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Name: Robert Wilder
I
Assignment: Northfield
Town Meeting Government
(Government by Farce)
Chapter One The Town Meeting
The Town Hall was so well heated that you could smell the odor of
hot paint. A. huge *air tight* stove at the rear of the hall sitting on a
worn square of zinc nailed to the floor was the source of the holocaust.
This stove had a long and rickety pipe suspended by wires over the center
aisle of the hall, the end of which disappeared through a mildewed
cherub that decorated the proscenium arch of the tiny stage. The gallery
was crowded with the students of civil government from the local schools,
and a few curious strangers. Few people were sitting on the long wooden
benches with uncomfortable backs on the main floor, to which only the
registered voters of the town were admitted. Most were standing in the
rear and in the entry way, gathered in groups, and talking in low tones
with many a cautious glance over their shoulders to discourage eaves-
droppers. On the stage Mrs. Quabbin, the portly Town Clerk, was seated
behind an undraped table that divided her into two sections. The upper
section showed a solemnly clothed dignified bust surmounted by a serious,
bespectacled face. The lower section the most prominent by far from the
floor of the meeting disclosed feet shod for comfort and not for style,
cotton hosed legs that would have made a grand piano jealous, and un-
compromisingly revealed that the Clerk was a devotee of warm, woolen
underwear. She was reading in a weak voice the entire Town Warrant that
had been posted for days, printed in the local paper, and whose contents
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
were an old story to. the voters present.
The Warrant is not without interest for those among us who bewail
our lack of tradition. It was the town meeting warrant used in Colonial
days and carried on down into the present. It began:
"To either of the Constables of the Town of Swampfield, (There are at
present four constables) Greeting:
"In the name of the uommonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby
directed to notify and warn the inhabitants of said Town, qualified to vote
in elections and in Town Affairs, to meet at the Town Hall in said town
on Monday, February 3, 193- at 10 o'clock in the a.m., then and there to
act on the following articles:
"Article 1. To choose a Moderator to preside at said Meeting.
"Article 2. To hear thereports of the several town officers and act
there on.
"Article 3. To choose all necessary town officers for the ensuing
year
Then follow articles for the support of the schools, the roads, the
library, the care of the trees, lighting the streets, town charges, gypsy
moths, community nurse all the many details where money is needed for
running the town, each with its separate article.
Article 21 for this year reads, "To see if the town will vote to pay
a bounty of twenty cents each on hedgehogs andraise and appropriate the
sum of *25 for that purpose, or take any vote or votes in relation thereto."
At the end of the articles the advice to the constables continues:
"And you are directed to serve this Warrant by posting up attested copies
Name: Robert Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
thereof at the Post Office, the Schoolhouse in District No. 2, and the
store of V. Stone in District No. 3.
"Hereof fail not, and make due return of this warrant, with your
doings thereon, to the Town Clerk, at the time and place of meeting, as
aforesaid.
"Given undels our hands, this twentieth day of January, in the
J_
year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and thirty talent." And
both the original and attested documents bear the signatures of the
then reigning Selectmen, the group of three that sit in remote splendor
on a bench to one side, modestly back from the front. The fact is that
they sort of huddle. They huddle, doubtless, for mutual protection.
Tothiy is not the open season on deer. But it is on selectmen and
other town officials. On the three hundred odd other days of the
year the selectmen are above the common reach. But on town meeting
days the law on them is off. They can be reached by any penniless
voter with a sharp wit, or a gift for fluent speech. The honorable
Board of Selectmen Well know that various articles have been inserted
in the town warrant for the sole purpose of gaining the legal right
to ask them pointed and =harassing questions. And that the "town
meeting lawyers" will not hold their hands not with the bored
students of civil government in the gallery ready to burst into.a
merry laugh at a witticism, and to applaud the discomfiture of the
great men of the town. They know these "lawyers" have been pre-
paring their speeches and rehearsing them for weeks. And, as there
averages at least one practiced proponent for every article, and the
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
honorable board has to deliver its weighty, but halting, advice upon
every article, they are now wondering why in Tophet they ever yearned
for the position of a selectman anyway.
This explains in part their unusual redness in the face, and
their nervous and distraught actions. But the unaccustomed splendor
of their best or "other" clothes contributes. There's still a faint
hope, however. If their side has strength enough to carry article
one, a friendly moderator will be in the chair, and the meeting will
be less of a Roman holiday. Part of the heckling, at least, will be
ruled out, and the sound sense displayed in their halting utterances
will be brought out. In the meantime they sweat, run their fingers
around their collars and smooth their unruly hair and bald heads.
All of which tends to explain the creaking and squeaking of the well-
worn wooden bench.
