Part 57 (1/2)

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 leaders.h.i.+p 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 leaders.h.i.+p.