The Republican journal., 1900-08-16
THE SMALL TOWN IN POLITICS.

II has been a long time since Theo-
dore G. Woodman of Bucksport was
speaker Of the Maine House. and he
was the last man to hold the office from
a smalllsh Maine town. because Iioul :
ton. which sent GOV. Powers to the leg
lslature and enabled him to be speaker.
is big enough to be a city and is city
in most everything except in name
We have had WisWell from Ellsworth.
and >tetson from Bangor in the chair,
and this coming winter we are going to
have Manley from Augusta. This con
dltion is not due to any lack of ability
on the part of those who are sent to
the legislature from the small towns.
Some of the brightest men in the lower
house are those who are sent from the
wayback towns. For example take
Chick of Clifton and Dawson of Monroe
i'll the last House. OF Blanchard and
Pattangall and Others III the House of
four years ago.
The whole trouble lies in the fact that
the smaller towns send men for single
terms, While the larger places give their
representatives two or more terms thus
making them familiar with the ways of
doing the work and giving them a power
llldl llo oiIlS Hail Cdu nope W
have. Where the population is SO small
that two or more towns must be claSSed
together in order to have representa-
tive, every town insists upon having it's
proportionate share, so that it is impos-
sible for man to get more than .one
term. The new member gets littlerec-
ognition on the floor of the House He
is ignored and treated with scant cour-
tesy at every turn. He may be bright,
able and ambitious, but he gets no chair
manship OF any committee. He is seldom
consulted when measure is under con-
sideration, and when he speaks few
give him the cOurtSey OF candid hear
ing. He is only a new member, and
must wait his turn, if he hopes to make
his mark. The result is the small
towns get next to nothing from the
Maine legislature. They ask for few
favors, and are denied so often and so
scornfully that most of them have given
up the struggle. The cities and the
large towns get all the offices. They
have The chairmanships of all the com
mittees and they secure all the appro-
priatiOns that the State gives out.
Meantime the small towns are supposed
to pay their taxes and submit to what
seems a rank injustice without making
any form of protest
In one sense the disease is chronic.
and no perfect cure can be effected, un-
less the country towns will initiate New
lork and annex themselves until a
whole county has been absorbed. The
place with ten thousand population will
| always have ten times as much legisla-
tive pull as the town that has no more
than one thousand souls. But by pres
ent usage the ratio is nearer one hun
dred to one than ten to one, and the
difference is growing wider every year
Two ways of getting relief from the
greed of the big towns have been sug-
gested: Let the classed towns hold
class conventions and name the best
men, no matter where they reside; let
the elections be held biennially. as they
are now, but'let the legislature convene
every winter, the way it did when cleo
tions were held every year. By this
means the country would get better
chance to have fair usage and the cities
would not gain such unfair advantages
as they take to-day. Bangor Daily
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