The nervousness is not confined to the selectmen. The other
town officers are nervous, too.. For they know that there are ember
easing questions that can be asked of them. And, even if none are,
that their fellow town officers will not hesitate to "pass the buck"
if it appears that by so doing they can save their own feelings. And
the "town meeting lawyers," now the great day has arrived are having
attacks of stage fright. Nobody is having a good time at this junc-
ture except the students in the gallery who have been excused from
school to witness the demonstration of democracy in its essence, as
exemplified by a genuine New England Town Meeting.
Names Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
The Town Clerk rises as she finishes reading the warrant, and
puts the question in regard to the choice of Moderator under Article
1. The two expected nominations are given from the floor. Then some-
one moves for a "paper ballot." It is seconded and carried by a chorous
of "Yeas." The clerk appoints two tellers to assist her. And the fight
is on.
After the Moderator is chosen, a motion is made to take up Article
3. This is the article in regard to the election of officers. It is
carried without opposition, for it is a routine matter in regard to
opening and closing the polls.
The polling place is on one side of the town hall floor, where
benches have been removed to give space. The desks on which the voters
mark their ballots in secret are cugby holes side by side on a long
plank laid on high carpenters' horses. Each has a stub of a pencil
attached by a string, and a copy of the abstract of laws imposing
penalties on voters for fraudelent voting, tacked in such a way that
it is impossible to read without creating the impression that one is
trying to spy on his neighbor's ballot. The whole arrangement bears
a striking resemblance to a row of hen's nests in a poultry establish-
ment. But it is the usuka thing. There is a table for two checkers
at the entrance, and another for two more at the exit. Inside, also,
is a table for counting the ballots, and a machine with a crank and
bell in which the voter deposits his ballot. The machine has an in-
dicator on it that tells whoever cares to lookothe total number of
ballots that have been cast.
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
The :prceedure is simple. A voter appears at the entrance. The
list of voters is scanned for his name. If found, it is marked by a
pencilled check, and a printed ballot handed him. This is an assurance
against *repeaters* which is hardly necessary in a small town where
everyone is known, and a stranger is conspicuous. The votertakes.his
ballot to an empty -lien's nest of his own choice, and with the stub of
pencil on the string marks his ballot with X's in the proper places in
accordance With his conscience. That is, he used the stub of pencil
if the lead is still intact, which it generally is not after the first
rush of voting. He then folds his ballot and takes it to the checkers
at the exit. Here his name is checked on another list, apparently to
catc11 any Dr. jekylls and Mr. Hydes among the voters, or to prevent one
fromcionning a disguise in the sacred precints of the polling place.
After his name is found and checked he places his ballot on the slide
of the machine between the knees of a dignified official, resplendent
in his "other suit" and suitably grave as befits the occasion, who
solemnly turns the crank, and the ballot slides into a locked box at
the tinkle of a bell, and the click of another number on the indicator.
Now that his ballot is safely in the locked machine, the voter has done
his civic duty, and is at large on the floor of the town meeting.
Most voters have the comfortable feeling that no one will ever
know how they voted. They shouldn't be too sure. They should vote as
their consciences.dictate. Nevertheless, the way they vote isn't
necessarily a secret between them and their God. And all the corruption
is not confined to the vile cities. Listen to the words of an expert
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
a man in middle life who had repeatedly been elected selectman. *Yes,"
he says, "We fooled 'em that time. I passed word around about what
the double-crossers had done and told my people not to vote until late
in the day. Then I walked up good and early and voted the way they
hoped I would. I knew the bunch would grab my ballot just as soon as
my back was turned. And when they'd see I was a sucker, they'd figger
that the election was ix: the bag, and not do no more work. By the time
my people corLe in votin' different than I done it would be too late to
rout out their hard to git voters and they'd be licked. Well, they was."
How die they "grab his ballot as soon as his back was turned?"
They didn't. Not literally. But they got its content when the block
of ballots was removed from the machine.
If the counters waited until the polls were closed before starting
to count and tabulate the ballots, election returns would not be avail-
able until the next day. Ballots are therefore removed from the machine
when a certain number have accumulated. The exact number being set by
the local electiun officials, and may be twenty five, or fifty, or a
hundred the idea being to keep the counters busy, and make prompt
returns of the results. The ballots fall into the machine one on top
of the other in the order inwhich the voters voted. If ten people
voted after Smith, then Smith's ballot is the eleventh from the top
of the pile. That is the principle, and the practice depends upon the
circumstances.
The election officials are fron Ooth the major political parties.
