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Show UNFORTUNATE ALL AROUND. President Cleveland seems to have ' ieen singularly unfortunate in the matter of selecting officials for Utah. Of course nine-tenths of the men appointed to office are personally unknown to the President, hence, be. must of necessity rely upon the heads of departments and personal friends of those seeking office, for the requisite information as to fitness, ability, etc., of the applicants. It is to be regretted that some more perfect means of ascertaining the character and capabilities of the men who seek office, cannot be devised, for thereby many of uic mistakes now made, and which to the President and the party generally are doubtless vexatious to the last degree, de-gree, might then be avoided. I These remarks are prompted by a survey sur-vey of the situation in Utah. So far, five appointments to office have been made in this Territory, and in four out of the' five cases, objections of a more or less serious nature, touching the fitness of the nominees to hold the positions to' which they have been assigned, have been, are and will be urged against them, and in cases where the Senate has not confirmed the appointments, that august body will be asked to refuse such con: firmation when the names are reached. In one case we refer to the appointment appoint-ment of Associate Justice Powers the true inwardness of the fight against con-firmation con-firmation does not seem to be undeVstood j here; certainly the Democrat has not! been advised as to its nature, and is i therefore not in a position to express any I opinion in the premises. It is certain, I however, that Judge Powers . has been I subjected to a raking front and rear fire, j and the outcome of the affair is awaited j with unusual interest. 1 Another case is that of Surveyor-General Dement, whose uncontrollable chin-wagging chin-wagging tendencies seem to have involved him in inextricable trouble. The public are already familiar with the extraordinary extraordin-ary doings and sayings of this gentleman in Washington, and the impression here is now very prevalent that his confirmation confirma-tion by the Senate is out of the question. The last heard of the General, he was again before the Public Lands Committee, reiterating his denials, and endeavoring to convince the Committee that, while he - . j himself has always carried a little hatchet in his coat-tail pocket, the five newspaper correspondents are all of them liars, who, for some purpose best known to themselves, have deliberately and maliciously ma-liciously planned his political ruin. It begins to look as though the General was really and truly a chattering idiot, who scarcely knows enough to go indoors out of the rain. : |