first came from England to Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay they settled on small farms and built their houses within short distances of one another. In Virginia, on the other hand, the colonists took up large plantations for the growing of tobacco and cotton; their homes were spread over a wide area. Because of the difference in the manner of settlement the New England colonists organized themselves into towns (or townships) while the Southern colonists created larger units of local government known as counties. From the Atlantic seaboard these two types of local administration—township and county government—have spread out over the rest of the country. In the course of this spread they have been considerably altered from their original forms.
County Government
The County.—Every state in the Union is now divided into counties.[59] The division is made by the state legislature, but when county boundaries are once fixed they are seldom changed thereafter. In the older states the counties are often small; in the newer states they sometimes cover several hundred square miles.[60] Counties, like cities, are public corporations, that is to say they have the right to own property, to raise taxes, to borrow money, and to make contracts. They may sue and be sued in the courts. But counties have no inalienable rights of their own. All their powers are derived from the state. They are merely political divisions of the state, created for the more convenient administration of local affairs. In a few states the people of each county are permitted to select and establish such form of county government as they may choose, but as a rule the state legislature prescribes a uniform type of county government for all the counties within the state.
The County Officers.—The chief governmental authority of the county is the county board, the members of which are usually known as commissioners or supervisors. These members are either directly elected by the voters of the county or sent as representatives from the townships. County boards may have only three members or as many as fifteen—each state has its own regulations on this point. The board has its headquarters at the county seat, where the county courthouse is located.
The functions of the county board may be summarized under six heads. 1. Financial. Most county boards have the right to levy county taxes and to make appropriations for expenditure. They have authority from the state legislature to borrow money on the county’s credit. This borrowing power is exercised in order to construct county roads, build bridges, or provide county buildings. 2. Highways and bridges. In many states all the main highways are designated as state or county roads. The towns and townships are responsible for the construction of minor highways only. The state roads are built by state highway commissions or some such body; the county roads are constructed and maintained by the county board. In some states these county roads are numerous; in others they are very few. Main bridges, which connect two cities, towns, or townships, are also built and maintained by the county board. 3. Public buildings. Every county requires certain public buildings, including a courthouse, a county jail, a registry of deeds, a county poorhouse, and sometimes a county hospital. These buildings are erected and managed by the county board. 4. Poor-relief and correction. The function of providing public poor-relief is to some extent performed by the state and municipal authorities but a good deal of the responsibility still rests upon the county boards. 5. Elections. In most states of the West and South the county board has charge of the local arrangements for state and national elections. It designates the polling places, appoints the election officers, and provides the ballots. The county, in most of the states, serves as the unit for the selection of senators and assemblymen in the state legislature. 6. Miscellaneous. Finally, the county boards have sundry other functions. Occasionally they grant charters of incorporation to companies. In some states they construct irrigation works and arrange for the abolition of grade crossings on railroads. They often help in the selection of jurors and have authority to grant certain licenses.
Have County Boards been Satisfactory?—The work of the county boards has not received much public attention in most of the states until the last few years. The county has been called “the jungle of American politics” because the masses of the people know so little about what is going on in the offices of the county authorities. On the whole county government has not been conspicuously bad, but it has been far from what it ought to be. American counties, as a rule, have been more honestly and more economically governed than American cities. The fundamental objection to the existing system of county government is that it places in the hands of an elective body, the members of which are usually chosen for purely political reasons, the performance of many difficult executive functions. The management of finances, construction of roads, bridges, and public buildings, the proper treatment of the poor, the sick, and the insane are all tasks which require ability, skill, and experience. Elective county supervisors cannot reasonably be expected to perform them well, and this is especially the case when the nominations and elections are dominated by professional politicians.
The County Manager Plan.—In view of the large amount of executive work, requiring skill and experience, which is imposed upon the county boards, and especially in consideration of the fact that this executive work is steadily growing, it has been proposed that the boards should confine themselves to matters of general policy, leaving to a county manager the entire work of actual administration. In a few counties this proposal has been adopted. The county manager, a trained and highly-paid official, is appointed by the county board to purchase all materials and supplies, to hire labor, to prepare contracts for the construction of public buildings, and to attend to all the details which arise in connection with the board’s work. In this way, by concentrating authority in a single hand, a great deal of waste and inefficiency is avoided. The plan is in harmony with the principle that responsibility for purely executive work, particularly when it is of a technical character, should be entrusted to men who have special qualifications for performing it (see pp. 197-198).
The County as a Judicial Area.—In the administration of justice the county plays an important part. County courts exist in nearly all the states, and although they form an integral part of the state judiciary they have jurisdiction over such matters within the county as the laws may provide. Both the organization and the jurisdiction of the county courts differ greatly from state to state. In some states each county has its own judge; in others there is one judge for a group of counties. This judge holds sessions in one county after another. The county court usually hears appeals from the local courts and has original jurisdiction in cases where a jury is in order. The probating of wills is in most cases a function of the county court. Appeals from its decisions may usually be carried to the higher tribunals of the state.
