Show HOME RULE BILL reported Keport ei favorably by the democratic chairman THE commission SCORED and ana the system of carpet big bag rule denounced DeBoU Eced as un american washington 1 D C march 30 mr joseph E lV washington ashington tile chairman of the house territories committee lias has finished the majority report on the home rule itule hill bill Itis it is quite volum voluminous and is made up largely larg ely of statistics showing tile the social and political conditions and population and material resources of utah territory tho the chairman treats the subject in a spirit so broad aud and liberal that no citizen of utah however radically lie he may differ from him can call fail to be flattered by what ho he says I 1 he ic begins by saying that his con committee linit tee has had thellon the home le rule bill under favorable consideration and that the they herewith report it back to the house with recommendations ions that it be passed continuing the chairman says s given the resources and a people qualified for self belf government there is no argument known to our constitution which would deprive di that people of the right to order its own affairs A territorial 0 government is an anomaly in our political establishment a tiling thing which the founders 0 of f the republic never con asa as a permanency if they contemplated it at all when it was es established babl is lied it was for the purpose of ii maintaining taint aaning order until the local community should 0 grow row find and develop into a society coni competent petel it to maintain a state when nhen the political establishment created by them should become an integral part of the union this is too well understood to require argument the community which i is qualified for statehood s seeks eel s only an opportunity to do demonstrate on strate its capacity capa cit for scalf vv gov i intent by a an i pre bents an all appeal to ta which congress cannot close its cars without questioning tile the theory and tile the veil mell established principles of local ansti flit ions utah has been peculiarly the subject of federal control yet ithe has grown into a territory which in all the essentials of population wealth and character will amply justify the grant of the email measure of political power which this bill seeks to vest in her people the terr territory itoi y has a population of 5 as shown by tile census of 1890 and an area of 84 1 square miles mile althis at this point two tables are arc introduced trod which are tal taken en from the governors governor report of 1891 and which explain the way the way this area las has been taken up and in part used med the report takes up the valuation of pi the amount of taxation levied tho the bonded indebtedness of the territory and states elates the importance of industries of the territory and their products it speaks of the people or of utah is as permanent residents identified with its interests and fixed in their habitations they are not nomads or itinerants and the country has been opened and de developed by them it peaks of their regard for adu education an aal I 1 it further says only about 5 per cent of the people of utah are illiterate and this fact considered in connection with rith tile educational facilities of the territory and the ambitious character of its people is ample as aur ance 0 f one of the most essential of 0 good referring 1 kle ferring to past conditions and legislation it gayb your committee does docs not deem decin it requisite to review in detail this long course of stringent le legislation i but in the main to confine this part of its ita report tu 0 the more recent en ell and to the present status of tile government from this it may inay readily be seen that utah is the victim of a system which deprives 1 rives lier her people of all autonomy and one which is wholly unjustified by their present attitude anti and dispo disposition towards tile constitution and the laws this territory presents in its executive office domce the last survival in america of one mans will the organic act of the territory terri territory tor y test tested d in tho governor tho absolute and unqualified authority to veto every act of tho legislature by whatever majority en enacted cod and from that veto there w was ac no appeal the will of the people even anani expressed could be thwarted by the act of a a single officer and lie generally one not lot a citizen of tile territory remarkable as this condition of aff affairs lairs may now appear to those who it have ave been accustomed to regard a public officer its as a mere servant 0 of the people this provis provision ion i of the law is ie in force today to day and the governor of utah may now as always defeat any measure enacted by the peoples representatives merely by interposing his objection more dangerous perhaps in its it possibilities than Us its exercises down to this time hine tho the power is manifestly one which is wholly inconsistent with the most cherished principles of a biec government and there is not wanting instance of it its exe exercise which flagrantly illustrate its pernicious character without reflecting upon any any one who has felt it ischia his duty to ube use this instrument your committee calls attention to tile the following case in which the has aas been taken in 1886 the governor C governor refused to sign the general appropriation bill ii whereby hereby for two years the whole machinery of the territory was required to be operated upon credit tho the act creating the utah commission contemplated the dissolution of that body upon tile passage of the legislative body of proper election laws but notwithstanding the passage 0 of buch laws the governor er nor has upon more that than one occasion CrL bian pre prevented vente d their going imo effe effect et and lias has thus continued the existence of the commission T the ile last legislature of this ferrA territory ory be sent nt its men memorials corials to con congress 0 res s for relief against the effect of the go governors V veto of a bill making makiel an appropriation for tho the representation 0 of utah at the worlds fair of the governors over nors vetoes the report says tile the utah commis commission cion a body of five men appointed by the president and continued by the senate was created by the ninth i action of the act of march 22 1882 to act as an election board and tile 00 object of its creation was tile enforcement of the laws exclude excluding n I 1 tile the po lyga mists from the exercise of the elective franchise its power is is to appoint registrars 43 and judges judged of election and canvassers rs of returns it ii a a board of non residents