Show OBEDIENCE TO LAW AS 0 ON BY THE COURTS visit paid by governor west on wednesday to the penitentiary and the overtures he made to the prisoners confined therein for alleged infract infraction ib of the edmunds law in our lonido honor to his head and heart we believe his efforts were made in good faith and with a desire to relieve the people peoble of this territory and toe the eminent of the united states from A grave difficulty guthat he was not fiot suc 1 is due to the situation seis not to be blamed neither are the incarcerated car gentlemen with whom he conversed on the subject the proposition was his if those who are now suf suffering feria imprisonment under tinder the edmunds ar act t will vill promise to d obey bey the he law in future as const construed ruea b ly the lie courts the governor will WIER petition the 4 president to pardon them and in this request he will be joi C chief ai ef justice zane and district battor attorney eyl D ickson bickson the response of the prisoners de ro who had an opportunity 10 to lo r reply ei p was not favorable to the proposal pro po sal there are obstacles in the dav wh ich the governor cannot fail to asprec appreciate when he takes a square loot look at t them before a truth truthful itil man can mea a promise he must know definitely hat it aigul signifies es can any one exola explain a ti the meaning of the ahr phrase ase obe cence to the law as construed by the og iourtc rt 11 Gove governor knor west could pot not a answer sw er ta the question ll 11 e when w ea propounded to him by t the e prisoners one court interprets the law in one 0 oe way another court in another way jp in the case of apostle lorenzo snow judge zane differed frota judge powers which was right rendering ate are th the prisoners riso ners to promise pro 1 to obey obe yIn IA the third district 1 the same J judge adge has given at least lea 8 half a dozen different and conflicting g rulings as to the meaning of the law men who strictly to one construction have been put luthe in the penitentiary under a fresh construction made to cover cove their case when inen this new interpretation of the law hass has not met th the conditions has manufactured been manufactured the object being to imprison the accused whether he be had obeyed the law as ag previous previously Y construed 4 by vid the court or not the he evident intention of the defendant tp live within thia the law a as he be under stood it and as he had the right ato to understand it fron from the dea nit ion of the court has never been taken into account but lie he has been punished to the full exteria di the law just the same saine as though ae h e had wilfully violated it with full lull intent first unlawful cohabitation was construed by judge aane as treating 49 more than one woman aves without go going in through bugli the forms 9 ft marriage this his was understood to PO signify segua sexual ll 11 intercourse next when a defendant offered to prove that ae ate had not thus cohabited with his wives but that after the passage of the edmunds act all such relations had ceased the same ame court refused to receive the testimony ruling that sexual luter intercourse ourse was in no way essential to the offense it was declared tobe to be the holding out to the word as wives and living with the women that thai cout constituted buted the of fence later still when it A was shown that the partis parties had separated that they did not live together tha same court ruled that if they associated together the man holding the women out as wives the offense was committed at present the I 1 holding holdin gout out is not essential when no evidence is adduced that the man has introduced the plural wife as such suchy or that he has treated her as a abife wife in the general sense of the term he e is convicted all the same it if the rela relation ship is not denied in the latest case se one visit to a wife in her illness when the defendant was living allying with another and rid her only was cou construed trued to tute tate unlawful cohabitation tion how then can men nna find HI ti prison piton associates together having beep been convicted linger totally different constructions of the law consistently promise to obey the baw aw as ons coas construed aged trued r by the courts judge judg zane himself has used the W word d ch chameleon a to illustrate the cap capabilities ab of t the a ja law to mapy aak hed and various r I 1 op con 9 rad axi in one case eAse he ruled that th at when the defea defendant amhad had served his term 0 of imprisonment i order 0 observe me e law he might 4 4 which wife bif he pleased lea 4 and 11 ve with her alone T then en when a case cage came tor for rial raal ia abts rule hid bad been adopted au and lived byla by in good goo faith the court cohabitation with the albough al hough a gh t tle 0 legel evidence proved the ill lm pilat leation ion wrong tp eg 17 ap pp WAsco was convicted livic at with wita more than woman when he had odily cohabited with one and haq kept ae ake laws as construed by the courts there are m men now in the p penitentiary who during the time covered by the indictments against them have neither lived with wita nor held put to the world mor mora than oba woman as their wives and yet these two elements yere formerly and for a long time proclaimed claimed oy by t the e courts as essential to the offense |