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Some are small fry politicians, and some are strictly honest, unsus-
picious folk. But it isn't necessary to have a corrupt official
not in a town meeting election. A voter on the floor of the town meet-
ing blessed with good eye sight and hearing is enough. He watches the
voting and computes the number of the ballot he wants. When the block
is taken from the machine it is always kept in full sight. That is the
law. Otherwise there might be substitutions. And the counter pick them
up one at a time and reads the results aloud, while his partner enters
them in the proper column on a tabulation sheet. Wtien the desired
ballot is reached, all the listener has to do is to fill in a tabulation
of his own.
The paid workers for a party are checked as they bring in their
voters. A simple case would be of a bus load that begins voting as the
machine is emptied, and whose votes just make a block of votes so that
the machine is emptied again. That block of ballots all came from the
bus load, and should be all Democratic, or all Republican names. But,
if it is not, the double-crosser can be found by consulting a list of
names made in the order in which the bus load voted. "Honesty is still
the beat policy," even in the town meeting political world.
While the voting drones on, punctuated by the tinkle of the machine
bell, the town meeting takes up the spectator's attention. Articles
are called up, passed, amended, or rejected. A curious feature is that a
town may appropriate many thousands of dollars for a bridge, or aschool, with
practically no debate. And then spend a whole hour threshing out
the details of an article like the hedgehog one previously quoted.
.g.
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
The Swampfield Town Hall is probably unique in respect to its
lighting. On each side are windows almost the height of the room. And
the panes are of colored glass, ten by eighteen inches. They are of
assorted colors, arranged in a haphazard manner. The groups of voters
are of different colors according to where they are sitting. If one
stands he may be two or three colors. The effect is particularly im-
pressive on a sunny day, with an impassioned orator speaking. As the
sun moves, the voters' colors change, and it seems to be caused by the
oratory. As a cloud passes over the sun, the colors dim, as though the
hearers' minds were wandering. And, if the sun comes out brightly during
the peroration the effect is marvellous. It can be noted, however, that
some people who were green when they started, end by being quite red.
But it is doubtful if their opinions change along with their colors.
Resolutions are sometimes offered in town meeting, and requests
made to give some non-resident the privilege of the floor in case his
advice is needed, or he has some message that is deemed important enough
to come before the town. But it is the unusual and unexpected that makes
the meeting the institution it is. One never knows just what is going
to happen. People who are not used to making public addresses often
do queer things.
The story is still told in Swampfield of one religious man, who
would never use as strong a word as *darn", feeling so earnestly that
the electric lighting company was abusing the people that he arose in
town meeting to make a motion. After he was recognized by the chair,
he got so flustered that he could only open and shut his mouth. But
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
feeling that it was up to him to go through with it, now that he had
put his hand to the plow, he burs out with, "Ur. loderator I move
we tell the power company to go to helli" The people were so dumfounded
at hearing this language from the speaker, that no one thought to second
the motion. It, therefore, missed being recorded in the Clerk's book,
or of being thrown open to debate and some wondrous amendments added.
While there is usually fun, tempers get pretty badly frayed, and
everyone welcomes the rest when the Moderator finally announces about
noon, that the Grange has dinner ready in the basemexit, tickets thirty-
five cents, and, if he hears no objection, the meeting stands recessed
until one o'clock.
g) -ix
Name Robert Wilder
Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
THE TOWN CLERK
Mrs. Quabbin, the town clerk, wiped the flour from her hands on
one corner of the checked apron that enveloped her generous form.
"Just a minute," she said, "until I look at the things in the oven."
The errand completed, she wedged herself into the enormous chair before
the tiny desk that served as a center table for the roam. The desk
was neat, as was the roan. In fact everything was neat about Mrs.
Quabbin except her husband. He was neat only on occasion. As
plumber and town Constable he, apparently, blacked himself daily
for his work after the manner of an end man in a minstrel show. But
for scheduled public appearances, like church, or town meeting, he
appeared scrubbed, renovated, his hair plastered down, his noxious
pipe and "eating tobacco" removed, and his handkerchiefs given a shot
of cologne water. The transformation was indeed startling. And the
villagers thought they saw in it the snooth, ham -like hand of Mrs.
Quabbin.
Mrs. Quabbin's desk was not really small. It was simply dwarfed
by the bulk of its owner, and that of a potted geranium that stood on
one corner. The Town Clerk's gray eyes twinkled behind the steel spec-
tacles, and dimples appeared in he r kindly face. One gathered that
Mrs. Quabbin had been very good looking indeed before she had begun to
age and put on weight.
"A town official, a town clerk especially, is supposed to be an
impersonal machine for conducting the town's business. We are guided
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
by law, and never let our feelings, our likes or dislikes, enter in.
