of Montana for such sum or sums as may be due any contractor or employee engaged in and about the erection of the said buildings which warrants shall be paid by the said State Treasurer out of any funds in his hands arising from the sale of bonds provided for in this act. Said Building Commission is hereby authorized to employ an architect and such other assistants as it may deem necessary in preparing the plans, specifications and superintending the construction of said building and the expense thereof shall be paid out of the funds as hereinbefore provided for the erection of said buildings, provided that all architects, superintendents and contractors shall be citizens of the State of Montana. Said Commission shall make report from time to time, to the stated meetings of the State Board of Education, of the progress of said work and the expenditures therefor.

Section 8. The State of Montana shall in no wise be held liable for the payment of the bonds herein authorized or interest thereon. Approved March 4th, 1897.

HOUSE BILL NO. 1.

An Act to create a Board of Text Book Commissioners for the purpose of establishing a uniform series of text-books for the public schools of Montana and to regulate the supply of the same, defining the duties and powers of said Board, and to appropriate for their expenses a sum of money therein named.

Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Montana:

Section 1. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Attorney General, the President of the University, the President of the Agricultural College and three public school teachers actively engaged in public school work of the State, which said teachers shall be appointed by the Governor shall constitute a State Board of Text-book Commissioners, and who shall perform the duties hereinafter provided, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be chairman of such Board.

Section 2. The State Board of Text-book Commissioners shall meet at the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the City of Helena, Montana, on the first Monday of May, 1897, for the purpose of selecting and adopting a uniform series of text-books for use in all public

schools of the State. The said Board shall appoint a secretary from one of their members, and shall have power to formulate rules for its own government, and five members thereof shall constitute a quorum.

Section 3. Immediately upon the approval of this act, the superintendent of Public Instruction shall advertise for thirty (30) days in two (2) daily newspapers published in the State, giving notice that the State Board of Text-book Commissioners will meet, as herein aforesaid and receive sealed proposals up to twelve o'clock noon of said day for supplying the State of Montana with a uniform series of text-books for use in all the public schools of said State, for a term of six years from and after the first day of September, A. D. 1897, in the following branches, viz: Spelling, Reading, Supplementary Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, Physiology and Hygiene, Civil Government, History of the United States, and in all other branches taught in the graded and common schools of the State. Said sealed proposals shall be addressed to the chairman of the State Board of Text-book Commissioners, Helena, Montana, and shall be endorsed "sealed proposals for supplying text-books for use in the State of Montana." Said proposals shall state the net wholesale price at which the publishers whose books may be adopted by the said text-book commission, will agree to deliver the same in the city of Chicago, F. O. B. cars to merchants in Montana or school districts purchasing the same. They shall also state the exchange price for the new books adopted in exchange for the old books in the hands of the pupils that may be displaced, grade for grade and will further state a retail price at which the text-books so adopted shall be sold uniformly in at least one place in each county throughout the State. The publishers contracting and agreeing to supply books for use in the State of Montana under the provisions of this act, will cause to be prepared a special map and special supplement descriptive of Montana for the Geography adopted by the said Commission. They will also cause to be prepared a special supplement descriptive of Montana for the Geography adopted by the said Commission. They will also cause to be prepared a special supplement for Montana for the Civil Government adopted, which supplement shall contain not less than thirty pages. They shall further, agree to maintain the mechanical excellence of the books adopted by said Commission, at least equal to the samples submitted, in respect to binding, printing, quality of paper, and other essential features; and the books shall be of the latest revised editions. The map and special descriptive Geography of Montana shall be revised every three years by the publisher.

Section 4. It shall be the duty of the said Board of Text-book Commissioners to meet at the time and place mentioned in said notice and open said sealed proposals in the presence of a quorum of said Board, and in public, to select and adopt such text-books for use in the public schools as in their opinion will best subserve the educational interests of the State. The series of text-books so selected and adopted by the said Board of Textbook Commissioners shall be certified to by the Chairman and Secretary, and said certificate with a copy of all the books named therein shall be placed on file in the office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Such certificate must contain a complete list of all the books adopted by the said board, giving the wholesale, retail and exchange prices for which each kind and grade will be furnished, as provided in the preceding section, and the name of the publisher agreeing to furnish same. The said books named in said certificate shall for a period of six (6) years from and after the first day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, be used in all the public schools of the state to the exclusion of all others. Section 5. The said Board of Text-book Commissioners shall have power to make such contracts and agreements with publishers as they shall deem necessary for the best interests of the public schools of the State, and shall require of all publishers contracting and agreeing to furnish books adopted by the said Board of Text-book Commissoners bonds equal in an amount to one-half of the value of the books to be furnished, and for the faithful performance of the conditions of the said contract; Provided, that the publishers contracting with the said Board of Textbook Commissioners shall agree to give the State of Montana the benefit of any reduction that may hereafter be made in the price of any book adopted by them and during the life of said contract; Provided further, that the said Board of Text-book Commissioners may at their discretion, reject any and all proposals, if it is deemed by them to be to the interests of the State so to do, and they shall advertise for new proposals stating the time when such proposals will be received by them, not later however than thirty days from the rejection of the first proposal: Provided further, that the contract prices of such text books shall not exceed the lowest wholesale price charged for the same book in Chicago, F. O. B. to any State in the United States.

