Art. 8.  To see if the Town will vote to install and maintain incandescent electric lights on following named streets ... .

Art. 9.  To see if the Town will vote to raise the pay of its Police Officers fifty cents a day. ...

Art. 10.  To see if the Town will vote to appoint and instruct a committee to petition the County Commissioners to relocate Marble Street. ...

Art. 12.  To see if the Town will vote to appropriate a sum ... to reimburse Wellington H. Pratt for expenses incurred in the construction of a sewer and laying of water pipes. ...

And you are directed to serve this warrant by posting an attested copy of the same at each of the Meeting Houses and Post-Offices in said Town, eight days at least, including two Sundays, before the time of holding said meeting.

Hereof fail not, and make due return of this warrant, with your doing thereon, to the Town Clerk at the time and place of said meeting.

Given under our hands this first day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen.

(Signed by the Selectmen)

It has been said that

THE VALUE OF THE TOWN MEETING

The thing most characteristic of a town meeting is the lively and educating debate; for attendants on town meeting from year to year become skilled in parliamentary law, and effective in sharp, quick argument on their feet.  Children and others than voters are allowed to be present as spectators.  In every such assembly, four or five men ordinarily do half the talking; but anybody has a right to make suggestions or propose amendments, and occasionally even a non-voter is allowed to make a statement; and the debate is often very effective. [Footnote:  Albert Bushnell Hart, actual government, p. 171.]

Another writer says,

The retiring officers present their reports, which in the larger towns have been previously printed and distributed.  Any citizen present is free to express any criticism or ask any question.  No better method of checking the conduct of public officers has ever been discovered than this system of report in open meeting.  Keen questions and sharp comment rip open and expose to view the true inwardness of the officers’ behavior.

At its best, the New England town meeting has never been equaled as a mechanism for local government.  No mere representative system can give the opportunity for real participation in government which a town meeting affords.  Even the small boys who come to enjoy the fun from the gallery are taught that government is a living reality.  By grappling first-hand with their own small local problems, men are trained to take part wisely in the bigger affairs of state and nation. [Footnote:  Thomas H. Reed, form and functions of American government, pp. 218, 220.]

WEAKENING OF GOVERNMENT BY TOWN MEETING