=The Metropolitan Counties.=—Special problems of county government arise whenever a large city spreads itself over a whole county or even over a very large portion of it. The growth of great municipal centers during recent years has changed many American counties from rural into urban or metropolitan areas. Examples are to be found in New York City which includes five counties within the city limits. The city of Philadelphia includes the whole of Philadelphia county; Suffolk county is almost entirely covered by the city of Boston, and the city of Cleveland contains nine tenths of the population of Cuyahoga county. The cities are largely independent of the counties within which they are located, but the functions of city and county government run close together at many points. For example the sheriff of the county and the police commissioner or police chief of the city are both responsible for the maintenance of law and order. The result is, quite often, a duplication of work and a waste of money. It has been proposed that the city and county governments, in the case of metropolitan counties, should be substantially combined to prevent this duplication. To some extent this has been done, as in the case of St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston, and San Francisco. In other large cities various plans for entire or partial unification are under way. [Sidenote: Desirable changes in county organization.] =The Reform of County Government.=—For the improvement of county government throughout the country three important changes in present organization and methods seem to be needed. [Sidenote: 1. A centralized executive.] In the first place some provision should be made for the better handling of executive work. As matters now stand there is no county official corresponding to the President, the governor, and the mayor in national, state, and city government respectively. Responsibility is scattered into too many hands. It ought to be centralized in a county manager or some other single administrative official. [Sidenote: 2. A shorter ballot.] Second, the number of elective county officers should be reduced. There is no sound reason why treasurers, auditors, and superintendents of schools should be appointed in cities (as is usually the case), but elected in counties. The practice of electing so many administrative officers makes the ballot long and cumbersome; it also leads to the choice of men who have no qualifications other than popularity. What is even worse, it encourages frequent changes in the incumbents of these offices and thus interferes with the efficient management of the county’s business. [Sidenote: 3. The merit system.] Finally, the merit system could be advantageously extended to include all subordinate county positions. TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS [Sidenote: The various units of local government.]