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NOTE: You may notice textual errors throughout this document, many of which have been left intact from the original text. Should you want to investigate the integrity of the original report, please refer to the original two printed volumes containing the official report of the proceedings and debates.
FORTY-THIRD DAY.
MONDAY, April 15, 1895.
Convention was called to order at 10 a. m. President Smith in the chair.
Roll call showed a quorum present.
Prayer was offered by delegate Farr, of Weber.
Journal of the forty-first day's session was read and approved.
The following petitions were presented asking that the question of woman suffrage be submitted
as a separate article to a vote of the people:
File No. 294, signed by S. A. Kenner and 121 others, from Salt Lake.
File No. 295, signed by Thos. Durham and 52 others from Parowan, by Heybourne, of Iron.
File No. 296, signed by W. H. Hatch and 5 others, by Allen. of Piute.
File No. 297, signed by Reuben Parkes and 65 others, from Logan, by Roberts, of Davis.
Ordered filed.
The following petitions were presented asking that an equal suffrage clause be placed in the
Constitution:
{994}
File No. 298, signed by Martin Woolf and 168 others, from Millville, by Hart, of Cache.
File No. 299, signed by W. C. Christensen and 61 others from Salem, by Engberg, of Utah, by
request.
File No. 300, signed by W. H. Gardner and 202 others, from Salem, by Engberg, of Utah, by
request.
File No. 301, signed by Laura J. Taylor and 66 others, from Fremont, by Robison, of Wayne.
File No. 302, signed by Francis H. Smyth and 543 others, from Fountain Green, by Jolley of
Sanpete.
File No. 303, signed by Elizabeth Yates and 148 others, from Scipio, by Thompson, of Millard.
File No. 304, signed by Jacob S. Boreman and 260 others from Ogden, by Chidester, of Garfield.
File No. 305, containing 727 names from Salt Lake County; 196 names from Emery County; 655
names from Salt Lake City; 535 names from Utah County; 32 names from Washington County;
33 names from Pleasant View, by Chidester, of Garfield.
Ordered filed.
Mr. Squires, of Salt Lake, presented file No. 306, signed by B. B. Quinn and 12 others, from
Bingham, opposed to woman's suffrage in any form.
Ordered filed.
Mr. Miller, of Sevier, presented file No. 307, signed by A. C. Todd and 56 others, from Utah
County, and file No. 308, signed by Clarissa A. Hoyt and 103 others, from Kane County,
favoring the submission of the question of prohibition as a separate article to a vote of the people.
Referred to committee on schedule, future amendments and miscellaneous.
Special orders.
The PRESIDENT. This brings us to the question of the reconsideration of the vote on the
proposed thirty-sixth section.
Mr. SNOW. Mr. President, I move you the t it be the sense of this Convention that Mr. Varian
now close the debate.
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. President, were it not that this question has been much misrepresented and is, I apprehend, much misunderstood or apparently so, I would not undertake to consume the time of this Convention further in this discussion. It will be remembered, however, that while through the medium of the public press as well as by speakers upon this floor the proposition which I affirm here has been attacked, we have heard comparatively little in support of the proposition. It was hurried through two or three days ago, because it was sought to complicate it with other matters, which could but serve to cloud and prejudice the consideration of this question. In accordance with fairness and justice, however, an opportunity for full and fair discussion has been given, attended by the right to recall the action of the Convention in adopting the section under discussion, if the majority of the members shall be so advised, and in the beginning, before I shall forget it, I desire to call the attention of every member on this floor, who is favorable to this section and to its incorporation in the organic law, to the fact that there is no necessity for such a one to vote for a reconsideration, which, if the majority of the Convention shall determine, would only result in the prolonging of the debate the possible, opening up of the question to other amendments and the taking of another vote. Fairness and justice have been complied with when the opportunity .is afforded the members of the Convention to express their views and to vote aye or no upon the reconsideration. If there shall be a majority of this Convention voting to reconsider this vote we may take it, I apprehend, that it means that this section is to be stricken out of the instrument and that there will be no necessity to further prolong the matter. In other words we may settle it now by this {995} vote which shall be taken, when I shall have
concluded.
There has been, I regret to say, injected into the consideration of the subject a question assumed
to be of a partisan character. I deprecate the fact that my friends on the other side seem to find it
necessary to take up a supposed challenge by my party associates and to treat the question from
that standpoint, as a partisan one. On Saturday my distinguished and eloquent friend from Davis
County directed the attention of the Convention to the announcement made in one of the papers
of the city, which he declared to be a republican organ and assumed that its announcements and
declarations were all sufficient to declare and affirm articles of republican party creed. I deny
both propositions. I deny that this section in any degree, directly or indirectly, is antagonistic to
any line or principle of republican party faith. I deny the right of any paper or any party caucus on
this floor to determine what is and what is not a tenet of my party faith. I would remind my friend
that he was too hasty in assuming, because of that declaration which he read here Saturday, that
the republican party was behind that declaration. He was mistaken when he assumed that the
paper was a party organ, because it has and does disclaim that whenever occasion shall serve.
My party principles are the result of some thirty years' reflection and study. They are not taken
from the declarations of caucuses nor of interested newspapers; they go further and deeper. They
begin with the great principles which were announced decades and decades ago. I undertake to
say that there is no principle in this section involving this question of bounties at all, but if there
were, I would say to my friends who are insistent about republican doctrine and are so fearful that
perchance in this Constitutional Convention the republican party shall make a mistake
concerning its principles, that the bounty principle never was a fundamental cardinal doctrine of
republican faith. It is but an incident to the great underlying doctrine of protection. The system of
bounties did not begin with the republican party. That was commenced and engrafted upon the
statute books of the United States, in the very second law passed by the first Congress in 1789,
and it was continued through the years for forty or fifty years by special act and by general law.
In those days it was deemed not a question of party creed, but a question of American protection
and development. But, sir, if my friends may deem that at this date it has become so engrafted in
the republican faith that it is no longer an incident, but of the very substance, I want to call their
attention to the fact that they are overturning the declaration of the party in its national council
which may be and should be higher than the declaration of any newspaper writer. In 1880 the
republican party in national convention assembled made this declaration: No further grants of
the public domain should be made to any railway or other corporation. Further subsidies to
private persons or corporations must cease And on that platform Mr. Garfield was elected to the
presidential office. To my knowledge it has never been changed or modified. Do not
misunderstand me. I do not mean to say that that prohibits the exercise of a wise legislative
discretion in the distribution of public moneys for the encouragement and protection of the
people's productions. I mean to say that it serves to mark the distinction between all that which
has clouded the discussion of this question and the sound argument which is in support of a very
different and distinct proposition. They are dealing now with subsidies, pure and simple. We are
dealing with a question of loaning the credit of the State or any of its subdivisions for the
advantage and the building up of enterprises,
{996}
not public in their character. Now, the
question underlying this matter, sir, has agitated and disturbed the people of the American
commonwealths for the last thirty years. Amidst suffering, disaster, and peril, they have come up
out of the heresy of former times, independent of party affiliations, and with a unanimity that is
marked to a degree, they are incorporating the prohibition in their organic law. Every state that
has been admitted into this Union since 1876, commencing with Colorado, has engrafted upon its
organic law just this provision. Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North and South Dakota,
Washington and California, all of them in almost the very language, have placed irrevocably on
their organic statutes this prohibition that we seek to engraft here.
It was suggested, sir, during this discussion, possibly in the best of taste, possibly not, that I stand
here emphasizing and affirming my honest convictions on a great public question, was not
representing my people, that I was possibly a delegate at large, and the inference no doubt that I
was not representing the people of this community. I want to say to you, gentlemen, that I know
that I am a little closer down to the rank and file of this community than some others that I wot
of. I am not mistaking the clamor and call of interest boomers and speculators for the voice of the
people. It is not the voice of the business men as a whole, of the property owners and taxpayers
as a whole, of the great rank and file of the community, who live and maintain their little homes
and pursue their small avocations and businesses, that you hear here. If I might be permitted to
advise, I would suggest we get our ears a little lower down, a little closer to the ground, if we
shall desire to understand and appreciate what the people really want. It is said here, Why are
you afraid to trust the people? This is a country of majority rule, and when the
majority, after consideration, shall have announced its decision, it is the duty of all good citizens
to bow in submission. Quite true. It is a general rule, and like all such, it has its exceptions. One
exception is_a very pronounced and marked exception_that no majority, however powerful and
strong in wealth or numbers, may deprive or despoil a fellow citizen in the minority of his
property. The application of this principle has not been made in many instances during the
session of this Convention. There have been many, or at least a number of propositions, which
some of us thought might well have been left to the decision of the people, expressly to consider
the questions which, in the opinion of the majority on this floor, have not been permitted to
prevail, but the truth is that the people distrust themselves, What is the object of a constitution? It
is not alone to declare what everybody knows to be self-evident facts concerning the rights to
liberty, life, and property: It is also to include prohibition against future mistakes and wrongs that
may be made and committed by the people. They distrust the temptations of the future. They
distrust the power of the majority, because that power sometimes is but typical of tyranny.
Professor Brice, in speaking of this tyranny of the majority, in his work on American
commonwealths, says: A majority is tyrannical when it decides without hearing, and when it
enforces men to contribute money to objects which they disapprove, and which the common
interest does not require.
It has been said here, people have a right to do what they will with their own. I deny it, in its
application to the government of the people. It is an utter misapplication of a principle which
may properly be applied to the relations of the citizen in private life and in matters which concern
only himself in his business, and in that sense in the relations
{997}
he occupies towards his
fellows.
But in its application to a governmental question, I deny it. It is no doctrine of republican faith. It
is no doctrine of democratic faith. It is no doctrine of any creed or party, except that of the tyrant.
Why is it, my friends, that with a unanimity that has as yet been unbroken, during the past thirty
years, the people of every state have put with emphasis in their organic law this prohibition,
against this exercise by the majority in the future, of this alleged right to dispose of the public
credit and the public funds? It is because of the wisdom born of the bitter, the blighting
experience of the past. I need not go back to the history of the Pacific railroads. I quite agree that
that illustration is not particularly applicable nor illustrative of the matter in hand. The Pacific
railroads were builded because of a great public necessity, probably they would have been build&
by the moneys of the government altogether, if the treasury of the United States had not at the
time been bankrupt. It was in great part for the time wholly a war measure and I do not cite or
illustrate my position by any such argument as that. But there are states to which we may turn our
attention. There are commonwealths, the history of which is calculated to make us hesitate long,
ponder well and deeply over the gravity of the situation. Kansas lost herself, her people lost
themselves in the wild vortex of speculation. They were precipitated into a frenzied financial
debauch, and her people were persuaded to vote the revenues and resources of the state for future
years in countless thousands of dollars in the aid of great public enterprises and undertakings.
And to-day the history of that state has been that they are disappointed in their hopes, failing in
their aspirations day by day, and week by week and year by year the people of that tax burdened
state have been going down into poverty, if not into want, and by hundreds the farmers of that
rich state have been abandoning their farms, taking their wagons and their teams, their families
and their little ones, with such household effects as they might have been enabled to save from
the tax gatherer and the sheriff, and they have departed from the soil of Kansas forever, leaving
behind them this miserable record of misappropriation and misrule. There is one county in
Kansas to-day where for years the county commissioners have been, as soon as they were elected,
taken to the county jail under the mandate of the Federal court, because they could not_they did
not dare, defiance of the sentiment of their neighbors and of their county to make a tax levy for
the payment of a bonded indebtedness or the interest thereon, which the people were convinced
had been incurred in wickedness and fraud, and so they go and their places are taken up by
others, honest, brave citizens of the county, content to serve the people by refusing to do what
technically the law requires they should do, but which the public sentiment of their people
forbids them to do, and so they serve them within the walls of the county jail, until their terms
have expired, when new men, just as patriotic, just as self-sacrificing, step forward and by
election, take their places.
I am informed by my friend from Juab County that the county of Douglas, which includes the city of Lawrence, has a bonded indebtedness of a million and eight hundred thousand dollars. Over in Missouri, hi some localities a similar state of affairs exists. In 1889, the county commissioners of Sedalia, I think it is, were sentenced for contempt to imprisonment by the judgment of the circuit court of the United States for similar reasons. I was reading that decision in the Federal Reporter on yesterday. My attention had been refreshed and redirected to the subject by a dispatch that appeared in one of the {998} papers during the week, indicating that this has been still going on and but the other day their successors were again committed because of their refusal in the premises. Does not this indicate that it is necessary to protect the people against this? How is it that these bonds are floated? How is it that the people are pursuaded to lend their funds to accomplish such a purpose as that? Let me tell you. In the first place, if it is a railroad enterprise_and permit me to say that a substantial, thorough, great railroad enterprise, with substance and skill and power behind it, never depends upon the granting of aid by counties
and municipalities in the way of bonds. Second, if it is projecting a line through an unexplored
and new territory, first, before anybody knows anything about it, it puts its experts, its engineers,
in the field, puts its accountants and actuaries at work, undertakes to gather the wisdom of all the
surrounding country. They want to know the sources of supply. They want to know the
population and the possibility of population, they want to know the productive abilities of the
country. They want to know what exists between the proposed terminal points, and it has become
practically an exact science, if anything of that kind can become exact, and it is determined not
by the question as to whether they can secure a few million of bonds from this county, or two
hundred thousand from the other county, but whether, as a business proposition, it will pay_pay
its fixed charges, pay its operating expenses, pay interest on its bonded or other indebtedness, and
pay a dividend on its common and preferred stock. If any of the elements are wanting, capital
stays its hand.
