In 1915, Montana adopted its first teacher's retirement program, as reported by Morton J. Elrod, “Montana Teachers’ Pension Law,” The Inter-Mountain Educator 10 (#7; March 1915), pp. 24-25. The “teachers’ pension bill” provided $50 per month for life to any teacher – including college faculty members – who paid $1 per month for at least thirty years of employment in the state as a teacher (at least $300 in total) prior to retirement; however, the state failed to assure sufficient funding in the pool to allow the program to function, as Elrod noted in future years, i.e., The Inter-Mountain Educator 10 (#9: May 1915; and others).  Merrill G. Burlingame and K. Ross Toole, A History of Montana (New York:  Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1957), II, pp, 363-364, reported Montana’s first Old Age Pension Law adopted in 1923, permissive to the counties, allowing individuals age 70 or older with less than $300 a year income to receive public assistance, but the state recovered as much of the provided funds as possible upon death from any remaining estate at 5 percent interest.   Thus, until the federal Social Security and Montana Teachers Retirement System after 1935, Montana educators fairly fended for themselves.