On the other hand, the progress of a rural community, i.e., a village
and the territory tributary to it, often is prevented if it cannot
command a majority of the votes in a township. In a nearby village is a
town hall which might be used as a community house and be a social
center for the whole community. But the borders of the township belong
to other communities and do not come to the township center, and these
people on the edge of the township very naturally take the position that
if the village and neighboring people wish to use the town hall, let
them rent it of the town, but why should the whole township be taxed for
advantages which only half of it can enjoy. The same line of argument
arises with regard to the location of schools, roads, libraries, and the
districts for public health nurses. Unless the whole township can be
equally well served, a community which forms but part of the township is
unable to secure these advantages unless it can command a majority of
the votes, or except as the village incorporates, and then it loses the
support of the taxes from the farms of the community which share the
benefits.
As long as farm life was on the neighborhood basis, its interests
largely centering in the district school and the country church, its
roads maintained by the labor of its citizens under a local road
supervisor, and trips to the village were made only once or twice a week
for mail and supplies, farmers did not feel the need for a unit of local
government other than the township. But when the church, the grange and
the lodge are in the village, when they desire consolidated schools,
libraries, and community houses, which are most convenient to all at the
village center, and when they desire the improvement of local roads so
that they will best connect with state and county roads, then the
interests of the farmers and the villagers unite them in these common
enterprises, and the community comes into conflict with the rest of the
township if the township is composed of more than one community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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