Show IS IT A WISE MOVE To Give the Governor ot Utah the Power to Appoint TH VARIOUS COUNTY OFFICERS Delegate Caine Says No and Adduces Some Unanswerable Arguments Before the Senate Sen-ate Committee to Sustain Ills Position WASHIXGTOX March 1LSpecia1 telegram tele-gram to THE HERALD The following are tho principal points made by Delegate J Caine of Utah before the Senate judiciary J committee yesterday against the bill permitting per-mitting the governor to appoint certain county officers This bill is an extraordinary extraordin-ary one It is needless to say that no such law has ever been proposed to Congress in regard to any other territory It i un American and subversive of those princi ercm ples of local selfgovernment that have been regarded as sacred from colonial da down to the present time It is true that this bill does not apply t all county officers not elective nor does it directly disfranchise the voters but it is a substantial advance in that direction which may il process of time upon the same principle be extended to all officers of tho territory and this would be a total de struction of the right of selfgovernment of the right of as effectual a a deprivation i J suffrage To plain people who have ex I pertised the right t vote and hold office for three or four decades and who have committed com-mitted no crime an act of Congress depriving de-priving them of such rights must appear t be unjust and a cruel and unusual punishment punish-ment A few yearsaago there was a demand by the nonMormons of Utah for Congress to establish a legislative commission as it vas called t supersede the legislative Assembly elected by the people by a com ission to be appointed by the President his measure has never met with much avor in the United States Senate doubt ess for the reason as it was frequently ivowed that the object of the govergment 1 vas t reform and not t destroy the Mormon people and for the further reason that this object could be better accomplished accom-plished without a total destruction of popular government The proposition now before this committee commit-tee Is not a new one It has been introduced at one or more preceeding sessions of Congress Con-gress and i February 1SS7 a bill which had passed the Senate had been so amended by the House as to make county officers theretofore elective appointed by the governor or other authority The amendment was not concurred in by the Senate and in conference committee most of the obnoxious portions of the bill in this respect were stricken out in addition to the good reasons which were given by the distinguished Senator from Vermont Mr Edmunds against the punishment of the innocent as well as the guilty and the reasons that must have influenced the conferees con-ferees on the part of the Senate as above stated I will appear from a consideration considera-tion of the progress of events in Utah during dur-ing the last three or four years that the proposed legislation is wholly unnecessary for the accomplishment of any good results re-sults and indeed it may well be doubted whether the nonMormons in Utah who formerly desired the enactment of such a law would now deem it necessary or desirable de-sirable on their part h I the object of those who favor this bill is to provide a leverage for the prohibition f of polygamy or to give the nonMormons a fair share of the offices of trust and profit in view of the situation there today the bill i unnecessary and its passage would seem t be a wanton exercise of federal authority I the summer of 1SS7 the great mass of the Mormon voters took the registration oath prescribed by the act of March 31SS7 that they would obey the acts of Congress prohibiting polygamy etc and that they I would not directly or indirectly aid or abet counsel advise any other person to commit any such crimes defined by acts of Congress a polygamy bigamy unlawful unlaw-ful cohabitation incest adultery and fornication for-nication A few legal voters among the Mormons declined to take the oath and a considerable number of the Gentiles were unwilling to swear off for all time as to the last two offenses At this point the committee burst into a roar of laughter in which Mr Edmunds heartily joined ll Caine then briefly referred t the action ac-tion of the nonpolygamists convention held in Salt Lake in June IbS and to the marriage law passed in the assembly r in IjbS and continuing said The foregoing statements will show the efforts which a a great majority of the Mormons themselves them-selves arc making for the discontinuance of the practice of polygamy and it may be safely stated that for tho last two or three years polygamous or bigamous offenses have been a rare in that territory as in other parts of the country So much as to the want of any necessity or good reason for the proposed legislation i it is t be placed on the ground of the attitude of the people in relation t polygamy I the proprictry of passing this bill is t be put upon the assumption that the non Mormons arc now excluded frpm a fair share of the offices a plain statement of tho facts will put this in a very different light When it is considered that the Mormons Mor-mons constitute about threefourths of the population it would seem that the non Mormons have little t complain of as t the enjoyment of the honor and emoluments emolu-ments of office They the nonMormons have five Utah commissioners at an annual salary of 3000 each with their travelling 2 expenses office rent etc paid by the government gov-ernment and all the federal officers Thus it will be seen that under the existing ex-isting law the governor has a very large share of the official patronage of the territory terri-tory The appointees to all the more important im-portant and lucrative positions are invariably inva-riably selected from nonMormon citizens Besides the municipal government of Salt Lake city i now under the exclusive control con-trol of the nonMormons Tho same is true as t Ogdcn the second city in the territorry and it is claimed by nonMor mons that at the next general election in August Salt Lako county and Weber j county will bo carried by the samo means and appliances by which their chief cities have been carried Summit county already has a considerable majority of Mormons I the last legislative assembLy the nonMormons had five members out of thirtysix and in the present legislature J they have eight The amount of patronage this appointive power added to what he already has would give the governor of Utah is greater in point of numbers than that enjoyed by the governor of any state in the union I submit that it is a dangerous danger-ous power t place in the hands of any man be he whom he may To control through his appointees the assessment and disbursement of the taxes licenses fines and other revenue of twentyfour counties of a territory embracing a population of over two hundred thousand people with assessable property based on a very low valuation of nearly fiftytwo millions of dollars is a power no man should possessor possess-or desire To point out the power proposed to be conferred upon a federal appointee by this bill is enough to condemn it without any other argument There is one singular feature about the measure to which in passing I desiro to call your attention While it provides that the governor should appoint the assessor who makes the asses ment of the peoples taxes and the selectmen select-men who disburse them by its silence on the subject it leaves to the dear people the privilege of electing the collector of the taxes who performs what is often a disagreeable duty thus virtually saying to the people of the territory The governors gover-nors appointee is to assess y our taxes the governors appointees are to expend your taxes but you the people are graciously permitted to do the collecting You furnish fur-nish us the money and we will expend it This is certainly a most generous privilege privi-lege I cannot be claimed that this is nec essary because the men heretofore elected to office in the several counties of the territory ter-ritory have been unfaithful to their trust or derelict in the discharge of their dute On the contrary the affairs af-fairs of the several counties have been judiciously and economically I i administered with a single exception During Du-ring an administration extending over forty years there has been no defalcation among the officers elected by the people The exception referred to was in Salt Lake county and the loss was settled by the bondsmen of the defaulter without suit There is no bonded indebtedness existing in any county of the territory and nearly all the counties have large cash balances in their treasuries While these duties have been thus faithfully performed the salaries sala-ries of the officers have been very moderate moder-ate I has not been tho policy in Utah to pay extravagant or even high salaries The consequence has been that men have not sought office because of its emoluments emolu-ments but rather the office has sought the man and he has accepted it as an evidence of confidence on the part of his fellowciti zens I will thus be seen that upon whatever ground this bill i placed it i untenable whether the design is to subserve the public interest to oppress the Mormons or to placate the gentiles With the political politi-cal control which the nonMormons have in some localities and which they claim they will have in others in the near future it is reasonable to assume that even they will regard with jealousy and disfavor the r election fr officers by the Other manpower man-power instead of by the suffrages of the people |