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Show A PUBLIC BUILDING FOR UTAH. The Senate Committee on Public Buildings Build-ings have decided to report favorably the bill3 miking appropriations for public J buildings at Pueblo, Colorado, and Port- ! land, Oregon. Pueblo is to have $100,000 I and Portland $350,030. Wc do not envy J the gl fortune of either Pueblo or Port- j lan 1, but we cannot bat wish that Utah ' hii biea among tha favored places. The United States have no Territory or place over which they have exclusive jurisdiction jurisdic-tion that ha3 more or so much interest attaching to it as Utah, and yet Utah ha not a solitary public building belonging' to the Government. This city has an important postofQce, and this the Government has to rent. The pre sent accommodations for the postal sarvice of the city are scarcely adequate and become less adequate each day. The various United States courts have to be held in re nted buildings, and the build-; ixizi arc not made for the purposes to which they are put. The Government ha to rent quarters for the Utah Com-i Com-i mUsion, but the quarters are not such as ! they shoild be ; and so it is all the way ! through'. The amou nt of money that ! t the Government pays out as rent fori various offices represents a high interest i j on a handsome sum. As a mere matter I ol inviJtni ent, it would pay the Govern- ' mant more than well to erect in this city j i a building adequate to its wants and a I credit to its dignity. Every Government office in the city should be in one building, j . and that building should belong to the United States. The erection of such a building would enhance the value of property throughout the city, and, what is more, it would impress u pon the people of Utah the great truth that the United States are supreme in the United States, j and that they intend to vindicate and en- j ' fore the laws in this Territory. If the erection of cathedrals and temples has an educational influence on the minds of the people, why should not a fine public building that indicates the majesty and authority of the law have the same influence in-fluence ? When people cannot be reached through reason they must be reached through imagination. A public building in -this city would serve as a magnificent object lesson to those who think the Government of the United States is a vague idea, "void and without form." The neglect that Utah has suffered in this respect, as well as ; in many others, on the part of the Gov ernment, makes it almost discouraging at . times to those who believe that the law j should be vindicated in Utah as well as j in other parts ot the Union. The course j of the Government in the matter of en- . forcing the law in Utah has almost been an encouragement to violators of the law, and these violators have a seeming justi- i fication for their line of argument when they say that the Government cannot suppress polygamy. A wise expenditure of a million dollars would settle the Utah question. Let the Government give the Territory a proper public building and more courts and a greater prosecuting j force to aid those courts and back these up with sufficient means, and it would not take long to settle the question of polygamy po-lygamy and unlawful cohabitation. |