I record all the votes passed at the town meeting, swear in the
elected officials, send the Secretary of State the names of the elected
town officers on blanks that he sends me, and a list of the constables
to the Clerk of Courts of the county. Then I have to keep up an in-
dex of all the papers that are filed with me that the law orders to
be recorded. They are public. Anyone may see them who wishes. And
I try to be agreeable while showing them to them.
"Oh, we've had clerks and clerks. This town was founded during
the sixteen hundreds, you know. And it always had a town clerk. No,
even I don't remember the first of them. But I do remember some
cautionst
"There was one who always seemed so agreeable. But he'd agic
questions that were none of his business. And after the person left
you'd see him streaking across the street to pass on the caller's
business to his cronies. Likely enough it would be in the paper, too.
For he was the correspondent of one of the city papers. Be claimed to
be old Yankee stock. But I don't think he was. He didn't act like
tem. And he didn't look like 'em either. He was short and round and
had brawn eyes. Let me tell it, he had Indian or colored blood
I don't know but that he had both. Yes, it was on his account that
I got elected to office in the first place. Principally because he
got into a fight with the undertaker, though.
"Oh, deari It is fairly complicated. An undertaker is not sup-
posed to bury a body without a permit. And, in a small town like
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
this one) the town clerk issues the permit. But the town clerk is
a bonded official. We want proof that a person is really dead before.
we issue a permit to bury the body. Don't say I said so, but if the
law hadn't thrown up a few safeguards, the undertaker might bury some
of our selectmen, and nobody miss genii As it is, they are fairly safe.
"The undertaker has to get the physician who attended the de-
ceased to certify that the person is dead, and give the cause of death.
In the case of an accidental death) the medical examiner for the county
does it. The undertaker takes this certificate and brings it to me
and I record it for the vital statistics. After I have received this
certificate, and it is in order, I give the undertaker a burial cer-
tificate. Sometimes, the doctor is busy and fails to make out a death
certificate. It isn't so bad when the doctor lives right here, but
when a body is shipped in to town for burial, and the undertaker can't
get a permit to bury it, the matter becomes real troublesome. The
former town clerk would do nothing about it. The cemetery people won't
even open a grave without a permit, and, of course, the undertaker
would go frantic when the time for the funeral and burial arrived) and,
unless somebody did something about it, he was going to be left with
a corpse on his hands. However, I found a perfectly legal way around
the trouble. And I haven't got into any difficulty over it yet. All
I have to do is to get another physician to certify to the facts as
near as he can find out. Then I issue the burial permit. And when
the attending physician gets time he sends me his certificate. I put
both certificates and the explanation into the record. It's just one
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
of those things, you know. You can't expect a physician to bother
about a death certificate when he is doing his best to save a life.
And you can't expect an undertaker to keep the deceased on hand
indefinitely just because someone failed to make out a paper. And
you can't expect relatives and friends of the person to postpone the
burial service. Naturally, they'd blame the undertaker. Perhaps
you see why the undertaker worked so hard to elect me.
"Yes, I had business training. When I was young I was book-
keeper for a concern that made horse whips. Then I was secretary
to the head of a pretty large firm where I learned something about
law. I left there when I was married. The truth is that they didn't
like my husband. There was nothing against him except that he had
been divorced. Now, Fillup is a good man. There's absolutely noth-
ing against him and he's a great deal brighter than he looks. de
came here where Fillup had bought the plumbing shop. Pretty soon he
was elected constable. And when the undertaker cane to me and asked
if I would run for town clerk he knew of the experience I'd had
I did it. And I've been town clerk ever since.
"I'll never forget that election. In fact, we had to have two
as the first came out a tie. It is the second election that I re-
member best, for before the first I didn't think I had a chance. But
when I saw how near I had come to being elected I was sorry that I
hadn't made more effort. The town clerk's salary and fees would have
been a great help to Fillup. I didn't worry about the work. I knew
that I could do it. And the town clerk didn't really need the job
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
anyway. He was always telling about the money he had in the bank,
and criticizing people for not laying up money. He'd never put any
in anything but the savings banks, and about all the fun he had out
of his money was in watching the interest pile up. He was just a
human squirrel that saves money instead of nuts. I don't think that
a squirrel would be fool enough to collect all the nuts he does and
then not eat all he wanted just get along on as few as the could
and take pride in the size of his pile. But the'size of his pile is
all that the human squirrel takes any pleasure in. They don't under-
stand that the things money can buy, that the memories of places seen
and things done are of a lot more real value than the columns of figures
in a bank book. Well, I don't know why I should be preaching to you.
But perhaps you gathered that I think the former town clerk was just
plain stupid.
