Show GOVERNOR MURRAY AND THE ELECTION LAW wn wjk publish in this issue of the NEWS the act of the legislature providing for elections also a messa message ge to the counell council from the governor statin stating some of his reasons reasons for disapproving af the bill we invite a careful r reading badin g of both documents we consider the bill an excellent measure fully equal to the requirements of the territory and in strict conformity to the laws of j congress the veto message is a characteristic paper ungrammatical in many of its expressions false in some 0 of f its statements incorv incorrect act in a portion of its citations of law bitter and arld unjustifiable in its jen ien jeneral general crai cral tone and insinuations and just such a document as might be expected from its author we have only time an and d sp space a CL I 1 today to day for brief allusion to t the h e salient 1 I I 1 eilt elit points of the message the governor says 1 I will file flie the bill with the secretary of the territory it is disapproved I 1 he is a great stickler for a certain see section of the organic act or rather for his bis interpretation of its meaning lie ile ought to be mindful of other provisions of organic law and we wc will cite for his llis benefit section 1842 of the revised statutes of the united which says ever every y bill which has passed the legislative assembly of any territory shall before it becomes a law be presented to the governor if he approve he shall sl sign n it but if not he shall return it with his objections to that house in which it originated orl ori abated and that house shall enter tie the objections at large upon its journal etc let the governor honor the law he has sworn to uphold and return the dillwith bilL with his veto and the council will no doubt enter lil lii his objections upon the journal otherwise they have the right rig ht to treat his insulting message as waste paper the governor informs the assembly that by the provisions of the act of of congress known as the edmunds law every duty relating to the reki reil registration stra of voters the conduct of elections and returning the results thereof was wab imposed upon a board of tive nive persons perso Z a appointed polli ted by the 11 resident president of the M united ril rii ted states this is not true the edmunds law made no such provision it provided that until other provisions be made by the legislative assembly the duties here enumerated should be performed under the existing laws of the united states and said territory by proper persons who should be appointed by a board of five persons to ta be appointed by the president the governor might as well say that these duties of registration and election were to be performed by the legislature as to state that they were to be performed er formed by the commission the difference is great and he should not attempt to quote law unless he quotes it correctly 1 t V f i t I 1 fr f after somo some ungrammatical and awkward references to the laws of 1862 and 1882 he intimates that the legislature is required by the edmunds law to pass enactments which will vill tend to uproot poly polygamy amy and asks docs does the bill tend to this by providing against those disqualified by congress or does docs its provisions tend to make inoperative all congressional acts relating to the subject yil rIl the intimation is incorrect for there is nothing in the edmunds act that In imposes poses any such duty upon the leg legislature gi slature 0 of 1 utah and the questions are answered by the bill itself it provides that no person shall register without subscribing to on oath containing the words i am not disqualified dis as a voter by any law of the united united states state or the territory r of utah the edmunds law provi provides s I 1 that no bigamist poly polygamist gadist or any person cohabiting with more than one woman and no woman cohabiting with either of the persons aforesaid shall be entitled to vote at any election etc the bill under consideration requires that every person before being registered shall swear that he or she is not disqualified by any law of congress or of this territory does not this provide against those disqualified by congress and how can it be truthfully charged that the bill tends to make inoperative all congressional gress lonal ional enactments on the subject section three of the bill to which the governor objects is substantially a reenactment of existing provisions which will vill remain in force without any new law and examination shows that it is simp simply ay for the purpose of filling vacancies sies CIEs and is not provided for in section seven of the organic act which seems to haunt the governor governor like a never resting 0 ghost the next section provides for the filling of vacancies in county offices ana and according to the governors own showing is pursuant to p powers e rs conferred by section seven of th the ozo organic act and here he objects be because cause the legislature does not reenact oneff one of the provisions of that everlasting section requiring that officers appointed under the laws of the territory shall be commissioned by the governor of what earthly benefit would such re be to him or anyone else the law is in force and it would be no more in force b by D local le legislative enactment ile he would would have no more commissioning to do if it was copied a thousand times we are led to wonder towander why the governor does not insist upon the repetition of some lause clause ot section seven of the organic act in every bill passed bythe by the legislature the governor complains that in the qualifications for officeholders office holders prescribed in sections six to nine it is not required that they shall be citizens or reo reg registered bist list ered voters but reference to those sections shows that no person can hold any office of public trust in the territory unless he is qualified to register as a voter all the qua qualifications required of a voter then are required of an officeholder