Show THE UTAH COMMISSION The Commission In Utah has outlived usefulness i if it ever had any It was a Republican experiment and the object iojMvhich h it was created has been accomplished accom-plished namely the disfranchisement of polygamists In their work in this direction direc-tion theyjnvenVfiiriher than the law gave them warrant and a large class whom I they excluded from the polls have been restored to their political rights by a decision of the Supreme Court It wasj aV clumsy makeshift to appoint ap-point a Commission of five members whoso solo duties are to appoint the registrars reg-istrars in the various precincts and judges of elections From formulating ironclad 0ath8 > nd insisting upon their Tigid administration ad-ministration they have assumed the humbler and more modest role of suggesting sug-gesting forms of oaths leaving it to the registrars to ascertain a mans right and qualifications for registering after the Su premo Court had said that upon them must rest the responsibility if they erred in their judgment and refused registration registra-tion to a man who was entitled to it The work that is done by the Commission might well be done by a board consisting ofBOmany Federal and so many Territorial Terri-torial officers much the same as the grand and petit jurors are selected under the Poland law The aim of that law was to make the juries half Mormon and half Gentile The judgea of election that have been appointed by the Commission have been in the main appointed in that spirit T and on that plan The Poland law provided pro-vided that the jurors should be selected Jjy officers already in existence while the Edmunds Act created a Commission to administer it and enforce its provisions There are many and grave objections to Much a plan as it creates new offices and is additional and cumbersome elective machinery The gentlemen who compose 1 com-pose the Commission have and can have no interest in Utah aside from the inter esUof their office In Utah they are sojourners so-journers and will never be residents To them continued turmoil and strife in Utah is continued office holding Seeing things mend but slowly to them it must seem that they mend not at all The recommendations that they make are recommendations in favor of more power and greater latitude for foreign officials Forms of government do not change human nature and commissioners under republics will be no less alien in feeling and sympathytowards the people among wUdni they are sent than like commissioners commis-sioners under kings They do not believe be-lieve that those to whom they are sent are entitled to the same respect and consideration t sideration they demand for themselves when at home and dealing with their own affairs They are sent because those who send them do not deem those among whom they go capable or worthy to man aotli ir own affairs This being the reason for sending them can those who are sent entertain any other ideas than of their own superiority and of the inferiority in-feriority of those over whom they exercise authority Sent because of I mistrust they become more mistrustful LTlTeir ideas their wishes their sympa ftlneflS and their interests are all alien to those whose olection affairs they manage The majority of the employes of the I Commission are nonresidents and came hero morely to get a fat thing Every one of those employes is a Itepublican and a Republican of the ultra type They may very justly be termed offensive parti sanswhose main duties Just year consisted con-sisted in telling terrible tales about the Democrats and how the Democrats of the North were as bad if not worse than the Secessionists of the South They seem to have been imported for this purpose The Commission should be abolished andthe duties it performs devolve upon L Ijoinoof the regular officials and for the sameamount that the gentlemen composing com-posing it receive as salaries the Territory might have a very excellent and superior Supreme Court a thing of much greater importance than the Commission The v qualification of the voters in Utah Ter 1 Jritory so far polygamy goes is a fettled fet-tled thing and whether Utah remains a Territory or becomes a Sfate no man who practices polygamy will ever be a voter r This is a certainty beyond a doubt and such being the case why would it not be well for the Government to discontinue Commission and the great and needless need-less expense it entails 1 |