to control the machinery of local elections it is a significant fact that there lias has never been a conviction of a mornion mormon for a violation of the alie laws which this body is elip supposed poSed to enforce since the appointment of this hotard to march 1 1892 tile the govern government ni nt liis paid i in ubaldi sal arTes le s to its nl members embers anti and for contingent expenses of the board and for compensation and expenses of officers of elections a total of tile the justification of the statutes which have been applied to utah has been the polygamous practices and the political influence of tile the mormon church have accomplished their purpose and there is no longer a t reason for the continuance of the existing system dyste 1 of government the chairman then announced that he believed polygamy to bo be a tiling thing n of the past lie ile reaffirmed d liia his faith in the sincerity of the church le leaders riders in that regard tl and then lie he quoted from tile the gubernatorial report and from tl alio ic statements of P F S richards and said in the face of such puch evidence as this thi and fron from 1 all classes of gentiles and Mor both official and unofficial there can b bo no longer a question as to the status of polygamy in the etea territory hitoi 3 that institution has been abali abolished shed forever and the laws lawa relating to it are as strictly obeyed in utah i as in in any other territory or any other state i in n tile the union the second and the most serious objection so far as the government of the territory was in involved was that tho the church assumed to control not only the religious ligi ous but the political action of the people of utah and that for the purposes of political control it organized and managed b a political icil I 1 party arty compose composed d in the main if riot not entirely of its people this the peoples party was wag by by all persons not belonging to it at least regarded as the party of the mormon church though it was always asserted by the party and church that there was waa no connection between the two it was admitted that the peoples party was a party of the mormon people organized to protect tha t people ag against a dinst then the aggression 0 of the non mormons cormons organized 0 into the liberal party but it was insisted that the church as a church had no authority over it that its priests did not dictate to the party the merita of the alie controversy occasioned by the existence of the peoples people party are not material to the subject now under consideration for that 1 party cc ceased ased to exist nearly a year ago polygamy hav ins ing been abolished abolia lied and the peoples party having been disE dissolved olveda a largo large I 1 number of the leading democrats and republicans who li lid had d been as in the liberal party aban boned the organization Lation arid and have since ince acted with the parties to which chich they respectively belonged mr washington then says bays the mormon people have lave divided upon political toli issues man many of them going nto into each of the parties and many prominent members of the liberal party have likewise returned to their heir original nil allegiance tile t ue last election in the territory having been conducted ainna the lines which divided the democratic and republican parties though tile the liberal party parly maintained its organization and had a ticket before 11 the he people The ground upon upon which this his organization WAS and ana is maintained is a doubt as to the good faith of the people relative to pol polygamy y and the dissolution of the PC OVIed party both of which matters seem peem to be too well settled to justify any doubt whatsoever the purpose of this bill is a simple one it is to give to a large part of the american people a 1 limited power of self government under it the congress will retain all its exist existing inu 0 authority over utah it does docs not seek to ves vest t absolute power in in the people but merely to afford them in an opportunity to demonstrate their sincerity and their capacity to manage their local affairs tile the act abolishes the utah commission and vests tile the power powe r of that body in the governor tile secretary and the abreo commissioners ners to select university lands in the territory subject however to the right of the legislature to make inake a different erent disposition di position of thoc powers it aso also chajI changes tile the existing law by permitting the legislature by a two thirds voto vote of both branches to enact a law notwithstanding tho the governors objection thereto thus depriving lt tile the executive of un in autocratic power your committee is thoroughly a illy satisfied of entire qualifications ca for admission to the union union with all the powers of full statehood but in deference to a doubt which may still rise in some quarters we report this measure which leaves to congress its full jurisdiction over the territory while lishing for utah a govern mc which in so far that jurisdiction will permit is essentially like the governments of the various states the satisfaction which your committee lias has expressed is we think fully justified by the facts and statistics which are exhibited in this report and certainly by the lica hearings rings 1 which took place in tile committee room which hearings have lave been printed in full atall is is shown to be enormously rich in natural resource maar many of which have been greatly beveled deve developed led but the most of which lie dormant ori llant awaiting the touch of enterprise which needs only the assurance of a government of the people by the people to lay hold of the wealth which nature lias has provided the people of the territory on oil the farms karilla in ill the mines and in th the e cities and towns have in in spite of such repression made a strong wealthy and refined community which in in all the essentials of american citizens citizenship ill is is comparable to any other community of equal population within our order border b these people ire are capable of maintaining a government of their own and the there re is no ar argument unbent known t to 0 our institution which would deprive them of this common right of the american people as there is none which is adequate to prove the propriety of throwing upon the people of the whole country through 0 the general government 3 tho the burden of maintaining a system t e m which is at it once unnecessary and un american we thuinli in view of these things it is the plain d duty ay iy of congress to enact this thia bill into law and your committee therefore recommends that the bill be passed |