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Show He talks with a correspondent about Utah affairs-Murray's ?[news, views]. Following is a portion of a letter written to the San Francisco Chronicle from Salt Lake, under date of Oct. 12th: The Chronicle correspondent yesterday interviewed ex-Senator Paddock, one of the members of the Utah commission. "This Mormon question." Said he, "is deeper than I at first thought it was and it seems that every move to suppress it farther complicates matters. The ?[mandauluir] ?[pulls, suits] for the local offices will present two or three ?[plans]. For instance, there are two ?[classes] of officials in Utah, some elected for a fixed tenure of two years and others elected for an ?[unfixed] tenure of two years, and until their successors are elected and ?? [unreadable line] "What is the reason for this ?[thetimeiton]?" "I don't know; that's the way they do things out here." "But were they not all made vacant by a congressional Act?" "That is a question for the ?[comts] to decide. But most unquestionably there are some vacancies-the offices of those who were elected for a fixed tenure and those who resigned immediately after the passage of the Edmunds bill. Yet I find a very strong decision in the Ninth Pennsylvania Reports; the candidate who was elected died before his installation, and the incumbent, who was elected for a fixed tenure, and which term had, in the meantime elapsed, held over. But the great majority of decisions are against this. Those offices are unquestionably vacant, and by giving the Governor authority to fill all vacancies that might occur by the failure to hold the regular election, Congress certainly saw that the regular election would ?[default], and intended to provide for the emergency. The bill also anticipated a special election, but as it did not positively authorize it we found that we were bound by the local ?[organization], and could do nothing but conduct the registration." "What is the total registration?" "Nearly 34,000, of which about 20,000 are Mormons. While the Mormon registration is about equally divided in sex, only about 1,000 gentile ladies have registered, and perhaps there are ?[ Six, Sixty] men who have not registered. Had they registered ?[clearly, early], the Liberals, or gentiles, could poll nearly 10,000 voices." "Have the Saints all registered?" "Nearly all. Heretofore they had such an overwhelming majority that they were indifferent, but the ?[disenfranchisement] of about ?,000 of them has caused them to take public interest, and they have not only registered, but a great many ?[unpublicized] foreigners, who were entitled to papers have taken them out and been registered." "What proportion of women are ?[ disenfranchised] "About three-fourths of the 15,000. Were it not for women suffrage the ?[percent, count] would be much closer. Abolish female suffrage and polygamy would soon be a thing of the past. Whatever ?[it was, it is] he said of woman suffrage elsewhere cannot apply here where it is used as a weapon to degrade and enslave the women. ?[Divest] the Church of its political power and the question settles itself." "But how can that be done?" "Let Congress ?[append, appoint] a Territorial ?[legalship, legislature] for Utah. This would take the apostles out of Congress and out of politics. The Northwestern Territory of this country was so governed in the early history of the United States; that, in my opinion would be the easiest and most practical way to settle this threatening ?[them ??] and the executor in ?[conclusion]." "Governor Murray stated to the Chronicle correspondent that before the passage of the amendment to the ?? bill he could make no appointments except ?[out plrs?mblic]. All vacancies were filled by probate judges. The ?[amendment] empowered him to fill all vacancies that may occur by the non-holding of the August election. If the Act did not create vacancies, why did it ?[qualify] authority upon the Governor to fill them" it not only legislated Mormon officials out of office, but took the ?[??ing] power out of the hands of Mormon probate judges. The amendment ?[precipitated] a special election to all these vacancies by limiting the terms of appointments to eight months. But ?[if] the commission decides it has not the power to hold a special election, the appointments must be renewed every eight months until the next general election, two years hence. "of the ?[Six] Mormon officials in the Territory," continued the Governor, "about three-fourths are polygamists, and clearly disqualified under the Edmunds bill. They are politically dead, and the offices are vacant yet they hold them in the name of law and authority. Besides, nearly half of them are not commissioned, though the law makes that a requisite. They care nothing for commissions, and would rather serve without them than to acknowledge the authority of the Governor by applying for them." |