Show BAD GRAMMAR IN BILLS T THE popular branch of the assembly has a great many times during tie present session presented the spectacle of a legislative body engaged to in correcting grammatical and other lingual errors in bills so much mach valuable time has ba been spent in this way as td indicate a necessity for a committee on oil phraseology whose duty it should bf b to revise the verbal construction of bills before they are printed and considered si la in the general municipal bill for exam anaple ae watch if passed and approved witY will becos e an organic law tor for the government of many of the cities of the territory and perhaps a majority of its population in an attempt to confer power upon city councils to prevent prevent the social evil uses this language in guage which appears as ad sab subdivision division 89 of section 1 of article iv to suppress and prohibit bawdy and otner disorderly houses houses ot of ill fame or assignation or r houses kept by maintained tor for or resor res orten teo to or used by one or more females tor for lewdness lewd or prostitution within tue limits of the city and within three miles mien of the outer boundaries and to prohibit the resorting thereto tor for any of the purposes aforesaid and aid loo also to r KUp presa and prohibit gamins gaming and gambling houses housed lotteries and all fraudulent devices and pram practices ices and ana all kinds of raining gaming playing at dice cards or other gamed ut chance with or without betting and pro prohibit the aal eale or exhibition of obscene or immoral publications prints pictures or illus rations rat fons the above is penal legislation a d will be strictly construed by the courts toe tae utter will not supplant with sound sense the detects of iu im tue tat metin lug nor will they give L lu the words used any other than their act almai nal and literal significance the above provision gives to city councils the power to prohibit houses of the kinds mentioned menti oried 01 course coarse the intention is to give power ower to prohibit the keeping of such bouses houses but that intent intention iun is i not ex beaded by the literal significance ol of ce the language used in view of the fact that abac costly litigation had baa been had bad la in this territory upon similar provisions I ins in city ch charier ahers and has resulted to the municipalities engaged therein it will be a matter of great regret to 10 have so serious a defect perpetuated in the organ ic law ul 01 many perhaps all of the cities in the territory A few years ago salt lake city corporation po ration undertook nude retook to deal witti with billiard tables under a charter provision procla ion which gave t e city power to license tax and regulate them chem litigation res resulted alite d and the courts held in eff acl that billiard tables table being Jn inanimate animate things were not tough the subjects of suco legislation though their keepers or owners might be toe the language of the charter provision in litigation was precisely analog analogous ms to that above quoted and we toe decision in that case would apply as a precedent in a test of the latter A similar defect in the charter of logan city resulted to in tue defeat of the corporation after its long ion and expensive contest with liquor dealers other similar cases occurring in utah bigat be cited showing viat carelessness and a disregard dil regard ot of gr gramman aminat and t ie rules ruled of lingual con st ruction displayed in the training of ane rt 4 tt tua have cost litigants and tax payers large sums of money let the me is lv wa desi gud to govern the courts and the people be expressed in good engl i |