But with the railway promoter and speculator, with the boomer, and the highflyer, the man who has no capital but his energy and skill, and his wit and his brain, the projection is a very different proposition. He goes into the market and he ascertains that between two localities_as for instance, between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, the people at either terminal point are of the opinion that a railroad would be a great public benefit, would be an enterprise that would redound to the private and public advantage of the citizens and the cities in which they reside. He does not stop to realize that in this era of competition that has all been carefully considered for years, that the great substantial railroad corporations with money behind them have looked into that carefully from a business standpoint, figured it down exactly. They have not lost sight of any outlying territory that might be made advantageous to their roads or their system. He does not look at that. He does not care. He goes before a legislature of Utah or California, and he gets an interested and zealous lobby behind him_men perhaps who are loaded down with real estate or are hanging on by their eyelids from year to year, hoping almost against hope that the good old boom days will come again and they will be enabled to sell to somebody else something for three or four times its worth, and thus get out; men who also are interested in the hurry and skurry, the temporary advantage that always occurs while the building of any great undertaking is going on; all perfectly honest it may be, yet all interested people, not the people who expect or who may, I should say, be expected to live here and their children after them, not the solid substantial people who are rooted to the soil, and who help to make up the state. These gather about the lobby of the legislature. The matter is boomed and presented in glowing colors to the people and the people are excited. There is a pleasant and plausible side. Everybody is of the opinion what a great and glorious thing it will be if we can only induce this railroad enterprise to launch. Why, it will increase the value of my {999} property, sir, to such an extent that I can make all improvements or I can sell it and do this, that and the other with the money. I can get out of debt. They figure it down, just how much it is going to pay. Any man can sit down in a private office, particularly if he does not know anything about railroading, and the less he knows about it the more glowing his figures will be. He can just figure out how much a mile it is going to pay and within what period of time, how much population is going to come in the intervening country, how many mines are to be developed, and how much each of those mines is going to produce a week, how much freight the road is going to get from it, how much that ore is going to carry per ton, how it can all be figured out and portrayed up to the people, and it goes with a hurrah. So the legislature authorizes the city or the county to lend its aid on a vote of the people to issue bonds to this
undertaking. And it may be before a single rail is laid, before a tie is carved from the virgin wood
and laid upon the ground, hundreds of thousands of dollars may have been voted by the people.
In times of excitement, many people are not always right. They are right in the long run, but they
are not always right every minute and every day at every election. My friend will agree with me
there. He doubtless thinks they were not right last fall in the United States, as I think they were
not right four years ago upon a similar occasion. What then? The bonds are on the market, they
are put in the money markets of the world, they have passed into innocent hands, they have got to
be paid, whether the railroad goes or not. And if the railroad shall go, what then? Railroad
enterprises, like other business enterprises_perhaps more so_are subject to disaster, more
sensitive, perhaps, than any enterprise that now occurs to me; sensitive to the changes of the
business world, changes in the money market; they go down sooner than other enterprises, and if
in the cases I suggest, the railroad is not able to pay its fixed charges, by and by it is not able to
pay its operating expenses, pretty soon it goes into the hands of a receiver, and the receiver's
certificates take precedence of all other claims against it, and the people and those who come
after them, and their property, are called upon as an honest people to pay in accordance with the
very letter of the contract that they have entered into. Why, sir, over one hundred and sixty
railroads in these United States to-day have gone into the hands of receivers, within the last year
and a half; over one-fourth of the mileage representing more than thirty thousand miles, over
one-fourth of the capitalization, representing more than two billions five hundred millions, are
insolvent, and are being operated to-day at a loss, through the medium of the courts; and behind
many of them in many states are the bonds and the contracts of the impoverished people whose
farms and whose properties are burdened for all time with this tax-eating, debt devouring lien. As
a make-weight, it was suggested by some one here in the argument that in this Territory or State
there will be needed reservoirs or canals. What of it? This prohibition that we seek to engraft
here in this Constitution is not designed to prevent the State, if the irrigation of the country, if the
procuring and conservation of the waters of the mountains, in reservoirs and receptacles for
future use, and canals for distribution, shall be determined to be a public purpose, there is
nothing here to prevent the State with its finances and its power from taking charge of such
enterprises, but it is to the private corporations, it is to the private individual that I would direct
this prohibition. As against him, I would prohibit the State from loaning its aid and its
{1000}
credit. Now, as was suggested to me by an esteemed friend privately, would this prohibition
interfere with a city like Salt Lake, for instance, disposing of its property? It was suggested,
supposing a railroad were coming in here from the California coast and it sought terminal
facilities, and the city of Salt Lake had a piece of ground, appropriate and fitting for the purpose,
and the will of the people, through the city council, was to get a bonus and give it to the
corporation, why, he says, would not this interfere with it? I said, No, it would not. There
are other rules of law that would determine that question about which I and not now concerned.
I simply say, however, to my friends, that this prohibition would not reach a case like that. That bridge can be crossed by the good people of Salt Lake City and by its common council under the direction of its courts, when it shall be necessary to pass it. Now, what is the object of a state government? Is it simply an accumulation of property? Is it simply that men may get rich_some men? Or is it the building up, the improving, the widening, the enlarging of the race of men who stand beneath it and support it? Are you willing to reach down into the future and pilfer from the
pockets of prosperity, the thrift and industry of that generation? Are you willing to lay a lien upon
the property of those who are to come after you? I say you have no right to do it. If you may give
the moneys that shall be wrested from the people through taxation, which are in hand and not
needed for the present necessities of the government, I say you cannot go down into the future
and lay the property of the succeeding generations subject to such a burden as this section seeks
to prohibit. It is better, Mr. President, that the people make haste slowly. It is better that they
grow not with a too rapid growth. There are evils attendant upon this sort of financial
mislegislation that cannot be calculated. You may have a city of lofty palaces and piles, grand
and great public buildings, but it may be so burdened with taxes and debt that all but the taxeater
flies from its precincts, and I want to warn my friends from Salt Lake County on this floor to-day
that they must not overlook the situation of this county and this city particularly. Look down
through the valley there and see the numberless little homes that week by week, month by month,
have been located outside of the city limits. They represent a small army of mechanics and
working men and clerks. Men who have small incomes and who are unable to own their homes
within this city to-day. It has now reached a point that a man must be wealthy indeed who can
afford to own a home in Salt Lake City of any sort of value. The tax levy is to the very topmost
notch. I do not mean the rate of tax, because that is not the test by which this matter should be
tested. It is the valuation of the property. The assessed valuations of this city are now so high that
men cannot afford to pay them, and if you want to see the signs of the times and if you have
wisdom to profit by them, look at your daily papers. Look how the columns are filled with sales
under mortgages and trust deeds. Look at the list of tax delinquents, each year, hear the
complaint from all cities and from every quarter, all showing the utter impossibility of carrying
these burdens much longer. Why, but the other day on Main Street, in a locality that you all will
recognize, right next to that Wasatch building, right in the business center, property was sold
under a mortgage for sixty-nine thousand dollars and another money loaner that had a mortgage
of twenty thousand dollars on it let it go and lost his money because he could not afford to take
the risk, and the man who bought it, well known in financial circles here, told me that he would
sell it any day for less
{1001}
than the assessed valuation put upon the property year by year by
the assessor.
Mr. JAMES. Mr. Varian, where do you attribute the original cause of this trouble_in national
legislation or local legislation?
Mr. VARIAN. I attribute it principally to local legislation. I attribute it to the recklessness of expenditures, and the utter recklessness of going into debt and the disregard of debt. Why, sir, people seem to have an idea, to hear them talk, that this going into debt by a community amounts to nothing. They seem to treat the subject as if it was one to be disposed of by the simple going into debt, without any regard for the final culmination of the transaction which involves the payment of the debt. I believe (although I do not remember figures very well) that the indebtedness of this city is something like that, three and a half million dollars. Fifty thousand people with an assessed valuation of about forty-four millions or forty-six perhaps, with a State with all its consequent and attendant burdens of taxation, coming now in the near future, what is this people to do? Are we going to leave it open to the lobbyist and the speculator to disturb and misdirect the honest intent and will of the people, upon what occasion shall serve and in moments of mental collapse, as it were_darkness_let the people be led into this devious and
uncertain way? Let us deal with this question, Mr. President and gentlemen of the Convention,
from the standpoint of the State. We are not on the ground looking up from the standpoint of the
person or the individual. We are on the higher plane looking down. It is from the standpoint of
the sovereign that I would dispose of this question. I would not be diverted by the wants or
desires of this locality or that, of this citizen or you, in my endeavor to so construct this organic
law that it shall perpetuate forever the liberties and the freedom of this people. It is a solemn
duty, sir, that we have, to guard the public revenue and the public property from spoliation. We
may not farm it out through future generations to be disposed of for other than the necessary
purposes of the government. You have it in your power to put into this organic law a statement
which shall be in accord with the prevailing public and financial interests everywhere, that no
public body, neither State nor county, city nor township, nor district, shall ever burden the
people's property, shall ever encumber the people's revenues, with an indebtedness designed to
aid other than public institutions. In that golden age of liberty and law when Pericles had made
Greece immortal he appealed to the genius of Phidias to crown the acropolis with a symbol of the
power and glory of the Greeks. A colossal statue of Minerva, the protecting goddess of armies,
arts, and industry, was erected as typical of the power and greatness of Athens, as a symbol of
law and liberty which challenged the admiration and awe of the people and inspired the Athenian
youth with patriotism. Let us here, oh delegates, erect in this citadel of our liberties a symbolic
statue of protection and power, protection against wrong, power to do right, much more enduring
than hewn granite and chiseled marble, which shall serve to inspire our people with a regard for
the true principles of government for all coming time. [Applause.]
Mr. GOODWIN. May I ask the gentleman a question?
Mr. VARIAN. If I can answer it, I will.
Mr. GOODWIN. I wanted to ask if the gentleman ever heard of any man in Kansas abandoning
his home because of high taxes, or if the truth is not that the homes abandoned are those on the
arid belt in the western part of the state where by actual trial it has been found there is not
moisture enough in
{1002}
the soil for a farmer to raise food enough for his family and his
stock?
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. President, I think that that has been one of a combination of circumstances,
but as I understand it, the other principle or proposition was also involved that Kansas was a
debt-ridden state.
Mr. GOODWIN. I would like to ask another question. If the assessed valuation of Kansas to-day
is not as much more for instance, than Arkansas, as all the improvements ever paid for by the
state of Kansas amount to?
Mr. VARIAN. I think so, Mr. President.
Mr. GOODWIN. Let me ask one more question.
Mr. VARIAN. I want to state the answer. It is because of this debt that burdens on Kansas and
the counties like here in Salt Lake City, the assessed valuations are raised and kept up and they
are not at all indicative of the prosperity of its people.
Mr. GOODWIN. One more question, if I can have the privilege. Is it not true that the Union
Pacific and Rio Grande have made surveys of all the routes between here and Los Angeles, that
they have sought by every means possible to obtain money to build those roads, and that they
have been forestalled by the Southern Pacific Railroad in just such arguments as we have heard
here to-day?
Mr. VARIAN. No, I do not think that that is true, in its full sense.
Mr. GOODWIN. That is true.
Mr. VARIAN. I am informed by the railroad-_
Mr. JAMES. Mr. President, I wanted to ask Mr. Varian a question. You made the statement a
little while ago that we were in debt about three and a half millions in this city. I think it is
approximately correct_three millions three hundred thousand I think is about the indebtedness.
Now, I want to ask you, Mr. Varian, had this amendment that you have proposed here been on
the statute books as a law at the time that indebtedness was created, would it have saved any part
of that indebtedness having been created?
Mr. VARIAN. Oh, no; this indebtedness is for supposed public purposes, as I understand it.
Mr. JAMES. That is what I supposed.
Mr. VARIAN. Except the copper plant.
The roll was then called on the motion to reconsider with the following result:
AYES_42.
Adams
Allen
Anderson
Bowdle
Brandley
Button
Cannon
Chidester
Christiansen
Clark
Crane
Driver
Eichnor
Emery
Goodwin
Green
Haynes
Hill
Hyde
James
Jolley
Kimball, Weber
Lambert
Larsen, L.
Larsen, C. P.
Lowe, Peter
Lund
McFarland
Miller
Morris
Moritz
Page
Peterson, Grand
Peterson, Sanpete
Pierce
Ricks
Shurtliff
Squires
Strevell
Symons
Van Horne
Williams.
NOES_53.
Barnes
Boyer
Buys
Call
Coray
Corfman
Creer
Cunningham
Engberg
Evans, Weber
Evans, Utah
Farr
Francis
Hammond
Mackintosh
Maloney
Murdock, Beaver
Murdock, Wasatch
Murdock, Summit
Partridge
Peters
Preston
Raleigh
Richards
Roberts
Robertson
Robinson, Kane
Robison, Wayne
{1003}
Hart
Halliday
Heybourne
Howard
Hughes
Ivins
Johnson
Kiesel
Keith
Kearns
Kimball, Salt Lake
Lemmon
Lowe, Wm.
Ryan
Sharp
Snow
Stover
Thompson
Thoreson
Thorne
Thurman
Varian
Warrum Wells
Whitney.
ABSENT_11.
Cushing
Eldredge
Gibbs
Kerr
Lewis
Low, Cache
Maeser
Maughan
Nebeker
Spencer
Thatcher.
