of judges, however, may be increased by the Legislature. In each organized county at least one Superior Court judge is elected for a term of four years.
Local Government. The Legislature maintains a uniform system of county government, in which no county officer is eligible to hold office more than two terms in succession. Municipal corporations can be treated only by general laws.
Washington has three representatives in the National House of Representatives. The capital is Olympia.
Finances. At the time of its admission to Statehood Washington assumed the Territorial debt, consisting of $153,669, which existed in the form of unpaid and interest-bearing warrants. This debt was bonded in 1900. The Constitution prohibits the creation of a funded debt over $400,000; but the insufficiency of taxable property made payments of money expenses impossible, and both the bonded and floating debt gradually grew. In 1900 the bonded debt amounted to $820,000, and there were outstanding debts to the amount of $721,000. Since then most of the latter has been converted into bonds. Most of the bonds are held by the permanent school fund, and, while the total nominal debt on September 30, 1902, amounted to $1,344,739, only $179,739 was due to private people. Against this debt the State had a balance in the treasury of $912,073, divided among 23 funds. The main sources of revenue are a general property tax and the sale of public lands. The total receipts for the two years ending September 30, 1902, were $7,149,381, and disbursements $6,663,308.
Militia. The population of the State of militia age in 1900 was 149,586. The organized militia in 1901 numbered 958 men.
Population. The following figures show the growth of the population by decades: 1860, 11,594; 1870, 23,955; 1880, 75,116; 1890, 349,390; 1900, 518,103. The State ranks 33d in the Union and second on the Pacific Coast. The males are largely in excess of the females, the former having numbered, in 1900, 304,178, and the latter 213,925. As in other Western States, there is a large foreign-born element, which in 1900 numbered 111,364, distributed among various nationalities, with English-speaking Canadians in the lead. The negroes in 1900 numbered 2514, Japanese 5617, Chinese 3629, and Indians 10,039. In 1900 there were 7.7 inhabitants to the square mile. The population is confined mainly to the Puget Sound region and the southeastern part of the State. There is a rather large urban population, the aggregate number of those in towns of over 4000 inhabitants in 1900 amounting to 36.4 per cent. of the total population. Seattle and Spokane almost doubled their population between 1890 and 1900, the former having in 1900 80,671 and the latter 36,848 inhabitants. In the same year the population of Tacoma was 37,714; Walla Walla, 10,049; Everett, 7838; New Whatcom, 6834.
Religion. The leading denominations in point of numbers are the Roman Catholics, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Congregationalists.
Education. The public school system is under the control of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected for four years, and a Board of Education, appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Senate. All school districts of the State must maintain school for at least three months during the year, and all graded schools in incorporated cities and towns must be in session for at least six months. The public school system is supported financially by the common school fund (derived from State and individual appropriations and donations, the proceeds from public lands, etc.), and by a tax which must not exceed 5 mills on the dollar. In the census year 1900, out of a total of 158,245 children of school age, 100,731, or about 63 per cent., were in attendance. Of the population over ten years of age, 3.1 per cent. were classed as illiterate. The school statistics for 1902 gave the number of children of school age as 167,902, and the number in actual attendance as 136,645, or 81 per cent., which is a notable increase over the 1900 figures. The principal institutions of learning in the State are the University of Washington (see Washington, University of), at Seattle; Gonzaga College, at Spokane; Whitman College, at Walla Walla; and the Washington Agricultural College and School of Science, at Pullman. There are also State normal schools at Cheney and Ellensburg.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. The charitable and penal institutions are in charge of a bi-partisan board of control. Their authority includes the management, government, and purchasing of supplies for the institutions. There are two State hospitals for the insane, one at Fort Steilasoom and the other at Medical Lake, with 766 and 380 inmates respectively on September 30, 1902. On the same date the Soldiers' Home at Orting contained 168 persons, the school for defective youth at Vancouver 153, the Reform School at Chehalis 151, and the penitentiary at Walla Walla 581. The total expenditure for these institutions for the year ending on the date mentioned was $316,681. A parole law was introduced into the penal system in 1899.
History. The Territory of Washington was set off from Oregon March 2, 1853. The southern boundary was the Columbia River to the 40th parallel near Walla Walla, and thence east to the Rocky Mountains, thus including Idaho and a part of Montana. (For early history, see Oregon.) At its organization the population was only 3965, of whom 1682 were voters. With the discovery of gold in eastern Washington, a great influx of population followed and the alarmed Indians determined to exterminate the whites. This led to the Washington-Oregon Indian war of 1855-56. Again in 1857 there were serious Indian troubles concurrent with the rush of population to the gold fields of British Columbia, but the greatest rush was after the discovery of gold at Salmon River in 1860. At the time of the boundary treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1846 (see Oregon), the 49th degree was accepted as the boundary to the channel between Vancouver Island and the mainland, thence down that channel to the sea. In 1859 a dispute arose as to which channel was meant, as on this hinged the possession of the Haro Archipelago, of which San Juan is the largest island. A collision between British and American soldiers was narrowly averted. (See
