HEALTH.
Water Districts generally coincide with the village or city limits and usually come under municipal jurisdiction. In States having large irrigation systems the water district often con stitutes an important administrative unit. See also WATER SUPPLY ; WATERWORKS.
Poor Districts may coincide with the limits of the county or township, some States having both systems. The county supports an infirm ary and persons unable to enter the infirmary must be aided or supported by the townships.
See also PAUPERISM ; CHARITIES, PUBLIC.
Road Districts.— Most country roads in the United States have been constructed or re paired by a labor or poll tax under the direction of road supervisors or overseers of road dis tricts into which the counties and towns have been divided. These supervisors may be elected by the road districts or appointed by the town ship trustees, their duties being to superintend the road work which must be performed by each male citizen between certain fixed ages. Until recently Ohio permitted cities and villages to require two days' labor on the streets. In the Southern and Far Western States the county officials usually appoint the district road officers but they are elected by each district in Idaho and Washington. In most of the North Central and North Atlantic States the local road officials are usually town officers, in some States the road supervisors being appointed by the town; but in many of these States county and State officers now supervise the more important roads. See ROADS, IMPROVEMENT OF.
School Districts are areas set apart as units of organization for the local control and ad ministration of school affairs; in most States these districts are regularly incorporated, with their own power of taxation. The limits of the township school district usually are the same as those of the civil township, but the school affairs are administered by a separate board, which may or may not consist of persons chosen by each subdistrict. Independent dis tricts may be formed in townships, which con stitute a school district; or, upon vote, all of the township's subdistricts may be constituted independent school districts. Hence a county might have townships with only subdistricts, or only independent districts, or a combination of both. The independent school districts were first established in Massachusetts in 1789 but were finally abolished in 1882. In the North Atlantic and North Central States towns and townships were formerly very generally subdi vided into petty school districts but the present tendency is to make the town the primary unit for school administration. Small school dis tricts prevail, however, in Rhode Island, Con necticut, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas and Nebraska, while an entire township or one of its subdivisions may still constitute a school district in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota. In the Southern States border ing on the Atlantic and in Louisiana, where the township has not been fully established, the officers of the district are appointed by the county school officials, who also must establish the school district. The district may coincide
with the civil or magisterial district and may elect its own trustees, as does the township in the North. In the other Southern States and some of the Far Western, counties are regularly divided into school districts which in most cases are distinct municipal corporations. In other Far Western States districts may be des ignated by county boards or by the county superintendent of schools, but the trustees are selected locally and tax levies for school pur poses are controlled locally. See also SCHOOL SUPERVISION; SCHOOLS, COUNTY TRAINING.
Judicial Districts.— For purposes of elect ing justices of the peace, the counties in many Southern and Far Western States are regularly divided into districts; and some States have districts for the election of county boards. These are called magisterial districts in Vir ginia, West Virginia and Kentucky; civil dis tricts in Tennessee; and judicial townships in California. In some places these judicial dis tricts are used as election precincts.
Other Rural Districts.— Sometimes districts are specially established in certain• localities to conduct public works affecting two or more of the regular local districts. Among such special districts are the levee districts along the lower Mississippi and the drainage districts in Illinois.
Bibliography.— Beard, C. A., 'American Government and Politics' (new ed., New York 1914) ; Bemis, E. W., 'Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest' (in 'Johns Hop kins University Studies,' Series I, No. 5, Balti more 1883) ; Commons, J. R. 'Proportional Representation' (New York 1907); Dougherty, J. H., 'Electoral System of the United States) (New York 1906) ; Fairlie, J. A., ,.Local Gov ernment in Counties, Towns and (New York 1906) ; Goodnow, F. J., 'Municipal Government' (New York 1910) ; Goss, J. D., 'History of Tariff Administration in the United States' (in 'Columbia University Studies,' Vol. I, No. 2, New York 1891) ; Hart, A. B., 'Actual Government' (New York 1909); Haynes, G. H., 'Representation in State Legis latures) (in 'Publications of American Acad emy. of Political and Social Science) (No. 284, Philadelphia 1900) ; Howard, G. E., 'Introduc tion to the Local Constitutional History of the United States' (in 'Johns Hopkins Studies,' Extra Vol. IV, Baltimore 1889) ; Howe, F. C., 'Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, 1791-1895' (New York 1896) ; Humphrey, J. H., 'Proportional Representation) (London 1911) ; Ostrogorski, M., 'Democracy and the Party System' (New York 1910) • Ramage, B. J., 'Local Government and Free Schools in South (in 'johns Hopkins Studies,' Series I, No. 12, Baltimore 1883) ; Reinsch, P. S., 'American Legislatures and Legislative Methods' (New York 1907).
hymn E. RINES, Author of 'History of the United States.)