what more can be asked Is it not evident that nothing that the legislature could do in this direction would satisfy an executive that is predetermined not to be satisfied the governor asserts that the edmunds law makes the registration officers judges of the qualifications of officers and elect orsin utah territory this is another untruth it confers no more power upon them than tile the territorial statutes bestow upon registration officers not a line dr a word of the kind can be found in any section of the edmunds law what need be said of an argument based upon such a falsehood and what of the insulting and unmanly accusation at its close that the provision of the bill under consideration tempts men to override the laws of congress we come now to the governors remarks on section ten as it relates to woman suffrage of course he objects E examine the section all that it contains op this question is the words or female it makes the qualifications for a woman voter the same as for a male voter and what is the objection hear it he re regards ards the existing law of doubtful validity and declines to approve any act giving it vit vitality allty 11 the objections offered to the old law will not apply to the new therefore he will not sign the new theres logic fortoul for you I 1 the new law w would ouid repeal the old but he will not sign the new law because it would give the old one vitality ile he will not sign the new nelv law because he like the old one th atwould if he signed the new law what a wonderful statesman and reasoner we have in lil our veto making makin executive I 1 the statement that immigrants in this territory are isolated from republican influences is a paip palpable able abie and und absurd untruth and a very poor excuse for objection to the provision in pursuance issuance to an act of congress conferring berring the elective fran franchise francaise clise cRise u upon on non citizens who have declared their intentions to become such and have ha v e taken an oath of fidelity to the constitution and laws of the country the next point to be considered is another of governor murrays Mur rays extraordinary falsehoods ile he quotes in full the oath gatli formulated by the utah commission and states that it was required to be taken under the edmunds law there is not only no oath of any kind mentioned in that law but there Is no authority specified therein authorizing commissioners or anyone else to prescribe or require any oath of any description whatever but he compla compia complains s that the oath prescribed in the bill is defective because it leaves the applicant for registration to judge of his own qualifications we have shown aown the untruth of the state men there repeat repeated eI bythe by the Gp governor vernor that the registration officer is made by the edmunds law the judge of the qualifications of the voter and the answer to the objection and to the statement that this oath would per mit every polygamist to vote is found in section thirty eight of the bill if any person who is required by this his act to take an oath shall falsely swear such person shall be deemed guilty of perjury passing over some frivolous objections which we nave not now space to notice we come to his quibble about the ballots the method of requiring the tiie envelopes in which the ballots are deposited to be furnished by the county board and to be uniform in in color and size without any marks writing printing or device upon them and leaving leasing the voter to put in what ballot he pleases has been commended everywhere as the best protect protection loa ioa to a secret ballot and against fraudulent voting T the ile lle G governor oy e r 11 wants the ballots to be uniform in color etc this world require the ballots to be furnished to tile tiie voters would prevent any voter from providing his own ball bail ballot bailot 0 t and thus do much towards defeats defeating n 0 the object in view of a secret vote in closing the governor repeats the untruth about the requirements made upon the legislature by th the edmunds eEdmunds law he says it imposes upon the present legislature tile the important duty bof of enacting laws that will aid the government in its efforts to suppress what it regards as organized crime he makes no quotation from tile the law in support of this assertion but has the hardihood to refer to section nine everything in that section imposed upon the legislature is the duty of providing for registration and election officers thistle This the legislature has done and done well ana the governor vernor now stands in the way to destroy tae labor they have performed for medin in accordance with the law of Con congress ress what they are required to do he aims to prevent what he claims they ought to do is not nol in the law and he knows it the law says in effect that the commission shae shall shail remain in office until the le legislature makes the very p provisions r embodied in the bill which he lle has vetoed and the inference is clear that his object is to retain the commission ill in office ce thwart the wishes of th the C gre great abbo body d of citizens of the territory a course he has taken from the beginning and from the failure of the needful law now rendered void by his acty act to work u upon poll the country for addition additional nal nai agitation against a people whom he be has had taken the utmost pains to abuse and misrepresent s the last paragraph in the message r relates elates to matters that have no bearing whatever upon the bill and have bee been ja thrust in by the governor in his usual 1 disingenuous manner to further prejudice the tile country against the people of f utah for like otner documents purn purr purporting to be addressed to the assembly the message is written for outside use and is intended to aid in the present crusade for the enslavement of the citizens of tills this terr territory it ry and the exaltation of tile the writer to a still more extended exer exercise else of the tyrannical and un american amerlean one man power |