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Show For Governor OF UTAH TERRITORY, Samuel A. Merritt. A GOOD EXAMPLE. The Democrat has frequently exposed the system of giving railroad passes to officials. The evil is a great one and to it as much if not more than anjthing else the country is indebted for the land grants to railroads and other evils of a similar nature. It is merely an indirect system of bribery. .A day or two ago the Democrat Demo-crat had an article on the subject, in which it was urged that the Governor make a recommendation to the Legislature Legisla-ture on the matter. Whether such recommendation will be made cannot be known until the Governor delivers hia message to the Legislature. In this matter of passes Delegate Yoorhees of Washington Washing-ton Territory has set a very good example by introducing a bill into the House to punish pun-ish by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, any railroad officer who issues free passes to any employe of the United States. This is an excellent beginning be-ginning and it is to be hoped that the bill will become a law. This bill should be so amended as to make it a cause for impeachment for any United States official to solicit or accept free passes on railroads. If Government officials 2 have not a proper sense of what be- I comes a public officer in the matter I of soliciting or accepting railroad I passes, the law should make them rwog- I niee what is proper and improper in such I things. Any man who is in the employ- I - ment of the General Government or of I the Territory, or any county cr city in the I . Territory, who will accept a railroad pass, 1 whether such pass is for om trip or an 2 annual, is not a fit person to be a public I officer. That is a broad statement, but it I is a true one. For Government officials I to be riding on railroad passes is for Gov-I Gov-I ernment officials to disgrace the Govern-I Govern-I ment. We remember a case in which a J person was appointed to a petty office I under oae of the courts, and as quick as t he got the appointment he made applica-I applica-I tion to the attorneys of one of the railroads I of the Territory for a pass. Among the I very cogent reasons he advanced why he 1 should have a pass was that there was I not enough money in the office, and as it I involved considerable travelling he I hardly felt justified in taking it unless he 1 could get a railroad pass. The attornej'3 I of the railroad very promptly and prop-I prop-I erly told him that they had not urged 1 him to take the office, and if there was I no money in it they advised him to not I accept it. It is a pleasure to record the ! fact that he did not get a pass. The I whole system of giving passes to public I officials is pernicious and wrong and it -- '" only tends to bring public officials into disrepute and contempt; and when the I officers of the law are brought into disre-I disre-I pute and contempt, the consequence is 1 that the law itself is more or- less " brought into disrepute and contempt. So I long as public officials will solicit or ac-I ac-I cept railroad passes, for just so long will I the public service be wanting in I that tone and high standard which should I accompany the public service of every ! government to place it above the reproach re-proach of being a mere system of jobbery. job-bery. We sincerely hope that Governor Murray in his message will urge upou the Legislature the necessity of passing such laws as will make it impossible for public servants to ride on passes, and thereby lift a load of deep disgrace from off the Territory. TIIE RULE OF THREE. The rule in the matter of indictments for unlawful cohabitation seems to bi to find three. It is almost an impossibility to get a grand jury to indict a man a second time after he has suffered imprisonment im-prisonment for unlawful cohabitation, because be-cause men prefer to think that men who have been punished once "will , reform their ways. The punishment for unlawful unlaw-ful cohabitation is so light that it does not deter men from violating the Edmunds Ed-munds law, and the object of punishing men for crimes is to deter men froiri com-' com-' mitting crime. ' The punishment for un- lawful cohabitation is not such as to deter men in Utah from , continuing to live in unlawful cohabitation. In this fact can be found the reason for applying the rule of three to men who violate the Edmunds Ed-munds iaw. Where this is done and men convicted of unlawful cohabitation receive the full penalty of the law, it will tend to make the law more respected. But it would be better if the law made the punishment pun-ishment for unlawful cohabitation the same as for polygamy, and then impose the full penalty of the law upon men convicted con-victed of that crime. The punishment for unlawful cohabitation has been a mere I "a bagatelle heretofore, because only H one conviction for that offense I J has been had. If men have no I'm innate respect for the law they -must be j 1 made to respect the authority of the iaw I through the fear of bringing upon them- I selves the penalty of the law for its vio- lation. It would be preferable to have all men respect the law from the love of " law and order, but all men will not do j I this, and the consequence is that these j men . must be punished when their dis- j respect for law leads them to violate it. Punishment for violating the law must be 8uch as to put a stop to violations of it, and the more widespread and com- J " ' . ' S I ' . ii mi i i m,i i i 'nmi 'fciHn mon the violation of the law the greater the necessity for making the punishment severe... It is the widespread and common violation of the law against unlawful cohabitation co-habitation in Utah that calls ... for an increase in-crease in the. punishment or unlawful cohabitation. If cases of unlawful cohabitation cohab-itation were isolated and uncommon, there would be no necessity to make the punishment for. that crime different from what it is to-day. Until the penalty' for violating the cohabitation clause of the Edmunds act is increased the courts will have to rely on the rule of three for the suppression of unlawful cohabitation. A POPULAR ERROR. " The Tribune of this morning, in commenting com-menting on the Mormon question, epeakb of the mass of the Mormon people as being "densely ignorant" That is the way in which the majority of people speak of the mass of the Mormons, and . the majority of people make a mistake in so sjieaking. If the Tribune means by its phrase that the mass of the Mormons are ignorant of American institutions and have no acquaintance with the ideas which are at the foundation of those institutions, we agree with the Tribune. If, on the other hand, by its phrase it means illiteracy, illiter-acy, we do not agree with it. The popular popu-lar notion is that the Mormons are very illiterate, which is an error. Only a few days ago Hon. A. G. Campbell made the remark, in conversation