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County and Township Government in 1946*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Clyde F. Snider
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
Neil F. Garvey
Affiliation:
University of Illinois

Extract

The first postwar year found rural local government facing problems of readjustment. As the rural units had felt the impact of war less forcefully than the states and cities, so their reconstruction problems were less acute; but they were none the less genuine and significant. To mention but a few, these included the construction of deferred public-works projects, the provision of housing and various forms of assistance for returned veterans, the modernization and expansion of public-welfare services, the securing of additional revenues adequate to finance an expanded program of local activities, and the reorganization of local areas and machinery with a view to fostering economy and efficiency in a period of mounting governmental costs. Though less than a dozen state legislatures held regular sessions, the year's enactments served both to initiate reconstruction programs begun a year earlier in many states and to indicate the nature of other measures likely to be more generally adopted in the future. Statutes of previous years formed the basis of various improvements in local government which were effected in 1946.

The school-consolidation programs begun in the preceding year in Illinois and Kansas continued to make progress. At the beginning of October, 174 consolidations involving 897 districts had been effected in Illinois. In Kansas, some 2,000 districts have already been eliminated, and it has been estimated that the program in that state, as revised early in 1947, may ultimately reduce the number of districts, originally well over 8,000, to only 3,000.

Type
Rural Local Government
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1947

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Footnotes

*

For previous annual summaries, see this Review, Vol. 41, pp. 28–47, and earlier articles listed therein.

References

1 Since the 1945 Missouri session laws have not heretofore been available, various statutes of that year implementing provisions of the new Missouri constitution are mentioned in this article.

2 See this Review, Vol. 41, pp. 29–31.

3 Public Aid in Illinois (monthly publication of the Illinois Public Aid Commission), Vol. 14, no. 2, p. 10 (Feb, 1947)Google Scholar.

4 Stutz, John G., note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 36, p. 333 (June, 1947)Google Scholar.

5 Information supplied by Dr. Estal E. Sparlin, assistant director, Governmental Research Institute, St. Louis. The writers are indebted also to Dr. Sparlin for reporting the items from the Missouri session laws noted at various subsequent points.

6 Acts of Louisiana, 1946, no. 389; H. M. O., , note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, pp. 491492 (Oct, 1946)Google Scholar; Elwyn A. Mauck, notes in ibid., Vol. 35, pp. 266–267, 492, 615 (May, Oct., Dec, 1946), Vol. 36, pp. 413, 468 (July, Sept., 1947).

7 Acts and Resolutions of Georgia, 1946 (adjourned sess.), p. 152 Google Scholar; General Laws of Idaho, 1946 (1st extra sess.), chs. 27, 38 Google Scholar; Acts of Louisiana, 1946, no. 319; Acts and Resolves of Rhode Island, 1946, p. 361 Google Scholar.

8 Information supplied by Dr. Richard F. Boyd, chief of the Division of Local Health Administration, Illinois Department of Public Health. See infra, “Functional Consolidation.” Five county departments had previously been established under the 1943 legislation.

9 Laws of Missouri, 1945, pp. 608, 807, 826 Google Scholar.

10 Mauck, Elwyn A., note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 36, p. 50 (Jan, 1947)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Mauck, Elwyn A., notes in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, pp. 320, 375 (June, July, 1946), Vol. 36, p. 169 (Mar., 1947)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 For an able account of this episode, see White, Theodore H., “The Battle of Athens, Tennessee,” Harper's Magazine, Vol. 194, pp. 5461 (Jan, 1947)Google Scholar.

13 Mauck, Elwyn A., notes in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, pp. 435436 (Sept, 1946), Vol. 36, pp. 50, 169–170, 224 (Jan., Mar., Apr., 1947)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 See the City Manager Directory, Municipal Year Book, 1947, pp. 484496 Google Scholar.

15 Renne, R. R., “Too Small to be Efficient?,” National Municipal Review, Vol. 36, pp. 7882 (Feb, 1947)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Mauck, Elwyn A., notes in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, pp. 206, 321 (Apr., June, 1946), Vol. 36, p. 111 (Feb., 1947)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 See Geer, Grace L., “Council-Manager Government,” Municipal Year Book, 1947, pp. 219223 Google Scholar; the City Manager Directory, ibid., pp. 487–488.