"It was an awful cold day, late in February, when the election
was held to decide on who was to be town clerk. Our town hall had
burned down, so the election was held in the basement of the church.
The town clerk was there. He was in charge of the election. Whenever
a voter would come in, a-blowint on his hands and stanping his feet,
the clerk would rush up with a beaming mile, shake him by the hand,
and thank him for making the effort of coming on such a cold day. The
undertaker, it's a big word for it, was my campaign manager. He saw
that the clerk was getting quite a few votes with his friendly manner,
and he didn't like it. He wouldn't let me do the same thing. He said
that would not be lady -like. The undertaker didn't feel like doing
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
it himself. He never forgets that he is the undertaker. And he
didn't feel that it was quite tbe thing for the undertaker to greet
the voters. Finally, he thought of the coal man. And the coal man
was willing. He is a jolly, loud -spoken man. He came with the coal
pretty well washed off his face, and a box of cigars. He got me a
lot of votes by speaking to folks pleasantly. A lot of people would
hate to offend him in the dead of winter, when they hadn't paid their
coal bills, and didn't know how they were ever going to pay 'en. He
followed the town clerk right around and shook hands with everybody
after the clerk did. 'No,' he'd say, 'I won't tell you how to vote,
that wouldn't be right. You got to vote as you see fitI But I'll
tell you how I voted. And I'm not ashamed to2 either. I wouldn't
vote for that stupid, half-breed grease ball of a town clerk we have,
who thinks he can get people to vote for him by smirking at 'en and
shaking hands. No sirl I voted for Mrs. Quabbin, 'cause she's a
capable womAn and will do a good job for the town. Don't see her
mincing and smirking do yer? Nor shaking hands with people just to
get their votes? I guess not. I voted for Mrs. Quabbine He's a
case, that coal man is.
"Each side had a number of autos and sleighs that were busy all
the time bringing the voters in. Some people who hadn't voted for
years were brought in. Some had lost the use of their legs and had
to be carried. Others could barely see and had to be lead. Ny side,
being run by the undertaker, was accused of bringing voters up out of
the burying groundt
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
"Oh, the people had lots of fun. Most people seem to like to
rally 'round and do things as a team. There isn't a lot of excite-
ment in a place like this, you know. And here was the whole town
stirred up and divided into two teams, each trying to see who could
get the most votes. I guess the whole town hadn't had a chance to
rally around that way since our ancestors used to rally around and
fight Indians probably Indian fighting was the ancestor of com-
munity effort here in New England.
"As usual, the men had the best time. They smoked the coal man's
cigars, and I guess somebody aonated some hard cider. But I don't
think either the town clerk or I had a good time at all. I know I
didn't. As the day wore on, he looked as if he were going to bawl,
in spite of the wooden smile that was frozen on his face like the ones
Alaska people carve on totem poles. I don't suppose I looked any
better. And I must have lost forty pounds. The worst of it came
after the polls were closed and they were counting the ballots. Finally)
the returns were handed to the town clerk to read, and I began to perk
up. His eyes got bigger and more calf -like than usual) and his lower
lip was tremblingl He managed to read in a weak voice, and then he
practically run out of the hall. I had won by one vote! He was sup-
posed to swear me in. But he wasn't there, so they got another justice
of the peace. I had quite a time getting the books and documents and
the safe. He annoyed me in every way he could. But that's over now.
He wouldn't go out anywhere for a while. But he even canes to town
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Name Robert Wilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
meeting now.
"You know the town clerk gets twenty-five cents for every officer
he swears in. All the other officers take over right away, but the
clerk has to wait a week before he can take up his duties. The
moderator of the meeting where he was elected swears him in. The
time I was elected there wasn't any moderator, for it was just an
election. The old clerk couldn't have acted as clerk in swearing me
in that wouldn't be legal but as justice of -the peace, which
he was. When he ran off he lost a quarter.
uYiost clerks get quite a bit of money in fees during the course
of a year. Sometimes they get more money in fees than they do in
salaries. For recording each birth the clerk gets a dollar, for each
marriage, fifty cents. For each death the clerk gets a dollar if he
gets the facts himself. If the board of health, or the undertaker
make the death return, the clerk gets but fifty cents. The physician
and the undertaker, or whoever fills out the return, gets twenty-five
cents. All you have to do to make twenty-five cents is to find a
birth somewhere, get a blank from me and fill it out properly. There's
no catch to it. I'm supposed to give public notice each year that I
have the blanks. Chapter 46, section 15.
