Page:Handbook for Boys.djvu/368

Rh Towns, Villages, and Cities The government of the town, or the village, or the city is called local government. It is government close at hand—home government. And out of the home government of each town, village, and city in a state must come, by the votes of the people at the ballot-box, the men whom they choose as their representatives in the government of the state and the nation—for the people rule through representatives of their own choosing.

Politics

In every presidential election, the people, through the rule of the majority, as determined by the Constitution, elect their chief magistrate, the President, who becomes the "first citizen" of the nation and is entitled "Mr. President." The people of a state by the same rule elect their chief' magistrate and entitle him "His Excellency, the Governor"; he is the state's chief or leading citizen. The people of the city by the same rule elect their chief magistrate and entitle him "His Honor, the Mayor," the city's leaxting citizen. The people of the town, in the New England States, elect their chief officers—three to five men—and entitle them the "Selectmen"; although in towns of the middle and western states, they are called "Supervisors."

So, likewise, the people in town, village, and dry by the same "rule of the majority" elect aldermen, councilmen, state senators, representatives or assemblymen, and congressmen. And the state legislatures in turn elect, according to the Constitution of the United States, the state's United States senators, two in number. Thus, by the rule of the majority, are all officers of town, village, and city,' county and state elected, except such few as are appointed by law to offices by superior officers, heads of departments, bureaus, or districts of supervision or administration.

Property The ownership of property, both real and personal, and the protection of that ownership, is made possible in the organization of society—termed the government—and in the power of that government to make and enforce its laws. Real property is the kind of property which pertains to land, the ownership of which is transferred from one person to another, either by a deed recorded in the office of the register of deeds in the county court house, or else transferred by descent, or by will through, the