18 Harvey, Lashley G., “First Break in New Hampshire,” National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, pp. 521524 (Nov, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Grace L. Geer, loc. cit.; Olmsted, H. M., note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, p. 532 (Nov, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Mitchell, James M., “Personnel Developments in 1946,” Municipal Year Book, 1947, pp. 101106 Google Scholar; Mauck, Elwyn A., note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, p. 436 (Sept, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; H. M. Olmsted, note in ibid., p. 600 (Dec, 1946).

21 Laws of Mississippi, 1946, chs. 445, 467; Legislative Acts and Joint Resolutions of Ohio, 19451946, p. 806 Google Scholar; Acts and Joint Resolutions of South Carolina, 1946, p. 1737 Google Scholar.

22 Acts of Kentucky, 1946, chs. 93, 220; Acts of Virginia, 1946, chs. 132, 344.

23 United States Bureau of the Census, County Finances: 1945 (Preliminary Summary), July, 1947 Google Scholar.

24 Acts and Resolutions of Georgia, 1946 (adjourned sess.), p. 152 Google Scholar; General Laws of Idaho, 1946 (1st extra sess.), ch. 27.

25 Hilliard, Raymond M., “The Emerging Function of Public Institutions in Our Social Security Structure,” Social Service Review, Vol. 20, pp. 479493 (Dec, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Of the 102 Illinois counties, two have never maintained poorhouses and 28 closed their institutions between 1932 and 1945.

26 Acts and Resolutions of Georgia, 1946 (adjourned sess.), p. 138 Google Scholar; Acts of Kentucky, 1946, ch. 49; Acts of Louisiana, 1946, no. 319; Laws of Missouri, 1945, p. 974 Google Scholar; Acts and Resolves of Rhode Island, 1946, pp. 189, 242 Google Scholar.

27 Acts of Kentucky, 1946, chs. 24, 199, 211; Laws of Missouri, 1945, p. 1395 Google Scholar.

28 Acts of Louisiana, 1946, no. 387; Mauck, Elwyn A., note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, p. 615 (Dec, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Acts and Resolutions of Georgia, 1946 (adjourned sess.), p. 152 Google Scholar; Acts of Virginia, 1946, ch. 220.

30 See this Review, Vol. 38, pp. 1106–1107; Vol. 41, p. 41.

31 Acts and Resolutions of Georgia, 1946 (adjourned sess.), pp. 18, 87 Google Scholar; Laws of Mississippi, 1946, chs. 185, 242; Laws of Missouri, 1945, pp. 970, 986, 1778 Google Scholar.

32 Laws of New York, 1946, ch. 301. Basic annual per capita grants are fixed at $6.75 for cities, $3.55 for towns, and $3.00 for villages.

33 Acts of Kentucky, 1946, ch. 126; Acts of Louisiana, 1946, no. 69.

34 See this Review, Vol. 39, p. 1116.

35 Information supplied by Dean William L. Bradshaw, School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri.

36 Sparlin, Estal E., “Missouri Counties Streamlined,” National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, pp. 337343 (July, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 See this Review, Vol. 39, p. 1111.

38 Mauck, Elwyn A., note in National Municipal Review, Vol. 35, p. 616 (Dec, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Supra, “Revenue and Taxation.”

40 Laws of Missouri, 1945, pp. 1315, 1471 Google Scholar; Laws of New York, 1946, ch. 999.

41 Acts of Kentucky, 1946, ch. 204; Acts of Louisiana, 1946, no. 207; Laws of Mississippi, 1946, ch. 467; Laws of New York, 1946, ch. 305; Acts and Joint Resolutions of South Carolina, 1946, p. 1737 Google Scholar.

42 See this Review, Vol. 41, p. 29.

43 United States Government Manual (Division of Public Inquiries, Government Information Service, Bureau of the Budget, Washington), first 1947 edition, pp. 301–303. For a recent discussion of intergovernmental relationships in the soil conservation district program, see Walker, Herman Jr., and Parks, W. Robert, “Soil Conservation Districts: Local Democracy in a National Program,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 8, pp. 538549 (Nov, 1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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