Representation.) In all the States members of the Legislature receive salaries, which are the same for members of both Houses. The amount ranges from one dollar a day and mileage at 8 cents a mile in Rhode Island to $1,500 a year and mileage at ten cents a mile in New York. In most of the States the Constitution provides for biennial sessions of the Legislature. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina annual sessions are required. In most of the States the length of the session is left to the discretion of the Legislature, in others it is limited by constitutional provision. The powers of the Legislature relative to organization, procedure, adjournment privileges, etc., are similar to those of Congress. The executive power in each State is vested in the Governor, popularly elected for a term ranging from one year in Rhode Island to four years in nineteen States. In a majority of the States—32 in number—there is a Lieutenant-Governor, who succeeds to the Governorship in case of a vacancy. The Governor's salary ranges from $1500 in Rhode Island and $2000 in New Hampshire to $10,000 in New York and Pennsylvania. In a few States he is ineligible to succeed himself. His duties and powers include the execution of the laws, the furnishing of the Legislature with information at the beginning of its session, the calling of it together in extraordinary session, the appointment of certain officers, usually with the consent of the Senate, the granting of reprieves and pardons, the veto of legislative measures except in four States (see Veto), and the command of the militia. In several of the States where there has been a traditional fear of the executive power, the Governor's prerogatives are very narrow—he has no veto power and but little power of appointment. To aid the Governor in the administration there are in every State a number of executive departments, at the head of which are officers usually chosen at the same time, in the same manner, and for the same term as himself. These are the Secretary of State, the Treasurer, the Attorney-General, the Auditor or Comptroller, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, whose duties are sufficiently indicated by their titles. Besides, there are frequently such officers as commissioners of railroads and of canals, insurance, agriculture, labor, immigration, charities, etc. In most States where such officers exist they are popularly elected, but in a few States they are chosen by the Legislature or appointed by the Governor. The position of the heads of the State executive departments is in no sense similar to that of the President's Cabinet. The Governor has little or no power of direction over them and their responsibility is to their constituencies.
In each State the judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, one or more superior courts known by different names, and a series of local courts of various kinds. In several States the Supreme Court is such only in name, there being a court of last resort above it and usually known as Court of Appeals or Court of Errors and Appeals. This is the case in New York, New Jersey, and Kentucky. Texas has two Supreme Courts, one for civil and the other for criminal cases. The size of the Supreme Courts ranges from three justices in eighteen States to nine in one State. The salaries of members of the State Supreme Courts range from $2000 in Delaware to $8000 in Pennsylvania. Next below the Supreme Court are the superior courts, sometimes called circuit courts, having jurisdiction over a group of counties with the power to hear appeals from the lower courts. Usually there is also a county court, which is known by different names and which has a wide original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters and appellate jurisdiction over the decisions of the justices of the peace. These justices of the peace have original jurisdiction in minor civil and criminal eases, with power to impose fines, to commit to prison for short periods, and to bind over accused persons to await the action of the grand jury. In the towns and cities there is usually a separate class of municipal courts. (See Municipal Government.) There are also probate and chancery courts in some States. Formerly the State judges were generally appointed by the Governor or chosen by the Legislature, but now in a great majority of the States they are popularly elected. In six States the Supreme Justices are still elected by the Legislature; in eight they are appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Council or Senate. The early rule was good-behavior tenure, but now that rule prevails only in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Delaware. Elsewhere the term varies from two years in Vermont to twenty-one in Pennsylvania.
Local Government. Three general types of local government prevail in the United States. They are the town system in New England, the county system in the South, and the mixed system in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and a number of the North Central States. In the town system the sovereign local authority is the town meeting, or general assembly of all the qualified voters of the town. A regular annual session of this assembly is held in the spring, and extra sessions are held throughout the year as necessity requires. At the annual meeting, which is presided over by a ‘moderator,’ the town officers are elected, the local budget passed, and other matters of local interest decided upon. The principal town officers are a number of selectmen ranging from three to nine, who are the general managers of the town affairs; the town clerk, who is the keeper of the records; the treasurer; the tax assessors; the tax collector; the school committee, and a variety of minor officers such as constables, overseers of the poor, surveyors, fence-viewers, etc. Where the pure town system prevails the county plays but little part in local administration, and in some States like Rhode Island there are, strictly speaking, no county officers, the county being merely a judicial district without corporate personality.
In the Southern States, where the county type of local government prevails, conditions are reversed. There the county is the political unit, and the administration of all local matters, except educational and municipal affairs, is intrusted to county officers. The chief county authority is the board of county commissioners or supervisors, each member of which represents one of the magisterial districts into which the county is divided. There is no authority which corresponds to the New England town meeting.
