| Show i OGDEN REGIS RATION 1 A Remarkable Kegistration An Alleged Test Case At Ogden as everywhere else the work of registration commenced on Monday morning but was prosecuted prose-cuted with the most unsatisfactory results The Ogden Herald refers to the locality where the registration registra-tion work is being done in this manner The registration began in this city this morning At 9 oclock and 20 minutes the office in I the city hall was openedor rather closed for they have been register ing with closed door No one was admitted inside except thp registrar ana his deputy The north window of the room was thrown open and the hosts who were waiting to be sworn were admitted to the aperture aper-ture one at a time which made the business slow tedious and very inconvenient in-convenient as well as loss to many who obtained leave of absence to register but who had to wait the slow movements of the blockade The office was opened at 920 a m closing at 1145 ra reopened at 125 pm and again closed at425 During this time only niuetjtpres persons were registered Ogden City unlike Salt Lake City is even traced in one precinct and therefore has but one registrar There are in Ogden precinct some 1400 persons entitled to be registered regis-tered and there is but one week in which to do the work At the rate of ninetythree a day therefore how long would it take a person to register 1400 persons And how would he contrive to crowd that number of days into one week with the Sunday omitted As every person per-son competent to do so is entitled to be registered it is evident that some plan othei tlifin thp nnp now in force must adopted ISo person who is qualified can be deprived of registration and as the case is a serious one the attention of the Commission has been directed to it There is every reason therefore to suppose that it will be overcome at once Quite a breeze was created on the street on Monday over the report that in Weber County the registrar had declined to allow any women to register An investigation investiga-tion revealed the fact that one woman only had been refused re-fused the privilege of registering i regis-tering and that under circumstances circum-stances which gave it the I appearance of being a pre concerted affair As near scan s-can be ascertained registration had dragged itself slowlyj along for a time with a crowd awaiting their turn men and women being registered reg-istered without hesitancy if their I competency were reasonably established estab-lished until the appearance of Mr and Mrs E A Littlefield Mr Lit tlefield who is editor and proprietor of the Ogden Pilot was registered without question but when his I wife applied the registrar refused to put her name on the lists Judge Emerson was applied to for a writ of mandamus to compel the registrar I regis-trar to put her name on the list Some delay having been caused in the proceedings and the matter mat-ter getting bru td about Judge Williams of Ogden appeared in court and when the matter i mat-ter came up stated that the question raised by the application applica-tion of Mrs Little eld was one which interested many ladies besides be-sides the one immediately concerned con-cerned and that as the bubject was of a general character he would like to be heard on it therefore he asked that the argument be deferred for a time To this proposition Judge Emerson acceded and the case was continued until Wednesday Wednes-day In the meantime the registrar 1 regis-trar proceeded with the work of registration and put the names of ladies on under protest there the matter rests It happened that Judge Sutherland Suther-land and Governor Murray were in Ogden at the time of this queer proceeding and out of the whole affair the idea detailed below ha commenced to prevail and was a matter of common talk on Monday evening though it is without any confirmed foundation The ostensible ostens-ible object is to test the right of the registrar to refuse to place thelame of n femme citizen on the list while it is charged that the real object ito i-to strike off the name of all female voters not only in Weber but in all the other counties The woman whose vote was refused is if the Ogden Herald gets the right name the wife of a pronounced and decided de-cided Gentile and the alleged plan was to get a case hurriedly into court to have the application for a mandamus weakly argued for and strongly argued against and then to have the mandamus refused On the strength of this refusal which it was supposed would be secured the registrar would feel justifies in striking off from the lists the name of every female voter and if any recourse could be had it would be such as would involve the validity valid-ity if the female suffrage act and might drag along and keep the result re-sult of the election back for an in difinate period Ostensibly it was a tect case but as a matter of fact the purpose seems to have been to secure a snap or unfair judg mont and the presence of the governor gov-ernor and others and there alleged indirect participation in the affairs I vs ould indicated that the tricky proceeding I pro-ceeding was receiving the executive execu-tive countenance The appearance lioweyeraof Judge Williams in court has partically changed the aspect of affairs There is little if any doubt that the Peoples party would be agreeable to test cases if they could be made fair and so arranged as to acutely test the legality of the t 1 i < i provisions in controversy but such an attempt as was manifestly made in Ogden on Monday is of a character char-acter that can hardly reflect with a marked degree of credit or glory on any person concerned The whole affair may have been perfectly leg timate and straightforward bnt admittting that to be so it reminds one forcibly of remark tho famous Prentiss once made about an opponents oppo-nents face If that man isnt a rogue he ought to bring a libel suit against his face II |
