CHAPTER IV.

THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE.

Need of.-Owing to conditions, natural and artificial, favorable to business enterprises, people group together in certain places. Living in a limited area, the amount of land occupied by each family is small, and the territory is surveyed into lots and blocks. To make each homestead accessible, streets are laid out. The distances traveled being short, people go about principally on foot; hence the need of sidewalks. To reduce the danger of going about after dark, streetlamps are needed. The nearness of the houses to each other renders it necessary to take special precautions for the prevention of fires, and for their extinguishment in case they break out.

But to provide and maintain all these things takes money, and the people living in the other parts of the town not sharing the benefits would hardly like to help pay for them. Hence it is but just that the people living in the thickly settled portion of the town should be permitted to separate from the rest and form an organization by themselves.

Again, the circumstances being different, the regulations must be different in this part of the town. For instance, in the country a man may drive as fast as he pleases, while here fast driving endangers life and must be prohibited. In the country sleigh-bells are not needed, while here they must be used to warn people of the approach of teams. In the country, if a man's house takes fire no other person's property is endangered; but here the danger is such that all the people are interested in each man's house, and the com

munity may require that chimneys be properly constructed and ashes safely disposed of.

How Incorporated. -Villages are, with rare exceptions, incorporated under a general law specifying the number of inhabitants, the mode of voting on incorporation, etc.

The method in Minnesota, which may be taken as typical, is as follows: Upon petition of thirty or more voters resident upon the lands to be incorporated, which lands have been divided into lots and blocks, the county commissioners appoint a time, and give due notice thereof, when the voters "actually residing within the territory described," may vote upon the question. If a majority of those voting favor incorporation, the commissioners file with the register of deeds the original petition, a true copy of the notice of election, and the certificate showing the result of the vote. The village thus becomes incorporated, and has the usual corporate powers. It organizes by electing officers.

Elective Officers.-The usual elective officers of a village are a president, three trustees, a treasurer, and a recorder, who are chosen for one year, and two justices of the peace and a constable, elected for two years.

*

The Council and Its Powers. The president, the three trustees, and the recorder constitute the village council. They may make, for the following purposes among others, such ordinances or by-laws as they deem necessary:

1. To establish and regulate a fire department; to purchase apparatus for extinguishing fires; to construct water-works; to designate limits within which wooden

*The difference in term is accounted for by the fact that the justices and constables are in a measure county officers.

buildings shall not be erected; to regulate the manner of building and cleaning chimneys, and of disposing of ashes; and generally to enact such necessary measures for the prevention or extinguishment of fires as may be proper.

2. To lay out streets, alleys, parks, and other public grounds; to grade, improve, or discontinue them; to make, repair, improve, or discontinue sidewalks, and to prevent their being encumbered with merchandise, snow, or other obstructions; to regulate driving on the streets; to appoint a street commissioner.

3. To erect lamp-posts and lamps, and provide for the care and lighting of the lamps.

4. To appoint a board of health, with due powers; to regulate slaughter-houses; to define, prevent, and abate nuisances.

5. To establish and maintain a public library and reading-room.

6. To prohibit gambling; to prevent, or license and regulate the sale of liquor, the keeping of billiardtables, and the exhibition of circuses and shows of all kinds; and to provide a place of confinement for offenders against the ordinances.

7. In general, to ordain and establish all such ordinances and by-laws for the government and good order of the village, the suppression of vice and immorality, the prevention of crime, the protection of public and private property, the benefit of trade and commerce, and the promotion of health, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States or of the state, as they shall deem expedient.

8. To provide penalties for the violation of the ordinances. All fines and penalties imposed for breaches of these ordinances belong to the village.

Appointive Officers.-The council appoints, as provided by law, a village attorney, a pound-master, one or more keepers of cemeteries, one or more firewardens, and regular and special policemen; and it prescribes the duties and fixes the compensation of these officers. The council also elects at its first meeting, a village assessor, who shall hold his office one

year.

Vacancies and Removals.-Vacancies in any of the village offices are filled by the council, and it has power to remove any officer elected or appointed by it whenever it seems that the public welfare will be promoted thereby.

Like Town Officers.-The assessor, treasurer, justices of the peace, and constable, have the same duties and responsibilities as the corresponding officers in the town. The village has a seal, of which the recorder is the custodian; and he is, as has been said, a member of the council. Otherwise the duties of the recorder are similar to those of the town clerk.

Elections.-A village usually constitutes one election district and one road district. Village elections are conducted as are those in a town.

Enlargements.-Lands adjoining the village may be annexed to it, at the wish and with the consent of the voters of the territory and of the village. The will of the voters aforesaid is expressed at an election called, after due notice, by the county commissioners.

Some Pertinent Questions.

Name the incorporated villages in your county. Any others that you know. Name some villages, so-called, which are not incorporated. Why are the petition and other papers of incorporation recorded?

Can a person living in a village build a sidewalk to suit his own fancy? Why? Suppose that owing to a defective side

walk you should break your leg, what responsibility would lie on the village?

How would you get your pay if you had a bill against a village?

The village council has power "to establish and regulate markets." Why should the sale of meats be regulated any more than the sale of flour or of clothing? May the sale of bread be regulated?

What is the difference between a policeman and a constable? Compare the village and the town, telling wherein they are alike and wherein they are different.

Debate.

Resolved, That for a village of 1000 inhabitants or less it is wise not to become incorporated.

CHAPTER V.

THE CITY.

Need of.-A village being one election district has usually only one voting place. But the population may so increase as to make it necessary to have several voting places. For convenience these should be located in different parts of the community; and to prevent fraud voting precincts would have to be defined. And the council should then be made up of one or more representatives from each of these divisions or "wards."

Under these conditions it would hardly be practicable for the voters to assemble in one place to listen to financial reports, consider community policy and vote taxes, as they do in the town and the village. So it would be necessary to endow the council with increased powers, including the power to levy taxes for ordinary

purposes.

Again, with increase in population there is an increase in the number of disputes over private rights,