The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-23
A DEMAGoGUE,s DEFENSE.

In the course of editorial in Repub-
lican paper which is one of the three or
four in the State which has not heartily
sustained the movement to secure a more
responsible and economical system of town
ship government, the following extract APP
pears:
1t is asserted that a, township trustee has
a wider discretion in the matter of ex-
penditures than the President of the United
States Where did he get it? The same
power which created so vast an authority
can certainly curtail it without destroying
the trustee or creating new board to
watch him.
In early days there We're two systems of
local government, one which may be called
che New England, in which official respon-
sibility was divided and all appropriations
were voted by the people in open town
meeting. The other system is an outgrowth
of the method of colonies planted in Vr-
ginia and other colonies, in which the rule
of local affairs was vested in one man,
elected by freeholders. His duties We're
few, and those were of an executive char
acter. That system came to Indiana
through Kentucky with the early settlers
Ii was suitable then, when the local govern
ment was simple compared with the many
duties which make it a complicated respon-
sibility at the present time. The State has
long since outgrown such a system. A
township trustee in many townships has
now more duties and responsibilities than
the officers in any county years ago. When
charters were first given cities a council
we tod ho Of lott
Even in the early charters the mayor had
judicial powers and the councils commit
tees on streets, fire department, etc, were
given something of executive authority In
the latest charters, like that of Indianapolis,
the powers Of the executive, legislative and
judicial departments are strictly defined.
That is, the tendency Of local government
all over the country is to a division of
power such as prevails in state and federal
government. 1t is because it has been
proved to be unwise to give the men who
have the power to levy taxes the authority
to expend the money.
The further statement in the paragraph
quoted that the proposed board is to watch
the trustee, is a bit of demagogy or a dis
play OIL gross ignorance ON IHe part OIL the
writer. The council is not to watch over
the trustee" it is to vote the money which
he is to expend and to adopt the measures
the trustee shall carry out. The council is
to the township what the board of aldermen
is to the city. The plan is to put the gov
eminent of the township trustee in har-
mcny with the system of government estab-
lished for the United States. the States and
the cities. Now the trustee can levy as
much as he sees fit for schools, roads and
other purposes. When he has enough
money on hand to meet the reasonable ex-
penditures Of the township, he can make a
levy and use the money collected for his
own purposes while he holds Office. Scores
of trustees do this, and, because of waste
fulness incident TO a system of one-man
power so abhorrent to the genius of popular
government, it is proposed to divide this
power 1t is no reflection upon the general
character of township trustees - this
movement to make the township system
conform to the theory of popular govern
ment, but a purpose to abolish pernicious
system and put another in its place which
conforms to the American idea of popular
government