holding office for four years from the first day of January following. All these officers must be qualified electors and must have resided within the state for five years preceding their election. The auditor and treasurer may not succeed themselves, and governor and secretary of state must be at least thirty years old. The governor may call the legislature in extraordinary session or may summon the Senate alone. With the consent of the Senate he appoints all officers whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for, including the bank examiner, state chemist, dairy and food commissioners, the boards of labour and health, the directors of the state institutions, &c., and fills all vacancies in elective offices until new officers are chosen and qualified. The governor, justices of the supreme court and the attorney-general constitute a board of pardons. The governor and other state officers form other boards, but the legislature is given power to establish special boards of directors. The veto of the governor, which extends to separate items in appropriation bills, can be overcome only by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature; but if the bill is not returned to the legislature, within five days it becomes a law without the governor's approval. The governor may not be elected to the United States Senate during his gubernatorial term.
Legislative.—The legislative power is vested in (1) the legislature, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives, and (2) in the people of Utah. The legislature meets biennially on the second Monday in January of the odd-numbered years. No person is eligible to either house who is not a citizen of the United States, twenty-five years of age, a resident of the state for three years and of the district from which he is chosen for one year. Senators are elected for four years, but one-half the membership of the Senate retires every two years. The representatives are elected for two years. No person who holds any office of profit or trust under the state or the United States is eligible to the legislature, and no member, during the term for which he was chosen, shall be appointed or elected to any office created, or the emoluments of which have been increased during his term. Each house is the judge of the election and qualification of its own members. The membership of each house is fixed by law every five years, but the number of senators must never exceed thirty, and the number of representatives must never be less than twice nor more than three times the number of senators. In 1909 the Senate had eighteen and the House forty-five members. The legislature is forbidden to pass any special act where a general law can be made applicable, and is specifically forbidden to pass special acts on a number of subjects, including divorce, the rate of interest, and the incorporation of cities, towns or villages, or the amendment of their charters, &c. Neither the state nor any political subdivision may lend its credit or subscribe to the stock of any private corporation. The powers of the houses are the same, except that the Senate confirms or rejects the governor's nominations and sits as an impeachment court, while the Representatives initiate impeachments. By an amendment of 1900, the legislature was instructed to provide that a fixed fraction of the voters might cause any law to be submitted to the people, or that they might require any legislative act (except one passed by a two-thirds vote of each house) to be so submitted before going into effect, but up to 1910 no law had been passed putting the amendment into force.
Judiciary.—The judicial power is vested in the Senate sitting as a court of impeachment, in the Supreme Court, the district courts, in justices of the peace, and in “such inferior courts as may be established by law.” The Supreme Court is composed of three justices (but the number may be increased to five whenever the legislature shall deem it expedient) each of whom must be thirty years old, learned in the law, and a resident of the state for five years preceding his election. They are elected by the people for a term of six years, but the term of one expires every two years, and that justice who shall have the shortest time to serve acts as chief justice. The court has original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto and habeas corpus. Otherwise its jurisdiction is exclusively appellate, and every final decision of a district court is subject to review. The court holds three terms yearly in the capital. The state is divided into seven districts, in which from one to four judges are elected for terms of four years. They must be twenty-five years old, residents of the state for three years, and of the district in which they are chosen. They have original jurisdiction of civil, criminal and probate matters, not specifically assigned to other tribunals, and appellate jurisdiction from the inferior courts. At least three terms yearly must be held in each county. In cities of the second class (5000-30,000 inhabitants) municipal courts may be established. In cities of the first class (30,000 or more) a city court was established in 1901. Special juvenile courts may be established in cities of the first and second class. Each precinct elects a justice of the peace, who has civil jurisdiction when the debt or damage claimed does not exceed three hundred dollars, and has primary criminal jurisdiction.
Local Government.—The county is the unit of local government. The chief, fiscal and police authority is the Board of County Commissioners of three members, two elected every two years, one for two years and one for four. They create and alter subdivisions, levy taxes, care for the poor, construct, maintain and make regulations for roads and bridges, erect and care for public buildings, grant franchises, issue licences, supervise county officers, make and enforce proper police regulations (but the authority does not extend to incorporated towns or cities), and perform such other duties as may be authorized by law. Other county officers are the clerk (who is ex officio clerk of the district court and of the commissioners), sheriff, treasurer, auditor, recorder, surveyor, assessor, attorney and superintendent of district schools, but where the assessed valuation of any county is less than $20,000,000 the clerk is ex officio auditor, and the commissioners may consolidate offices. The precincts are laid off by the commissioners and each elects a justice of the peace and a constable. Cities are divided into classes (see above) according to population, and are governed by a mayor and a council. In cities of the first class fifteen, and of the second ten, councilmen are elected by wards, while in cities of the third class (all having less than 5000 inhabitants) five councilmen are elected on a general ticket.
Miscellaneous Laws.—Men and women may hold and dispose of property on the same terms, except that a husband cannot devise more than two-thirds of real estate away from his wife without her consent, and that a woman attains her majority at eighteen or when she marries. The property of an intestate leaving a widow or widower, but no issue, goes to the survivor if not over $5000 in value; if over that amount, one-half the excess goes to the survivor and one-half to the father and mother of the deceased or to either of them. If neither father nor mother survives, their share goes to the brothers and sisters of the deceased or to their descendants. If there are no descendants, the whole goes to the surviving husband or wife. If a husband or wife and one child survive, they share the estate equally; if more than one child, the surviving husband or wife takes one-third and the children divide the remainder. If the intestate leaves issue but no husband or wife, the issue takes the whole. Failing all these, the estate goes to the next of kin. An illegitimate child is an heir of its mother and of the person who acknowledges himself to be its father. Estates exceeding $10,000 pay an inheritance tax of 5% on the excess. A homestead not exceeding $1500 for the head of the family and $500 additional for the husband or wife and $250 additional for each other member of the family is not subject to execution except for the purchase price, or mechanic's and labourer's liens, lawful mortgage or taxes. The district courts have exclusive jurisdiction in divorce, which may be granted because of impotency at time of marriage, adultery, wilful desertion for more than one year, wilful neglect to provide the necessities of life, habitual drunkenness, conviction for felony, intolerable cruelty, and permanent insanity which has existed for at least five years. An interlocutory decree is entered which becomes absolute at the end of six months, unless appeal is entered. The guilty party forfeits all rights acquired through marriage. Children over ten years of age may select the parent to whom they will attach themselves. A marriage may be annulled on ground of idiocy, insanity, bigamy, loathsome disease at time of marriage, epilepsy, miscegenation (white and negro or white and Mongolian), or when a male is less than sixteen or a female less than fourteen years of age. A marriage licence is required. No female and no male under fourteen may work in a mine. Eight hours is the limit of a day's work in mines and smelters. A person sentenced to death may choose one of two methods of execution—hanging or shooting.
Education.—Before 1890 some districts in the state under a local option law had established free schools, but the general free school system was founded in 1890 by a law which consolidated all the districts in each city into one large school district and classified Salt Lake City as a city of the first class, and Ogden, Logan and
