Debating for boys

by William Horton Foster

Assessors:

Mrs. William Horton Foster, Treasurer

Jacob S. London George Brewster Gallup

The citizen determines how much he should pay, how much he can pay, inserts that much, seals his envelope and hands it to the treasurer. No mark of any kind is placed upon the envelope and no one but the citizen knows the amount he has paid. The question is one between himself and his honor.

The organization is called the Town Meeting because we wished to emphasize the absolute and fundamental democracy of the group. You remember how in the town meetings of New England the citizens came together every year and decided what the town should do and should not do. As community life became more complicated, however, the town meeting proved inadequate. The various towns, therefore, appointed delegates to discuss together the questions of large concern while the town meetings cared for purely local matters. Furthermore, as cities increased in importance and in the variety of their business, city councils often took the place of town meetings. So we soon had the three legislative bodies, the town meeting, the city council, and the legislature.

Out of this increasing perplexity of modern conditions has arisen the need of a more highly organized legislative system. Now men cannot get together and offhand decide what should or should not be done. Men, even of the highest motives, can’t legislate intelligently upon questions that they have not studied. Hence the committee system of Congress and the various legislatures has grown up.

Under this system, committees are appointed, from the members, to which are referred the various questions which come before the legislative bodies. For instance, if a bill which sought to regulate the employment of boys in factories were presented to a state legislature, it would probably be referred to the Committee on Labor, or perhaps to the Committee on Industries. If in that State there were many questions about child labor, it might have a special committee on child labor alone. But whatever the committee might be, there would be some one committee to which would be referred every bill affecting the labor of children in factories. This committee would be in a position to discuss all these measures more intelligently and study them more carefully than could be done in the legislature itself. It would invite before it people who knew the subject thoroughly and would then report its conclusions to the legislature, perhaps together with its information carefully organized.

The Ford Hall Town Meeting is organized, like a legislature, with a series of committees to which are referred the various questions which come before it. The Calendar of the Town Meeting on a recent date will indicate clearly what kind of measures we are considering and what committees have them in charge.

When you look at the Calendar you will notice that there are “orders” on the list, and “bills.” In other Calendars “resolves” appeared also. What is the difference? Generally speaking, the bill is a measure introduced into the legislature, an order (ordinance) is a measure introduced into a city council, and a resolve (resolution) is a measure introduced into a town meeting. Yes, I mean to say we introduce them all indiscriminately, but we don’t mix them up. You may have a perfectly good idea for helping solve a problem but many a time you don’t know whether it is something the State should take up or whether it belongs to the city or possibly to the town. So in the Town Meeting the citizen must make up his mind where his proposed measure belongs. That’s part of his drill.

Look at the Calendar again. See the practical nature of the measures introduced. The history of Order No. 1 illustrates a valuable feature of the Town Meeting. The order directed the City of Boston to expend $50,000 on a model municipal lodging house. That winter the question of unemployment and the care of the unemployed was very much before us in Boston and in other parts of the country. It is easy to say: “Yes, we will have a model municipal lodging house” and order one built. But in regular routine I, as Moderator, referred this order to the Committee on City Planning. (You know it is the duty of the Moderator to refer every measure when it is introduced, to what, in his judgment, is the proper committee.) The chairman of this committee didn’t render a perfunctory report on the bill but started his committee at work studying municipal lodging houses everywhere. The members of the committee asked themselves: “What constitutes a model lodging house?” and then set themselves to find out. They have been studying such institutions at home and abroad. They are accumulating such a mass of information upon the questions involved that when they do bring in a report it will be supported by evidence which will command attention. Such a report will be a very much worth while document; it will be a sociological study worthy of any civic body.