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Show A COOD LA1T SHAMEFULLY PEHYEIVrED. Timregistration and election law of this Territory was enacted by the Legislatu re I n 1 STS. It was opposed by the ".Liberal" schemers, who desired to gain by fraud advantages they could not secure by numbers. The could find no specific fault with it. They were secured in representation rep-resentation upon the board of Judges wherever they had cast a vote, and at the official count of election returns. The registration officers were the asecssors with their deputies. The county clerks received re-ceived the returns and the county courts canvassed them. The Justices Jus-tices of the peace heard objections to the right to vote. All these ere regular ofucIaN, and under un-der bonds for the faithful performance of their duties. They were also reSjionslble men, elected by the people and bona JUk residents resid-ents and property owners. The rights of all parties and citizens were secured under its provisions and operations. It is now claimed by certain "Liberals" that "it is an infamous law.' They say "it was designed to make it impossible forany Gentile to hold an office in this-Territory." The answer to that is, it was framed with the advice, assistance and approval ap-proval of some of the most prominent promin-ent "Liberals" In the Territory, Including In-cluding judges, lawyers, merchants aud the Governor. The intent of! its Cramers was to secure the purity of elections and the rights of all the voters. Its 0erations demonstrated tbis,and no legal voter that we know of ever complained of anything in-regard in-regard to it except that it gave no room for "Liberal" frauds. "Gentiles" "Gen-tiles" tare elected to office under its provisions. There was nothing in it to prevent their election if they only had a majority of supporters. We do not claim that the law was perfect. But we do say it is as good as any election law in the country. There is no better way to secure an absolutely secret ballot than the rules it requires. The precautions it embodies against the voting of transients may cause some hardships hard-ships to persons remoTing from one place to another, and to those absent at registration times, but these are more the result of recent improper administrations of the law than fault in the law Itself, which is thoroughly equitable and fair to all liarties. Its imperfections would, have been removed, and the wrongs possible to be perpetrated prevented but for the Governor's veto of measures honestly designed for that purpose. The evils that have arisen and that now exist haTe sprung out of the proIsious of the Edmunds Act, the constructions that have been placed upon by the appointed officers acting under it, and the unlawful nj criminal conduct of some of those officials. Under the Utah statute, as we have shown, the registration and election officers wereelective; under the Kdmunds Act they are appointive appoint-ive by an appointed Commission. These appointees are not, usually, responsible persons, but, chiefly, individuals in-dividuals without property and ome cf them without character. They are not placed under bond. If they are sued for damages by defrauded de-frauded citizens they have nothing for the law to levy upon. The Jury lists aud the panel are bo manipulated manipu-lated that there Is no chance for Justice ajainst them If prosecuted. 30 that frauds are perpetrated with comparative impunity, and the petty (.filclals defy the authority which appoints them, while that authority sutlers its direction! to be treated with contempt and pretends and avers that elections are fairly conducted. One tiling, particularly, should be kept in mind: Under the Utah -tatute the elected justices of the peace, having given proper bonds, neard and determined objections to the right to vote. From all their decisions there was an appeal to tbe higher courts. There was never any complaint of Injustice, under their administration of this law. Out the Utah Commission, acting according to their own construction of the Edmunds Act-have appointed persons known to be active in the interest of the "Liberal" party, and recommend"d to them by "Liberals" "Liber-als" for that very reason. They have been chiefly such persons as are described in the preceding paragraph. para-graph. They are not regular Judicial Ju-dicial officers, nor under bonds, and Xrom their decisions, it is ruled, there is no appeal. So that they can and do defy law, justice and the sacred rights of citizens, rob le?! voters of the franchise, and strike ofl names from the voting lists as they please, and there is, no redress. re-dress. This condition of affairs is ad-milled ad-milled to be "shameful," even by those who seek to profit by It. But they charge it to the law. This Is as "shamtful" as the outrages for which it apologizes. If the law were administered according to its letter and its spirit, the troubles complained of would not exist It is the perersIon and disregard of the law that are to blame. The Edmunds Act requires "proper per- sons" to be appointed to perform these duties, and that this shall all be done "under the existing laws of the United States and of the Territory." Terri-tory." Only Judicial officers, from whose decisions appeals are allowed lo the higher courts, are "proper persons" under the laws. Those who have been appointed are "improper "im-proper persons"in every sense of the term The registration officers, strong partlzans, are made tbe Judges to hear and determine oijectlons. They are not "proper persons," because, be-cause, as we have shown, they are not regular judicial officers. Tbey are made to occupy the place filled under the law by the assessors. The elected assessors were not Judges to bear objections to voters, therefore tbe appointed registration officers should not act In that capacity. They virtually sit in judgment upon their own proceedings. Tbey are constituted, not by law, but by this appointment, courts that are independent inde-pendent of law, of the rulings of higher courts, of the power that appointed them, and of the people. All this is contrary to the territorial territori-al statute aud cannot be charged against It with any jiarticle or truth or consistency. ,WhlIe the registration and election elec-tion law was administered according accord-ing to Its provisions no legal voter's name was stricken from the registration regis-tration list, nor was bis right to vote denied at the polls. Tills is a sufficient answer to the falsehood of the "Liberal" organ that the law was framed "to put Into the bauds of the registrars the absolute power to etrikeofl" Gentiles from the lists wheBever they pleased." Let some "Gentile's" name bo produced thai was improperly stricken from the list by any officer belonging to the People's Parsj! It cannot be done. And to clinch the falsehood, all that Is necessary is to lolnt to the fact that the registrars are not empowered em-powered under the law to strike names from the lists at all! That is one of the wrong of the "Liberal" perversion of the law. There is no law fir it. It Is done by Improper persons and it is a flagrant violation of the law. The frauds, the robbery, tbe criminality, tbe unlawful striking ofTof voters' names, the personating of voters at the polls, the changing of ballots by election judges, and all the roguery anl villainy perpetrated perpetrat-ed in election affairs have been the work of "Liberal"ouiccra, condoned If not directed by "Liberal" leaders, lead-ers, apologized for by "Liberal" writers, and taken advantage of by "LIbrral" canlldates. And the Impudence which charges it to the law which it tramples upon and defies de-fies is almost equal in infamy to the dimes which it seeks to palliate. Every decent citlie n,of every class and party,should show his aversion to the whole contemptible business by declining to train with the party and the persons that originated and now seek to perix-tuate the wrong. |
