Citizenship Part 5

Towns as well as counties not only look after their local interest but look after state interest within their boundaries.

A community of three hundred or more may upon pet.i.tion of two-thirds of its inhabitants, be incorporated as a town.

Towns as well as counties are organized and governed under general laws pa.s.sed by the legislature of its state.

The incorporated towns.h.i.+p has a right to hold property and make contracts.

CITY GOVERNMENT.

Cities like towns and counties receive their right of government through the state by a charter granted by the state legislature. The charter is the fundamental law of the city.

The chief executive officer of a city is the mayor who is generally elected by the people.

The power of city government is vested in the mayor and the city council.

For convenience a city is divided into subdivisions called wards, and for elections into certain voting precincts called election districts.

The board of aldermen or council is composed of one person chosen from each ward by the voters. Their power is limited by the city charter.

Voters are responsible for their government and much of our happiness depends upon the way our city is managed.

Many cities have adopted the commission form of government by electing a non-partisan ticket composed of several commissioners. Each commissioner is put in charge of a division of the city's administration and held responsible for the work of his department.

The mayor of a city presides over the meetings of the council and sometimes vetos measures pa.s.sed. He is elected by the voters. The chief duty of the mayor is to see that the laws and ordinances are enforced.

In large cities there is a system of courts extending from the police court to the higher courts.

Appeals from the courts of the city are taken to the circuit court and may go from there to the Supreme Court of the State.

Cities are divided into six cla.s.ses in Kentucky:

First cla.s.s having a population of 100,000 or over.

Second cla.s.s, 20,000 to 100,000.

Third cla.s.s, 8,000 to 20,000.

Fourth cla.s.s, 3,000 to 8,000.

Fifth cla.s.s, 1,000 to 3,000.

Sixth cla.s.s, below 1,000.

CHAPTER V.

PARTY ORGANIZATION.

The difference of opinion on national questions is the cause of a number of political parties in the United States.

As long as men and women think for themselves we shall have political parties.

It is really the product of a government by public opinion. Without political organizations it would be almost impossible to govern the policy and character of the country and control the affairs of the nation.

The political parties are the agents through which organizations are made.

As a test of one's love of his country and its government is shown by his work and aggressiveness.

Every citizen should study the ethics of his government, think for himself, and form his own opinion.

A person with no opinion on public affairs is a coward and unpatriotic.

Our nation depends largely upon moral and cultured people who will study the issues of the day and express themselves in positive terms on what they deem best for the nation and its government.

Organization is a number of people systematically united for some end.

It is through organization that political parties become effective.

Political parties arose after the adoption of the Const.i.tution. They are organized for national, state and local campaigns, and not originally a part of the government, but as we grew and the population became greater there arose different political parties. Every district, village, town and city has its permanent local campaign committees in elections, beside the state and national committees, which make a very complete organization.

The duty of the permanent committees is to keep the machinery of the party working. Really the permanent committees do the hard work in politics. They organize political clubs, solicit funds, issue calls for conventions, urge people to register and vote and in many other ways keep up the interest of the party.

Since the adoption of the Const.i.tution there have been two princ.i.p.al parties advocating different principles.

The first parties were known as the Federalist and anti-Federalist.

The two great dominant parties now in the United States--the Democratic and Republican parties.

Our Const.i.tution did not provide us with laws as to the way of selecting candidates for office, but just as soon as political parties came into existence, nominations followed.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

The Democratic party is the oldest. It goes back to the days of Jefferson. It advocated "state rights," limiting the power of national government, tariff for revenue only. These were some of the issues discussed before the recent war, but other important issues in these days of reconstruction have taken their place.

REPUBLICAN PARTY.

The Republican party was formed before the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. It was originally called the Federalist party.

The Republican party remained in control of the national government until 1884 Grover Cleveland was elected for two terms, four years each.

This party originally advocated a high tariff.

The recent platforms of the two parties now in power will give the issues of the present day.

CHAPTER VI.