The Washington times., 1933-12-07
AGED SYSTEM IS
BURDENSOME
To CITIZENS
Legislature Has Chance to
End Clumsy, WastefuI
Governmental Plan
BY JOHN E. TAYLOR


Virginia's legislators, who will
convene next month, have before
them an opportunity to celebrate
the tercentenary of the founding
of the eight original shires, or
counties. of the State by legls-
lating out of existence the ar.
chaic, cumbersome. and Wastetul
form of county government that
is today practically the same as
It was 300 years ago.
The legislators could relieve the
burden of the taxpayers by en-
acting legislation consolidating
number of the 100 counties, bring.
ing the total of counties in the
State to about so.
Such a move would eliminate
hundreds of job holders, do away
with the cost Of maintaining court
houses. jails and other instltu'
tions in many Of the counties.
Huge Savings Possible
It is hard to estimate in dollars
and cents just how much this
would save, but it is foregone
conclusion the savings would be
enormous. ,oo
For the last few years, the 100
counties have been spending aoout
$4,000. 900 a year. and this figure
does not include the fees and COM
missions paid directly to various
county officials and retained by
them.
The eight original shires were
immense. one Of them containing
practically all of Kentucky and
parts of Tennessee and Ohio, ana
It is now one of the smaller coun',
ties of the State.
They were made into smaller
Jurisdictions because of the lack
Of transportation facilities and
communications.
Highways Aid Movement
But, today, because there are
ribbons of road crossing, recross-
ing, and criss-crossing time and
again each of the 100 counties;
because of the telephone and
telegraph AMI railroads and air
planes, the time consumed IN
reaching or communicating with
the ,ounty sea is negligible.
These modern inventions make
II possible to consolidate several
counties into one, doing away
with several county governments,
putting them under one set OF Of
ficials, and thereby saving the
Sorely pressed taxpayers goodly
sum.
There has been practically no
change in the form Of county gov
ernments since the founding OF
the Colonial shires in 1884. Off
cials have been added to the
county payrolls during the years
as demands grew for their par
ticular services. But the form OF
government has gone ON and on.
becoming more expensive and less
efficient with the changing times.
Thinking Virginians look upon
the myriad of counties as part Of
the cause of retarding educational
progress in the State.
Would Cut School Costs
They point out that children
living close to a school in another
county have to be driven miles to
schools in the county in which
they happen to live. Consolida-
ton of number of counties into
one would permit the election OF
large consolidated schools and pay
Inent of adequate salaries to well,
trained teachers, they point out.
These same Virginians say there
are three things which have held
up consolidation of the counties.
They are:
Job holders, politicians and
local pride.
No explanation of the antipathy
of the job holders and the politi-
clans is needed.
Local pride is that thing which
sends voters to the polls to vote
down consolidation of the coun-
ties because they believe the iden-
tity of their particular county will
be lost.
Virginia has approximately the
same area as England. The latter
country is divided into "a shires
or counties and the English trans
portation facilities in the rural
areas hardly exceed those Of mod
ern-day Virginia.
Some Lose Population
The 1920 census disclosed that
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