Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-01-31
County Government.

The Hon. Ii. 4. Chase member of
the assembly from his district, has
introduced a bill TO do away with
the present system Of county govern
ment, and return TO the old. And,
while there is no special fault to find
with the workings Of the present
system in this county. we hope il
may be done away with on general
principles.
In the first place, it is an unjust
system Under it, towns, absolutely
irrespective ofpopulation and wealth,
are put on the same Lowell and given
the same voice in the management of
county affairs. The mere statement
OF this point is enough TO show the
injustice of the arrangement. 1t is
not only Unjust that man in spar
sely peopled town should have two
or three times the weight Of one in "a
populous town, but it is contrary to
all principles of representation fol-
lowed in other parts Of our system
OF government. Representation iu
state legislatures and congress-, is
based upon. population, and no sys-
tenn of representing territory ire
spective OF population would be toll
Grated.
The present system is also cum
bersome twenty two men lin our
county, are called up to transact
business which is largely that of sim
pie business accounts. Either every
one must Investigate these for him
self, or the decision must be left to -
committee. In the former case. the
time consumed would be great if the
latter policy be adopted, the business
is practically done by few, and the
many might as well be spared the
trouble of coming up to ratify the
Judgment Of those who have investi-
gated the subject.
The present system also tends to
extravaganza. When a large num-
Der of men act together, each natur-
ally feels that the responsibility will
not particularly rest upon him ifany
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS are made;
so lodging the responsibility, extrav-
agance is more apt to be the rule
than if the business were done by a
few men, each of whom would feel
himself individually rcsponsible.-
Closely connected with this, comes
also the feeling of rivalry between
the different towns. each member
wanting to secure for bis town as
much advantage rs is obtained by
any other town. If roads or bridges
in one or two towns absolutely need
aid from the county in order to make
them serviceable to the public, men,
bers in other towns, though not
needing such aid, will strive for il,
through feeling that their constitu-
ents will DO displeased if they do not
get something also. Examples OF
this it were not difficult TO find. and
indeed it is the natural result of the
system.
Finally, the system is more expen-
sive than the better system would
be. We suppose that on the aver
age it costs each county in this state
about one thousand dollars more a
year than the old system In his
county, we Judge the average yearly
added expense to be about that and
that is a sum worth saving, especial
Iy If, as is likely, we shall be more
Justly represented under the better
system, and our business at least at
we'll done.
Those in favor OF the abolition oil
the present system of county govern
ment are invited to get up petitions
to that effect, and forward them to
Mr.. Chase at Madison Vernon
| co. Censor.