The Sheriff.—Every county has a peace officer known as the sheriff, usually elected by the voters of the county. He is the chief guardian of the law and the right-arm of the county court. Historically this is the oldest office in the country. It goes back to the time of William the Conqueror or earlier, when the shire-reeve was the agent of the king in keeping law and order. Sheriffs have the right to appoint deputy-sheriffs whose duty it is to help preserve the public peace, to make arrests, and to serve court papers. Sometimes the sheriff and his deputies are paid regular salaries, but more often they obtain their remuneration from fees. The sheriff is the custodian of prisoners in the county jail; he summons the jurors to the court sessions and carries out all the judgments rendered by the court.
The Prosecuting Attorney.—Attached to every county court there is a legal officer who is commonly known as the prosecuting attorney or county attorney, usually elected by the people.[61] His chief duty is to conduct prosecutions before the county court. He investigates crimes, prepares the evidence, and usually lays the case, first of all, before a body known as the grand jury. This jury, as will later be explained, is selected by lot from among the voters of the county. It does not go into the question of guilt or innocence, but merely determines whether an accused person should be placed on trial before a trial jury in a county court. In some states it is not necessary for the prosecuting attorney to lay the case before the grand jury; he may merely file a sworn declaration, called an information or complaint, stating his belief that there is sufficient ground for placing the accused person on trial. Prosecuting attorneys everywhere have a good deal of discretion in the way of discontinuing or “nol-prossing” criminal cases.[62]
Other County Officers.—There are various other officers connected with county government. The county assessors go about the county and assess or value property for purposes of taxation. The county treasurer receives the taxes and pays the county’s bills. The county auditors inspect the financial accounts of all county officers. The registrar of deeds or recorder keeps books in which all deeds and mortgages on land are entered.[63] |The coroner.| The county coroner has the duty of holding an investigation or inquest whenever a death takes place under circumstances which excite suspicion of crime. For this purpose he summons a coroner’s jury of citizens to determine the facts. They do not determine guilt or innocence, but may recommend that a suspected person be arrested and held for trial. In some states the office of coroner has been abolished and its functions given to an appointive official known as the medical examiner, who is always a physician. In many counties there is a county superintendent of schools whose duties are indicated by his title. Practically all these officers are elected, usually for a short term of years.
Civil Service Reform in Counties.—Besides the foregoing officers there are, in the service of county government, large numbers of subordinate officials and employees, including deputy-sheriffs, attendants in the jail and poorhouse, foremen on road construction, clerks in the county offices, and so on. All of these are still chosen, in most counties, under the spoils system. Positions on the county pay roll are given almost everywhere the reward of party or personal service. The merit system of selecting subordinate officials by competitive examination has made little or no progress in the counties of the United States although there is no good reason why it should not be used there as well as in the municipal, state, and national service. The county remains the last fortress of the spoils system because the people as a whole have not been fully awakened to the importance of its work and because the political influences which control county government have heretofore been strong enough to prevent the loss of patronage which the introduction of the merit system would entail.
The Metropolitan Counties.—Special problems of county government arise whenever a large city spreads itself over a whole county or even over a very large portion of it. The growth of great municipal centers during recent years has changed many American counties from rural into urban or metropolitan areas. Examples are to be found in New York City which includes five counties within the city limits. The city of Philadelphia includes the whole of Philadelphia county; Suffolk county is almost entirely covered by the city of Boston, and the city of Cleveland contains nine tenths of the population of Cuyahoga county. The cities are largely independent of the counties within which they are located, but the functions of city and county government run close together at many points. For example the sheriff of the county and the police commissioner or police chief of the city are both responsible for the maintenance of law and order. The result is, quite often, a duplication of work and a waste of money. It has been proposed that the city and county governments, in the case of metropolitan counties, should be substantially combined to prevent this duplication. To some extent this has been done, as in the case of St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston, and San Francisco. In other large cities various plans for entire or partial unification are under way.
The Reform of County Government.—For the improvement of county government throughout the country three important changes in present organization and methods seem to be needed. |1. A centralized executive.| In the first place some provision should be made for the better handling of executive work. As matters now stand there is no county official corresponding to the President, the governor, and the mayor in national, state, and city government respectively. Responsibility is scattered into too many hands. It ought to be centralized in a county manager or some other single administrative official. |2. A shorter ballot.| Second, the number of elective county officers should be reduced. There is no sound reason why treasurers, auditors, and superintendents of schools should be appointed in cities (as is usually the case), but elected in counties. The practice of electing so many administrative officers makes the ballot long and cumbersome; it also leads to the choice of men who have no qualifications other than popularity. What is even worse, it encourages frequent changes in the incumbents of these offices and thus interferes with the efficient management of the county’s business. |3. The merit system.| Finally, the merit system could be advantageously extended to include all subordinate county positions.
