and if a tax-payer she may vote on all questions submitted to the tax-payers of the state or of any political division thereof.
The officers of the executive department are the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, attorney-general, treasurer, auditor and superintendent of public instruction, each of whom is elected for a term of four years. No person is eligible to any of these offices who shall not have lived within the state for two years next preceding the election; no person is eligible to the office of governor, lieutenant-governor, attorney-general or superintendent of public instruction who is not thirty years of age; no person is eligible to the office of secretary of state, treasurer or auditor who is not twenty-five years of age; no person is eligible to the office of attorney-general who has not been admitted to practice in the supreme court of the state; and the treasurer is ineligible to his office for the immediately succeeding term. The governor’s powers are limited. As in other states he is commander-in-chief of the militia. With the advice and consent of the senate he appoints various administrative officers. With the approval of the majority of a board of pardons (composed of the secretary of state, attorney-general and auditor), he may pardon offences or commute punishment, and remit fines and forfeitures. He may veto any bill passed by the assembly, or in the case of a bill making appropriations of money he may veto any item of it, and no bill or item of an appropriation bill which he vetoes within five days (Sunday excepted) after it has been presented to him, can become a law or part of a law unless passed over his veto in each house by a two-thirds vote of the members present. Under an amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1906 his veto power does not extend to measures referred to the people by the legislative assembly or by initiative and referendum petitions. Without his approval, also, no order or resolution of either House, other than to adjourn or relating solely to the business of the assembly, can take effect until passed again by a two-thirds vote as in case of a bill.
The legislature consists of a senate and a house of representatives. Except when called in special session by the governor it meets (at Helena) on the first Monday of January in odd numbered years only, and the length of its session is limited by the constitution to sixty days. Senators are elected, one from each county, for a term of four years; representatives are elected, one or more from each county according to population, for a term of two years. The qualifications for a senator are that he be at least twenty-four years of age and have resided in his county or district at least one year next preceding his election; for a representative there are no qualifications other than those required for suffrage. The action of the legislature is much restricted by the constitution: a long list of cases is named in which that body is prohibited from passing any local or special laws; it is prohibited from delegating to any special commission power to perform any municipal functions whatever; from making any appropriations for charitable, industrial, educational or benevolent purposes to any person, corporation or community not under the absolute control of the state; and from authorizing the state to contract any debt or obligation in the construction of any railway, or to lend its credit in aid of such railway construction. In 1906 an amendment to art. 5, sec. 1 of the state constitution, authorized the initiative and referendum, but two-fifths of the entire number of counties must each furnish for initiative petitions signatures amounting in number to 8% of the whole number of votes cast for governor at the election last preceding the filing of the petition; for referendum petitions two-fifths of the counties must each furnish as signers 5% of the legal voters; and any measure referred to the people shall be in full force unless the petition for the referendum be signed by 15% of the legal voters (whose number is that of the total votes cast for governor, &c., as above) of a majority of the whole number of counties, but that in such case the law to be referred shall be inoperative until it is passed at the popular election.
The administration of justice is intrusted to a supreme court, an increasing number of district courts, and at least two justices’ courts in each organized township, besides police and municipal courts. The supreme court is composed of a chief justice and two associate justices elected for a term of six years. It holds four sessions a year at Helena and has both original and appellate jurisdiction. For most district courts there is only one judge, but for the more populous there are two; they are all elected for four years. These courts have original jurisdiction in cases at law and in equity in which the value in controversy exceeds $50, in criminal cases amounting to felony, in all matters of probate, in actions for divorce, &c., and appellate jurisdiction in cases arising in the inferior courts. Justices of the peace are elected for two years and have civil jurisdiction in several classes of actions in which the amount demanded does not exceed $300, and in such cases as petit larceny, assault in the third degree and breach of the peace.
For purposes of local government the state is divided into counties; each county into townships, school districts and road districts; and there are incorporated cities and towns. The county officers are a board of three commissioners, a treasurer, a sheriff, a county clerk, a clerk of the district court, an attorney, a surveyor, a coroner, a public administrator, an assessor, a superintendent of schools, and in some instances, an auditor. The commissioners are elected for six years, the other officers, for two years. Among the commissioners’ powers and duties are: the management of county property; the levying of taxes; the equalizing of assessments; the division of the county into townships, school districts and road districts; the laying out and management of public highways and ferries, and the care of the poor. The township is of minor importance, its principal officers being two justices of peace and two constables. Municipal corporations are classified according to population; those having 10,000 inhabitants or more are cities of the first class; those having less than 10,000 but more than 5000 inhabitants, cities of the second class; those having less than 5000 but more than 1000 inhabitants, cities of the third class, and those having less than 1000 but more than 300 inhabitants towns. In a city of the first class, a mayor, two aldermen from each ward, a police judge, and a treasurer who may be ex officio tax-collector are elected, and an attorney, a clerk, a chief of police, an assessor, a street commissioner, a jailer, a surveyor, and, where there is a paid fire department, a chief engineer with one or more assistants, may be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council. The officers of cities of the second and third class are the same, except that the clerk is ex officio assessor. In towns only a mayor and aldermen are elected, and the mayor with the consent of the council appoints a clerk who is ex officio assessor, a treasurer who is ex officio collector, and a marshal who may be ex officio street commissioner. The principal municipal officers hold office for two years.
A wife may hold property and make contracts as if she were single, and neither husband nor wife is accountable for the acts of the other. The husband is required to support himself and his wife if he is able to do so; if he is unable, his wife is required to assist him. On the death of either husband or wife at least one-third of his or her property passes to the other. Recognized causes for divorce are adultery, extreme cruelty, wilful desertion, wilful neglect, habitual intemperance or conviction for felony. The homestead of a head of a family consisting either of a farm not exceeding 160 acres or $2500 in value, or of a house and lot—the lot not exceeding 14 acre, and the house and lot not exceeding $2500 in value—is secured against debtors except in case of judgments obtained before the homestead was recorded as such, in case of labourers’, mechanics’ or vendors’ liens, and in case of a debt secured by mortgage; if the owner is a married person the homestead cannot be mortgaged without the consent of both husband and wife. For the settlement of disputes between labourers and employers there is a state board, appointed by the governor and consisting of an employer of labour, a labourer and a disinterested citizen. Upon application of either or both of the parties, provided the employees be not less than twenty, this board is required to inquire into the cause of the dispute, with the aid of two expert assistants, who shall be nominated by the parties, and to render a decision, which is binding for at least six months upon the parties to the application.
Charitable and Penal Institutions.—These are a state prison at Deer Lodge, managed by contract; a reform school at Miles City, an industrial school at Butte, an orphans’ home at Twin Bridges,
the soldiers’ home at Columbia Falls, a school for deaf and blind