Section 6. The contract with the publishers shall take effect only when the publishers of the books adopted by said Text-book Commission. shall have filed with the Secretary of State, their bond, with at least sufficient sureties, to be approved by the Governor in such sum as shall be de

termined by the said Board of Text-book Commissioners; conditioned, that they shall comply with the terms of their proposal to the State and such further conditions as may be agreed upon between the said Board of Text-book Commissioners and the publishers contracting with the State. Section 7. In case the publishers of the books adopted by said Board of Text-book Commissioners shall not, on or before the first day of July, A. D. eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, have filed with the Secretary of State their bond as hereinbefore provided, or in case they shall not on or before the first day of July, A. D. eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, have performed all the obligations of their bonds, with respect to the exchange and introduction of books, and the preparation and supply of the special map and special descriptive matter for the Geography so adopted, or the special supplement for the civil government, or in case they shall at any time thereafter violate or fail to perform any of the conditions specified in their bond as hereinbefore provided, and shall fail within a reasonable time after due notice shall have been given them by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to make good their guarantee in any respect in which they may have failed, then this adoption shall become null and void. The said text-books adopted by the said Text-book Commission under this Act, and upon compliance by the publishers of the conditions aforesaid shall continue in use for the period of six (6) years from the first day of September eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, to the exclusion of all others, and until otherwise provided by Statute.

Section 8. Whenever the publishers of the books adopted under the provision of this bill shall have filed their bond, as hereinbefore provided for, it shall be the duty of the State Superintendent of Public Instruc tion to cause all prices of the text-books as guaranteed by the publishers to be properly printed and distributed through the county superintendents to the trustees of all school districts in the State who shall cause the same to be kept constantly posted in a conspicuous place in each school room in their district, and it shall be the duty of the several county superintendents to keep themselves informed as to whether such prices are actually maintained by the said publishers.

Section 9. Any school officer, teacher or trustee who shall use or provide for the use in any of the public schools of the State, of text-books other than those adopted by the said State Board of Text-book Commissioners shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

Section 10. All county Superintendents and school officers are charged with the execution of this law, and the County School Superintendents

shall require the trustees of the several school districts, or the clerks thereof, to report annually whether or not the authorized text-books are used in their schools.

Section 11. Upon petition of ten (10) legal voters of any school district other than in incorporated cities, and upon petition of one hundred (100) legal voters in incorporated cities, towns and villages filed with the Board of Trustees or Board of Education, as the case may be, fifteen days preceding a regular annual election of trustees or members of the Board of Education, it shall be the duty of the Board of Education or the School Trustees, as the case may be, to notify the voters of such school district that an election "for" or "against" free text-books will be held at next ensuing election for members of the Board of Education or School Trustees, and the ballots to such effect shall be received and canvassed at such election; and if a majority of all the votes cast in the district shall be found by such vote to be in favor of-free text-books, it shall be the duty of the trustees or Board of Education, as the case may be, to purchase at the expense of such school district all the text-books required for the use of the pupils attending school in such school district; and such text-books shall be loaned to the pupils of said public school, free of charge, subject to such rules and regulations as to care and custody as the Board of Education or School Trustees may prescribe; Provided that, pupils may purchase at cost any of the text-books so furnished, when desired by them.

Section 12. That for the purpose of raising money to pay for school books which may be furnished to pupils free by any district adopting free text-books a special levy on the taxable property of said district shall be made by the County Commissioners of the County on estimates furnished by the school trustees of the district, if the money received from the district from the general fund be insufficient, and said levy shall be made within thirty days from, and after the adoption of said free text-books in any district that has by majority vote adopted the same and when so made the tax so levied shall be collected in the same manner as other taxes are collected.

Section 13. The said Board of Text-book Commissioners provided for by this act, except the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Attorney General, President of Agricultural College, President of University of Montana, shall receive the sum of six dollars per diem for each day necessarily engaged in transacting business, and while in session, and ten cents per mile each way for each mile necessarily traveled, and there