Show jt ARE THEY TIlE BEST i I ill 1 A question that at present is occupying e the minds of many is that of the Utah I Commission the utility of its retention or abolition and whether the gentlemen who constitute it are the best qualified for their positions All know the reason for i the institution of the Commission and the Commission like all things else f should be judged upon its merits and as its merits are so should it be commended I com-mended or condemned When it was instituted in 1882 it was thought that by the disfranchisement of those voters in Utah who were polygamists that a great reform would be had in the political condition con-dition of the Territory and that the disfranchisement dis-franchisement of a large number of polygamists poly-gamists would have a tendency to I assimilate politics in Utah to politics in the Union To carry out this law 1 five Commissioners were appointed It was desirable that the gentlemen i I who were to compose the Commission 1 should be eminent judging that their I eminence in public life would be a guaranty I guar-anty for their efficiency in administering a law which was at best but an experiment experi-ment The Edmunds law was a radical measure and as it aimed at the right of suffrage the dearest and most sacred I right of all in a government based upon the will of the people as expressed at the polls it should have been strictly construed I con-strued and all doubts as to its construction i construc-tion should have been solved in i favor of those who were affected by its provisions I The Utah Commission did the very opposite oppo-site of this Virtually they put an ex post i facto construction upon the law the consequence con-sequence of which was to disfranchise a I great many who were not living in polygamy I polyg-amy at the time the Edmunds law was I passed and some who had not been in polygamy since before 1860 A number of these cases were carried to the Supreme Court of the United States and the construction of the Edmunds law by the Commission was declared wrong The result was the restoratipn to their rights of a great many who had wrongfully wrong-fully been deprived of them Here then was the first 1 error of the Commission Commis-sion By their action they had deprived voters of their rights and thereby intensified intensi-fied the feeling of persecution which pervades per-vades the minds of the majority the people of this Territory j and what is worse still their very action gave a warrant war-rant to the cry of persecution for the people peo-ple said that the Utah Commission was exceeding its powers and depriving them of their rights and the Supreme Court by its reversal of the doings of the Commission Com-mission confirmed the cry of the people peo-ple The first oath which the Commission formulated was so searching in its terms that they found it necessary to withdraw it and in its place substitute another This other and second oath was discarded owing to the decision of the Supreme Court and in the last instructions which were given to the Registrars throughout the Territory the Commission suggested a form of oath to be administered adminis-tered but leaving the final decision as to a citizens right to register to the discretion of the Registrars themselves them-selves This is briefly the history of the doings of the Utah Commission and we ask any fairminded and candid man if that history does not prove the gentlemen gentle-men who constitute the Utah Commission incompetent to discharge the duties of their office Their course has been vacillating and in their construction of the oaths they formulated they have been inconstant and when their conduct and administration of the Edmunds law were reviewed by the highest court known to the Constitution they were condemned If the Commission is to remain and it probably will as the chances that the Legislature will enact any such law in regard to elections as the Edmunds Act contemplates are very remote we believe that a change in the personnel of the Commission is highly desireable and would tend to further the object for which the Edmunds law was enacted and that if such a change shall be made there are plenty of men in the community far better qualified to perform the duties of the Commission than the gentlemen who now constitute it The history of their i career In Utah is their condemnation and I the evidence of their incompetency I |