Towns and Townships
The Areas of Community Government.—For purposes of local administration the counties are divided into towns, townships, or county districts, but whenever any portion of the county becomes thickly settled it is usually organized as an incorporated village, an incorporated town, a borough, or a city. It will be seen, therefore, that there are at least seven different units of community government in the United States, not to speak of the special districts which exist in some individual states. The reason for this great diversity is to be found in the fact that the American system of local government has grown up gradually and in each state independently. In most European countries the system of local government is uniform; in the United States it is not. Each state has its own system and in no two states are these systems exactly alike. For this reason only the broad outline of the subject can be presented; the details must be studied in the localities concerned.
The New England Town.—Among the areas of community government the New England town is the oldest and the most interesting. It is not always, or even usually, a thickly-settled place. These towns differ greatly both in size and in population; they are usually quite irregular in shape and may contain anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand people. The New England town does not possess a charter of incorporation but it has the usual corporate powers (see p. 177). The chief governing organ of the New England town is the town meeting, an assembly of all the voters, both men and women. This town meeting is called together at least once a year and often three or four times. It elects the town officers, votes the appropriations, and decides all questions of general policy. Sometimes the town meeting lasts all day; occasionally it continues even longer. Every citizen has the right to a voice and a vote.
During the interval between the town meetings the affairs of the town are managed by a board of selectmen, composed of three or five members, elected by the voters. The selectmen prepare the business for the town meeting and carry out its decisions. The larger towns also maintain various other boards, such as a school board, a water board, and a board of health, the members being in all cases elected at the town meeting. Other town officials include a town clerk, a treasurer, an auditor, and a superintendent of schools.
When towns grow large the town meeting becomes unwieldy and the system of administration by numerous boards fails to work smoothly. For this reason some New England towns have recently adopted a “limited town meeting” system, by which the voters of the town elect delegates to represent them in the town meeting. A few towns have also abolished the various administrative boards and have placed town administration in charge of a town manager appointed by the selectmen.[64]
The Township.—In the great group of Central and Middle Western states, ranging from New York and Pennsylvania to Nebraska and the Dakotas, the principal area of community government is the township, although it is sometimes called the town. In the older states these townships (or towns) are of irregular shape; in several of the newer states the so-called “congressional” townships were laid out in uniform blocks, six miles square. In some of the states, both old and new, the towns or townships have town meetings, as in New England, but nowhere outside of New England have these meetings attained any great importance. Their chief function in the Central and Middle Western states is to elect the town or township officers. The work of township (or town) administration is carried on either by a board of trustees or by a single official commonly known as a supervisor. There are also various subordinate officials, all of whom are usually elected by the voters.
The County Districts.—In most states of the South and Far West there are no townships. The county remains the principal area of local government, but for the management of various community affairs the county is divided into districts. There are school districts, road districts, and election districts, for example. Each district has its own elective officers who are in charge of the function for which the district was established.
The Incorporated Communities.—The vitality of townships and district government has been weakened by the practice of incorporating as a village, town, borough, or city, any portion of the area which becomes thickly settled. The laws of the various states usually provide that whenever any part of a community becomes sufficiently populous a designated number of the inhabitants may petition for incorporation. The question is then submitted to a vote, and if the vote is favorable, a charter of incorporation is granted. A certain minimum of population is required; usually from two to three hundred in the case of a village, one to three thousand in the case of a town, and more than three thousand in the case of a city. These figures vary from state to state. In some Western states the minimum for incorporation for a city is only a few hundred. In any event when the place becomes incorporated as a village, town, borough, or city it becomes separate, for administrative purposes, from the township or district to which it belonged and sets up a local government of its own. The nature of this government, the officials, and the scope of their powers are all fixed by the laws of the state. There are more than 15,000 incorporated villages, towns, boroughs, and cities in the United States, nearly three fourths of them being places of less than 2500 population.
The Merits and Defects of the Local Government System.—The most marked feature of the American system of local government, when surveyed as a whole, is its decentralization. Nothing is uniform throughout the country; each state follows its own plan, and everywhere a large measure of home rule in local affairs is granted. Contrast this with the system of local government in the French Republic for example, where all communities, whether large or small, are governed in exactly the same way and strictly controlled by the central authorities in Paris. The American system has the advantage of allowing each section of the country to adopt whatever scheme best suits its own particular needs. It also facilitates the making of experiments in local government and through these experiments we learn better ways of doing things. The large measure of local home rule brings community government close to the people, giving them control over it and responsibility for it. It fosters initiative and tends to develop a wholesome rivalry in good work. Local government is a fine school for the teaching of democracy.
