Professional brewers, first class, of executive ability....per year.. Delivery wagons. Printers on morning papers.. Meat-cutters Hostlers... Stock-tenders per month.. - per M.. per week.. .per month.. - per month and board.. 70.00 - per month.. 70.00 The laws of Montana are especially in the interests of wage-workers. They give them preference and make their wages a lien for all sums earned sixty days prior to any assignments to the extent of $200. The same preference is given to claims for wages against the estates of deceased persons, coming in first after the expenses of the funeral, the last sickness, and of administration and legal allowance to the widow and infant children; also in case of executions, attachments, and writs of a similar nature, issued against any person, corporation, association, copartnership, or chartered company, upon the claimant making affidavit to his or her claim and filing the same with the sheriff or other executive officer charged with the execution of such writ. The constitution of Montana, just adopted by the people by an almost unanimous vote, contains the following article in the interest of labor. # * The legislative assembly may provide for a bureau of agriculture, labor, and industry, to be located at the capital and be under the control of a commissioner appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of the senate. It shall be unlawful for the warden or other officer of any State penitentiary or reformatory institution in the State of Montana, or for any State officer, to let by contract to any person or persons or corporation, the labor of any convict within said institutions. For the reason that the provisions of law above quoted are in force, and that the mining and other industries of Montana are as profitable as anywhere in the world, we have no scarcity of laborers. They are well paid and are happy and contented. If a mechanic or laborer has worked here faithfully for five years, and has not squandered his earnings, it is almost the rare exception if he does not own his own house and lot. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. The only public building in the Territory, the property of the United States, of any importance, is the United States assay office in Helena. This, with its well-kept grounds, is in perfect order and is well cared for. The penitentiary, at Deer Lodge, is also the property of the Govern ment at present, but under the provisions of the enabling act admitting Montana as a State in the Union, it will soon become the property of the State, when it will have to be enlarged and otherwise improved in order that it may meet the wants of the community. It at present contains one hundred and sixty-five prisoners, all sentenced to confinement under our Territorial statutes, and cared for by the United States marshal, under contract with the Territory. The Territory has no public buildings of its own. The insane are cared for and maintained at public expense by private individuals under contract with the Territory, at Warm Springs, Deer Lodge County, and in the most satisfactory manner, though at a heavy expense to the people of the Territory. The number of insane in the asylum on October 1, 1889, is reported at one hundred and eighty-five. IRRIGATION. The recent visit of the committee of United States Senators for the purpose of investigating the subject of irrigation, has brought this question prominently before the public, and caused it to become of very general interest. No one who has investigated the subject carefully can fail to be impressed with the universal feeling among those who rely upon irrigation for raising crops, that it is by far the most certain and satisfactory method of agriculture. This arises principally from two important causes: First, that the average yield from irrigated far exceeds that from non-irrigated lands; second, the certainty of a return for the season's labor. Irrigation serves as an insurance. The ability to apply water when needed and certain immunity from drought or flood render the certainty of a crop within the almost absolute control of the individual. To those not familiar with the practice of irrigation, an idea prevails that it is an expensive adjunct of farming. While this may be true in some isolated cases, as a rule it is the opposite, especially when considered in connection with climatic advantages incident to irrigable lands, which include immunity from the expense of costly buildings in which to protect the coarser and bulkier products of the farm, conditions under which the crop can be readily and cheaply harvested, and the great fertilizing qualities of our mountain streams. The highest priced agricultural lands in the world are in irrigated districts. The irrigated lands of Colorado and Utah produce larger average crops and have a greater value per acre than any farming lands east of the Missouri River. The history of irrigation-development in the United States only embraces a period of twenty-five years; and the pioneers, as in all other industries, gained their knowledge by the costly road of experience; but to-day we find Indian and Chinese wheat, raised by irrigation, underselling the productions of rainy districts. The most prosperous agricultural districts of Europe to day are those where irrigation is practiced. No agent of agricultural production is so effective as irrigation. In Montana, as in all the other Territories within the irrigable area, the quantity of land susceptible of reclamation exceeds the water sup ply. The water, therefore, possesses a greater value than the land, and upon its proper economical distribution rests the limit of our future agricultural wealth. It is therefore of the utmost importance that no wasteful or improper diversion be permitted, and that the State should control its appropriation, as well as its subsequent division among the various claimants. The expense of this work will be heavy, and can not reasonably be provided for by taxation, as are other expenses, but should be paid for out of the proceeds of the sales of these lands. It is impossible for Congress to pass general laws which would operate with equal justice in the arid belt as a whole. Conditions differ in different sections. The people of each section are best calculated to determine upon the system most suited to their needs, and should be allowed to regulate the matters in connection with the subject, and be given the means of carrying them into effect. Entertaining these views, I conclude the best and only easy way of accomplishing the end desired is that Congress grant to each State in the arid belt, or to each Territory upon its becoming a State, all the irrigable lands within its borders held by the General Government, such