Mr. DRIVER. Mr. President, I have been absent during the whole of the time of this discussion
and I could not vote on the thing intelligently and for that reason I would like to be excused from
voting either way.
Mr. JAMES. I object.
Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, I wish to state that I voted no before and I am converted and I
vote no now.
Mr. EVANS ( Weber). Mr. President, I was informed over the telephone that Mr. Lewis was
paired with Mr. Bowdle, and he voted aye. I would like to ask the gentleman if that is true?
Mr. BOWDLE. Mr. President, I am not paired with Mr. Lewis. Mr. Strevell heard the agreement,
that if it came to a vote that day I was paired with Mr. Lewis, but I emphatically made the
stipulation that if it did not come to a vote that day I would not be bound by it.
Mr. EVANS (Weber). Mr. Lewis is sick.
The PRESIDENT. Gentlemen, the motion is lost. There are 53 noes to 42 ayes. [Applause.]
Mr. L. LARSEN. Mr. President, I wish to offer an amendment:
Provided, that it shall not be construed so as to prohibit the Legislature from granting bounties or giving aid to private or corporate enterprises.
Mr. CREER. That is clumsy.
Mr. L. LARSEN. Now, Mr. President, if it is true, as has been claimed, that it does not allude to
bounties, why I would like to have it so stipulated in that article so that there will be no
misunderstanding that our Legislature shall not have the power to put interpretations of the word;
it says-_
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. President, I desire to suggest a point of order. This section has now twice, by vote of this Convention, been adopted as it stands. The time to have amended it was while it was pending for consideration. If the gentleman desires to incorporate the principle embodied in that amendment in this Constitution, I presume he can frame a separate section and offer that, but he cannot, I submit, now amend this section which stands by the judgment of the Convention in the language in which it was passed.
The PRESIDENT. I think the point of order of the gentleman is well taken.
Mr. KIMBALL (Weber). Mr. President, before you decide that motion, I would like to ask the
president of this Convention if that whole bill is not before this house at the present time. It is
subject to amendment in any section of it from section 1 to section 36. It is subject to amendment
until the final vote is taken.
Mr. VARIAN. I call the gentleman to order, but if he desires to be heard I want to be heard. I am
not making the point that this article cannot be amended, but I say that it is a common rule of
parliamentary law, and it is so laid down in the books, that when a matter is under consideration
to go into an article you must amend it as you desire and the time to amend it was when it was
before the house. Now, I admit that he may submit a separate section, not to amend this section. I
{1004}
do not desire to go into that entire discussion again about this section.
Mr. HOWARD. Mr. President, I wish to offer an amendment to section 8, to strike out the first
four lines of section 8, down to the word Legislature and including the word Legislature, and
insert the following:
No person shall, while holding any office under the United States government, hold any office under the State government of Utah, and no person holding any public office of trust under authority of the State of Utah shall be a member of the Legislature.
I find that in looking over these articles that in the last section of the executive article that we have had under consideration in committee of the whole.
Mr. BUTTON. Mr. President, I arise to a point of order. This very same amendment was offered
the other day in the Convention and voted down.
The PRESIDENT. I think the point of order is well taken.
The secretary will call the roll on the passage of the legislative article.
Mr. L. LARSEN. Is the roll call on the whole article?
The PRESIDENT, Yes, sir.
Mr. L. LARSEN. Then, I would propose this as a separate section, to add it to the article.
Mr. KIMBALL (Weber). Mr. President, I suggest that the secretary having started to call the roll
no motions are proper now.
The PRESIDENT. That is correct. The point of order is well taken.
The roll was then called with the following result:
AYES_72.
Adams
Anderson
Barnes
Boyer
Buys
Call
Cannon
Christiansen
Coray
Corfman
Creer
Cunningham
Driver
Eichnor
Emery
Engberg
Evans, Weber
Evans; Utah
Farr
Francis
Hammond
Hart
Halliday
Heybourne
Howard
Hughes
Hyde
Ivins
Johnson
Kiesel
Keith
Kearns
Kimball, Salt Lake
Kimball, Weber
Lambert
Larsen, C. P.
Lemmon
Lowe, Wm.
Lowe, Peter
Maeser
Mackintosh
Maloney
McFarland
Moritz
Murdock, Beaver
Murdock, Wasatch
Murdock, Summit
Page
Partridge
Peters
Preston
Raleigh
Richards
Roberts
Robertson
Robinson, Kane
Robison, Wayne
Ryan
Sharp
Snow
Squires
Stover
Strevell
Thompson
Thoreson
Thorne
Thurman
Varian
Warrum
Wells
Whitney
Williams.
NOES_22.
Allen
Bowdle
Brandley
Button
Chidester
Clark
Crane
Goodwin
Green
Haynes
Hill
James
Jolley
Larsen, L.
Lund Morris
Peterson, Grand
Peterson, Sanpete
Pierce
Ricks
Symons
Van Horne,
ABSENT_12.
Cushing
Eldredge
Gibbs
Kerr
Lewis
Low, Cache
Maughan
Miller
Nebeker
Shurtliff
Spencer
Thatcher.
Mr. BOWDLE. Mr. President, I vote aye on all of the sections but this last one.
Mr. BRANDLEY. Mr. President, I will
{1005}
vote aye on all of the sections except the last one.
Mr. EVANS (Weber). I arise to a point of order. Gentlemen cannot divide their votes in that way.
The gentlemen must either vote aye or no.
The PRESIDENT. They cannot divide their vote in the matter as I understand it. They can make
their explanation.
Mr. CANNON. Mr. President, I believe the Convention has allowed heretofore an explanation of
each man's vote.
The PRESIDENT. That is correct.
Mr. CANNON. At the same time, Mr. President, I believe it is a waste of time. The fact that
those men who did not like the section voted against it placed them on record. So far as I am
concerned, when I come to the article, I can vote for the article, because my vote is against this
section on record anyway.
Mr. BUTTON. Mr. President, I am against the next to the last section more than I am to the last
one. I will vote on all but those two sections.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. President, I submit that the gentlemen ought to be able to understand this. They have either got to vote aye or no or not vote at all, with the privilege of making an
explanation of their vote when the roll is called. We could not keep a record in any other way.
Mr. BUTTON. If I have got to vote aye or no, or not vote at all, I vote no.
Mr. ADAMS. Mr. President, I vote aye on this, because I am in favor of that section of Mr.
Varian's, although I voted for the reconsideration.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. President, I vote aye and I favor the general principle of Mr. Varian's
amendment, but I do discountenance the manner in which it was accomplished.
Mr. JAMES. Mr. President, this legislative act as it stands at the present time has interfered with
the committee on incorporations and usurped their rights, taken away from them that that was
farmed out to them, and that that they had performed, and I vote no.
Mr. LAMBERT. Mr. President, I vote aye, but want my protest against the last two sections.
Mr. L. LARSEN. Mr. President, I am not in favor of the last section, and I must be compelled to
vote no.
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. President, I am like my friend Mr. Eichnor. I always bow to the will of the
majority. I vote aye.
Mr. STREVELL. Mr. President, I would like to say that I voted in favor of the reconsideration
and against this section of Mr. Varian's because I believed it went too far, but I will vote aye on
the article.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. President, I vote aye, but I am opposed to the last section.
Mr. MAESER. Please vote me aye.
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. President, I object, the absentees have been once called.
The PRESIDENT. The objection is well taken.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. President, I think he may vote any time before it is announced.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). I ask for unanimous consent that Mr. Maeser be recorded on this vote.
Mr. EICHNOR. I object, with all due respect to Mr. Maeser. When they use the whip lash here I
am going to use it myself.
Mr. VARIAN. I would like to ask what whip lash?
Mr. IVINS. Mr. President, I insist that any member has the right to have his vote recorded before the result is announced.
Mr. PIERCE. I support that; that is the rule.
Mr. IVINS. It does not need unanimous consent. The result has not been announced.
The PRESIDENT. The gentleman's vote can be recorded.
{1006 - EXECUTIVE}
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. President, there is a rule here that provides that the roll of absentees shall
only be called once.
Mr. IVINS. Mr. President, I arise to a point of order. The gentleman is discussing a question that
has been decided upon.
The PRESIDENT. The article is passed by 70 to 23 without recording Mr. Maeser, and with
recording him 71 to 23.
The Convention then took a recess until 2 o'clock p. m.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. Anderson moved to amend standing rule 11 by adding the following words after the word
Convention, in the fourth line:
And no member shall speak longer than fifteen minutes on any question.
Mr. Anderson moved to amend standing rule 20, by striking out, after the word time, in the
seventh line, the following, but any member may yield his time or any part thereof to another.
Mr. BOWDLE. Mr. President, I arise to a point of order. We are not on that order of business, as
I understand it.
The PRESIDENT. Motions and resolutions are in order.
Mr. IVINS. Mr. President, under the rule this goes to the committee on rules without any debate.
The PRESIDENT. The point is well taken.
Mr. KIMBALL (Weber). Mr. President, I move we now resolve ourselves into committee of the
whole.
The motion was agreed to and the Convention then resolved itself into committee of the whole
with Mr. Evans, of Weber, in the chair.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE.
The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, the committee of the whole is now considering section 12 of the
article on executive. There are two amendments pending to section 12.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, the substitute offered by Mr. Low, of Cache, was not introduced.
My substitute is the only substitute at present before the committee.
The substitute offered by Mr. Eichnor was read.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, I trust that substitute will not prevail. I do not know whether all of
the members now present were present when it was discussed the other day, but I simply call
attention to the fact that the section as presented by the committee is quite complete and covers
the whole ground of the new jurisdiction granted to this new tribunal in the government. It is
hardly worth while to go over the ground again, as we went over it the other day.
Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, I hope that this amendment will prevail. I think that it is a
good one. I do not think that the supreme judges should be allowed to act as a board of pardons,
as I think the very fact of their passing upon a case would tend to bias their minds, and I do not
think that they should act as a board of pardons. Therefore I support the amendment of Mr.
Eichnor.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, I do not desire to speak very long on this substitute that I
proposed. My friend Mr. Varian says he hopes it won't prevail. I hope it will. And for the reason
as stated the other day_quite a number may not have been present. It was also stated by Mr.
Anderson of Beaver that the judges of the supreme court should not sit on the pardoning board. A
number of cases are appealed from the lower courts to the supreme court and they either affirm
the decision or reverse it. If they reverse it, there is generally very little occasion for a pardon.
Sometimes there may be a conviction in the lower court, and when they affirm that decision
when the matter is brought before them, they would say, Well, we have passed on this.
You may say that they will only pass on questions of law. At the same time
{1007}
it is human
nature for a man not to reverse himself. This gives the governor full power to pardon in cases of
misdemeanor. They need not go to a pardoning board. I think it is a very unwise provision in a
constitution or in any statute that requires a man that is convicted of a misdemeanor to go before
a pardoning board. The maximum punishment for a misdemeanor in this Territory is
imprisonment 180 days, or a fine of $180. That is the maximum penalty that can be inflicted for
committing a misdemeanor. In that case the governor ought not to be hampered with a pardoning
board. When a man is convicted of a felony, it is just and proper that a pardoning board should
pass upon it. I have for the pardoning board the secretary of state, the attorney general, and the
state auditor. That idea is not original with me. It is adopted in a number of states. Montana has
it. In that case the governor pardons the offender on the recommendation of the board of pardons,
and why the supreme court or the justices of the supreme court should constitute the pardoning
power I fail to see. Only two states, Nevada and Florida, or possibly one of the Dakotas, have
that board. Quite a number of the states place the power absolutely in the governor. The great
state of New York has that pardoning board. Some states have pardoning boards, but as a general
rule they are made up of the state officers or private citizens, and this idea that every man on the
pardoning board must be a lawyer is an incorrect one. I believe that a pardoning board should not
weigh every little technicality but should view the case as a whole and see whether the man is
entitled to a pardon or not, and if they think in their judgment that he is entitled to a pardon, after
the case has been passed upon by the courts, why pardon him.
Mr. HAMMOND. Have you provided for the salaries of this pardoning board?
Mr. EICHNOR. They get no salaries. They get their salaries as State officers. They can meet once
a month or less.
Mr. IVINS. Mr. Chairman, if there is to be a board of pardons at all, it seems to me that section
12, as reported from the committee on executive, is better adapted to the necessities of the case
than will be the amendment offered by the gentleman from Salt Lake. It is a well known fact that
under existing conditions the pardoning power is vested in the governor. It is also a recognized
fact that a pardon is rarely granted by the governor until after he shall have consulted with the
district judge, or the supreme court judge, if the case had been tried in a supreme court, before
which the case was tried, and has the approval of those officers, and the very reason which is
urged by the gentleman from Salt Lake why the justices of the supreme court should not be
members of this board of pardons, is the very reason which in my mind makes it necessary that
they should be. They are men well versed in law. They are men expected to be familiar to a great
extent with these cases that have passed through the courts, and who will be better able to judge
in regard to the propriety of granting a pardon to a criminal than those men who would be
thoroughly acquainted with all the facts. I hope the section will remain just as it is, and that the
amendment will not be adopted.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask Mr. Ivins a question. If section 12 is adopted
as it stands, would it not be a virtual abolishment of the pardoning power in this State?
Mr. IVINS. It would be a virtual abolishment of the right of the governor to pardon without the
sanction of a board, and that is just what we are figuring for. We do not propose to vest the entire
power in the governor of the State. He must have the approval of a board of pardons, which
would
{1008 - LEGISLATIVE}
scrutinize what he has done. That is what we want.
