CHAPTER XIII. The County. 284. BODIES POLITIC AND CORPORATE A body politic is a body of people united for the purpose of government. A body corporate is a body of people authorized through its officers, or agents, to transact business, to make contracts, and to sue and to be sued. Nations, states, counties, cities, townships, town, villages and school districts are both bodies politic and bodies corporate. For the purpose of government they are bodies politic, for the purpose of business they are bodies corporate. Partnerships, joint stock companies and corporations are organized for the purpose of business and not government and, therefore, they are not bodies politic but bodies corporate only. When the people meet and hold an election, they exercise their power as a body politic, when their officers hold a meeting and buy supplies, such as a road scraper, they exercise the power of the body corporate. 285. COUNTY The county is the civil organization next in size and importance to the state and is the organization through which the state generally operates in the execution of the laws. The county is itself usually divided into smaller bodies politic, called townships. It also contains villages, towns, cities and school districts. In New England the township is of rather greater political and civil importance than the county. In South Dakota, and in the west generally, the reverse is true, and the county, like the whole, is greater than any of its parts. 286. COUNTY The county, like the state, is, in ACTIVITIES a great measure, a self-governing body. By this is meant that within the limits prescribed by the legislature it acts for the people within its borders seeking to promote the general welfare. The state adopted a constitution which established and limited its powers. county does not adopt a constitution, but in place of it, the legislature passes laws which establish and limit the powers and duties of the county. The Like the state, the county has three functions of government; namely, the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial, but all these functions are exercised by the same body, the board of County Commissioners. The legislative power is very seldom exercised by the county commissioners and when they do legislate it is in the form of a resolution. As all courts are held in the name of the state, the judicial powers of the county are of slight consequence. In hearing and deciding complaints, and in deciding questions relative to the equalization of taxes the powers of the board may be properly called judicial. But the great bulk of the business of the county is executive, and is accomplished by the county commissioners and the other county officers. 287. ORGANIZATION The boundaries and names of counties are established by the legislature, but counties hereafter organized may not comprise less than twenty-four congressional townships. A county may be organized by one hundred fifty voters petitioning the Governor to that effect. The Governor calls an election, and the people choose officers as provided by law. The temporary county seat is selected at the first election. The officers take an oath, or qualify, and thereafter the county affairs are managed by those officers. There are sixty-one organized counties in the state, fourty-four east and seventeen west of the Missouri river. Citizens of unorganized counties vote only for national and state officers and upon all questions submitted to a vote of the whole people. Unorganized counties may be, and often are, attached to organized counties for judicial and executive purposes, which means that the officers of the organized county transact all the business of the unorganized county for them. Such counties pay a state tax and a tax for judicial purposes only. A mortgage filed or recorded in the county to which they are attached holds against property in the unorganized county. 288. OFFICERS Every two years, at the time of the general election, in November, |