Show A COMMISSION FOR UTAH j Tlie decision in the Utah Commission I cases decides some things not found in the complaints nor mentioned in the decision de-cision itself it decides the important fact that the powers of the Commission are as ample as the case requires and that there is no need of any further legislation on the subject of qualification for voters What then is the present status of politics poli-tics in Utah It is this that a class who were numerous but not in the majority r and against whom the legislation of i twenty years ago was directed have I been so to speak put hors dc combat I and can only return on the conditions made by those who have placed them in their present situation This one important im-portant question of who may vote and who may not is settled True it is that those who may not vote are still in the community are an active and energetic ener-getic lot or as Mr George Q Cannon terms them the elite and are trying very hard to get others to do as they have done Very well they certainly have aright a-right to be and because they are persistent per-sistent and are not all arraigned before the courts is no reason for calling for Legislative Commissions with the powers of courtsmartial in war times Has there been any failure to bring a conviction in polygamy cases when an honest effort has been made to try the strength of existing laws The Edmunds law purged the jury system of sympathizers with and adherents ad-herents to polygamy the same as the law purges from a jury in criminal cases for capital offences all who have any conscientious con-scientious scruples where the punishment is death Following this the District Court or the Judicial District issued an open venire when the jury list was exhausted ex-hausted This position in regard to the jury system was sustained by the Supreme Su-preme Court of Utah and now it only remains to see what the Supreme Court of the United States will say in regard to the matter There are arguments either way in the open venire cases and they are liable to be sustained At least the courts here will continue to issue open venires until reversed by the Supreme Court at Washington Then we are not in want of juries What is required re-quired so far as witnesses are concerned More powers to get them we are told What more powers are needed than the officers now have when being armed with the orders of the court they are admitted into any house Is it to be presumed that any legislation can make men willing to aid officers of the law in the discharge of their duties when education and the religion relig-ion of a life have made them otherwise i To make such presumptions shows I small knowledge of human nature and legislation is nothing but the regulation of human nature in its millions of phases as found in man Legislation can regulate I regu-late human nature but it can never make it The political errors found in Utah are the result of a misapprehension by the people of Utah of the genius of American I Ameri-can institutions as understood by Americans Ameri-cans throughout the whole United States I and are errors to be corrected by education I educa-tion and thought and not by coercion Is not a Legislative Commission Com-mission the method of coercion But it is urged that there are precedents for such a commission in United States history and as such precedents are cited the Ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory ant the Louisiana purchase also Are these cases in point Certainly the Northwest case is not and the Louisiana purchase case is doubtful Were the evils of reconstruction times cured by the imposed officials or by the people of the South themselves Be w s cause there arc many wandering and marauding ma-rauding remnants of guerrilla companies in the Cumberland Mountains and other parts of the South is no reason why the whole South should be under military control Probably Ireland is the greatest and most sorrowful example of curing home evils from abroad and even such good and worthy men as Mr Foster and Earl Spencer are as much at sea in their policy and place as men can be What is the reason England cannot bring political politi-cal order out of her Irish chaos It is simply because she does not understand the Celtic nature and the Irish wants and situation it is because she insists that the ideas of Downing street shall be the ideas of the Castle Doubtless the Castle Cas-tle would have the same ideas if allowed time in which to come to them Have coercion acts in Ireland done anything but make bad matters worse No the manner in which to cure the evils in Utah is to enforce the law not occasionally and with gusto but to enforce it ever and always continuously and unceasingly And what guaranty have we that a Legislative Legis-lative Commission of thirteen manchosen members mil do thing very differently from twelve Godchosen men The trouble in either case is that the people are ignored and used as beasts of burden bur-den We heard one of the most prominent clergymen of the city and one of our most vigorous thinkers say within six weeks that the political evils which exist here could only be cured by the people themselves and that time must be allowed them while the cure of a Commission would not go to the seat of disease In fine he said that a Commission Com-mission would but augment the evils already here It may be well to say that the gentleman is not a Mormon lest the view expressed may be condemned I at once There is much in this view and let it be well pondered 1 |