On the other hand the American system has its defects. So many areas of local government have been created in some of the states that the people are over-governed. The multiplication of local offices has led to wastefulness. Local home rule, moreover, has in some cases been a synonym for local misrule. The result is that we have required, during recent years, an increase in the amount of control exercised over the government of the local communities by state and county authorities. Townships, towns, and villages are areas of government established to meet local needs, but they are also the channels through which the state authorities carry on a portion of their work. This latter phase of local self-government should not be overlooked.
Everett Kimball, State and Local Government, pp. 309-344;
Charles A. Beard, American Government and Politics, pp. 638-705; Ibid., Readings in American Government and Politics, pp. 556-566;
James Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. I, pp. 596-616;
W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 535-571;
H. G. James, Local Government in the United States, especially pp. 254-299;
John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns and Villages, especially pp. 57-140; American Academy of Political and Social Science, County Government, pp. 81-111; Cyclopedia of American Government (see under County, Towns and Townships, Borough).
1. Should the county-manager plan be adopted? With what county functions do you now come into contact? How important to you and to your home is the work of the county officials in the matter of road-building, the maintenance of prisons, the care of the poor, the registration of deeds, and the supervision of schools? Are any of these things now mismanaged and, if so, in what way can the situation be improved? The present multiplication of county authorities. Duties of each. How these duties are performed. The cause of waste or inefficiency. What the county-manager system aims to do. Comparison of the city-manager andand the county-manager plans. References: H. G. James, Local Government in the United States, pp. 425-451; John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns and Villages, pp. 75-94; H. G. Gilbertson, The County, pp. 151-180; “County Government” in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. XLVII (May, 1913); National Short Ballot Organization, Documents on County Government; C. C. Maxey, County Government, pp. 45-62.
2. How town government can be improved. References: H. G. James, Local Government in the United States, pp. 254-283; C. S. Bird, Town Planning for Small Communities, pp. 311-340; Cyclopedia of American Government (see under Towns and Townships); Annual Reports of Town Officers.
3. What your township officials do. References: John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns and Villages, pp. 164-181; H. G. James, Local Government in the United States, pp. 268-283; John Fiske, Civil Government in the United States, pp. 89-95; Everett Kimball, State and Local Government, pp. 333-344; Annual Reports of Township Supervisor or Chairman.
1. The importance of local government in a democracy. A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I, pp. 74-87.
2. French and English methods of local government. H. G. James, Local Government in the United States, pp. 1-65.
3. The county board. John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns and Villages, pp. 75-94; Everett Kimball, State and Local Government, pp. 317-332.
4. Politics in county government. H. S. Gilbertson, The County, pp. 43-65.
5. Where the county’s money goes. H. G. James, Local Government in the United States, pp. 232-250.
6. City and county consolidation. Ibid., pp. 437-448.
7. A New England town meeting. John Fiske, Civil Government in the United States, pp. 16-34.
8. The enforcement of the state laws in rural communities. J. M. Mathews, Principles of American State Administration, pp. 430-462.
9. How good planning helps the small town. C. S. Bird, Town Planning for Small Communities, pp. 1-19; 76-99.
10. Home rule for counties. H. S. Gilbertson, The County, pp. 207-250.
11. The government of an urban county. Cook County, Board of Commissioners, A Study of Cook County, pp. 5-21.
12. The county courts. J. W. Smith, Training for Citizenship, pp. 185-197; American Academy of Political and Social Science, County Government, pp. 120-133; Illinois Constitutional Convention, 1920, Bulletins, No. 11, pp. 905-925 (Local Government in Chicago and Cook County).
1. Why do we need a system of local government? Suppose all the areas of local government were to be abolished and the management of local affairs taken over by the state, what advantages and disadvantages would result?
2. To what extent does the constitution of your state restrict the freedom of the state legislature in interfering with local government? Are these restrictions too great? Why should not counties and towns be given complete home rule?
3. Name the qualifications which a good sheriff ought to have. An efficient coroner.
4. Why do we need a registry of deeds? If deeds were not registered what difficulties would be encountered? Is a deed invalid if not registered?
5. If counties were to be abolished, which of their present functions would you transfer to the state and which to the townships, towns, or villages?
6. Why is it thought desirable that when places become thickly-settled they should be given separate incorporation?
7. Explain how local government serves as a school for democracy.
8. What ought to be the minimum limit of population for an incorporated village, an incorporated town, a city?
1. All county administrative officials, except the highest, should be chosen by civil service rules.
2. City and county government should be consolidated in cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.