States to be charged with the supervision of their reclamation and with their disposal to actual settlers, the proceeds to be used in providing storage reservoirs and in constructing canals and other facilities for conducting the water to the proper points for distribution. OUR UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES. It is just now becoming known that we have inexhaustible fields of coal and great deposits of iron ore. There is also an abundance of fine building stone and pure limestone. The coal mines of Rocky Fork, in Park County, are now producing 500 tons per day; those of Sand Coulee, in Cascade County, the same amount; and Timberline, in Park County, 200 per day. The coal is of first-class quality, and is used on the Manitoba and Northern Pacific railroads exclusively, as well as throughout the Territory for domestic purposes. Near the new town of Chinook, in Choteau County, is a coal vein 22 feet wide. This is entirely undeveloped. In Beaver Head County large coal deposits are known to exist. In Gallatin County, near Bozeman, fine coking coal is found in abundance, and the manufacture of coke for use in our smelting furnaces is fast assuming large proportions. The report of the United States expert for Montana, made to the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department at Washington, gives the number of tons of coal mined for the year ended June 30, 1889, at 118,000 tons, with an assurance from mine superintendents that the increasing demand will cause this amount to be doubled during the present fiscal year. Thousands of acres of available agricultural lands yet await immigra tion and occupancy. Especially is this so along the line of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, recently constructed, running from St. Paul to Helena and Butte City. These lands are included in the recently-opened Indian reservation north of the Missouri River, and are destined to be the most prosperous agricultural portion of Montana. Grain and vegetables grow luxuriantly without irrigation in the valleys, and the hills afford unsurpassed grazing facilities. The entire amount of land susceptible of being converted into grain and grass producing farms is estimated at 16,000,000 acres, covering an area equal to onehalf of all the New England States, and capable of supporting many thousand prosperous and contented families. Already immigration has commenced to pour in, and another season will witness a very large increase in the population of this favored locality. The nearest United States land office is at Helena, nearly 400 miles distant. I would most urgently recommend the establishment of an additional land office at Chinook for the convenience of the people of this section, and that the lands of the entire Milk River Valley and its tributaries be at once surveyed, that the settlers may have an opportunity of procuring titles without the annoyance, so largely experienced heretofore in Montana, of waiting years for this valuable information. After more than twenty-five years of Territorial vassalage and the nominal exercise of the rights of citizenship, the people of Montana look forward to the entrance upon and the exercise of the great rights of full citizenship with no little pleasure. The constitution framed and adopted by our people, by an almost unanimous vote, is believed to be fairly conservative as well as progressive. Under its provisions economy of administration is assured; restrictions upon legislation and extravagant appropriation of public moneys are ample and positive; the salaries of public officers have been fixed at a very conservative figure and in proportion to the services to be rendered and the capacity of the people to pay; special legislation is prohibited when laws of a general character can be made applicable; restriction upon taxation and the creation of public debts are such as to necessitate economy in all public affairs; the interests of labor are amply cared for; free public schools are provided for, which are open to the children of all alike. A careful perusal of all its provisions will satisfy any candid mind that a State government administered in harmony with its spirit and intent will cause an immediate increase in wealth and population and in the happiness of our people. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, BENJ'N F. WHITE, Hon. JOHN W. NOBLE, Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C. Governor. REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO, SIR: In compliance with the request in your letter of July 19, I have the honor to transmit the following report on the condition, the progress, and the development of this Territory during the last year. Before taking up the list of subjects which you enumerate, I beg leave to call attention very briefly to the topic which is of greatest interest in New Mexico, and which on account of that position of importance has been given the same conspicuous place in previous annual reports. I refer to the settlement of our LAND TITLES. So much has already been said on this subject by others that there is little to be added. I will simply recapitulate the leading points in the fewest words, by reminding you that New Mexico differs entirely from the remainder of the Territories in this respect; that it is an old and not a new country; that it was settled years before Jamestown, New Amsterdam, or Plymouth; that for over two hundred years it was under Spanish control, and for a quarter of a century was a part of Mexico; that during that long period it was under a system of law, relative to land titles, entirely different from ours; that when acquired by the United States all the land that was owned at all was held under the laws or customs of Spain or Mexico, and that, considering its vast extent and considerable population, those holdings were naturally very numerous. A change of sovereignty, of course, did not affect private rights; and it will be doubted whether the best course as to land titles would not have been to have left them to be determined in the courts, as if no change of sovereignty had taken place. But Congress thought otherwise, and in 1854 provided a method by which owners of land under Spanish or Mexican law might obtain American titles for them. This method was by application to the surveyor-general, who was to hear evidence and pass upon the claim and then transmit it to the Secretary of the Interior, by whom it was to be sent to Congress for its action. The object of this system, no doubt, was to determine which part of the land was public domain belonging to the United States; and if every claimant had been required to make his application within a limited time, it might have brought a speedy deINT 89-VOL III-29 449 |