AMERICAN SCENE: New England: Rites of March

The New England town meeting is an institution that has always intrigued foreigners—which, in Yankee country, still means anyone from anywhere else. Next week Jimmy Carter, launching a series of meet-the-people forays into various parts of the country, plans to attend the annual meeting in Clinton, Mass. (pop. 13,383), a manufacturing town north of Boston. Making his first public appearance since he settled in Vermont last fall, Soviet Exile Alexander Solzhenitsyn turned up last week at the meeting in the tiny town of Cavendish (pop. 1,264). He politely greeted his “dear friends and neighbors” and apologized for any inconvenience caused by the fence he had built in front of his 51-acre retreat near Cavendish to discourage intruders.

In the view of a 19th century visitor to New England, Alexis de Tocqueville, the town meeting was a marvel of “municipal freedom” flourishing in a “semibarbarous” country; he was impressed at how ordinary citizens could gather to settle their affairs with “no distinction of rank.” Although the town meeting has been declining for decades—a casualty of increasing population and the complexity of issues—it is still an honored rite of March in hundreds of communities. TIME Senior Correspondent James Bell last week attended the meeting in Huntington, Vt. (pop. 825), a town of merchants, workers and small farmers in the foothills of the Green Mountains. Bell’s report:

To vote at the town meeting in Huntington, one needs only to have paid the $1 poll tax. Of the 519 citizens eligible to cast ballots, about 130 braved a healthy snowfall to show up during the course of the 4½-hour meeting. At 10 a.m., Moderator Norman Cummings, 47, a carton designer at the General Electric plant in nearby Burlington, opened the proceedings with the customary “Hear ye, hear ye,” and began going through the eleven-item agenda. Children scurried about the benches, and old folk chatted quietly in the corners. Some wandered out, and others came in from the snow outside. An old tinplate contraption in the back of the room wheezed hot air up from the furnace downstairs, adding to the background din.

The first controversial item involved a proposal to change the local real estate tax system by dropping the 4% discount offered to those who pay early. Tax delinquencies had reached nearly $37,000 last year—about 12% of this year’s proposed $298,000 budget—and some thought the town could ill afford the discounts. Said Selectman Roderick Ross: “For years we’ve been giving away $6,000 and that’s putting us in a hole.”

Rites of March

Gene Jaques, keeper of the local general store, disagreed—as might be expected, since he is a member of Huntington’s richest family, with property valued on tax rolls at $124,000. Jaques (pronounced Jakes) suggested that the discount simply be lowered. Maggie Stokes wanted to keep the full 4%. “No one’s going to pay early without that discount,” she insisted. A voice vote was taken: the discount would stay.

Cummings then came to the main item on the agenda: what Huntington should do with the $31,000 in revenue-sharing money it will get from the state and federal governments this year. After voting some lesser items, including $5,000 for a landfill project and $1,391 for ambulance service, Cummings announced what he described as “the biggie”—a proposal to buy a new $40,000 fire truck to replace “the 1946 antique we’ve got down there now.”

The hands shot up. “What happens if revenue sharing stops?” someone asked. Town Clerk Olga Hallock insisted that the federal money would continue to flow. Said a voice: “No one’s going to vote against revenue sharing in Washington. If he did, he’d get killed when he comes home.”

Was there really a need for a new pumper? Yes, the old one could not climb steep roads. Were there enough fires to justify a new truck? Absolutely, said someone from the fire department: because wood is cheaper than oil, more people were using their fireplaces for heat, and so there were more chimney fires. Moreover, fire insurance premiums would go down if the town had modern equipment. The purchase was approved.

The lunch break came near noon. Downstairs, the ladies of the local nondenominational church were collecting $1.50 a plate at a spread featuring baked beans, meat pie, green bean and onion casserole, goulash, breads and cake. Then the meeting reconvened.

Parting Complaint. The last big item on the agenda was roads. Maggie and Archie Stokes live on a road that “has been ready for blacktop for two years.” Archie moved that $5,000 be allotted for blacktopping this year. The motion was voted down when it was explained that $5,000 would pave only about 150 ft. Mac Moody, an elderly town worker, hiked his leather hat back on his head and complained that “the state just don’t want to spend money on little roads.” Then he strode outside.

The budget was approved at 2:37. The meeting adjourned two minutes later, after one citizen’s parting complaint that the dog-pound keeper was letting too many loose dogs run around town. By and large, Huntingtonians seemed to genuinely like and trust each other. Tocqueville would have been pleased.