Revenue bills originate with the House of Representatives.
Executive. A Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney-General, Treasurer, Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Instruction are elected for a term of four years each. The Governor's veto is overridden by a two-thirds vote of each House. He grants pardons, etc., subject to the approval of a Board of Pardons. The Lieutenant-Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House are respectively in the line of succession to the Governorship, in case of the vacancy of that office.
Judiciary. There is a Supreme Court of three members, elected for a term of six years. There are district courts in districts created by the Legislature, in each district, one or more judges being elected for a period of four years. Each township elects two justices of the peace, who serve two years. Each county elects a county attorney.
Local. In each county three commissioners are elected for six years. Other county officers are elected for two years, as follows: clerk, sheriff, treasurer, school superintendent, surveyor, assessor, coroner, and public administrator.
The State has a local option law; the legal rate of interest is 10 per cent.; any rate is allowed by contract, and there is no penalty for usury. The capital is Helena. The State has one Representative in the National Congress.
Militia. The population of militia age in 1900 was 83,574. The number of the militia in 1901 was 340.
Finances. The budget of Montana before admission to Statehood was a very limited one, ranging from $30,000 to $50,000. Montana has no funded debt. The unpaid registered warrants are, however, interest-bearing and, for a few weeks before the annual taxes become delinquent, they sometimes amount to several hundred thousand dollars. Several State institutions issue bonds secured by the several land grants, but the State is not responsible for the interest or principal of these bonds, and they therefore do not constitute a State debt. The receipts have grown rapidly, and in 1902 amounted to $1,454,932, which was divided into more than thirty different funds, twelve of which are for schools and universities. The income is derived from a general property tax (50 per cent.), sale of lands (20 per cent.), licenses (10 per cent.), etc. The expenditures were $1,412,894. The balance on hand was $596,724, of which sum almost 75 per cent. belonged to various school funds.
Population. The following shows the population by decades: 1870, 20,595; 1880, 39,159; 1890, 132,159; 1900, 243,329. Most of the people live in the western or mining section of the State. Montana is predominantly a mining State, and there is a large excess of the male sex, the number in 1900 being 149,842. The total foreign-born numbered 67,067, no one nationality being particularly strong. In 1900 Butte had a population of 30,470; Great Falls, 14,930; Helena, 10,770; Anaconda, 9453.
Indians. The tribal Indians, chiefly Crows, Blackfeet, Yankton Sioux, Assiniboins, Gros Ventres, and Pend d'Oreilles, are located on six reservations, embracing an area of 14,845 square miles of fine agricultural and grazing land, of which only a small portion is cultivated. They are making some progress, but their first efforts have been attended with a great deal of waste and of misdirected energy. They are reckless in the use of farm machinery, and their attempts at irrigation are often unwisely executed. They own large herds of cattle and ponies.
Religion. The majority of the Church population belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and a number of other denominations also have a following.
Education. In 1900, 6.1 per cent. of the population above ten years of age was illiterate. The educational system of the State has the advantage of a liberal financial support. By act of Congress, two sections out of every township, besides certain other public lands and public land revenues, are set apart for educational purposes. The revenue from this source now exceeds an annual value of $200,000. The average length of 140 days for the school term is a creditable showing, but it is representative only of the towns and more thickly populated centres, there being large numbers of schools in the sparsely settled rural districts having a school term of less than half that length, and there are a number of inhabitants who are not within reach of public school advantages. A law passed in 1903 made education compulsory between the ages of eight and fourteen for the full schooling period. High schools are established when the electors of the county demand them, and twelve counties have thus provided themselves. In 1900 the census registered 57,210 children, 39,430 of whom were enrolled in the public schools and 1898 in private schools. The State maintains the following higher institutions of learning: State University, at Missoula; Agricultural College, at Bozeman; School of Mines, at Butte City; and a Normal College, at Dillon.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. There is a State Orphans' Home at Twin Bridges, a State Soldiers' Home at Columbia Falls, and a school for the deaf and the blind at Boulder (attendance of deaf and blind children is compulsory). The State as yet does not maintain an insane hospital, but cares for its insane by contract with a private company, allowing 65 cents per diem per capita. The number thus cared for increased from 195 in 1892 to 477 in 1900. There is a State reformatory at Miles City. The State penitentiary is situated at Deer Lodge, where the convicts are employed according to the public accounts system, the State paying 45 cents per diem per capita for their care.
History. The Sieur de la Verendrye is said to have traversed the region now included in the State of Montana in 1742. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition crossed Montana from the northeast to the extreme southwest, and the following year, on their return journey from the Pacific Coast, descended the Missouri and the Yellowstone in two parties, meeting at the junction of the rivers near the present eastern boundary of Montana. Trading posts were erected on the Yellowstone River by Manuel Lisa in 1809, William H. Ashley in 1822, and the American Fur Company in 1829. In 1840 Father Peter John de Smet of the Society of Jesus began mission work among the Flathead Indians, and this was followed by the establishment of a permanent mission among the Indians of Bitter Root Valley in September, 1841. Fort Benton was
