=The Incorporated Communities.=—The vitality of townships and district government has been weakened by the practice of incorporating as a village, town, borough, or city, any portion of the area which becomes thickly settled. The laws of the various states usually provide that whenever any part of a community becomes sufficiently populous a designated number of the inhabitants may petition for incorporation. The question is then submitted to a vote, and if the vote is favorable, a charter of incorporation is granted. A certain minimum of population is required; usually from two to three hundred in the case of a village, one to three thousand in the case of a town, and more than three thousand in the case of a city. These figures vary from state to state. In some Western states the minimum for incorporation for a city is only a few hundred. In any event when the place becomes incorporated as a village, town, borough, or city it becomes separate, for administrative purposes, from the township or district to which it belonged and sets up a local government of its own. The nature of this government, the officials, and the scope of their powers are all fixed by the laws of the state. There are more than 15,000 incorporated villages, towns, boroughs, and cities in the United States, nearly three fourths of them being places of less than 2500 population. [Sidenote: The advantages.] =The Merits and Defects of the Local Government System.=—The most marked feature of the American system of local government, when surveyed as a whole, is its decentralization. Nothing is uniform throughout the country; each state follows its own plan, and everywhere a large measure of home rule in local affairs is granted. Contrast this with the system of local government in the French Republic for example, where all communities, whether large or small, are governed in exactly the same way and strictly controlled by the central authorities in Paris. The American system has the advantage of allowing each section of the country to adopt whatever scheme best suits its own particular needs. It also facilitates the making of experiments in local government and through these experiments we learn better ways of doing things. The large measure of local home rule brings community government close to the people, giving them control over it and responsibility for it. It fosters initiative and tends to develop a wholesome rivalry in good work. Local government is a fine school for the teaching of democracy. [Sidenote: The defects.]