torney-General, and Surveyor-General are each elected for a term of four years. A two-thirds vote of each House overcomes the Governor's veto. Money appropriation bills may be vetoed in part. In case of a vacancy in the office of Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor takes his place, and in turn is succeeded by the president pro tempore of the Senate. The Governor grants reprieves, pardons, and commutations of sentence.
Judicial.—The Supreme Court, the members of which are elected for a term of twelve years, consists of a Chief Justice and six associates, and is divided into two departments, which may sit separately or as one court. Each county has a Superior Court, whose members are elected for a term of six years. Inferior courts are established by the Legislature. No judge of Supreme or Superior Court can receive his salary unless he swears that no case in his court submitted ninety days previous remains unattended to.
Local Government.—There is a uniform system of county governments, and general laws are enacted for the organization of townships. Laws affecting municipal corporations must be general laws, applying to classes of municipalities made upon the basis of population. A city containing a population of more than 3500 may frame a charter for its own government, which, after being approved by the electors of the city, is submitted to the Legislature for its approval or rejection as a whole.
Other Constitutional and Statutory Provisions.—No corporation formed under the laws of the State can employ, directly or indirectly, any Chinese or Mongolian, and contracts for coolie labor are void. Appropriations to sectarian schools are prohibited. The legal rate of interest is 7 per cent., but any rate is allowed by contract. Women may enter upon or pursue any lawful business, vocation, or profession, and the property of married women belongs to them alone.
Sacramento is the capital. The State has eight Representatives in the Lower House of the national Congress.
Finances.—The cash receipts of the State for the fiscal year ending June, 1900, amounted to $11,147,000, the cash payments to $9,549,000, and the balance in the treasury to $5,020,000. The State debt on the same date was $2,460,000, of which amount $2,277,000 was held in trust for the State school and university funds.
Penal and Charitable Institutions.—The penal institutions are the prisons at Folsom and San Quentin, the State Reform School at Whittier (which is conducted on the cottage plan, and where farming and various trades are taught), and the Preston School of Industry at Ione City. The charitable institutions include the insane asylums at Napa, Stockton, Agnew, and Ukiah, all of which are under the control of a State Lunacy Commission; the Home for Feeble-minded Children at Glen Ellen; and the Institution for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind at Berkeley. There are also nineteen orphan asylums receiving State aid and inspection.
Militia.—According to the United States official Army Register for 1901, the total strength of the State militia is as follows: General officers, 4; general staff officers, 44; regimental field and staff officers, 33; company officers, 144; rank and file, 3059; aggregate, 3304. The force is organized into one division of three brigades and seven regiments. There were in 1900 378,000 males of militia age, 212,000 of whom were liable for duty.
Education. California ranks among the progressive States in its educational policy. The educational system is wide in scope and thorough in administration, and the length of the school year (165 days) is exceeded in only one or two States west of the Alleghanies. The State has succeeded better than most States in dealing with the rural school problem, but still suffers from an undue multiplication of small rural districts. The compulsory school law is not generally enforced. Of 361,000 children between the ages of 5 and 17, in 1900, 266,700 were enrolled in the public schools and 23,300 in private schools. The kindergarten grades enrolled 4400; the primary gr.ides, 170,000; the grammar grades, 82,000; and the 120 high schools, 12,100. Of the teachers of primary and grammar grades, 1100 were males and 6000 females. The average of the salaries paid to male teachers is $81 per month, and to females, $65.50, being much higher than the average for the Western States. The average annual expenditure for primary and grammar grades per child of school age is about $17. About one-half of this is provided for by State apportionments, about one-third by county apportionments, and the remainder by city or district taxes and other sources.
There are five normal schools. The State University at Berkeley, an outgrowth of the State College (chartered in 1855), has a liberal endowment. Its schools of law, medicine, etc., are in San Francisco. Lick Observatory (q.v.) is also connected with it. Leland Stanford junior University, at Palo Alto, is one of the most heavily endowed educational institutions in the world. Both of the foregoing institutions are coeducational, and in rank take their place with the foremost institutions of the country. Other colleges are: The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, with its school of agriculture at Ontario and theological school at San Fernando; the Roman Catholic colleges at San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Santa Clara; the Pacific Methodist, at Santa Rosa; California College, at Oakland; Pomona College, at Claremont; and the University of the Pacific at San José. The Cogswell Polytechnic College, at San Francisco, is maintained by the city. There are theological schools at Oakland, San José, and San Rafael; art schools at San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento. The California Academy of Sciences, founded in 1853, and endowed by James Lick (q.v.), is at San Francisco.
Religion. From an early date the Roman Catholics have been very active in missionary work. Nearly all the Spanish element of the population, and a large part of the Indian population, are members of that Church, making it numerically the strongest religious denomination. The Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists follow, in the order named, and the other leading denominations are represented. Even with the large Catholic element, but 23 per cent. of the population are church communicants.
Population. California is the most populous of the Western States, and ranks twenty-first in population among the States of the Union. The
