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Show SOLVE THE PROBLEM AT HOME. Utah is always a theme at home and abroad, and it is a constant theme because of the local problem. This problem is the complete extirpation of polygamy. That which makes the solution solu-tion so difficult is the fact that the practice prac-tice is very general throughout the Territory, Terri-tory, and also because those Mormons who do not practice polygamy give their assent and encouragement to its practice. Doubtless there are some fanatics who J are of the opinion that the Government Govern-ment cannot suppress polygamy, and the very desultory manner in which the Government has gone about the enforcement enforce-ment of its laws gives more or less ground for such a belief. The laws for the suppression sup-pression of polygamy have not always been adequate to the task undertaken, j But this is not all. Many of the officers J of the Government whose duty it was to j enforce the laws, had made but spasmod- ic efforts to enforce the law, and even j those efforts had been anything but en- j ergetic. It remained for Mr. Dickson to J show what could be done. As a de-! fense to the manner in which for- : mer Prosecuting Attorneys have not i enforced the law, it is said that I the law, until the passage of the ! Edmunds law in 1832, was wholly inade- j quate to the question to ba dealt with, j We think a batter and truer excuse would i have been to have said that the Prose- cuting Attorneys were unequal to the law already on the statute book. Our former ; Prosecuting Attorneys were always demanding de-manding the passage1 of this law or that law to"'aid them! Sd i much was this the case that if recalls" Jth'e 'early history of Michigan aselated' bV Farmer.'" He tells how the Judges when they became puzzled puz-zled as to what a law meant, or they doubted whether it reached a particular case, would change their court into a Legislative' Chamber and enact a law that they could understand, but which nobody ' else ' could. Their ignorance was the great cause of all their trouble. So it has been with many of the Judges and Prosecuting Attorneys of Utah. But notwithstanding all this, there is need of additional legislation to settle the question ques-tion of polygamy in Utah. Congress never has known, never can know, one-half one-half so well the true situation in Utah as the Territorial Legislature does. The want such knowledge on the part of Congress of causes Congress to enact legislation that overshoots the mark in one place and falls far short of itin another. The Legislature, Legis-lature, had they the disposition to act, would not make these errors. The Legis-! lature may say that Congress has legislated legis-lated on the question of polygamy and by bo doing has taken the matter out of the hands of . the local law making power. For the sake of argument argu-ment let this be granted, but the question immediately arises, why did Congress legislate on the matter? Merely because the Territorial Legislature refused to. That is the reason and that alone. If the Legislature, by its non-action in this matter, compels Congress to act, have the people of Utah who elect the Legislature Legis-lature any right to complain if Congress shall enact such radical legislation as will leach this local question in all its parts ? They have not. This question will be reached in all its parts, and it is probable that in reaching it many harsh things will have to be done and endured, but the people of Utah Territory will have themselves to blame for these things. Now, is it not better for the Legislature to do something in the premises something that .will give an earnest of an honest will to deal with the local question so as to make the marital mar-ital system of Utah conform to the marital mar-ital system of the whole country ? If this earnest were, given and a genuine effort made to suppress polygamy, the country would look upon such earnest and effort as the beginning of the end of the Utah problem. This Utah question must and will be setted, and it will be settled in accordance with the supreme laws of the land ; and such being the case, is it not much better for our own Legislature to grapple with this question than to ignore it? The. gentlemen who constitute the Legislature are of the people and are well acquainted with their hopes and aspira- tions, and this fact together with the sym- j pathy theyhave for them makes them eminently proper persons to deal with the question. When a disease has to be cured it is best that it be cured by the friends of the patient where those friends : have the power and ability to effect a cure. What in such cases may seem a great harshness is oft the greatest kindness. kind-ness. ' |