Mr. KIMBALL( Weber). Mr. Chairman, I am in favor of the proposition to vest the pardoning
power in a board rather than in the governor, I have had some little experience in that thing
myself, and I know that it is easier to get around one man than it is to get around a dozen men. I
have been through that mill myself, and I think for that reason we ought to support this
propositlon to vest it in the pardoning board.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to offer a substitute for both of these. (Reads.)
Until otherwise provided by law the governor shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, commute punishments, and grant pardons for all offenses against the State.
I do not see why this matter cannot be left with the Legislature. Of course this leaves the matter where it is now, but it gives to the Legislature the right to create a board such as is here named, or any other kind of a board of pardons, or any other means by which the question of pardons
may be disposed of. It seems to me that this is entirely too experimental for this body to
undertake to legislate upon. For that reason, I favor leaving it to the Legislature.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, taking the propositions in their order, I will suggest, in speaking to
the substitute offered by my friend from Utah County, that there is no reason why we should not
leave it to the Legislature if we do not desire to change the system. If we desire to change the
system, if the experience of other states and if the experience of this Territory within the last ten
years has not been sufficient to convince the people of this Convention that the system should be
changed, why I grant the gentleman his premises and conclusions. But it is for the very reason
that the committee conceived that the system ought to be changed, that they present a scheme
here for incorporation in the Constitution, a scheme that has worked well, worked since 1864 in
one state without complaint, worked since 1884 in another state without complaint. If you are
going to leave it to the Legislature, remember that you leave it also to the governor, who has a
potential voice in determining what the Legislature shall do. If, in accordance with the ordinary
instincts of men, the enjoyment of power leads to the desire to not only hold what he has got, but
to acquire more, practically you are leaving it also to the governor. And if he should disagree
with the Legislature about a so-called invasion of his prerogatives and vetoes it, it will take two-
thirds of the members of either house to carry it over his head and enact it into a law. If you put it
into the Constitution, as I think it very properly belongs, it is creating a new jurisdiction_a new
tribunal. In that sense it stands on a par_on the same plane, rather, with the judicial tribunal. You
are creating a tribunal and defining its jurisdiction, so that all may understand it. You remove it
entirely from the domain of legislation so far as that is concerned. For that reason, we of the
committee, believing in a change of the system, object to the substitute offered by my friend from
Utah.
In answer to the suggestions made concerning the substitute offered by the gentleman from Salt
Lake, I have this to say, that the section as it stands does provide for the consideration of
offenders found guilty of misdemeanors. In the first place, he is mistaken as to the maximum
penalties imposed by statute for misdemeanors. As the statutes now exist, penalties of
imprisonment of twelve months and ten months are found upon the statute books. The imposition
of fines to the amount of a thousand dollars are found there. But laying that aside, in the body of
this
{1009 - EXECUTIVE}
section is included a proposition authorizing the governor to grant
reprieves until the next session of the board. It is carefully guarded. No man need suffer because
of the failure of the law to provide for the bringing of his case before this tribunal. As to the other
point of objection, that the judges to whom we are to intrust all that is valuable and sacred in life,
on whose integrity and learning and capacity to see and discern the right on the wrong, we shall
rely for our liberties and our fortunes_to say that they are to be presumed guilty of such bias and
contemptible prejudice, having once passed upon the cold record of the case of the offender as it
comes before them, on appeal, that they shall be unable to decide justly and intelligently, is to say
something that I do not admit for a moment.
It has not worked so in practice, and indeed the same argument would apply in a case where the justices of the supreme court grant a new trial. It is sent back and tried over again. It comes up upon the second appeal, possibly the third appeal, when they are to treat it and take it as a new and independent proceeding. You might just as well say that they are disqualified, because on a
former hearing they had passed upon the case as presented to them. Again the case is not
presented in the same way, nor upon the same facts. After the offender is convicted by a jury,
after the trial judge passes upon his motion for a new trial, judges of the supreme court are called
upon only to review the errors of law, if there be any. Your system as contemplated by your
judiciary article, according to the system prevailing generally, prohibits them from passing upon
the questions of fact. It is simply that they look into the record to ascertain the errors of law, if
there be any, and they affirm or reverse the judgment as the case may warrant. Now, if there is, as
I said on a former occasion, a time when this matter ought to be settled, it is this time. It ought to
be and is in the nature of things for the good and protection of society conclusively presumed that
the crime was committed. That the man charged committed it. That the punishment under the law
meted out to him by the trial judge is sufficient and ought to be carried out. Now, the board of
pardons is not designed as a court of appeal to review all this.
It is not designed to examine into other matters either arising after the trial or so intimately
connected with the act of the offender and of such a nature that they could not be and were not
brought out and made to bear before the jury upon the question of his guilt or innocence. Taking
them all into consideration, weighing them all on one side, with the offense, its magnitude, its
relation to society, and the interests of the people on the other, to determine whether or not it is a
case for the exercise of executive clemency, and it is right and meet that it should be done before
a tribunal openly and in the daylight, before a tribunal with a responsibility of law resting upon it,
by the application made upon evidence taken upon a hearing had on either side, where the State
itself may be represented by its law officers. That is the idea underlying this and it ought to be so.
It ought not to be that a criminal is convicted, if he can gather around him friends, if he has the
influence that position or money may bring, that he can go to work and insidiously and quietly
build up the application to the governor, which may be entertained privately, where only one side
is heard, so that the exercise of executive clemency is sprung upon an unsuspecting people as one
of the surprises of history and nobody knows about it. It is the design of this provision, in
accordance with the provision in the states of Nevada and Florida, in accordance with the
provisions of sixteen or seventeen
{1010}
other states, not exactly in detail like this, but as to a
pardoning board, that there should be a tribunal which shall be held responsible to the people and
that the public may have the opportunity of reviewing its action by seeing what moved it, what
evidence was before it, what arguments deduced, not leaving it to the secrecy and privacy of the
street or the secluded executive chamber. After all is said, we come back to the proposition, if
you want to change the system; if you do not want to change the system, I agree with my friend,
Mr. Thurman, just leave it with the governor and let it alone.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, I just wish to make an explanation. When I stated that the
maximum penalty for misdemeanors in this Territory was 180 days imprisonment, I had
reference to justices' courts. In district courts it is as Mr. Varian states it.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I favor the amendment of Mr. Thurman to this section. It seems to me we are taking altogether too much ground in this question of pardoning, and while the governor may exercise some jurisdiction in connection with this matter, the Legislature can wisely and prudently consider it, and it seems to me that we are covering so much ground_taking up this matter in this section that it would be the wisest thing we could do to strike it out and
bring the substitute of Mr. Thurman in, because the Legislature, after a proper review of all this
matter in all its bearings, can fix it up, and if there is any future change necessary, it can be
readily brought about.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I also agree with the last speaker. I am in favor of leaving this
matter with the Legislature. I believe, however, there ought probably to be some change made
and if we were going to deviate I think that all that would be necessary would be down to line 10
of this section. It seems to me that the remainder of the section is altogether such matter as would
properly belong to the Legislature, because they are simply regulations carrying out the principle
that is introduced in the fore part of the section. I am not in favor, however, of continuing this
pardoning power in the line of the judiciary. It seems to me there ought to be some point by
which there should be an angle following the line of those who have had a trial of the
cause_when it comes upon the question of pardoning power, it seems to me there ought to be
others than those that have sat as courts and prosecuting attorneys. Hence, I am in favor now, and
shall vote for the gentleman's substitute from Utah County, Mr. Thurman.
Mr. JAMES. Mr. Chairman, I have got very decided convictions upon this matter. They come to
me from an experience of a long period in Utah Territory, where we have seen a good deal of
pardoning and the granting of pardons, and I am in favor of the amendment. I have seen pardons
granted in this Territory that I regretted and all good citizens did regret. I remember some ten or
twelve years ago, a pardon was granted in this Territory to a man that was in for ten or twenty
years and it was not ninety days until he had committed the same crime over again in the
southern part of the Territory by murdering the second man. Now, I tell you that the life of that
man was a serious thing and when taken through a lack of over zealousness and generosity
towards an unfortunate creature to let this man out of jail. It generally comes from sympathetic
motives and those sympathetic motives do not return the life of a murdered citizen, and I am
strongly in favor of some pardoning board and I hope that this Convention will insert it in the
Constitution. I am not lawyer enough to say how it should go in there or what is the best form for
it, but I say it ought to go in there in some shape.
Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, I
{1011}
will support the substitute of Mr. Thurman. I am
strongly in favor of a board of pardons, but I have serious objections to the supreme judges acting
as a board. I think that they are very likely to get so deep in the groove of technicalities that they
would be prejudiced and I do not think they would make a fair and impartial board.
Mr. PRESTON. Mr. Chairman, I think if the gentlemen will study the question carefully, they
would rather leave it just the way it is than to make any substitute of any kind.
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. Chairman, I do not wish to take up the time of the committee to argue this
question, except simply to state that my own experience as warden of the penitentiary
such that I am not in favor of the amendment of the gentleman from Utah County, which would
still leave the matter in the hands of the governor with a Legislature that might possibly continue
that system. During my short experience as warden there were a large number of pardons, and
that of the very worst criminal class that we had in the penitentiary, men that never should have
been turned loose, men who were, within thirty days after their pardon, again arrested for worse
crimes than those committed while they were there. And I am well satisfied that if these several
cases that I refer to had come before a board of pardons where the responsibility could have been
divided among a number of gentlemen, that the pardons never would have been granted. I also
look upon the question in another light. I want to relieve if possible the executive of the State
from the annoyance which these pardoning matters must of necessity be to the governor. He is
pursued and harassed on all sides by the friends of those who are desiring to receive pardons, and
every sort of influence is brought to bear upon him, and I do not wonder sometimes that he does
get a little off of his base and pardon men in order to get rid of the annoyance of their friends. I
believe that some provision should go into this Constitution, making it in the line of this section
12. I am not persistent to have section 12 as it stands go into the Constitution, but I am opposed
to leaving this matter to a future Legislature, which may in its turn leave it in the hands of the
governor. I do not believe that a board of pardons could ever be corrupted by the use of money, I
do not insinuate that any of our executives have been so influenced, but I think that it is
safer_safer for society, and better for the people at large that this matter should be left in the
hands of a board of pardons. Therefore, I am opposed to the substitute offered by the gentleman
from Utah.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. Chairman, I desire to add a few words to what I stated in the beginning. I
am in favor too I believe in principle in a board of pardons, and if we were a Legislature here
assembled to make laws and had the power to create a board, I would be in favor of deliberately
going to work and framing the best board that we could. I would have this consolation, however,
in that case, that if we made a mistake some future Legislature could rectify it. Now, my friend
from Salt Lake, who just occupied the floor before me, says that the governor is harassed and
annoyed by men applying for pardons. I say if there has got to be such proceedings as that, let us
let the governor alone be harassed and not have the supreme court and the attorney general the
same as the governor. One man is enough to be harassed on this kind of a business.
Mr. SQUIRES. May I interrupt the gentleman just a moment? Under section 12. it is provided
that a hearing should be had in each case, that would not necessitate the harassing of anybody.
The case would be heard in an open session of the board and settled.
Mr. THURMAN. I do not know
{1012}
whether it would be very harassing or not. It would
depend on how long winded those fellows would be that wanted to make speeches before the
board. If they were as long winded as some of us in this Convention, there would be a good deal
of harassing about it, I take it, before it was finally disposed of, but I wish to impress this, Mr.
Chairman, upon the members of this Convention, I am not opposed to a board of pardons. It may
be a good thing, but I would like to know of the gentleman from Salt Lake, who is the chairman
of the committee making this report, how many state constitutions provide for boards of this
kind, if you have examined it?
Mr. VARIAN. I was looking for the list. My recollection is that about seventeen, not of this
particular kind, but if I remember, in some states it is the council_that is, the senate, in others, it
is a certain number of persons selected from the senate. There are only two or possibly three
states where the provision is like this, taking in the justices of the supreme court.
Mr. THURMAN. Now, that is one difficulty that I see about this question. It is yet a matter that is purely experimental. This may be the right thing to do and it may not. There may have been some mistakes made by the governor in the past. I will say, however, that there has been no serious complaint about that. I believe the governor, as a matter of duty, ought not to pardon a man without consulting the attorney general or the prosecuting attorney who tried the case and the judge who sat on that case at the trial, and I believe that ninety-nine cases out of every hundred men who have been pardoned in this Territory, the governor has exercised the prudence and discretion to do that very thing, and if any governor has ever assumed to pardon a man against the approval and counsel of the attorney general, at least without giving him a chance to be heard, I think the governor acted very unwisely; but what I fear is that we will make a mistake in this Constitution in respect to this matter, because it is only experimental up to the present time. The very fact here, that men divide in this Convention, and some say that they favor Mr. Eichnor's substitute as being the better, and some say they favor section 12 as it stands, and some say they want to leave it to the Legislature_the very fact, I say, that that is the case, upon a question of this kind, convinces me that it ought to go to the Legislature, so that if a mistake is made it can be rectified without expense. I am not wedded to this idea of mine. I am not opposed to a board, but I am afraid that we have not time here to consider it, and when we have done it, it will be a matter after all to a great extent of legislation.
Mr. VARIAN. I would like to ask the gentleman, before he sits down, does he understand that
this is a new proposition?
Mr. THURMAN. No; I have not examined the question.
Mr. VARIAN. Does he not understand that in the last twenty-five years this general subject has
been discussed more than any other concerning the administration of penal laws, and in one way
or other has received the approbation of modern penalogical thought on the subject, and that it is
embodied for that reason in most of the new constitutions?
