The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-11
BILLS CREATING THE COUNTIES
WERE DUE TO THE BI-PAR-
TlsAN COMBINE.
OTHER REASONS STRONG
Montana's Executive Expresses His
Belief and That of Others, That tho
Present Law, to Permit Vote of Peo-
pie, Has Done Good Work.

Helena. March To- Especial ~~Sen-
ate bills creating the counties OF Clay,
Wtbaux, Richland and Wheatland,
which occupied so much of the time
of the last legislature. will not b
come laws, Governor Stewart having
sent them to the secretary of state
today with his veto. In transmitting
the bills without his approval Gov
ernor Stewart said in each veto mes
sage After deliberate and careful
consideration | am transmitting here
with senate bill No, A., An act to Gre
ate the county of Clay, define it's
boundaries and provide for its organ
iHation and government and to change
the boundaries Of Blaine and Valley
counties to conform thereto, without
my approval and with my objections
thereto.
In reaching conclusion | have
been moved by three principal consd~
erationS, either the first or second OF
which is doubtless sufficient TO JUS
tfy the exercise of the veto power,
but It is upon the third ground that
| wish to place the greater stress.
"Prposition No /. has to do with the
constitutionality of the measure, In
this feature Of the matter there Is in
voved only the legal phase. and but
one question is prese ted, to-wt Has
the legislature the power to create the
county by special act2 Good lawyers
give contrary answers to this uues-
ton, | have read the authorities
available on the subj ct. and thV opin-
ion of the attorney general, and cam
come to but one conclusion, and that
is that in the light Of the law, and es-
pecially in view OF the utteranc,s o.
our own supreme court in the past,
that court would more than likely
hold that the legislature has exceeded
Its authority in passing this bill. AS
snmlns this to be true. the question:
often asked by advocates Of the bill
becomes pertinent, to~Wit.
Why not permit the bills 10 pass
this department SO that the court may
decide the question for itself? My
answer to that is simple: If there
We're no other question involved |
would gladly take such a course
"'rhe second consideration involved
has to do with the manner Of the
knowledge of the conditions which
Xisted III the Legislature during the
pondency Of this bill convinccs me
that the measure could not have been
passed by the two houses alone and
standing solely on its own merits, not
but what 1t may have merit ample to
justify it's passage, and to spare. The
point that L wish to make Is that it
was not that merit which determined
its fate The same is also true of
each of the four county division or
creation bills now before me. A COM
binati0n was formed which Included
the friends of each bill make tho
hold assertion that without that COM
bination not one Of the bills would
have reached the executive office Not
only WAS there cooperation between
the friends of the different county
bills, but there was Legislative log
rolling which Influenced many meas
ures entirely foreign to county di-
vision. Bills which otherwise would
have had an entirely different fate
were passed or defeated by the influ-