with the writer and another gentleman, that the Mormon Mor-mon people were as intelligent as any people he had ever met of the same class and he particularly remarked the fact that there were more men in Utah who had seen the world and knew of different countries, than any place he had ever- been in. A man does not expect to meet among the laboring class, and of this class are most of the Mormons, the same culture and refinement that are met with in tho university man of much travel and a Urge experience in .society. The great mass of the Mormon people are of the laboring class, but in intelligence and general knowledge they will, compare favorably with the same class anywhere. They are of one opinion as to the dimity of their church, and so fanatical are they in their belief of that divinity, that they are charged with superstition. T people of no particular religious profession, the belief of zealous religionists in the Bible and other religious works appears as superstition. The Mormons are among the most zealous of such religionists, and on account of their zeal and their great unjKjpularity they are termed superstitious. supersti-tious. That they are fanatical, no one who knows them will deny. Of American Ameri-can institutions and the theory of the Government they are ignorant, but they are not "densely ignorant" in a sense of illiteracy. -HOW HE GOT LEFT. It is generally pretty well known how the members of the Legislature - are chosen in Utah. The method by which they are chosen may be described by saying that the members are "set apart" to labor as missionaries in the vineyard . of legislation. Whenever one of thes missionaries loses just a little bit of spirit of law ( ?) these same missionaries mission-aries are "set aside." The result is that Utah has a code of laws rivaling if not excelling the laws of the Tables of Stone or the Twelve Tables. Nothing but the gift of interpretation can tell-what these Jaws mean. This gift may be had upon application to the proper court. Now for the story of a legislative missionary mis-sionary who was "set apart" and then "set aside." This missionary was in the last Legislature but will not be in the one. which meets on Monday next. His duty in the Legislature was to perform whatever what-ever part was assigned him. (Philologists will easily trace the connection between being "set apart" and being given a part to perform.) When,a particular piece was to be performed this . man forgot his "part" and voted against the. performance perform-ance of the piece. Such a thing on the part of a Utah legislator indicated the presence of the spirit which possessed Satan to rebel in heaven, and, like Satan,' he was required to make his bow and quit the stage. Some time ago a friend asked him what he had quit the show business for and in reply he said that the way in which he had voted on certain measures was not as the bosses wanted him to. Who the bosses are in Utah politics we leave , to the conjecture of our readers. This "set aside" missionary is now a wiser man than . formerly, but he is no longer "chosen" to be a worker in the vineyard of legislation. The moral of this man's man's mad career is, When you are "set apart" as a legislator, enact only those parts that are assigned you. j UNKNOWN GREATNESS. The greatness of the Utah Commission is unknown ; so is the number of clerks employed by the Commission, according, to the report of the Senate proceedings yesterday. The telegram of Commissioner Commis-sioner Paddock shows what a useless, good-for-nothing piece of governmental machinery the Commission is. The matter mat-ter of the number of clerks employed by the Commission is a thing of small concern, con-cern, but the indecisive telegram referred to in the Senate proceedings pro-ceedings is a very good indicator indi-cator of the whole concern. It is somewhat strange that the exact number num-ber could not be told. It is to be expected expect-ed that the number would vary according to the time of the year the nearness of elections and things of like nature. The j Utah Commission is probably the most j expensive whistle; that was ever, pur-j chased. The concern should be abolished, j for the same work done by it could very easily be done by the local Federal officials, and at a wonderfully less expense. ex-pense. . The indications are that " the Commission will have to "go," and the sooner it goes the better. Both its greatness great-ness and usefulness are as ill defined as -the predominating idea in one of Whis-! tier's symphonies in green and yellow, j JACKSON'S. DAY. To-day is Jackson's day, and to all Democrats it is almost a saint's day. ' For many years it has :iiot been popular in the United States with , the party which j has gone out of power in national politics, poli-tics, and never to-return we hope. General Jackson had many faults, but his Virtues far outweighed - those faults, and to-day is held sacred by Democrats on account ' of those virtues. It was very .'-fashionable -. for -' many - years" to deride Jackson, and even to-day some would make the term Jeffersonians and Jacksonians terms of reproach. They cannot be so' made. It is' with pleasure we note thai" i he officers of the army stationed at Fort Douglas tender to the Federal officials of the Territory a reception recep-tion to-day. There, is no fitter day in the year for the military officers of the Government Gov-ernment to entertain the civil- officers of the Government. There are : none of those jealousies and fears between the civil and the military officers of the Government in this country which characterize the relations existing between such officers under other governments. ' In the United States the proudest boast of both military, mili-tary, and civil officers is that they are citizens cit-izens of the Republic, and it is most fit- j ting that the military and civil officers of the Government in the Territory should meet and mingle together in honor and commemoration of Jackson's Day. IN A NUTSHELL. When the Alia California wants to put a whole political problem in a nutshell, it knows just how to do it. It is a strong civil-service reform advocate and in its issue of Wednesday the 6th inst., it puts that whole question in a nutshell when it says : "Some indignation has been spent upon the age limit of the, civil-service law. The reason for that limit is that the apprenticeship idea underlies the whole civil service reorganization. Young men are appointed to the service upon fitness demonstrated by examination, and ; their fidelity and ambition are : stimulated by the prospect of promotion. - The : intention inten-tion is to make the civil-service a profession worthy .the pursuit . of : active men, and not an asylum for the lame and halt of ancient political battlefields." ; Fob the Tribune: If X Tribune) represents repre-sents the unknown quantity in the Utah problem, will not Y (Democrat) represent repre-sent the known quantity? |