"I suppose there are quite a lot of things that I don't do that I
should according to law. Chapter 66, section 7 says that every town
clerk shall have 'the custody of all records of proprietors of towns,
townships, plantations or common lands, if the towns, townships, planta-
tions or common lands to which such records relate, or the larger part
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Name Robert .ilder Assignment Northfield
Title New England Town Government Topic The Town Clerk
thereof, are within his town and the proprietors have ceased to be
a •body politic.' Well, there are Indian deeds in this town which
the Indians gave the proprietors. They were written by white men.
But the Indians put -Weir marks on them, and they are real interest-
ing looking. But they are not in my custody, and not likely to be.
The descendants of tne original proprietors hang onto them. They
look on the deeds as their own property. It having been handed down
to them by their ancestors. They think they are' very valuable, and
worth a lot of money. If I should call their attention to the law and
ask them to turn those documents over for me to put in my safe, I
wouldn't be town clerk long. They'd have me out of office quicker
than the undertaker got the former town clerk. They'll find out some
day, though, when they try to sell one that people who deal in such
things won't buy a public document. The Declaration of Independence
may be a pretty valuable document. But when it comes to dollars and
cents, what it would bring in the open market is just nothing. No
dealer is going to buy the Declaration of Independence just because
a feller brings it to him, and points out his ancestor's signature.
And it is the same with these other documents that by law should be
turned over to me. But I'm not doing anything about it. I have
troubles enough without punching up more. I have to sort of choose
which laws I shall obey in order to stay in the town clerk business.
Names Robert Wilder
Title: N. E. Town Government
Assignment; Northfield
Topic: The Town Treasurer
31,
James Somerset, Town Treasurer, sat at the roll top esk in the
corner of his dining room. He tilted back in his swivel chair, clasped
his hands about one knee that he pulled to the level of his chin, and
rested the other on the top of the cluttered desk. He was a man in his
sixties, or early seventies, bald, with a gray shoebrush mustache and
droopy eyeglasses that he peered over and around as he spoke. He gazed
off into space.
"I am the Town Treasurer. I have been Town Treasurer for a good
many years now. But I always get worried around Town Meet in' time, when
they hold the annual elections. If I shouldn't be re-elected, b ut should
lose my job and the salary that goes with it, me and my family would have
to go on the town, I expect. I worry awful. And I'm all of a sweat when
the clerk gets up to read the returns from the town election. I've been
re-elected every time so far, but maybe a time will come when I ain't.
One Town Treasurer we had once got re-elected and then he dropped dead
a few days afterwards. He never knew what it was not to get re-elected.
And I think that's a pretty nice way to go not that I'm ready to go
just yet or even thinking about it serious. I think I'm tough enough to
stand a few more re -elections. But I don't hanker to get any lickings.
"In some towns they combine the Tax Collector's job with the Town
Treasurer's. And in others they combine the Treasurer and Town Clerk.
That's to save the town a salary. In some towns they combine all the jobs
they can combine, I expect. But being Town Treasurer is trouble enough
for me.
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N.E. 'own Government Topic: The Town Treasurer
IA Town Treasurer's job is a pretty responsible one. In the first
place, he's bonded. And it ain't everybody that the bonding companies will
bond. And then the treasurer has all the town's money to look after. No
body else is allowed to pay a bill for the town not by law. And one of
the worst jobs is having to bring court action on notes and securities that
don't turn out as they're supposed to.
"Every so often we've had trouble in our town with town treasurers.
Treasurer trouble in this town seems to go in cycle p like droughts and
hard winters. It ain't so much dishonesty as it is carelessness and
relyin I on human nature. If you always do the right thing yourself, you
kind of expect the other feller to do the right thing to. Well, it don't
work out. Not in the town treasurer business.
"We had one of those trusting treasurers here once. The selectman
who had charge of the roads then used to pay off the road gang himself
and thentEll the treasurer how much the payroll was. The treasurer would
draw out of the town funds enough to reimburse the selectman, and think
nothing of it. But when the sA.ectman put up a business blOck they begun
to wonder where the money come f rom. And they looked into it and found
out.
*Another treasurer got into a jamb in a differ:mtvay. And I'm not
sure that itvas his f ault at all. Although, of course, he was on the
wrong side of the law and they took it out of his hide.
"I don't know as I can explain his to you unless you understand
that no money is spent by a town during the year except what has been
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N.B. Town Government Topic: Town Treasurer
appropriated by a town me-ting. If anybody has the spending of an
appropriation and it runs out, the onlyway he cant more is to have a
special town meeting called and get it appropriated then. Well, town
meetings cost money. The constables have to be paid for posting the
warrants. The Moderator and other officials are paid. Maybe the hall
has to be heated. And it don't seem just right to spendivienty or thirty
dollars to have the town t ell you it's all right to do something that
you know is all right to do anyway. But that's the law.
