Show j JUBISDICTION j COBOUSSIONEBS i The Commission in its late report t recommends that Congress confer upon i United States Commissioners an this I I ii Territory concurrent jurisdiction with i justices of the peace in civil and criminal crimi-nal matters The Commission must L have had some object view making this request What was that object i Anybody who isgacquainted with the Commissioners or who has watched t their partisan course ever since they 1 came tn Utah is not at a loss for an answer The Commission does not assert that the justices of the peace are I incompent or that they fail to perform their whole duty honestly intelligently r I P and faithfully it does not claim that I L there are not enough justices to perform t per-form the labor and transact the business i busi-ness belonging to the peitytribunals I If asked about the justices the Commis Sionera would all say that they kjiftsy nothing tending to disqualify the officials and had neyer har a a 1 R complaint against a justice At the r same time the Commission has a I t grievance and it is thisthe justices of the peace are elective officers and Sis a consequence they are not the willing tools ana obedient creatures ui the i Federal ring A commissioner ojses his office to the Federal judges who can I p eontrolandnise him AS they please he I dare not say his soul is his own for if he did off would gohis official head and starvation might follow All summer i S sum-mer long we have had exhibited beTore ns the spectacle of how obedientand pliant a slave of his masters one of these hungry and miserable sofa sof-a United States commissioner can be I made With greater authority srandj i more power he wou d be a more vicious I weapon in the hands of those who use him to perform their vile and wicked work t If such wretches were tot to-t have the authority of justices of the peace no man who differed from them in opinion would be safe from arrest and imposition and with cruel and J heartless courts back of them there I would be little hope of justice being done anybody The commissioners already have too jnHich power considering the oharacfer of some of the men appointed to the Qlceiinore7mact than the law con item plates Instead of enlarging and cx iending thejuris didfion of Thec ommia sioners it should be reduced or better atfllj the office abolished rfor there is no legitimate needior it I I |