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Show The Constitution Be Damned Early Inst fall menilters of the Ctah Slate Press association in various va-rious district meetings throughout the state adopted a resolution to the effect thnt the organization would fight tq the bitter end the seating any member' In the state legislature whq already held a public pub-lic office. Such seating, the Press assocatlon holds, U contrary to the Utah state constitution, article six. section six of which says : "Xo person per-son holding any public office of profit or trust under authority of the t'nlted States or of this stale, shall Ik a mnaler of the legislut- The adoption of the resolution was made with the knowledge fresh In mind tha taeveral previous legislatures legis-latures had illegally held as riuun-bors riuun-bors nien who simultaneously' served serv-ed their respectlvcs cities as coun-cllmen coun-cllmen or recorders, or their school districts as members of the board of education. This, disregard of the state constitution the members of the Press association desired to prevent pre-vent in the present and future legislatures. n lien iue !rewiu iCKimmuie convened con-vened the Press association through Its officers protested the seating of W, D. Hammond of Mo-ab Mo-ab on the ground that he already held one public office In Utah, that of member of the board of education of the Grand county school district. The state legislature referred the matter to Its committee (,n elctlons. After due deliberation, the commit com-mit tee spoke. Of course, no one was surprised to hear the decision. You could hardly have expected anything any-thing else from 'LAWMAKERS. In substance the committee said that though the constlutlon of the state Indicated that Mr. Hammond was not entitled to I seated still they held that ONLY the house Itself bad the authority to say who is entitled en-titled to sit as a member of the legislature. -j.!,.. In ohter words, THE CONSTITUTION CONSTI-TUTION BE DAMNED. WE ARE LAWMAKERS AND CAN DO AS WE PLEASE ABOUT SUCH MATTERS. MAT-TERS. Isn't funny tha tome legislators, mayors, city commissioners, county commlsslonere, and police officers, who have been elected or apolnted by the people to MAKE and ENFORCE EN-FORCE laws, seem to get the edea that laws are only for the other fellow fel-low and NOT for them. They are above the law and can do as they see fit wtbout fear of reprimand. We hear much nowadayys about LAW ENFORCEMENT. Undoubtedly Undoubt-edly the mmebers of the election committee who have decided that Mr, Hammond should be seated regardless re-gardless of the constlutlon, have made more than one speech before getting to the legislature on the question of LAW ENFORCEMENT. ENFORCE-MENT. Can it be they like thousands thous-ands and tens of thousands throughout the nation have the idea that LAW ENFORKMENT ONLY CONCERNS ONE LAW . PROHIBITION? We wouldn't be at all surprised If Mich Is the case because this country appears more every day to have liecome n ONE LAW (NATION. If the members of the Utah legislature leg-islature In session now assembled, desire to set a good example for LAW ENFORCEMENT they should see to it that the eonstltu-tlon eonstltu-tlon is oleyed in the Hammond case. If they don't, they merely serve notice on the people of I'tah to do as they please law or no law. One law should not be considered more holy than another. They should ATJL be enforced or removed from the statutes Immediately. The LAWMAKERS who have sworn to uphold the constitution of the state should not discard It a week after taking such an oath. Daily Herald. |