Mr. THURMAN. I understand that that has been investigated and discussed to a great extent, but
I will ask the question if it is not also a matter that has been dealt with largely by the legislature?
Mr. VARIAN. I will answer the gentleman by stating that in one form or other it is in all new
constitutions_that is practically all.
Mr. THURMAN. I am not objecting to the board, as I say, but as to what shall constitute the
board, I am not
{1013}
now satisfied that that is the best, and for that reason I shall favor the
substitute.
Mr. MALONEY. Mr. Chairman, I agree with my friend from Utah County. I am in favor of a
board of pardons, but let us leave it to the Legislature and to the governor. I think we can safely
do that.
Mr. CREER. In what constitutions that you have consulted_have they as much detail as you have proposed in this section, with reference to the board of pardons?
Mr. VARIAN. In quite a number they have. I will say that if that is a serious objection, we can obviate that by striking out all after the word pardons, in line 11.
Mr. CREER. I will vote for that.
Mr. SQUIRES: Would it be in order now to move to strike out any portion of this section?
The CHAIRMAN. No.
The question being taken on the substitute offered by Mr. Thurman, the committee divided and
by a vote of 20 ayes (noes not counted) the substitute was rejected.
Mr. SQUIRES. I call the attention of the chair to the fact that if we properly modify this other
section by a motion to strike out we may better understand whether we want to vote for Mr.
Eichnor's amendment or not.
Mr. VARIAN. With your permission I will now offer a substitute to get the sense of the house.
Mr. IVINS. I arise to a point of order. My point of order is that no substitute or other amendment
is in order until after Mr. Eichnor's substitute has been voted on, and then the section will still be
open to any amendment that may be desired.
The CHAIRMAN. The chair would so hold.
The question being taken on the substitute offered by Mr. Eichnor, the substitute was rejected.
Mr. VARIAN. I now offer my amendment to test the sense of the house upon the boiling down of
this article:
Strike out section 12 and insert:
The governor, justices of the supreme court, and attorney general, or a major part of them, of whom the governor shall be one, may, upon such conditions and with such limitations and restrictions as they may think proper, remit fines and forfeitures, commute punishments, and grant pardons after convictions, in all cases except treason and impeachment, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law, relative to the manner of applying for pardons.
Mr. ROBERTS. I would like to ask the chairman of the committee on executive if it is his intention that impeachments and treasons should not be pardonable offenses?
Mr. VARIAN. No; I understand that that is a matter to be left to the Legislature. Impeachments,
of course, cannot be pardoned. No pardon can reach impeachment. A treason is to be tried, as I
understand it, by_-
Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, tried, but how about the pardon?
Mr. VARIAN. My recollection is that there is some provision in another article in relation to treason.
Mr. ROBERTS. There is no provision in this substitute, as I remember the reading of it, to deal
with pardons touching those two things, and I was wondering if it was intended to make those
crimes unpardonable.
Mr. VARIAN. I will say that the usual rule is that the Legislature deals with treason, and I say in
the section as reported from the committee that that is accounted for; I am in favor, really, of the
section as it comes from the committee, but I introduced this substitute, which is a literal copy
from one of the state constitutions, in order to test the sense of the Convention as to whether they
want to boil down this section.
Mr. THURMAN. Will the gentleman permit a suggestion in relation to his amendment?
Mr. VARIAN. Why, of course.
{1014}
Mr. THURMAN. Retain down to the word pardons, in line 11, strike out all after that down to
the word proviso, in line 30, and retain the balance of the section; that provides for impeachment
and treason, all in one section.
Mr. VARIAN. With the permission of the Convention, if the gentleman desires to make that
motion, I will temporarily withdraw this substitute, and we can test the sense of the Convention
upon the motion of the gentleman from Utah.
The amendment proposed by Mr. Thurman was then read.
Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, I move that the substitute be amended by striking out justices
of the supreme court and inserting secretary of state.
Mr. VARIAN. I call attention to the fact that in the event of death or disability of the governor,
we have already adopted a system which provides that the secretary of state should act. In such
an event, that would simply have on that board of pardons two men and they might get to be a tie.
Mr. EICHNOR. I suggest that when the secretary of state is acting as governor, some one is
acting as secretary of state.
The amendment of Mr. Anderson was rejected.
The CHAIRMAN. The question now recurs upon the amendment .offered by Mr. Varian of Salt
Lake.
Mr. VARIAN. Mine was withdrawn.
The CHAIRMAN. The question then recurs upon the amendment offered by the gentleman from
Utah, Mr. Thurman.
Mr. CORAY. Mr. Chairman, I would like to suggest that if the section passes as proposed to be
amended by the gentleman from Utah, it provides for cases of treason, but not impeachment.
Mr. VAN HORNE. Mr. Chairman, it seems to me, the gentleman has forgotten that in cases of
impeachment, the punishment can only go to the extent of a man being deprived of his office.
Mr. IVINS. Mr. Chairman. I arise to a point of order. The amendment to the amendment offered
by Mr. Anderson has already been voted on.
The CHAIRMAN. The point of order is well taken. The question is now on the amendment of
Mr. Thurman.
The question being taken on the amendment offered by Mr. Thurman, the committee divided,
and by a vote of 30 ayes (noes not counted) the amendment was rejected.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, I do not offer any amendment. I stand by the original section.
The CHAIRMAN. The question now recurs upon the section as it stands. Mr. VARIAN. Next
section.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike out section 12.
The motion was rejected.
Sections 13 and 14 were read.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike out section 14. I would like to make a few remarks. While I appreciate, Mr. Chairman, the object of the committee in introducing the principle of making those State officers ex-officio boards of certain institutions, I am convinced in my own mind that this would subserve the best interests of the public institution for which it is intended, for the reason that it is peculiar perhaps, I may say to any other public institution, and that in the fact that it is the guardian of the insane people of the Territory and the responsibility that rests upon the shoulders of those who have the immediate charge of that institution is certainly very grave, because they have not the patients_those for whom they are designed to care for have no judgment of their own and circumstances are such that accidents and casualties and disturbances arise from time to time that it would not be just, let alone to be wise, to leave that responsibility upon the officer who is the only officer that has the oversight of this institution in the absence of the managing board. It has been considered wise by the Legislature for a number of {1015} years past to make a provision in the managing board of that institution, an executive committee, who should reside in the county in which the institution is situated. For my own observation, I know it would be very advantageous too. That good results have followed that plan of having an executive committee reside in the county, for this reason, that in case of anything occurring unusual and which is liable to do at any time, the superintendent has the opportunity of
consulting immediately then with some person and getting the benefit of their advice and
judgment in this matter. Besides that, as a matter of economy, to have some one that they might
consult with with regard to the running of the institution is believed to be for its best interests.
As the law is now, the law requires three of the managing board to reside in the county. They
receive no mileage, they receive a compensation of four dollars a day, and usually they do not put
in more than probably two or three extra days, and sometimes not that. The other members of the
board_the board is constituted of seven members, they also receive four dollars a day and their
mileage. Now, it seems to me, as a matter of economy, it would not avail anything, because the
mileage of those three State officers would have to be considered, and in fact, the idea of placing
the management of that institution under a board of control that reside in another county_or I take
it for granted that Salt Lake County will be the residence of those gentlemen_which is the
governor and the state treasurer and the state auditor, I think would be unjust, and would not be
the proper thing to do, and it seems to me that this would be a dangerous step to take, and I
believe that it ought to be left to the Legislature. Let them use their judgment, and if necessary
cut down the number of the board. That may be done or any change they may see fit, even the
change as proposed now, but to place this in the fundamental law and say that it shall be under
the immediate control of those State officers, I am opposed to it, and I am satisfied from my little
experience with that institution and from observation, it would not be the best thing to do. Of
course, it may be said that they would appoint their agents. Now, there could be no other agents,
perhaps, excepting the assistant medical superintendent, and he probably would have to receive a
salary maybe of fifteen-hundred or two thousand dollars a year. The entire expense, as I
understand it, of the control of that institution, excepting the superintendent, does not amount to
more than about six hundred dollars a year_each director does not get more than about one dollar
or probably a dollar and a quarter a week. That would be about the average compensation now,
and it is merely a bagatelle as to the idea of abolishing that idea. It seems to me, further, that an
institution of that kind ought to be in touch with the people themselves, and not have to depend
upon those State officers as an ex officio function to perform. I am satisfied thoroughly in my
own mind that it would be a dangerous step to take, to abolish the present system, and to adopt
the idea of making those ex officio officers, and there could be no other object than simply the
fact of them being State officers, and probably not having sufficient to occupy their entire time.
There is nothing to indicate that they would be peculiarly adapted by being state officers. Any
intelligent man certainly would be capable of performing the duties, just as well; therefore, I hope
the committee will strike this section out as being entirely unnecessary.
Mr. MALONEY. Mr. Chairman, I hope the motion will prevail to strike out sections 13, 14, 15.
They are legislation pure and simple. If they work well, all right. If they do not work
{1016}
right
we cannot get rid of them until the Constitution is amended or until we have a new Constitution.
I say it is making it too cumbersome and it is a radical departure from the system already
adopted, and therefore, I am opposed to it, and on the third reading I do not intend to vote for the
article at all, or any part of it if it stays in.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, by comparison of this with succeeding sections, the Convention will see that of course there is a radical departure from the present system. The present system as I understand it, is to constitute boards of these several territorial institutions, composed of private
citizens_six, seven, and eight, I believe most of the boards are.
Mr. CREER. It is seven now.
Mr. VARIAN. Now, it is usual, as my friend, Mr. Creer, suggests, to have at least one man on the
board who is a resident of the place of location of the institution.
Mr. CREER. Three under present law.
Mr. ROBERTS. Of the county?
Mr. VARIAN. A number, however, came from other places, they are private citizens. They leave
their business on Friday night, perhaps, if they are going to Logan, go to Logan, make a cursory
examination of matters and things, and come back and resume their private business on Monday
morning, or it may be to Provo, or it may be to Ogden, wherever the institution is located. Now, I
do not believe, and I think that was the sentiment inspiring the committee, that the State can get
service it ought to have under those circumstances. In the first place, the division of
responsibility is too great. We had better have three men than seven. In the second place, you
cannot be expected to get the service and the time needed from men who are simply officials for
a day or two days at most in two months or three months, as the case may be, whose time is fully
occupied with private business. Impose those duties on State officials who are responsible to the
people_not necessarily elected from the capital. They are elected from other portions of the State.
They reside here because the purpose and functions of government necessitate their continued
presence here. They have their duties to perform, it is true, but I undertake now to say that I
believe you will find when the State government goes into operation that fully one-half the time
of the State officers will be unemployed. You will not give them employment in the purely
functionary duties of the State government alone.
The treasurer and the auditor and the secretary of state will be for months between the sessions of
the Legislature practically without continued employment and will have to be at their office every
day. They will come down at 10 o'clock in the morning and they will look about, perhaps make
some entries in the books, pay some warrants, if there is any money to pay, and draw some
perhaps, after the sessions of the State board of examiners, and go away at three or four o'clock,
during a large portion of the year. Now, this is not a new system. It prevails in many of the
surrounding states. It is adopted in Idaho, Montana and other states. I do not just now recall
which, and it was with that view that the committee decided to present for the consideration of
the Convention this new system of arranging these several duties to be performed by the State
officers who are not to get any increased salary therefor. The arrangement is that what they
receive yearly for their service shall be in compensation for all the services imposed upon them
by law. This is all there is to it, and if it is objectionable in the case of the state asylum, it is
objectionable in the case of the reform school and the state prison, and it should be modified and
changed in accordance with the views expressed if the Convention does not desire it.
{1017}
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, it would not be objectionable to the state prison, upon the same
ground that I have indicated, because the state prison would be here at the capital.
Mr. VARIAN. Well, I cannot see. Mr. Chairman, how that can make any difference. The underlying idea is that these officials have this public duty to perform, keep themselves in line and in touch with the institution all the time, which these_I was going to say itinerant boards do not and cannot. They are not only in touch with the financial conditions of the State, with all the functions of the State government from day to day, but they are right in line and in touch with the several institutions to supervise and look after which is made part of their duty. It is an official duty put upon them by law, and the fact that it is put in the Constitution should not make it objectionable on that ground or perhaps, to state it the other way, the Convention should not refuse to put it into the Constitution, because, as claimed, it is a matter of legislation. Of course, it is legislation_fundamental legislation. If they desire to leave the matter open for change, it is easy enough to amend all these sections by saying, until otherwise provided by law. That would obviate that objection, if it is an objection to the members of the Convention. It is not a reason for striking out the entire section.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I have one more reason before it is voted upon and that is this, that it
certainly must appeal to the judgment of every member upon this committee that it would be well
to leave it somewhat distributive_ this board_they ought to at least come from more populous
counties or cities of the Territory, Salt Lake County has quite a number of patients and Weber
County; by having some one residing in the county, then they could communicate more readily;
to have them absolutely atone place, it certainly must appeal to the judgment, that it would not be
for the best interests of the institution.
The question being taken on the motion of Mr. Creer, the committee divided and by a vote of 29
ayes to 39 noes, the motion was rejected.
Sections 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 were read.
Mr. KIESEL. Mr. Chairman, I move that the salary of the governor be one thousand dollars per
annum.
Mr. THURMAN. I do not see the gentleman from Millard. I am going to ask him what his
opinion was as to whether that would be sufficient or not. [Laughter.]