"Say the annual town meeting appropriated a thousand dollars for
repairs to the, town hall. If the repairs cost only eight hundred they'd
be two hundred to go into surplus revenue just sitting in the bank.
But, maybe, when the workmen got things opened up, they saw that they
was more to be done than they figured on. Commonsense says that they
ought to make these othermpairs when they got thins opened up that
it would be a lot cheaper to do it then. kaype, they guessed that they
could do it for the tvso hundred they had left over. If they could, well
and good. But, if they run over the two hundred which they hadn 't
any legal right to do they used to carry the amount as an overdraft, and
tell about it at the next town meeting. The voters would understand how
it happened, and would appropriate the money to make it up. You under-
stand, it wasn't as though the townw as busted and these overdrafts meant
no funds in the 1:wink. They didn't have nothing to do with the bank. It
was just as if a man had money in every pocket. In one itydas for rent,
in another it was for cigars, and in another 1_ t was for gas. Maybe the
.4.
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N. E. Town uovernment Topic: Town Treasurer
price of gas went up on him and he spent all the money in the gas pocket.
Then they was a funeral where he had to be a bearer. 'Course, he'd draw
on his cigar for.gas. He wouldn't go running to his boss and tell him
he didn't have no money for gas not with his other pockets full.
"That's the way they would reason it. And overdrafts on different
accounts were the regular thing. It went along all right until the State
Director of Accounts, or one of his men, walked in. They clamped dawn,
and the outcome was that the treasurer had to pay all the overdrafts
himselft. That don't seem right nor fair until you ramember that it ain't
very hard to write 'overdraft so much' at the end of a number of accounts
and if the town makes the overdrafts good you got some extry money.
"As far as the State is concerned, if they get the roof off the
town hall and don't have money enough to put it back on they's only one
thing to do. And that's to call a special town meeting, 'cause, maybe,
the voters don't want no roof on the town hall, so they won't put up the
money. You have to draw up your articles, and have the warrant posted
for a special meeting, same as you have to for the regular one. And
the warrant has to be up at least ten days before the date of the meeting.
There'll be that long to wait anyhow. But you don't find me saying that of
course the voters will vote the money to have the roof put on, so go aheas,
use your common sense and put it on, without going through thilt rigamarole,
I'll pay the overdraft out of the general fund. No sir, you don't hear
me saying that. I might pay it out of Contingency if it was a real con-
tingency. But the safest way to get town money out of me is to estimate
plenty high enough in the first place what the job will cost. This has
Names Robert Wilder Assignments Northfield
Titles N.E. Town Government Topics Town Treasurer
a drawback from the taxpayer's point of view, too. It makes taxes higher
than they need be raising a lot of money the town isn't going to need.
Theoretically, the unused money left in all the accounts is transferred,
and that cuts down the taxes to oe raised the following year. 3ut the
way it works out, somebody moves for a new bridge, or sunthint, and says
proudly that it won't cost the taxpayers a cent for it can come out of
surplus revenue. Of course, the voters fall for that every time. That's
good and simple; a bridge for nothin'. Sure, let's have it. They don't
understand bookkeeping. If I, or the town accountant try to explain it,
they don't unaerstand. All they want to know is whether they have the
money, or whether they haven't. The answer is they have the motley, but...
Andthey don't want to hear anything about the 'but'. As they have the
money they might as well spend it, they reason.
"Besides being the town bookkeeper as far as the real money is con-
cerned, I have to render annually a true account of all my receipts and
disbursements and areport of my official acts that's the law. This
report is printed along with the reports of the other officers in the
Annual Report of the Town and given every voter. 'Course, like other small
towns, we skin the law pretty close here and there where we figger it's
safe. The Town Accountant has a set of books, and I let him tell what I
did with the money as far as the Town Report is concerned.
"Maybe, you ain't got this town money business straight. Mighty few
voters have. About all they understand is that if they want any looney from
the town to fix a road, which the selectmen ain't been looking after, or
to erect a memorial to Tom, Dick, or Harry Cutthroat, who was born here,
that they got to get up an article for the town warrant. And that they got
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N.E. Town Government Topic: Town Treasurer
to get th,t article to the selectmen in time to g et it included in the
town meeting warrant they want it in. If they don't do it, it'll b e held
over until the next warrant is made out. bometimes the selectmen don't want
an ar ticle in. If they don't they won't accept. They have to 2 though,
if the feller with the article can get ten voters to sign it. Sane of 'lam
don't know that, and think they can't do no thin' when the selectmen turn 'em
down. Then they got to get people to get up in town meeting and move that
the proper amount of money and. they got to c ay what, it is be *raised
and appropriated" for the purpose. 'Raised' by taxation that is. And
'appropriated' means that the amount be set aside to be drawn on for that
purpose. And then the article has t. o be seconded. And people ought to speak
for it, so's the voters will know what it is aLl about. Hehl You don't
need to get anybody to speak against it. They's always plenty of people who
will arise on the spur of the moment for that job. And then you got to
win the vote.
