Elements of Civil Government Part 4

TREASURER.--Taxes collected from the people for local purposes are paid to the treasurer. He receives all fines, forfeitures, and license-fees paid to the towns.h.i.+p. He is the keeper of the towns.h.i.+p funds, giving bond for the faithful performance of his duties, and pays out money upon the written order of the trustees, attested by the clerk. In some States, as in New York, there is no separate towns.h.i.+p treasurer, the above and other duties being performed by the supervisor, who is the chief officer of the towns.h.i.+p.

SCHOOL DIRECTORS.--The school directors have charge of the public schools of the towns.h.i.+p. The number of directors varies widely, being usually three, five, or more. In a few of the States, the clerks of the district trustees const.i.tute the towns.h.i.+p school directors, or towns.h.i.+p board of education. The directors levy taxes for school purposes, visit and inspect the public schools, adopt text-books, regulate the order of studies and length of the term, fix salaries, purchase furniture and apparatus, and make reports to the higher school officers. In some States they examine teachers and grant certificates to teach. In many States a part of these duties falls to the county superintendent.

a.s.sESSOR.--The a.s.sessor makes a list of the names of all persons subject to taxation, estimates the value of their real and personal property, a.s.sesses a tax thereon, and in some States delivers this list to the auditor, and in others to the collector of taxes. In most States there, is also a poll-tax of from one to three dollars, sometimes more, laid upon all male inhabitants more than twenty-one years of age. In some States there are two or more a.s.sessors to the towns.h.i.+p, and in others real estate is valued only once in ten years.

COMMISSIONERS, or surveyors of highways, have charge of the construction and repair of highways, summon those subject to labor on the road, and direct their work.

SUPERVISOR.--In some States the chief executive duties of the town fall upon the supervisor, but his princ.i.p.al duties are rather as a member of the county board of supervisors.

CONSTABLES.--Constables are ministerial and police officers. There are usually two or three in each towns.h.i.+p. They wait upon the justice's court, and are subject to his orders. They preserve the public peace, serve warrants and other processes, and in some States act as collectors of taxes.

COLLECTOR, ETC.--In some States the towns.h.i.+p has a collector and three or more auditors. They are usually elected by the trustees, or council, but in a few of the States they are elected by the town meeting. The collector collects the towns.h.i.+p taxes, giving bond for the faithful performance of his duties. In order to secure honesty and efficiency in public office, and to exhibit the financial condition of the towns.h.i.+p, the auditors annually examine the books of the treasurer and the collector, and publish a report showing the receipts and expenditures of public money.

In a few States the towns.h.i.+p has a field-driver and a pound-keeper, whose respective duties are to take stray animals to the pound, an enclosure kept for the purpose, and to retain them with good care until the owner is notified and pays all expenses; two or more fence-viewers, who decide disputes about fences; surveyors of lumber, who measure and mark lumber offered for sale; and sealers, who test and certify weights and measures used in trade. These officers are usually appointed by the selectmen.

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT; JUSTICES.--The judicial power is vested in the justices, who are elected by the qualified voters of the town. There are usually two or three justices, but in some States there is only one in each towns.h.i.+p. The term of office is one, two, three, four, or more years, varying in different States. Justices preside in the justice's court to hear and determine suits at law. "This is the humblest court in the land, the court of greatest antiquity, and the court upon which all other courts are founded."[1] The justice's court tries petty offences and civil suits for small amounts. In some States the justices preside at the town meetings, and in others they perform the duties of coroner in the towns.h.i.+p.

[1]Thorpe's _Civil Government_.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

1. Has this State the towns.h.i.+p system? If so, give the name and number of your towns.h.i.+p.

2. How does the towns.h.i.+p system provide a convenient means of ascertaining and of executing the people's will?

3. Why is the people's power greater when the government is near?

4. Why can the community manage its own affairs better than any other agency can manage them?

5. How do people secure their rights?

6. What is meant by falling under the censure of the law?

7. What is a naturalized person?

8. Is it right for subjects of foreign governments to vote? Why?

9. Is it right for women to vote?

10. Why is suffrage the basis of all free government?

11. What is a more severe penalty than imprisonment?

12. How can people serve the country?

13. What is a good citizen?

14. Why is a bad vote an attack on the rights of the people?

15. What other laws than those made by the legislative department of the towns.h.i.+p does the executive department enforce?

16. How do you like the New England town meeting? Why?

17. Name some duties that belong to the executive department.

18. What is a poll-list?

19. What are the duties of judges of election?

20. Of what use is a record of marriages, births, and deaths?

21. What is meant by license-fees?

22. What persons are subject to taxation?

23. What is a poll-tax, and is it right? Why?

24. Who are subject to road duty in this State?

25. Give the names of the officers of this towns.h.i.+p.

QUESTION FOR DEBATE.

_Resolved_, That the town meeting is the best system of local government yet devised.

CHAPTER V

THE COUNTY.

INTRUDUCTORY.--The county is a political division of the State, and is composed of civil districts or of towns.h.i.+ps. It bears the name of county in all parts of the country except in Louisiana, where a similar organization is known as a parish. In New England the county has less power than the town; in the Western States it has more than the towns.h.i.+p; and in the Southern States it has far more than the civil district, being there the unit of political influence.

PURPOSES.--The county organization brings justice near the people, enables them to attend to local affairs too extensive for a smaller community, and affords a medium by which they may transact business with the State. It serves as a convenient basis of apportioning members of the legislature among the people. It maintains local officers, such as sheriff and prosecuting attorney, whose duties would be too narrow if confined to a towns.h.i.+p. It secures a competent and higher tribunal than the justice's court for the trial of suits at law.

This was the original purpose, and is still the controlling reason for the division of the States into counties.

FORMATION, AREA.--Counties are formed, their rights are conferred, and their duties imposed, by act of the State legislature. In most States counties vary greatly in shape and size, but in some of the Western States they have a regular form. The average area of counties in the United States is eight hundred and thirty square miles; the average area of those east of the Mississippi River is only three hundred and eighty square miles.

COUNTY SEAT.--The county government resides at the county seat, county town, or s.h.i.+re town, as it is variously called. The court-house, the jail, the public offices, and sometimes other county buildings are located at the county seat. Here are kept the records of the courts; also, usually copies of the deeds, wills, mortgages, and other important papers of the people.

COUNTY GOVERNMENT.

The county, like the United States, the State, and the towns.h.i.+p, has a republican form of government; that is, it is governed by representatives elected by the people. In nearly all States the county government has three departments, legislative, executive, and judicial; but the functions of making, of executing, and of explaining the laws, are not always kept separate and distinct. In a few States the county does not have a judicial department.