Mr. KEARNS. I move to pass it until the gentleman from Millard be present.
Mr. JAMES. Mr. Chairman, I move that the motion be amended and that we pass this section
until the report comes from the committee on salaries.
The CHAIRMAN. It seems to the chair that that would not be germane.
Mr. BUTTON. Mr. Chairman, I move that it be made three thousand dollars.
Mr. BOWDLE. Mr. Chairman, I move that we lay the motion on the table.
Mr. BUTTON. It is out of order.
The CHAIRMAN. The point of order is well taken.
Mr. KIESEL. Mr. Chairman, with the consent of my second, I will withdraw my motion.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, I ask the committee of the whole on behalf of our committee to
pass this matter until we can get some idea through the report of the committee on salaries or
otherwise, as to what the necessities of the case are and what our financial resources are going to
be.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. Chairman, I suggest that we either fill out these blanks or move to strike
out the place for the blanks. The committee on executive have introduced here a certain part of a
section, which is incomplete, and just why we should now pass something in a crude condition,
without trying
{1018}
to perfect it, I cannot understand. This morning, the gentleman from Salt
Lake, Mr. James, wanted to make a suggestion, because the committee on corporations were
doing something, or were going to offer something, and he voted against a measure this morning,
because the committee on corporations was going to do something. At that time we thought that
Mr. James was entirely unreasonable, and we voted him down. Now, we meet the very same
proposition here. I think we ought to settle this question, and if, when the committee on salaries
bring in their report they have something better to offer than we have, we will adopt that.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Mr. Chairman, I move you to insert twenty-five hundred after the word
governor, in line 17 of section 20.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I want to draw the attention of the Convention to this fact, that on
the question of salaries, I find that the state treasurer_there is a blank there in the section under
consideration_
Mr. JAMES. Mr. Chairman, I arise to a point of order. Mr. Varian made a motion that we pass
these salaries and it was seconded.
The CHAIRMAN. The chair holds that a motion to pass is equivalent to a motion to postpone,
and the motion to postpone would not be in order in committee of the whole. The only question
now before the house is upon the amendment of Mr. Evans, of Utah, that twenty-five hundred
dollars be inserted in line 17, after the mark $.
Mr. JOLLEY. Mr. Chairman, I want to second that motion.
Mr. KEARNS. Mr. Chairman, I hope at this time that that will not prevail, for this reason: the
committee on salaries have not had any chance to get together until the judiciary and other
committees reported, and until they find out about how many officers are going to come under
the salary list, they could not do it. The committee will have a chance to fix the whole of the
salaries at one time.
Mr. THURMAN. Does your committee intend to fix the salaries of all these officers?
Mr. KEARNS. That was the intention.
Mr. THURMAN. Then, I say if that committee does that, it has no place here. If the executive
committee has the right to do it, then your committee has not.
Mr. RICKS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike out all the section after line 1.3, and leave it to the
committee on salaries.
Mr. VARIAN. Does the gentleman want to strike out all after line 24, in relation to the collection
of official fees, etc.?
Mr. RICKS. I think that properly belongs to the salary committee.
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, I move an amendment to that, to include the whole section, that we
recommend that the Convention refer the section to the committee on salaries.
Mr. VAN HORNE. Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that there is something in this section that this
committee should consider at this time, and that is the question of whether we are going to have a
fee system for officers in this Territory. It comes, it seems to me, legitimately in this section. That
part of it, it seems to me has nothing to do with the committee on salaries, and for that reason
should not be referred to them. The objections I have to the striking out of this section are for the
latter part of it, beginning on line 29; lines 24, 25, 26, 27, AL and 2% are covered by section 4 of
the minority report on legislative, providing that there should be no extra allowance or fees paid
to officers, and that of course, is clearly surplusage.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Chairman, I am opposed to the several amendments. I do not know how
many of them there
{1019}
are now before the house looking to the taking of this matter out of
the hands of the committee. It seems to me that we are just as Yell prepared this afternoon to fix
the salaries of these officers, as we will be at any time during the session of this Convention, and
there is no reason why we should not immediately fill these blanks with the amount of salary that
we think this Territory can afford to pay for the services these officers will be required to give the
State. For the life of me, I cannot see that any information we may receive from a committee will
materially affect our judgments or aid them in coming to a right conclusion upon these subjects.
This committee, at this time, could within possibly ten or fifteen minutes settle this whole matter
right now, and for that reason I shall vote against all these amendments and in favor of
immediately considering the salaries of these officers.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I think the gentleman will observe that we are not prepared to vote
upon the salaries of all these officers. Now, I find by reference to section 16, that this article
provides the duties of the secretary; 17 the duties of the auditor; 18, the duties of the attorney
general; and 19, the duties of the superintendent of public schools, but nowhere does that provide
for anything for the treasurer to do, only to be a member of the board of asylum.
Mr. VARIAN. Section 17.
Mr. CREER. Excuse me, I did not notice that.
Mr. HART. I understand the gentleman who made a motion to refer a part of this section is
willing to withdraw his motion by consent of the house. If so, I am willing to withdraw my
amendment to that, that the whole thing be referred. I, for one, am ready to pass upon the
question now, but if any part of the section is going to be referred, I am in favor of referring the
whole thing.
Mr. RICKS. With the consent of my second, I will withdraw my motion.
Mr. HART. By consent of the house, I will withdraw mine. Mr. Chairman, I propose to amend to
two thousand dollars, instead of twenty-five hundred, in line 17.
Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, when it comes to the subject of salaries it necessarily brings me upon
my feet. I can-not stand it to sit down any longer. When the motion was to pay the governor one
thousand dollars, I felt to second that. I do not know what the object of the gentlemen is to put
the salary at two thousand and twenty-five hundred and three thousand, unless they want to
swamp this Territory. And it is pretty near swamped now_this State. I am satisfied that we have
got to practice economy, or we will go where the rest of the states are gone. I do not want to go
there. I want this State of Utah to be an example to all other states. I take pride in hearing the
people of other states refer to Utah as being an exemplary State, because the way it has always
looked to me, as though they were all going to be swamped in my opinion, the way they are
going on to-day_and I think that Utah should set an example for we are here right in the
mountains. We hold the key of the whole continent and we ought to set an example and rules of
the states and make the salaries of these officers so that we can meet them. We all understand
now the condition of the Territory. We are in debt over a million dollars_something near that, in
some counties, and many to-day cannot pay their debts. From five hundred to a thousand men
have been sold out for taxes and they cannot pay, and if we start out on this basis, the taxes will
be doubled right away after this thing should be adopted, and I cannot afford to pay it. I have
lived here too long and I have come here to stay, and if we put the salaries so that we cannot
afford to pay them, and get
{1020}
honorable men in to fill for these salaries, these are my
feelings about it, and I hope that this body of men won't be careless in fixing salaries. We can
find plenty of men that are perfectly competent to fill those offices without high salaries. That is
about the way I feel about it, and I want them to take the matter into consideration. We do not
want to be swamped with a debt we cannot get out of. I renew the motion to make the salary of
the governor one thousand dollars.
The CHAIRMAN. The chair hears no second.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I would like to refer to our constitution lexicon, Mr. Eichnor, and
find out what the salaries are in the adjoining states_the adjoining states.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Chairman, as our lexicon, I will answer the question. Thirteen states in the confines of the United States, their salaries do not exceed three thousand dollars. The salary in Maine is fifteen hundred dollars, Michigan, two thousand dollars, Delaware, two thousand
dollars. Heretofore our governor of Utah has received thirty-five hundred dollars and it appears to
me under the existing conditions of this Territory that we should divide the proposition between
Mr. Hart and Mr. Farr and make the salary for the governor of this Territory fifteen hundred
dollars.
Mr. CORAY. I would like to ask what the salary of the governor of Washington and Idaho is?
Mr. HILL. The salary of Idaho is three thousand dollars.
Mr. BUTTON. What is Wyoming?
Mr. HILL. Wyoming is twenty-five hundred dollars.
Mr. MALONEY. What is Oregon?
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Washington is our example.
Mr. HILL. Washington is four thousand dollars, Oregon is fifteen hundred, Montana is five
thousand dollars.
Mr, BOYER. Anything in the treasury?
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, I think the amount that I have named here, two thousand dollars, is
about the right amount to allow our executive. I am not in favor of exorbitant salaries. I am in
favor strictly of economy. I am not in favor of putting the salary so low that only a rich man can
afford to occupy the place. I am not in favor of putting the salary so low that a poor man, if
elected to the place, that the emoluments and the fees would not be sufficient to enable him to
respectably discharge the duties of the office. There are a great many expenses attendant upon the
office of State executive. The governor is visited by a great many people passing to and fro
through the country. I think that would be peculiarly the case here in Utah. He would be at a large
expense every year in entertaining alone people passing from the west to the east and across the
continent. I think that two thousand dollars is about the amount that we should fix for the
governor.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I have computed and it comes as near being twenty-five hundred
dollars as any other figure that is, computing it from ten thousand dollars down to one. There are
two states at one thousand dollars each.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Chairman, in reply to what Mr. Hart has said, it appears to me that the balance of
this section provides that the actual and necessary expenses for the traveling of these officers are
provided for in the latter part of this section. Also in reference to none but the rich being able to
maintain the office at fifteen hundred dollars, I very much question whether any but the rich
would accept of the position at the figure he has named of two thousand dollars, as there is not
sufficient in it for a poor man to accept that even at that figure.
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, I did not {1021} refer to traveling expenses, and in addition to the regular work of the executive, I call attention to the fact that we have now placed him upon four or five very important boards, which will consume a large part of his time. He is made a member of the board of pardons, a member of the board of insane asylum commissioners, reform school, and this work will occupy his time pretty thoroughly during the whole year. He will not have time to devote to any business on the side and his income from his labors will be wholly from the salary that we fix for him.
Mr. BARNES. Mr. Chairman, I am greatly in favor of economy in our movements here in fixing
of salaries and whatever else may come before us. I have endeavored to pursue that principle in
all of my business relations in life. At the same time, I do not think that we can afford to descend
too low to what might be termed penuriousness. In looking at the duties that we have imposed
upon the governor, if the measures which we have passed upon this afternoon become engrafted
in the Constitution, and taking into consideration things referred to by Mr. Hart, that there are
necessarily expenses devolving upon the office which I think should be met. I am aware that
there is a great deal of honor necessarily attached to the office of governor_a great amount of
honor attached to it, but in looking at it all around, I favor the proposition of Mr. Hart, that two
thousand dollars per year for the salary of governor.
Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I recollect in traveling through the Territory of hearing a good many
express themselves that they were certainly opposed to having a State, because it would increase
the burdens of the State, to pay the expenses of running the State so much to what it is now, to
run it, as a Territory, as there were so many that were cramped, they could hardly subsist and pay
their taxes, and certainly when the government pays the biggest part of the running
expenses_then come to have additional loads put on the people, who feel themselves short to pay
their taxes, they felt as though they would be compelled to vote against the Constitution
inaugurating the State, because they could not pay the expenses.
Now, that is something that we. should consider, if we are going to add to the running of the
State so much expenses, whether the people would sustain it or would vote for it. I am satisfied it
would be a great benefit and it might be a question_it might begot up by these persons who are
opposed to statehood, to go through the Territory and make computations against it becoming a
State, because of the hard times, and that they will be called upon to run the government, hence
this is one reason why I am in for cutting down the salaries so that the people can live. I think
they will not feel to vote the thing down, when it comes to be submitted to them, so I say, keep
the salaries down.
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. Chairman, I want to call the attention of the Convention, and especially Mr.
Hart, to the fact that the compensation as now provided will only be during the pleasure of the
Legislature. The first Legislature may change it. These figures are put in here for the first term. It
might not last more than one term at the figures named.
The CHAIRMAN. The question will first be upon filling in the blank on motion of Mr, Evans, of
Utah.
The question being taken on the motion, the committee divided, and by a vote of 45 ayes to 32 noes, the motion was agreed to.
Mr. FRANCIS. Mr. Chairman, I move that the salary of secretary of state be twenty-five hundred
dollars.
Mr. STOVER. Mr. Chairman, I move as an amendment, that it be placed at two thousand dollars.
{1022}
Mr. CANNON. Mr. Chairman, I am in favor of the motion of Mr. Francis, that the salary be
twenty-five hundred dollars, for the reason that a great deal of work is required of the secretary of
state, and I believe that the fees that he will receive, and which, by this article, are to go to the
State, will more than pay the compensation. I favor leaving him at twenty-five hundred dollars.
Mr. CORAY. I would like to ask Mr. Cannon a question. What is the work of the secretary of
state what constitutes his labor? [Laughter.]
Mr. CANNON. They are so numerous it would take all afternoon to enumerate them.
Mr. CORAY. Is it not mostly in the line of bookkeeping?
Mr. CANNON. I call the gentleman's attention to the fact that in the absence of the governor the
secretary of state becomes the acting governor, I think, and he has a great deal of work to do in
connection with the various departments, and in addition to that, articles of incorporation are
filed with and he issues commissions to notaries public and other officers.
Mr. FRANCIS. Mr. Chairman, I just
wish to say that I understand that at times the secretary will have to perform the duties of the
governor, and as has been already stated, his labors are greater almost than any other officer.
Mr. IVINS. When the secretary of state performs the functions that devolve upon the governor,
he receives the same compensation that the governor does, under section 11. He receives his
emoluments.
