County Government (Volume 47) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1913. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... BOSTON'S COUNTY PROBLEMS1 By Orren C. Hormell, A. M., Assistant Professor of History, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. While Boston is not a "county-ridden" city as are so many American cities, and while she is free from even a large portion of the more serious county problems2 confronting other Massachusetts municipalities, still problems of considerable importance arising from Boston's relation to Suffolk county insistently demand solution in the interests of efficient government. Massachusetts has been a leader in municipal reform, yet the reforms which have been considered fundamental for city government have never been extended to Boston's administration of county affairs. Boston's county functions fall into two classes: judicial and administrative.3 The exercise of judicial functions in Suffolk county is vested in a number of tribunals classified as courts of superior and courts of inferior jurisdiction. Of the former there are four:4 first, the supreme judicial court, a single judge of which holds jury terms in Boston for Suffolk county, and the full bench of which comprises the court of last resort in the state;5 second, the superior 1 A portion of the material in this article appeared in a paper, "The City and County in Massachusetts," read by the writer before the American Political Science Association, 1911. See the Proceedings of the American Political Science Association, 1911, in Supplement to the American Political Science Review. VI, No. 1, pp. 61-72. For a number of the facts in this article I am indebted to prominent business and professional men in Boston whose names for obvious reasons I am not permitted to use in citing authorities. * Those relating to the office of county commissioners. Prior to the charter of 1909, the aldermen of Boston ex...