',Well, when the ordinary voter gets his article passed by the Town
Meeting, he thinks all he has to do is go ahead and spend the money and
that reimburse him. Or, if he don't have the money to spend that
give him a check. Or, tho.t he can run up a bill, an
ave the bill sent
to me, and that I'll pay it. Not on your tintype not as long as I'm
uondedl Ihey's quite a bit more to it.
"First, the money has t o be raised and t he Assessors work on the
figures first, and then the Tax 1/4-ollector gets the actual money, which he
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N.E. sown Government Topic: Town Treasurer
turns over to me. I got other town money, too. Interest on bonds, and
cash money that people have,iven the town to keep in savings banks and
use the interest for certain purposes, or maybe I've borrowed money for
the town in anticipation of taxes. I have to keep all these things in
my books, along with where I've reinvested funds, or paid off a loan
all that sort of thing, dealing with the handling of the actual money.
kaybel if that article I was talking about had said 'appropriated' and
nothin' about 'raising' it, I could do sunthin'. But it would have to
have named. a certain account from which the money was to -0 e appropriated.
If there didn't happen to be enough money in that account, the feller
would have been out of luck, iown officers can do funny things, perfectly
legal, too, so it's safer for anybody to say 'raise'. You can't get out
of doing that.
"The Town Accountant has to keep books with not only every appropriation
in 'em, with receipts and disbursements for every one, but with all the
receipts of the town noted in 'em too, and where the money come from. How
much each assessment was and where it was levied. And, if the town abated
anyoody's taxes that has to go in, too.. Be keeps a register of the securities
on every person's bond, when it affects the town, so's if any of us bonded
officials light out with any of town's loose cash, he'll know who to col-
lect from without bothering to catch us. He has to keep a record of
everything to do with the town debt. He has to show why the debt was in-
curred, and when. And the rate of interest. And the arrangements made
for paying it. He keeps all the originals of the town contracts, too.
Names Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N.K. Town Government Topic: Town Treasurer
He knows more about where the town stands than they do. Once a year,
time enough before the end of the town's fiscal year, the accountant has
to get up a detailed statement, and peddle it around, so that the head
ones can estimate how much money they need to ask the Town Meeting for.
The town has a finance committee that considers the amounts each one asks,
and makes recommendations. And the selectmen have the wh ole thing printed
in the Town Report.
°Lots of voters don't understand about me and the town accountant
meeting with the selectmen. The voters come to see the selectmen and they
figger we're just nosey and sitting there to listen in on what they have
to say. But I guess I've said enough so that you understand it. The se-
lectmen don't dast do a thing without the town accountant being there to
tell 'em whether or not there's money available to do it with. Maybe,
the selectmen could worry along without me. But I figger I'm accommodatipg
a lot of voters by being handy.
"S 'pose a feller that had got an article by the Town Meeting shows
up. He's mad at me because he knows I know his article passed, but still,
I won't give him any of the town's money. I've told him over and over
that he'll have to give me a warrant before I'll give him a check. But
he thinks I'm only stalling, so he comes to the selectmen. The Select-
men ask the Town Accountant if.it's all right to draw against that ap-
propriation. He says it is if the feller and a majority of the board
will kindly sign a warrant. He make out a warrant, which in this case
is really an order, the feller signs it, and the board siins, it, then
..9
Name: Robert Wilder Assignment: Northfield
Title: N.E. Town Government Topic: Town Treasurer
I take it and give the feller a check for the amount it says on it. That's
the way all town money is spent. And, as far as I'm concerned, they ain't
no short way of doing it. The feller could, of course, go to the town
accountant's house. And, if he warn't home, go to where he was working,
and make a date to get a warrant. When the accountant got tie he'd look
it up in his books. And, if the feller was entitled to it, give him a
warrant. Then theibller could chase the selectmen around and find they
didn't have no ink nor pen to sign it with. He'd have to chase 'em se-
parately. And then he'd have to find me. If he managed tog et the
warrant all properly make out, I'd see that he got his check he wouldn't
have Sio do more runninl. But it's a dum sight easier all around to meet
together every other Tuesday night and do business all in one place. If
I warn't there, they'd say I wasn't 'tending to business. 'L.ause am,
they say that's because I'm trying to find out and butt into things that
are none of my business. Well, that's the way it goes in the town office
perfessionl"