Mr. SNOW. Mr. Chairman, I am in favor of the amendment. I think twenty-five hundred dollars
ought to be the maximum salary for our officers, no matter where they are or which one it is. I do
not think when we have started a list at twenty-five hundred dollars that we need necessarily
follow it out all down the line. There should be a discrimination made. I think two thousand
dollars is sufficient salary for the secretary of state. I do not think the servant is greater than the
masters. We ought to take into consideration the masses of the people, how they earn their money
and how hard it is for them to get money to pay their taxes. Every dollar of these salaries will
have to be raised by direct taxation, and it will be a burdensome thing for the people to bear. I am
opposed to high salaries all around, and I say that I will not vote for any salary higher than
twenty-five hundred dollars, and I think the governor is the only one that is entitled to that
compensation. I am in favor of two thousand dollars for the secretary of state.
Mr. CANNON. Do you know what the present compensation of the secretary of the Territory is?
Mr. SNOW. I believe, sir, that it is about six or eight thousand dollars. I think it has been an
outrage upon the people of this Territory, who have had to pay the fees in. I think it is time we
made a reform.
Mr. CANNON. I would like to ask the gentleman if in his opinion a man who does twice the
work, should receive one-fifth less salary?
Mr. SNOW. I think the work is all of a different character. I think the work of a secretary of state
is more of a clerical character than the functions of the governor. I do not doubt but what he has a
great deal of work to do, and I think two thousand dollars is sufficient compensation.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Chairman, I just merely want to acid this in line with what Mr. Snow has
said on the subject_to call attention to the fact that the secretary of state, even if his labors should
be equal to that of the governor, would not have the demands of hospitality upon him that the
governor is likely to have. And for that reason, I should favor that the sum of two thousand
dollars instead of twenty-five hundred dollars be fixed. When you
{1023}
take into account the
fact that the governor will have to expend not only all the salary he gets, but possibly several
thousand dollars more per annum, in the way of keeping up a hospitable governmental
establishment, I think that there should be at least that much distinction between his salary and
that of the secretary of state, and for that reason, I shall support the two thousand dollar limit.
Mr. CREER. Is it not a fact that he will have to employ an assistant?
Mr. ROBERTS. Who?
Mr. CREER. The secretary of state.
Mr. ROBERTS. I am sure, I cannot say.
Mr. CREER. It is almost sure he will have to employ an assistant.
The motion of Mr. Francis was rejected.
The motion of Mr. Stover was agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN. What will be the amount for state auditor?
Mr. VARIAN. I move that it be two thousand dollars.
Mr. RICKS. I move that it be fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. ELDREDGE. I move to amend by making it eighteen hundred dollars.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). I would like to know what he gets now. I think it would have something to do with governing us, perhaps.
Mr. IVINS. Mr. Chairman, the last Legislature appropriated four thousand dollars as salary for
the auditor of public accounts, and seven hundred and fifty dollars for rent, and four hundred
dollars for incidental expenses, this would be for two years. It would be at the rate of two
thousand dollars a year with his rent and incidental expenses provided for.
Mr. HAMMOND. Mr. Chairman, I am in favor of this amendment of fifteen hundred dollars for
the auditor. San Juan people may be poor, which I do not admit, but they are not mean. They are
willing to pay a fair price and salaries for their public officers. Now, it is a fact that a good
overseer or foreman of our cattle companies down there gets from eighteen hundred to two
thousand dollars a year, and I am in favor of this amendment.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Mr. Chairman, it seems like we have begun in this matter by cutting down.
It seems to be the spirit of this Convention that our salaries should be fixed at a nominal sum and
not be extravagant. We begun with the governor by cutting down one thousand dollars, with the
secretary of state by reducing his from what it has been heretofore very materially, and I think
that we ought to continue in that line and I think that fifteen hundred dollars is sufficient for that
office, and I should cast my vote for that.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Chairman, it appears to me, notwithstanding my position on the question of
governor, that if we place the salary of the auditor at eighteen hundred dollars we are doing him
an injustice, that, as has been stated here this afternoon, and gentlemen making the statement are
correct_have been paying almost three times as much, in fact more than three times as much as
the amount mentioned here, two thousand dollars, and I trust that this motion will prevail. A man
who occupies the position of auditor, I consider, occupies a more responsible position than the
governor of the Territory. Therefore, I trust that the members of this Convention will vote to give
that gentleman two thousand dollars.
The motion of Mr. Varian was rejected.
The motion of Mr. Eldredge was rejected.
The motion of Mr. Ricks was agreed to.
Mr. RICKS. I move that the salary of the state treasurer be fixed at one thousand dollars.
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, move to amend by fixing the sum at two thousand dollars.
{1024}
Mr. BOWDLE. Mr. Chairman, I move we fix it at fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). I move to amend by making it one thousand dollars.
The CHAIRMAN. There has been one motion for a thousand dollars.
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. Chairman, I just rise to a question of information. We have got down now to a thousand dollars for the state treasurer. If we adopt this proposition, I expect the next proposition will be to give the attorney general about five hundred dollars.
Mr. THURMAN. That is plenty.
Mr. SQUIRES. And then the superintendent of public instruction will serve like a country school
teacher_serve for nothing and board around.
Mr. KIESEL. Mr. Chairman, I would like to know about how much bonds will be required of the
treasurer?
Mr. SQUIRES. A half million.
Mr. KIESEL. Well, would not that cut a figure?
Mr. THURMAN. You had better reduce the bond rather than to increase the salary.
Mr. KIESEL. What will be the duty of the treasurer? Is he liable to have a great deal of money in
his hands?
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Put it in the bank and issue his warrants.
Mr. RICKS. Mr. Chairman, I believe one thousand dollars is sufficient. I believe that any banker
in this city would be glad to accept that position at one thousand dollars, in order to get to handle
the money.
Mr. MORITZ. Mr. Chairman, I think we will have over a thousand in this city that would be glad
to have the position for six hundred dollars a year.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, now, the suggestion made by the gentleman, Mr. Ricks, seems to
me ought to be considered a little more. Do you intend that you are going to embark upon this
enterprise of a State government with the system of permitting your public funds to be utilized by
private individuals and bankers? That is the rock upon which the people of Colorado split, and
they have returned now to the true principle of defining the duties of the custodian of your public
moneys and requiring him to keep the money so that when called for, it can be had, paying him a
reasonable compensation for that duty. I, for one, object to this system of farming out the public
revenue, depositing it with private banners, who are to use the money for their own private
purposes and the State is to take the risk, when it needs the money, of finding it. Business
reverses may overtake them. It is against the true principle and system of government, and we
ought not to legislate in that view. We ought not to fix salaries in that view.
Mr. STREVELL. I would like to ask for information, if there is not in some of the articles that we have had before us a clause which prohibits the treasurer from profiting from the State funds?
I have been looking for it. I have not been able to find it in the records that I have, but I think
there is some such clause as that
Mr. CANNON. I have the clause if the gentleman would like it read. It is from the article on
revenue, taxation, and public debt, section 9. Of course, that has not been adopted, but I do not
think that anybody will object to it.
Mr. STREVELL. That is what I had in mind, but I was unable to locate it, and I was wondering if
Mr. Ricks, in making his motion, had in mind or knew of that provision. It seems to me if that
provision be adopted by this Convention that one thousand dollars is not sufficient salary to pay.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Chairman, I shall vote for the sum of two thousand dollars for that officer. I
am in favor of economy, and I am also in favor of safety in handling the money of the people,
and I cannot believe that you can get good men to fill such a position as that, and give the
required bond,
{1025}
who would be willing to work for one thousand dollars a year, nor for
fifteen hundred dollars a year, and I do not believe that the line of true economy lies in getting
inferior men in those positions. We require for these officers men of character, men of standing,
and I would be in favor of paying them what I would consider a reasonable compensation for
their services, taking into account their responsibilities and the character of men that the State
needs to serve them in those offices. And for that reason, in a mad streak of economy, or
supposed economy, I am not willing for one to consent to the cutting down of these prices in
these officers of the State.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I am in favor of the one thousand dollars, for this reason, that I
suppose that two months in the year would be all the time that would be required at the hands of
the treasurer. Many a good man in business, looking after his own business, could just as well
attend to that matter and pocket the square two thousand dollars without any particular labor.
Therefore, I am in favor of the lowest sum on this proposition.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Mr. Chairman, I find by reference to the compensation now being paid that
it is exactly one thousand dollars. As has been remarked by the gentleman who preceded me,
perhaps two months in the year will be about all the time that he will be very busy. It appears to
me that the way we are starting in, the salaries that we are fixing, that it will not take him long to
consume all this Territory will be able to pay in paying out his warrants. I am in favor of voting
for the provision in the revenue and taxation article that that money should be kept separate, and I
believe that a thousand dollars will warrant and secure just such a man as will be able to do
that_a man of stability, that will not take or consume anywhere near his whole time_perhaps one-
fourth of the time, and that will pay for the responsibility that is attached to it, and I do not think
there is any special chance to take. It is what we have been paying and I think it is plenty and I
shall vote for it.
Mr. BOWDLE. I would like to ask the gentleman who just took his seat one question. Would not
the duties and labors of the treasurer of a state be greater than that of a territory?
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Perhaps so, but we are cutting down. That is the point. It is on that basis that
I am willing to vote for it at all, because he will do more work. Consequently we are reducing his
salary.
Mr. BOWDLE. If that is the principle I have not anything to say.
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, in proposing the sum of two thousand dollars for the treasurer I have
in mind the large bond he will be required to give, if he has to go among his friends and solicit
them to become his bondsmen. It is a matter that is worth something; or if he chooses another
method and gets a bond from a surety company it would cost him a large part of the one thousand
dollars to get his bond for the year. I do not know just what it might cost him if he should adopt
that method, but I imagine it would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five hundred
dollars. It is certain that the treasurer will be able to make out of that office just about what he
wants, even though we have a penalty. Like Mr. Varian of Salt Lake, I am not in favor of farming
out public moneys, such as would be suggested by the remarks of Mr. Ricks. I think that you
should give him such a salary as will compensate him for the bond that he has to give for the
great responsibility attaching to the office, and prevent a possibility of his farming out the
moneys even though you have to have a penalty. If he is not getting sufficient out of the office, he
will make it up in some way, and if he was interested
{1026}
in that kind of work there will
always be just such cases when there is a proposition to draw money out of the treasury, will be
to his interest to hold it back, and there is a great chance for quibble on whether a sum of money
should be paid out or not. He always has it within his power to hold back on some technicality or
another instead of paying money out. I am, therefore, in favor of the main proposition.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. Chairman, I trust the amount we put in the bank will not exceed two
thousand dollars. If that is all that the treasurer under the territorial law has been getting, it is all
that we may hope the people of the State are going to be willing to vote for him to have. If there
is any one thing that the people of this commonwealth are going to do, they are going to make
comparisons between the salaries that we vote to officers here and the salaries that those same
officers have been getting in the past, and I state now this to be my deliberate opinion, that if
anything will cause the people to vote against this Constitution, it will be when they come to
examine and figure up the amount of expense incident to State government they find it greatly in
excess of what the Territory has had to pay in the past. There is no position that I can think of just
now that I am willing to vote to give that officer any more for the performance of under the State
government than under the territorial government; and for the reason that I want the people to be
satisfied with the Constitution. They will have a chance to fix those salaries through their
Legislature. There will be the opportunity for men to go before the people and the people to
instruct their legislators just what they want them to do in relation to fixing these salaries. We
talk here about giving the people a chance to vote on questions. Here at least is an indirect way of
giving the people a chance to vote as to what these salaries shall be, and if the salary in the past
has only been a thousand dollars or is a thousand dollars at the present time, let it continue a
thousand dollars until the Legislature shall otherwise provide by law.
Mr. CREER. Mr. Chairman, I am in accord with the last speaker, and so far as I understand this matter of bonds, if we will take care to elect an honest man, I do not think it will cost him one dollar to obtain the bonds necessary over and above what it will cost to make out the papers.
Mr. MURDOCK (Beaver). Mr. Chairman, we frequently hear, it is said in all of our circles, I presume, that the office should seek the man, not the man seek the office, and that is just what we are doing I trust. If men are not ready to take hold of the office, we probably will be able to seek the man who is capable of taking hold of the matter. I do not think it is good policy to pay men to be honest. They frequently talk about men who occupy positions of trust that they should have enough so that they can be honest with the business. I think we are just as liable to get honest men for a reasonable salary, as we are to pay them a great big salary, so that there will be so much scrambling by such a great number to get a position, and I believe that we are taking the course that the office will seek the man and not the man seek the office.
Mr. CORAY. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman who has just spoken in regard to that. It
seems to me that the main thing we desire is honesty and reliability, and I believe there are more
reliable men to-day working for less than a thousand dollars a year than there are for more than
that. I think this is enough.
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, I would like to know whether any member o the Convention knows
what the salary of the treasurer was previous to the last session of the Legislature? If I remember
correctly, it was cut down
{1027}
very materially. I was of the opinion it was two thousand
dollars as it stands now.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). It is two thousand dollars for the two years as shown by the appropriation
for the last two years.
Mr. HART. What was it previous to that?
Mr. EVANS (Utah). I cannot tell you.
Mr. BARNES. Mr. Chairman, while this is largely a matter of honesty it is also to a very great
extent a matter of responsibility. Now, I do not know whether I would accept that position for
one thousand dollars a year, with the responsibilities on it, as much as I like office, and
consequently I do not think one thousand dollars a year is enough, gentlemen. I would prefer we
made it more.
The motion for two thousand dollars was rejected.
