The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1898-11-24
The Proposed Change.


some weeks We have printed the re'
port of the com mittee appointed by the
board of trade, which was In reality an
argument in favor of the adoption of the
bill providing for a town council, so
called, reported by this committee, and
in the REPORTER of last week, publish
ed a comprehensive argument by the
author of the bill in its favor, but thus
far, nothing has been written or printed,
to our knowledge, against the propo.
sition.
here are two forms of municipal
government. One is by the town meet
ing, or the town form, wherein the
voters of the town as a whole pass upon
each and every proposition to raise
money for municipal purposes in open
town meeting, called for that purpose
by notice posted days before such
meeting is held, and that money is ex-
pended under the direction of the select
men and other town officers, elected by
the legal voters as provided by law
Our citizens are familiar with this form,
having lived under it all these years.
The other, the city form, is used where
m Municipality becomes too large, or the
legal voters toe numerous for the town
form and it becomes necessary to divide
into wards for election purposes, and
these wards elect men of their number,
and the law clothes them with power to
make the appropriations of money for
different municipal purposes: schools,
roads, bridges, sewers, school houses,
etc, etc. This form our Skowhegan
citizens have no experimental knowl-
edge of.
The issue now before the citizens of
this town is whether we shall continue
under the town form of government,
and, as we understand it, the PROPOSE
ton is to get an expression of the wishes
of the people in an informal way, mass
meeting, preliminary to the first legal
step in the movement, the securing OF
the passage of the proposed act by the
State legislature. SO much for the stu
alton.
There is no question in our mind but
for large places the city form of govern
ment is preferable. The practical ques-
ton is whether Skowhegan has arrived
at that stage in population, valuation
and diversity of public interests where
the city form of government may reason
ably be expected to work better with us
than the town form, supplemented as it
is by our Village Corporation arrange
ment for police, protection from tires,
and street lighting purposes.
We do not understand that those who
favor a change cite any specific cases
where great hardship has been suffered
under our present form of municipal
government OF course there are minor
cases where equity has not prevailed to
a nicely. This must necessarily be the
case so long as mankind have selfish
instincts and requirements. We can
mention a few cases, and for the pur-
pose of illustration we mention one, viz:
The failure to continue the teaching of
| drawing in the public schools But
this might have happened if we had
been doing business as a city.
With some towns it may have been
necessary to get a city charter in order
to secure public improvements such as a
sewer system, water system, fire protec-
ton, police force, street lighting, school
buildings, ETC., but this necessity is not
upon Skowhegan. We are as well pro-
vided for in these particulars as any city
in VI aine of ten thousand inhabitants or
less, and at much less expense. We
have had heavy appropriations for these
purposes in the past, particularly for
sewers, school buildings and streets, but
they have been made, the work done
economically and thoroughly, they are
largely paid for and the balance, held by
home banks, is payable in annual in
stal ments at low rates of interest. We
have further Improvements to be made
we are alive-but for many years there
are liable to be no calls beyond what
may be provided for by current taxation.
Few towns in Maine, and no city, are in
as good financial standing as Skowhe-
gan. Would we have been better off
today had we been made a city ten years
ago?
There is no good reason why cities
should be very much more expensive or
extravagant than towns, but the rule is,
they are. 1t does not necessarily follow
that Skowhegan would become extraya-
CANT should the change be made, yet we
have no doubt but that city government,
or town council government, would con.
siderably increase running expenses and
in time our municipal debt 1t might
not, but the drift would be that way and
precedents are uniformly in that direc.
ton. This would be all right if we
hould get an equivalent for the expen-
ditures. Would we be likely to get such
equivalent? hat would be the adyan-
tages of the changer These appear to
be pertinent questions.
One advantage, 1T appears, would be
the abolishng of the village corporation
4. r