I pass to the mixed or compromise system as it appears
in the other group of States, of which Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, and Iowa may be taken as samples. In these States



LOCAL GOVERNMENT 235

we find no town meeting. Their township may have greater
or less power, but its members do not come together in a
primary assembly; it elects its local officers, and acts only
through and by them.
In most of these States the county overshadows the
township. Taking Pennsylvania as an example, we find
each county governed by a board of three commissioners,
elected for three years, upon a minority vote system, the
elector being allowed to vote for two candidates only. Be-
sides these there are officers, also chosen by popular vote for
three years, viz.^ a sheriff, coroner, prothonotary, registrar
of wills, recorder of deeds, treasurer, surveyor, three audi-
tors, clerk of the court, district attorney. The county, be-
sides its judicial business and the management of the prisons
incident thereto, besides its duties as respects highways and
bridges, has educational and usually also poor law func-
tions ; and it levies its county tax and the State taxes through
a collector for each township whom it and not the township
appoints. Cities, even the smaller ones, are usually sepa-
rated from the townships, while usually remaining members
of the counties, except where the city is made a county by
itself. Of villages and other minor municipalities there are
various forms in different States. The principles which
govern these organizations are generally the same; the de-
tails are infinite, and incapable of being summarized here.
Of minor incorporated bodies, therefore, I say no more.
