MONTANA. 



475 



rate of taxation has been steadily reduced. We point 

 of tin- Democratic party under that Con- 

 stitution as a conelusive reason I'm- its continuance in 

 _'li the appro\ iiiir MiU'ravo ot' tin- voters. 



the l>riiii-ratie party as.- in I tin- administra- 



s-utc government, in 1*7:1. the lion.li-d debt 

 -jo,sr,s,000; on July 1, Is'.rj, it liail 

 ,000. At tin- beginning of that 

 :lu- rat i- of interest on the State dclt was i! and 

 nt.: it is now but :;t per edit, on five-sixths 

 of the outstanding debt. During the last \earofKe- 

 puMieaii eontrol the rate of taxation for State pur- 

 eents on the Jlou valuation of property. 

 It lias now l>eell reduced to !"> cents on tile if loo, or 

 one half, 1.". cents of which reduction has taken j)luco 

 during the incumbency of the present State adminis- 

 tration, whieh reduction alone will save to the ta.x- 

 - of the State $1,500,000 this year. 



The State Democratic Convention called to 

 nominate Supreme Court judges to succeed 

 tlx-i- whose terms were to expire on Jan. 1, 

 l^ii::. met in July, at St. Louis, and Judges Sher- 

 wood, Burgess, and McFarlane were declared 

 t he nominees. At the elections in November the 

 Democratic State ticket was successful by a 

 plurality of 29,790. The vote for presidential 

 electors was : Cleveland, 267,353 ; Harrison, 226,- 

 ;;i!C Weaver, 40,925; Bidwell, 4,314. 



MONTANA, a Western State, admitted to 

 the Union Nov. 8, 1889; area, 146,080 square 

 miles; population, according to the census of 

 IV.H i, 132,159. Capital, Helena. 



(overnment. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, Joseph K. 

 Toole ; Lieutenant-Governor, John E. Rickards ; 

 Secretary of State, Louis Kotwitt : Treasurer, 

 Richard 0. Hickman ; Auditor, E. A. Kenney ; At- 

 torney-General, Henri J. Haskell ; Superintendent 

 of 1'iiblic Instruction, John Gannon ; Chief Jus- 

 tice of the Supreme Court, Henry N. Blake ; 

 A--ociate Justices, William H. De Witt ajid E. 

 N. Harwood. All these officers are Republicans 

 except the Governor. 



Finances. The cash balance in all funds of 

 the State treasury on Dec. 1, 1891, was $68,- 

 7.V.UM), and on Dec. 1, 1892, $162,510.61. The 

 total revenue proper for the year was $433,- 

 .'!"> l.'Jl. and the warrants drawn against the same 

 woe $379,357.90, leaving a balance of $53,993.31. 

 The total receipts of the general fund were $508,- 

 106.46, which, added to the balance on hand at 

 the 1 Manuring of the year, $63,356.38, give a 

 total of $571,462.84. The total of warrants paid 

 and bonds bought was $418.576.12, leavingabal- 

 ance of cash on hand of $152,886.72. The rev- 

 enues from every county in the State have ma- 

 terially increased over those of the previous 

 year, aggregating a net increase of $176,804.811 

 For the first time, all the several stock funds 

 have a balance to their credit after paying all 

 warrants for the year. The sheep inspector and 

 idemnitv fund is credited with a balance of $8,- 

 KM. 77. ' It will not be necessary to levy the tax 

 for this fund for some years to come, unless a 

 .serious epidemic should attack that class of 

 stock. Only about $21,000 of the school fund 

 has been invested. 



Valuations. The total valuation of property, 

 real and personal, in the State for 1891, as re- 

 turned by the county commissioners, is $142,- 

 205,428. The values "are divided in part as fol- 

 low: Town and city lots, $30,975,421 ; railroads, 



$7,781,890; monev, $4,295,505; other personal 

 property, $59,974,546, 



Militia. The State Constitution compels the 

 maintenance of a State militia, and the rode pro- 

 vides for an annual encampment, but none has 

 been held since 1889, owing to the failure of the 

 Legislature to make an appropriation. I'lideran 

 act of Congress providing for the disposition of 

 the abandoned Fort Ellis reservation the State 

 Board of Land Commissioners has filed on 640 

 acres for a permanent military camp ground. 



Land Grants. Seventy-two sections of pub- 

 lic land were given to the Territory of Montana, 

 for university purposes by the United States in 

 1881, of which 45,226 acres were selected in 

 1882-'83. Another grant of 622,000 acres was 

 made by the Federal Government in the act 

 providing for the admission of Montana into 

 the Union. The report of the State Board of 

 Land Commissioners for 1892 shows a total se- 

 lection of 128.823-51 acres. 



Industrial. In 1891 there were 7,646 farms 

 and ranches in the State, containing 1,383,826 

 acres of fenced land and 2,202,105 unfenced. 

 The acreage cultivated and the crop produced 

 included the following: Wheat, 655,273 bushels; 

 rye, 14,920 bushels; barley, 244,766 bushels; 

 corn, 35,809 bushels; oats,' 2,524,507 bushels: 

 peas, 22,000 bushels. Of butter and cheese there 

 were 700,458 pounds, produced from the milk 

 of 13,336 cows. The wool clip was 8,344,830 

 pounds, and the number of sheep 1,211.746. 



The number of quartz mills in the State 

 was 34, the gross receipts of which for 1891 

 were $30,260.729. Eighty-six reduction furnaces 

 produced 185,294,225 p'ounds -of bullion and 

 matte, the value of which was $30,124,165. 



The product of placer mines was $174,667. 



Mining Congress. On July 12 the second 

 session of the National Mining Congress was 

 opened at Helena. Delegates were present from 

 nearly every State and Territory west of the 

 M ississippi. After sessions lasting through three 

 days, during which the silver question was ex- 

 haustively discussed, the following resolutions 

 among others were passed: 



The National Mining Congress, now in session at 

 Helena, Mont., composed of delegates from 1'.' States 

 and -2 Territories, having in mind the int< 

 the cotton planters of the South and the -Train grow- 

 ers of the West, of labor and property in all their 

 forms, as well as the interests of the miners in the 

 mountain States and Territories, deiiounee the act of 

 1873 by which silver was demonetized as u ^n-ul 

 national calamity, and we hold it to be the Impera- 

 tive duty of thc'Keprcscntatives of the people, now in 

 Coii'M-css assembled, to pass without delay the bill 

 for the rcinonetization of silver that has already paased 



the Senate. 



NVe denounce as maliciously and designedly tulse 

 the charge that the silver men of the country are in 

 favor of a 7o-ceiit dollar or of any dollar that is 

 of less intrinsic value than any other dollar coined 

 and circulated in the United States. ^ c also declare, 

 that the responsibility for the bullion in the silver 

 dollars now coined being of less intrinsic value than 

 the bullion in the gold dollars rests solely with those 

 u ho demonetised silver and forced the peoj'le to ac- 

 cept the laws of 1878 and 18'.>, by which tree coin- 

 age for silver has been denied and the purchase of 

 bullion by the Government in the lowest market* of 

 the world" substituted in its stead. 



The industry of mining for gold, silver, copper, 



