year. For their services our legislators receive eight dollars a day, and are allowed a mileage of ten cents a mile.

veto.

A bill must be read on three different days and Bills and the must be approved by a majority of those chosen to each house before being sent to the chief executive for his signature. It becomes a law in ten days (Sundays excepted) if the governor signs it or neglects to sign, but, if vetoed by him, must be repassed by a two-thirds majority of the members elected to each house in order to become a law. The governor may veto particular items in appropriation bills and has also the pocket veto (§162).

4. The State Executive.1

The governor of Cali- The fornia is chosen for a term of four years by the governor. voters of the state, the last election occurring in 1902. No one is eligible to the office of governor who is not at least twenty-five years of age, and has not been a citizen of the United States and a resident of the state for the five years preceding the election. The governor receives an annual salary of $6000 and exercises all of the powers enumerated in §129.

governor's

colleagues.

A larger number of state executive officials are The chosen by popular vote in California than in most of the other states. Among these are the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the controller, the treasurer, the attorney general, and the superintendent of public instruction. They are elected at the same time as the governor and for the same term of office, four years.

1 Consult §§ 128-130.

Classes of

courts. The Supreme Court.

Superior

courts.

Justices of

the peace.

Police judges.

The counties and the state.

5. The Courts of California include the Supreme Court, the Superior or county courts, the justices of the peace, and city police judges, all of the judges except some police judges being elected by the people. The Supreme Court consists of seven justices elected for a term of twelve years. They may hear cases sitting in two departments or together. The court has only appellate jurisdiction, that is, no cases are heard for the first time in this court.

Judges of the Superior Court are chosen for a term of six years, but the judges always try cases separately and the number of judges in a county depends on the amount of business which these courts must transact.

In every township in the state there is at least one justice of the peace who has jurisdiction of petty criminal or civil suits. Justices of the peace are elected for two years only. In cities, most persons accused of crime are tried in city police courts before police judges who may be elected or appointed, as the city charter prescribes.

6. County Government. The work of rural local government is left to the officials in the fifty-seven counties of the state. The counties have been created by act of the legislature, and are to a large extent subject to the laws of the state and to some extent under the supervision of the state government, but each county is self-governing in the sense that it elects its own officials, controls its finances, and transacts its business without interference from outside.

supervisors.

The chief governing body of the county is the Board of board of five supervisors. The members of the board are elected for a term of two or four years from districts into which the county is divided. Their powers are very extensive, as they perform all of the tasks mentioned in § 109.

officials.

The other county officials are the sheriff, the Other county county clerk, the assessor, the tax collector, the auditor, the treasurer, the recorder, the district attorney, the coroner, the superintendent of schools, the public administrator, and the surveyor.

township.

The counties are divided by the supervisors into The townships which are judicial districts over each of which presides a justice of the peace. Order is maintained by constables who are also township officers. In the work of local government the townships have a very unimportant part.

charter

7. City Government.1- California follows the very Charters and wise plan of allowing the cities to propose their own amendments. charters. In cities of more than thirty-five hundred inhabitants these documents are first drawn up by a body of fifteen freeholders who are chosen by the people for that purpose.2 If the charter is ratified by the voters, it is submitted to the legislature for its approval. Under this system a certain degree of uniformity is assured by the action of the state legis

1 In connection with this section, review Chapter X.

2 There were in 1903 thirty-two cities of more than thirty-five hundred inhabitants each. Of these sixteen had been incorporated under freeholders' charters, and the rest had been incorporated under the old general law or by special act of the legislature. There were that year one hundred smaller incorporated cities and towns.