FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 623 
It can be preserved if the local units are recast, where necessary, 
to meet changed economic and social conditions. Where there is 
now a strong spirit of local self-government it will usually be found 
that the conditions mentioned above have been met or approximated. 
In this case the existing set-up should be built upon rather than 
disrupted. Where local self-government is weak the causes for the 
weakness are likely to be economic, necessitating a change in the 
political boundaries. Generally speaking, the reorganization of 
local governmental areas, in the interest of both increased political 
vitality and better administration, will need to be in the direction 
of fewer and larger units. The ideal, from the political or civic 
point of view, would be only dhe government between any citizen 
and the State, but this would probably not always be ideal from 
the administrative point of view. 
The most promising avenues of improvement in the structure 
of local governmental areas appear to be the following: (1) The 
abolition of the township as a governmental unit in the 17 States 
where it exists outside of New England; (2) a reduction in the num- 
ber of New England towns by abolishing those which are within 
urban territory and by annexing those which have a very sparse 
population to contiguous towns; (3) a reduction in the number of 
counties, particularly in the South and West, through the absorp- 
tion of weak, sparsely populated counties by the strong, unified 
counties; (4) the elimination of special taxing districts wherever 
the benefit can be properly extended to the entire town, county, 
or city; and (5) the elimination of many school districts by adopting 
the county as the unit of administration and standard support. 
This program would leave the county, enlarged and strengthened 
in many instances, as the primary unit of government in most rural 
territory. In New England the town, enlarged and strengthened 
in some instances, would occupy the corresponding position, and in 
further discussion it will be understood that what is said of the 
county in general applies to the town in New England. The popu- 
lation of limited areas should of course not be denied the right to 
tax themselves for a special purpose, but this privilege should be 
surrounded with such safeguards as greatly to restrict its use. Per- 
haps its most frequent and most justified use would be to provide 
educational facilities beyond those supplied by the State and county. 
The latter should, however, be adequate to satisfy all normal require- 
ments, so that a special school district, in rural territory at least, 
would be exceptional. If these changes were made, most rural 
property would be subject to only two taxes, the State tax and the 
county tax. This is the case now in certain restricted areas. 
The relation of the city and the county should depend on the 
size of the city. There is no need for county government in large 
cities, which should probably be entirely independent of the county, 
the city area being extended to include the whole metropolitan 
area. Small cities should not be detached from the county, but 
rather the county should be enlarged to include the tributary trade 
area. Most towns (villages) containing from 3,000 to 10,000 popu- 
lation which are now county seats should remain so; and, in some 
instances, counties with less populous towns as county seats should 
be perpetuated. Generally, however, a county which lacks a town 
of 3,000 people lacks the resources and the unity to justify its per- 
