Show tHE UTAH COHHISSIOET The subject is an important one not merely because the honorable gentlemen composing the body referred re-ferred to stand high in the world and receive a large salary but because be-cause they are the custodians of so much of our theory of government I as yet resides in the people of Utah I Territory The HERALD has all along avoided and it now avoids saying anything of a nature contrary con-trary to the harmonious working of the election machinery as it is withholding regrets as to any defects de-fects however apparent that it is I not what it ought to be so far as the agents of the government are concerned we have all along taken the ground that the Commission Com-mission were invested with an important duty one whose metes and bounds could not be defined wHhin the narrow limits of a newspaper article and have therefore been disposed to grant a great deal that seemed for the occasion oc-casion to be illtimed and out of plac because by the very magnitude magni-tude of the task imposed upon the Commissioners when the same was fully and adequately performed errors er-rors were natural and differences of opinion inevitable But there must be a limit to indulgence when arrogance and assumption appear as the result of forbarance and to withhold criticism in relation to manifestly improper acts would be servility if nothing worse With the fact of a duty well and properly performed confronting even an opponent op-ponent there is but little ground upon which to stand when antagonism antag-onism is resorted to but with well defined duties and plainly proscribed privileges unmistakably outlined and easily understood by rational minds transcended set aside and disregarded disre-garded no one having the welfare of his race his country or his people peo-ple at heart should find toleration In his mind forbearance in his utterances ut-terances or timidity in his actions Let it be asked here and now what late edition of the statutes made our election comptrollers a court or anything nearly or remotely re-motely resembling a court Their very existence as a body is not impliedly im-pliedly but actually a special crea Lion for special emergency the emergency passing the existence ending What they have to do their creators say in no uncertain terms asfollows SEC 9 what all the registration and election offices of every description in the Territory of Utah are hereby declared de-clared vacant and each and every duty relating to the registration of voters the conduct of elections the receiving or re jection of votes and the canvassing and returning of the same and the issuing of certificates or other evidence of elec tion in said territory shall until other provision be made by the Legislative Assembly of said Territory as is hereinafter herein-after by this section provided be per formed under the existing laws of the United States and of said territory by proper persons who shad ba appointed ta execute such officee and perform such duties by a beard of five persoas to be appointed by the President bj and with the advise and consent of the Senate not core than three of whom shall be members of one political party a majority of whom shall be a quorum The members of said board EO appointed by the President shall each receive a salary at the rate of 3000 per annum and shall continue in offico until the Legislative Assembly of said Territory shall make provisions for filling said offices as herein authorized The Secretary of tho Territory shall be tho secretary of said board and keep a journal of its proceedings and attest the action of said board under this section The canvass and return of all the vote at elections in said Territory for mem bars of the Legislative Assembly thereof shall also be returned to said bosrd which shall canvass all such returns and issue certificates of election to those persons who being eligible for such election tutu appear 10 nave oxen JB fully elec I ted which certificates shall be the only evidence of the right of such parsons to sit in such Assembly provided eaid board of fivo persons shall not exclude any persons otherwise eligible to vote from the polls on account of any opin ion suh person may entertain on the subject of bigamy or polygamy nor shall they refuse to count any such vote on account of tho opinion of the person cast ini it on the subject of bigamy or polyg amy There is certainly in all this nothing authorizing the Commission to act as a judicial body for the Territorial Constitution generally known as the Organic Act to which the law creating the Commission refers and nowhere in any particular I particu-lar repeals < says the judicial power i of the Territory shall be vested in a supreme court district courts probate pro-bate courts and in justices of the peace Only this and nothing more Of course all that is not specially granted is specially witheld So there can be no other judicial tribunals tri-bunals than those above enumerated Yet the Commission are not merely satisfied with constituting them I selves a court contrary to law and I reason but make themselves the highest kind of a court a court of review of appeal of final and conclusive jurisdiction They do this when they decide decide the reader will observe that certain Territorial officers should be appointed by the Governor Gover-nor and that the Territorial law conflicting with this most august decision is void I They do not use the word decide but they say this is our opinionmeanIng of course that this Js what is to be carried out and consummating the illusive parallel by using the form and method of judges of our supreme court when rendering a decision in a case on appeal tIt t-It may be urged thatthe Commission Commis-sion are merely carrying out their previously arranged work and that what they do la in pursuance of a policy formerly outlined But this is not argument No matter whether they carry out work assigned to them or arrange work for themselves and then proceed to make it manifest unless in either case there ia an authorization apparent from the creative power It was once presented in support of the scheme now and hitherto the objective point of certain malcontents malcon-tents hereabout that a certain emissary had interviewed the authorof the greatenactment by virtue vir-tue of which the Utah Commission has an existence and that the result of this interview was the collecting garnering and bearing here of the ideas and motives with which the great senatorial and paternal breast was moved when his offspring was born This 1s certainly another grand stroke in tho way of policy the author of the law is a lawyer so is the person who obtained that precious piece of informationbut it seems to be forgotten In this connection con-nection that the meaning of laws is derived from their words and not from the blatant utterances of their authors that enactments once having hav-ing an existence in the form of law they depend upon themselves not upon their paternity This is late no matter from what source the objection jection to it may come If Senator Edmunds has said or done anything not in accord with his intentions he has no power within himself to revise correct or modify what his colleagues in Congress assembled assisted him to enact and much less is it the province of the ooara creaceu uy said enactment to do things which they assume to be the intention of the lawmakers no matter how manifestly to them the inadequacy of the work of said lawmakers may be We have repeatedly insisted and we now insist upon the point that the Commissioners have duties to perform and that those duties are plainly and fully described To fall short of them might or might not be inefficiency to go beyond them is simply usurpation and lawlessness So long as they properly discharge the trust imposed upon them in accordance with the letter and spirit of the law the HERALD will not be found an antagonist no matter if it disagrees in toto with the object purpose provisions and terms of that law but when they assume to be something foreign to the purpose of their calling and appointment ap-pointment not only enlarging their sphere but creating additional juris diction tit is our right and duty to interpose a demurrer which we hereby do |