ARGUMENTS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE IN FAVOR OF THE BILL (S. 1306) FOR THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF UTAH TERRITORY, AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE ELECTION OF CERTAIN OFFICERS IN SAID TERRITORY.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 11, 1892.

The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m. Present: Senators Platt (chairman), Stewart, Carey, Shoup, Carlisle, Faulkner, and Gordon.

The CHAIRMAN. This hearing is upon the bill (S. 1306) for the local government of Utah Territory, and to provide for the election of certain officers in said Territory. The hearing this morning is for persons who are in favor of the bill and desire to be heard in its support, and those gentlemen who are here for the purpose of being heard will arrange in such way as is agreeable to them to present their case.

Senator GORDON. Is there anything to be said on the opposite side? The CHAIRMAN. There will be.

Senator FAULKNER. Those who oppose the bill are not here.

The CHAIRMAN. There has also been introduced a bill providing for statehood for that Territory, upon which I understand parties in the Territory desire to be heard. They are not here. There has been some little misunderstanding about giving them notice. I understand there will also be parties here who do not desire either the passage of this bill or a bill for statehood.

Delegate CAINE. There are some gentlemen who are in favor of the statehood bill who are here, Mr. Bennett and Mr. Smith.

Senator FAULKNER. This hearing will be confined to those in favor of Senate bill 1306 ?

The CHAIRMAN. So I understand.

STATEMENT OF HON. H. W. SMITH.

Mr SMITH. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen: On yesterday a memorial was introduced in the Senate, which is printed in the Record this morning, passed by the legislature of Utah, asking the Congress of the United States to enact this bill into law. I desire in opening my remarks to read that memorial, with your permission. It briefly states the whole case, and I read it for the purpose of calling your special attention to the condition of affairs there as stated by the legislature. To the honorable the Senate and House of

Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled : We, your memorialists, the legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah, respectfully represent:

Utah contains an aggregate wealth of more than $200,000,000. The proceeds of her farms, live stock, mines, and manufactures for the year 1890 amounted to $23,000,000.

She has near a quarter of a million of civilized people, who, in point of intelligence, industry, and all the essential qualities of good citizenship, are up to the standard of

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any American community. Polygamy, once practiced by a small portion of her people, has yielded to the supremacy of the law by a sense of the evils flowing from it and of the utter futility of further attempting to maintain an institution obnoxious to general public sentiment.

In the midst of wonderful material progress her people have recently turned their attention to the study of questions of government and legitimate politics, and are espousing the cause of one or the other of the national parties.

These new conditions have come naturally and honestly, and for the future are absolutely secure. A patriotic people are pledged to their preservation. Retrogression, involving, as it would, dishonor and dire misfortune, is impossible.

Utah, in the feelings of her people, has been lifted from her humiliation and disgrace. To-day she is imbued with the hope and determination to be free-free in the full sense of American constitutional freedom, which means something more than liberty permitted; which consists in civil and political rights absolutely guaranteed, assured, and guarded; in one's liberties as a man and a citizen, his right to vote, his right to hold office, his equality with all others who are his fellow-citizens-all these, guarded and protected, and not held at the mercy and discretion of one man, or popular majority, or distant body unadvised as to local needs or interests.

Be it known how little of such freedom Utah and her people possess.

The governor, the secretary, the members of the judiciary, except justices of the peace, the marshal, the public prosecutor and his assistants, the board of commissioners, who appoint all registration and election officers, and control the elections, are elected by a distant appointing power, and are utterly unaccountable to the people for the manner in which they perform the duties of their offices.

The governor nominates the auditor of public accounts, the treasurer, the governing boards of all public institutions, such as the university, agricultural college, reforin school, and insane asylum. Thus the people have no voice in the selection of persons to manage the public fund and institutions created and maintained at their expense.

The territorial school commissioner is selected by the supreme court, and owes no responsibility to the people.

Clerks selected by the district judges and the probate judges appointed by the President, by and with the advice of the Senate, select the regular panels for jurors. The regular panel is supplemented by persons summoned at the discretion of the United States marshal. The determination of rights of life, liberty, and property rests with tribunals, no part of which owe any accountability to those most vitally concerned in the faithful performance of their duties. The marshal and his deputies are clothed with the most far-reaching authority, under which they may usurp the functions of all the local constabulary and police of the Territory. Even the justices of the peace are shorn of their limited jurisdiction by commissioners appointed by the supreme court, and whose jurisdiction is made coëxtensive with that of such justices.

The will of the representatives of the people in the enactment of needed legislation is liable to be defeated at the caprice of a gubernational autocrat clothed with the power of absolute veto.

While county prosecuting attorneys elected by the people are permitted to initiate prosecutions in the inferior courts, no such prosecution can be carried forward to success except according to the pleasure of the district attorney imposed upon our people from abroad. The most vicious interference with the vestige remaining of our local liberties is in the maintenance and action of the Utah Commission, who, in their appointment of registration officers, have often selected corrupt and irresponsible persons. These have filled the registration lists with fictitious names and resorted to other devices by which repeating and other frauds might be successfully perpetrated at elections.

There is no province or dependency, it is believed, of any civilized nation wherein the people are not accorded more of liberty and the rights of man than are possessed by American citizens in Utah. The situation is intolerable to freemen. The people, through us, their chosen but helpless representatives, demand relief. The officeholders, their patrons, those who fatten upon the degradation and misfortune of our people, all the hordes of beneficiaries of the present system will resist the appeal. Your memorialists, however, confidently relying upon the justice of the representatives of the American people, ask the Congress of the United States to enact into a law, as a measure which will afford immediate relief, the bill introduced in the Senate by Senator Faulkner, and in the House of Representatives by Delegate Caine, "for the local government of Utah Territory, and to provide for the election of certain officers in said Territory."