The question being taken on the motion for fifteen hundred dollars, the committee divided, and
the vote being a tie, the chairman voted in the negative, and the motion was rejected.
The motion for one thousand dollars was agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN. The next is the attorney general.
Mr. PAGE. Mr. Chairman, I move to insert the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars for the
attorney general.
Mr. CANNON. Mr. Chairman, I move an amendment to that, that we fix it at fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. VAN HORNE. Mr. Chairman, I move we fix it at one thousand dollars.
Mr. SQUIRES. Mr. Chairman, I move to keep up the regular order of progression. I move we
make it five hundred dollars.
Mr. PAGE. I believe, Mr. Chairman, that the ability required to fill that position properly is equal
to the ability of filling any of the other positions that we provide for, and the duties of that office,
I am satisfied, are really more important for the benefit and advancement of the Territory
possibly than that of any other position. I hope that the motion for twenty-five hundred dollars
will prevail.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Chairman, I call attention to section 18 of this article on executive, where
the duties of attorney general are stipulated. I do not think, sir, that it is intended to make him the
public prosecutor of the State, and, following the arguments that have been used heretofore, I
presume that very many attorneys would be able to give the legal advice necessary to the State
officers and not take up very much of their time, and in view of the fact that the attorney, by
devoting possibly an hour or two each week to giving the little advice to the State officers, or
whenever they might apply for advice_I think, sir, that it ought to hold good, that it is not going
to be very much of a duty to fulfill, and therefore, the sum of one thousand dollars at least will be
ample as a remuneration for his services, and I shall vote for that sum.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I was just going to ask a question, and that is whether the attorney
general of the State would be allowed under the rules that exist in the courts, to take cases and
look after other legal business, or whether, as is the case with judges, he would have to forego
that in the discharge of the duties in connection with this office? If they are allowed to take other
business and simply render aid upon some of the occasions as the other officers of the State
might require, I am in favor of a lower salary.
The CHAIRMAN. Except where the State was a party, he would be permitted to practice in all
cases. Of course, he could not practice in criminal cases, but he could in civil cases.
Mr. JAMES. Will Mr. Varian tell me what the attorney general gets in Nevada?
Mr. VARIAN. I think it has been reduced to about two thousand dollars.
{1028}
Mr. JAMES. What is it in Washington, Mr. Eichnor?
Mr. EICHNOR. Two thousand dollars.
Mr. KIESEL. It is twenty-five hundred in Idaho.
The CHAIRMAN. Fifteen, is it not?
Mr. CHIDESTER. Mr. Chairman, section 18 contemplates that there may be other duties imposed upon the attorney general by law by the State
Legislature_
Mr. ROBERTS. May I ask the gentleman a question? If that same clause is not also attached to
the section providing for the auditor and also for the secretary of state?
Mr. CHIDESTER. Yes, I presume it is, but I believe that this reaches further, if it is contemplated
by this section that the attorney general shall conduct the legal business in behalf of the State,
such as prosecuting and the like of that, he could not begin to do it for that sum. Was that the
intention?
Mr. VARIAN. The duties of the attorney general, Mr. Chairman, would be as suggested, to
advise the State officers, attend to all business, criminal and otherwise, of the State in the
supreme court. But in exceptional cases, he might be invited and might go out into a couuty to
assist in the prosecution of some important matter. They generally do that, but they are not
obliged to.
Mr. CHIDESTER. Under the present system, there is to be several deputies or assistant
prosecuting attorneys, would he have to pay them himself?
Mr. VARIAN. No; I think the gentleman misapprehends it. There will be a system of county or
district attorneys who will attend to all matters of the kind indicated in the nisi prius courts. The
attorney general simply takes the cases on appeal, briefs them, and argues them in the appellate
court. If there are any civil cases to which the State would be a party, it would be his duty to
bring them or defend them, as the case might be.
Mr. CHIDESTER. It is a question in
mind then, whether or not he can do that for the sum of one thousand dollars. That involves him
in quite a labor in taking up these cases on appeal, etc. I understand now that the county
attorneys, of course, will take a great deal of labor off from the prosecuting attorney, and that,
under the present system, that has heretofore been the duty of the prosecuting attorney to
perform, but of course if this Convention thinks that the prosecuting attor-torney can perform that
duty for one thousand dollars, I am in favor of reducing salaries as much as any one else, but the
only question in my mind was whether we could possibly get a prosecuting attorney to accept of
that office for one thousand dollars, that is the question.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I do not want to take up the time of the Convention in discussing
this matter. I take this view of it, that the position gives the man standing and will add to his
practice if not prohibited from taking other practice, and that almost any right shrewd, moving
attorney in the Territory would be mighty ready and willing to take it at one thousand dollars
with the chance of being attorney general and enhancing and enlarging his practice and standing
in his profession, therefore, I am in favor of one thousand dollars.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. Chairman, section 18 provides that the attorney general shall be the legal
adviser of the State officers, etc. This article also provides that the salaries fixed here shall
continue such until otherwise provided by law. As a legal adviser for the State officers, I think
that the sum of fifteen hundred dollars is enough. If the Legislature imposes other duties upon
him, the same Legislature, if they find in their judgment that fifteen hundred dollars is not
enough in consideration of
{1029}
the extra duties they are imposing upon him, it will be their
duty to raise the salary in accordance with the duties that are imposed upon the officer by law. I
think, however, that the salary ought to be about fifteen hundred dollars. I draw the line of
distinction between the treasurer which we have just voted upon and the attorney general, in this
respect, that a man will be able to attend to his other business and that with very little
interruption of his other business and discharge the duties of treasurer.
Mr. HART. The only duties, Mr. Chairman, that the attorney general would have under this
Constitution would be the local adviser of the State officers and member of the board of pardons
and of the board of reform school and of the state prison, and fifteen hundred dollars would be
ample compensation it seems to me for all of those duties. No doubt the first Legislature will
require of the attorney general that he shall represent the State in all civil cases. It is very
probable that they will also require that he shall represent the State in all criminal cases that are
appealed to the supreme court, for the reason that if the judiciary article as proposed by the
judiciary committee goes through there will be no district attorneys. There will be simply county
attorneys, who may not be able to represent the State in criminal cases in the supreme court. At
least, not to such good advantage as the attorney general would. It is very probable that the
attorney general, therefore, will be required to represent the State in all criminal cases in the
supreme court and in all civil cases in which the State is a party, but until those duties or other
duties are imposed upon the attorney general, I am not in favor of giving him any more than
fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, I am not really prepared to say_I do not know as I have an exact
judgment in my own mind, as to what the salary ought to be, but I want to call attention to this
fact, if a lawyer is elected who lives away from the capital, he goes from the place where he has
built up his business and from his home amongst the people who know him. When he comes
here, he finds the field of legal work fully occupied. It will be very difficult for him to add to his
professional practice, certainly during the first term for which he was elected, and not at all, until
he has had an opportunity to indicate to the people what he can do, and what he is worth, so that
to that extent the argument of my colleague from Salt Lake City could not, it seems to me,
prevail. He would certainly have to depend alone on his salary for his first term. Now, if the
Legislature should impose additional duties upon him, still that Legislature cannot increase his
compensation during the term for which he shall be elected, because you prohibit that in this
Constitution_that is the intention, as I understand it, to prohibit the increasing or diminishing of
his salary during the term of the incumbent. All those things ought to be considered, of course. It
is quite probable you may find in this district a number of desirable persons who will be Willing
to take the office for fifteen hundred dollars or two thousand dollars in addition to the practice
they already have.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. Chairman, in view of the suggestion made by the gentleman, which had not occurred to me before, that a salary could not be changed, would it not be better in this
connection to provide an exception in cases of the first officers and permit the Legislature to fix
it in accordance with the increased duties that they may impose?
Mr. VARIAN. Well, I do not know, Mr. Chairman. It occurs to me-_
Mr. CHAIRMAN. That is not before the committee anyway.
The motion to fix the salary at
{1030}
twenty-five hundred dollars was rejected.
The motion to fix the salary at fifteen hundred dollars was agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN. The next is the superintendent of public instruction.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, I move to insert the sum of fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, just for information, I would ask if it is not likely that the
superintendent of public instruction, if he devotes himself to it_if it will not take his entire time?
It seems to me that this is going to require the strict, complete, and whole attention of the man
who would be elected superintendent of public instruction.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, I move that we make it two thousand dollars.
Mr. EVANS (Utah). Mr. Chairman, I see by looking over the schedule, he now gets a thousand
dollars a year and four hundred dollars for his expenses, and I think we want to be very careful,
as has been suggested by my colleague from Utah County. The people are going to examine these
records, and there is not anything, that I know of, that would have a tendency to cut down or to
endanger the adoption of the Constitution, like taxing the people. I have been among them, and I
know that is the sentiment, and it is the prevailing sentiment, that if that Constitution is so
arranged that the salaries are going to be high, and the taxes are going to be increased, until
people will be burdened with them, they are going to vote it down, or else they state that that they
do not calculate to do, and I am in favor of having it one thousand dollars.
Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I think there is one very great redeeming clause in this article, that is,
that these salaries do not necessarily need to remain only until the next Legislature meets. It is on
that ground that I have kept my seat and been quiet. I have been told by scores, and I do not know
but hundreds, that if the salaries were not reduced to reasonable sums, that they would vote
against having this a State. They prefer having it remain a Territory, because they could not live
and pay the taxes higher than they were paying. I told them that, as I was a member and was
elected to come, that if I could have my way about it, I should go in for reducing the salaries of
all the State officers, the county officers and city officers, fifty per cent, and then they will have
more than we got when this Territory was first organized for the first thirty years, and four times
as much in comparison. Hence I am in favor of putting these salaries down as low as reasonable
so that they can live by it, and hence I shall say one thousand dollars on that.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, if I should fix the salary according to my own personal view, I
should fix it at higher than fifteen hundred dollars, but I think the tenor of this committee is in
favor of low salaries. The superintendent of public instruction-I do not think that he can do any
other work. He must devote himself to that position. You may possibly elect a county
superintendent of some county, and make him also superintendent of public instruction of the
State, but I think that would be injurious to the State at large. I have had considerable experience
with school matters, and as I said before, if I could fix the salary, I would fix it at twenty-five
hundred dollars. I am in favor of low salaries, but it should not be lower than fifteen hundred
dollars.
Mr. MALONEY. Mr. Chairman, I do dot understand that our present superintendent devotes all
of his time to his duty as such superintendent. I want to say to you, Mr. Chairman, that I am for
low salaries all along the line. The people of this Territory now are burdened down. I know
farmers' wives are knitting lace for the purpose of
{1031}
accumulating money enough to pay
their taxes, and I say to you, if the people of this Territory are loaded down with taxes more than
they are now, it will defeat the Constitution. I say the whole matter ought to be fixed as low as
possible, then let the Legislature fix the salaries.
Mr. EICHNOR. May I ask a question? Have you ever taught school?
Mr. MALONEY. No, sir; and never expect to.
The motion to fix the salary at twenty-five hundred dollars was rejected.
The motion to fix the salary at two thousand dollars was rejected.
The question being taken on the motion for fifteen hundred dollars, the committee divided and by
a vote of 32 ayes (noes not counted) the motion was rejected.
The motion to fix the salary at one thousand dollars was agreed to.
Sections 21 and 22 were read.
Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the secretary of state should be the keeper of the
great seal of the State. The secretary I believe will be the custodian of all official papers and files
pertaining to the office of executive of the State, and it seems to me, if the governor be made
keeper of the seal, it would be a very awkward matter for the secretary. Suppose he was called
upon to keep a certified copy. I move to amend by striking out the word governor in the second
line and inserting the word secretary in lieu thereof.
The motion was agreed to.
Section 23 was read.
Mr. HOWARD. Mr. Chairman, I would move that after the word governor, on line 2, the words, except United States commissioners and postmasters of the fourth class, be inserted.
Mr. VARIAN. Mr. Chairman, so far as United States commissioners are concerned, they are not officers. That is to say, they will not be officers in the sense used here after this State shall become such. A United States commissioner is simply an officer of the federal court. He has none of the functions to perform that are now imposed upon him by law under special act of Congress. In relation to this Territory, and the way we read this section, it refers only to the State officers and not the county officers. We have no objection, however, to the insertion of the words, postmasters of the fourth class.
Mr. HOWARD. From what Mr. Varian has said, probably United States commissioners will not
be necessary to be put there.
The CHAIRMAN. Do you withdraw that?
Mr. HOWARD. I withdraw that but still hold to the postmasters of the fourth class.
The amendment was rejected.
Mr. EICHNOR. Mr. Chairman, I move to amend section 23 by striking out the fourth, fifth, sixth,
and seventh lines.
The motion was rejected.
The committee of the whole then rose and reported as follows:
The committee of the whole have had under consideration the article on executive and have
considered the same and recommend that it be placed upon the calendar and come up in ,its
regular order for its third reading.
Mr. VARIAN, Mr. President, for the information, and by request of members, and for the
information of the Convention, I desire to give notice that on Thursday next, under the
appropriate order of business, which will be, I presume, motions and resolutions, I shall move a
reconsideration, in accordance with previous notice, of the vote by which the article upon
elections and suffrage passed, I desire everybody to have full notice of it.
Mr. THURMAN. Mr. President, I move that the motion which the gentleman from Salt Lake will
then make be made the special order for that time. The motion was agreed to.
{1032 - LABOR AND ARBITRATION}
The Convention then, at 5:06 o'clock p. m., adjourned.
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