The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-02-26
SUPREMACY OF
TOWNS URGED
Correspondent Is Of Opin-
ion They Can Best Man.
age Schools and Roads
GIVE UP REVENUE
FROM THE STATE
Keep Their Own Automobile and Saw
ings Bank Taxes and Work Indepen-
IDENTIFY of the State - Old Methods
Were Best.

ings Bank Taxes and Work Indepen- |
IDENTIFY of the State - Old Methods |
Were Best.
Editor of The 'Reformer:-
The rural town problem has caused
to bob up number of political doe
tors, each one seeming to adhere to
the belief that if he can induce the
body polite to swallow his dope a
cure of the economic ills in question
will be effected. Perhaps my remedy
may be as good theoretically as any
other.
To begin with may it not be that
one difficulty has been that as a people
we have drifted afar from the ideas
and ideals of town government as es
tablished and fostered by the found
ers of Vermont; the basic principle of
which was that each town is sover
eign unit, a small state within state,
absolutely in control of its own affairs,
the arbiter of its own destiny AS the
years have gone by, however, the state
has more and more appropriated to it
self the prerogatives of the towns I'M
til now we have a highly centralized
form of state government with the
towns having very little to say as to
| how the schools and roads therein shall
| be maintained, compared with the sit
uation as it was so or 60 years ago.
We have in fact a so-called paternal-
| istic form of state government in
which the towns as the imagined bene
| fciaries get entirely the worst Of it.
Perhaps a return to, the old system
| would be worthy of consideration and
| by the old system is meant the rela
| tonship which existed between the
| towns and the state during the decade,
| say 1880 to 1890 In those times, for
| example, each town was its own judge
as to how many weeks of school should
be maintained each year. Under the
present law, in order to obtain a share
of the state school money, the towns
must sustain at least 81 weeks of
school each year regardless of every
consideration of economy or desirable
| ity. Now any one who will post up
IreOarding the matter can satisfy him
self of the fact that scholars of prac-
| tically the same mentality beginning
their school career at the same age,
some of them going to school 30 weeks
each year throughout the elementary
grades, and others receiving the doubt
full benefit of SO weeks schooling each
year during the same period, will all
reach the goal of high school eertifi-
cation at one and the same time, which
has been proven time and time again
in individual cases which could be
cited if time and space would allow,
which establishes the truth of the prop
ositien that student in the element
ary grades can absorb only certain
amount of knowledge during the year
however many weeks of school are
! maintained, and yet the state insists
upon the towns being to the expense
of the "a weeks of school when % OF
1 50 weeks would answer the same 'pur-
i pose so far as educational considera-
tions are concerned.
1 Would it not be good plan then to
divorce the towns from the state SO
far as practical financially, asking
4 nothing from the state in the way OF
revenue and contributing nothing to
the state directly for its support, and
the state once again extending the
/ privilege to towns of adopting their
/ own plans for school and road main
tenance.
The corporation tax laws should be
! amended so that portion of the reve
nue. should accrue to the towns. Fol
example, the seven-tenths tax on say
ings banks deposits should be distrib
uted proportionately among the towns
where such depositors reside. The sew
en-tenths tax ON all nonresident de
posits should, of course, go to the state
In some like equitable manner, the de
tails of which could be worked out
the revenue from all Vermont corpor
atoms such as railroads, teiephon,
lines, etc., should be apportioned be
tween the towns and the state. Take
and license fees from all foreign corp
orations doing business in Vernon
would, of course, go to the state. Tn
automobile registration fees should g
to the towns where the owners reside
Under the present method of distribu
ton of the automobile money it
common knowledge that some town
receive far more, consequently othe
towns far less, than their fair share
During the last year the state col
lected from the towns 40 cent stat
tax, an eight cent school tax and a fiv
cent highway tax, SO cents in ALL whie
amount would have gone long way
helping the towns pay their runnin
expenses.
With the government and control c
town affairs returned to their natur:
and proper place, civic pride would /
stimulated, towns would vie with eac
other in the maintenance of goo
schools and roads and would again b,
come prosperous as they were befol
the state assumed all the control an
most of the money. School director
would have something to do beside
carrying out the orders of the stat
school department and the road cor
missioners would feel independent {
any higher authority.
Of course there are many considers
tons that have to do with the deca,
ence of the rural town, but certain
there was less trouble under the o
regime than since the state took Il
job of debating local town affairs fro
the state capitol.
Respectfully,
no