Your memorialists further ask that as all essential conditions exist entitling Utah to admission into the Union as a State, and that as soon as your honorable body is satisfied of this fact, a law may at once be enacted permitting her to take the position for which she is so eminently fitted.

And your memorialists will ever pray.

I will invite your attention now to the provisions of this bill by a brief general statement of its contents.

The first section of the bill provides for the election on Tuesday after the first Monday in November in the year 1892, and biennially thereafter, of all officers of the Territory, counties and precincts in the Terri tory of Utah, by the people of the Territory, including the governor, all members of the judiciary, all members of the county governments, and a constable and justice of the peace in each precinct.

The second section provides the time when these officers shall qualify and the term of their office. This, it will be observed, needs a slight. amendment, which we have agreed upon, and that is that it should except the Delegate in Congress. He is named as one of the officers to be elected, and to enter upon his duty on the first day of January. He should be excepted in the second section, because he qualifies on the 4th of March instead of the 1st of January. It is an oversight, purely. The third section provides for the election of the members of the legislature.

The fourth section provides the time of their meeting.

The fifth section provides for the salaries of the different officers, especially the Territorial officers, and their compensation. Of course that is arbitrary, so far as the amount is concerned. It is a matter within the discretion of the committee as to whether it shall accept those figures or fix others. They have been fixed at what we think is fair in that Territory.

The sixth section provides for the executive authority of the Territory, which is vested in the governor and follows substantially the present provision of the statutes of the United States as applicable to all other Territories except Utah.

Utah is the one exception in which the governor is an absolute autocrat. He may approve or disapprove just what he pleases. In fact he must approve or it amounts to disapproval. The legislature can not pass anything of any character, no matter if it is the unanimous wish of every man, woman, and child in the Territory that it should be enacted, if he does not approve of it. This grants him the same power that exists generally in all the States and in all the Territories under the Revised Statutes of the United States.

The provision in section 7 in regard to the lieutenant-governor is taken literally from the Constitution of Idaho, which we think is about the usual form and in proper form.

Section 8 is taken from the present Revised Statutes of the United States, and is literally a reenactment of the law that is now applicable to the Territory of Utah. It may not be necessary in the bill, but we thought it best to put it in there.

Sections 9 and 10 are transcripts of the present Territorial statutes defining the duties and powers of the Territorial auditor and treasurer. Section 11 is copied from the constitution of Idaho, in regard to the duty of the attorney-general.

Section 12 necessarily is a new section, for the reason that at present the superintendent of public schools is appointed by the supreme court of the Territory, and we have not anything whatever to do with him. His duties are defined, and were defined always before, by a Territorial law, which is still in force, and which is continued in force by this section. Necessarily this section repeals so much of the statutes of the United States as required him to be appointed by the supreme court, and it is provided that he shall be elected by the people.

The thirteenth section is copied practically from the Revised Statutes

of the United States, and it embodies some provisions that are copied from constitutions of different States, especially the last one, and that is, that the supreme court shall have authority to entertain actions upon claims against the Territory, but that their judgment is merely recommendatory and not final. That is not in the statutes of the United States. It is a necessary provision, and is the only addition that is made to the statute. They appoint their own clerk.

Section 14 divides the Territory into seven judicial districts, and I will say that the provision was one, of course, upon which there was a great deal of discussion, but upon which I have heard no criticism whatever from any person in the Territory of Utah. I believe it is the best division of the Territory that can possibly be made. That is a matter of course, like apportioning a State, about which men will quarrel and differ, but in this case we have done what we believe to be fair. The fifteenth section provides

Senator GORDON. Is it necessary to have so many judicial districts? Mr. SMITH. We certainly think it is, and I shall have occasion to call your attention to that before I get through. I am merely now giving you an outline of the bill. As to the necessity of its various provisions I will show you later.

The fifteenth section provides for the jurisdiction of the district courts, which is of the usual form, and copies practically the statutes of the United States, except that the statutes of the United States confer upon them the jurisdiction of the circuit courts and district courts of the United States. That is left out here. There is a clause added to that which is copied substantially from the act of June 23, 1874, known as the Poland bill, by which the governor may assign a judge to another district from that in which he lives in case of the llness or disability of the other judge. That is already in an act of Congress known as the Poland bill, applicable to the Territory of Utah. The sixteenth section relates to the probate court and its jurisdic tion. There is a slight amendment to that section, to the effect that such court shall not have jurisdiction of any cause where the title, boundary, or possession of land shall be in dispute. It is an oversight merely in copying the statutes of the United States that it was left out. I have prepared that amendment.

The seventeenth section provides for the legislative power of Utah Territory, and is a literal copy of the section, 1851, of the Revised Statutes. It has been suggested by members of the House committee that that should have an amendment. We have drawn one in accordance with their suggestion which I will also leave with you. It embodies a provision common in the new States, that the laws shall be passed by a majority vote of all persons, members of both bodies; that is to say, that a majority of each house must vote for a law before it is a law, and further requiring that bills shall be passed upon a yea and nay vote. The CHAIRMAN. You say that is the law now in the Territories? Mr. SMITH. No; it is not.

A member of the House

Senator GORDON. That is the law in Georgia. Mr. SMITH. I think it is a wise provision. committee called our attention to it.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it would be pretty difficult to enact laws, I should think, with such a provision.

Mr. SMITH. Not where we have only thirty-six members altogether in both houses.

The eighteenth section provides for the transfer of causes pending in the supreme court arising under Territorial laws to the supreme court