Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1889-02-21

lowed to 90 out to labor without being
under the custody of guard or overseer
of the penitentiary, unless he shall be
long to class known as TRUSTEES,
which class shall be composed OF such of
said convicts as the superintendent and
board of penitentiary commissioners shall
be able to contide and trust in absolutely
to do what they may be required to do
with being under the supervision Of a
guard or overseer."
collect the wages earned by the convicts."
Section IL. ''When the labor OF con-
Wet shall be hired out the superintend-
ent shall enter in book memorandum
of the contract"
Section 50. "Whenever the convicts in
the penitentiary or any OF them shall not
be hired out or employed in any work al
the penitentary, or otherwise occupied in
any labor, it shall be proper and requisite
to employ them in and about any work,
labor or improvement on the capitol
building or capitol grounds, and also in
grading, repairing, opening, cleaning, or
leveling the streets, alleys, roads and
bridges in and near to the city OF Santa
Fe, and in quarrying and hauling stone :;
and also in securing, bettering and pro-
tecting the banks of the Santa Fe river
from overflow and destruction, so as to
prevent damage from high water or other
wise, where the said river runs through
the city of Santa Fe."
The foregoing provisions OF the bill are
very broad. They authorize the hiring
out of the convicts at any and every kind
of employment, and any and everywhere
in the territory-at house building, car
pentering, blacksmithing, mining-at
whatever employment and in whatever
way or locality the prison officers may
deem "most advantageous to the terri
tory" A gang of convicts, with q guard,
may be sent to any city OF the territory to
work on the streets or at other employ
ment--to Socorro or Silver City to work
in the mines-to Blossburg, Cerrillos,
Gallup or Carthage to work in the coal
banks, or to Las Cruces or elsewhere to
perform agricultural labor. The limit to
their employment in open and public
competition with free labor, anywhere in
the territory, is bounded only by the
range of vacations to work at and the
number OF convicts to be had
The last section quoted provides that
the convicts shall under certain conditions
be required to work without charge in
improvement of the streets, bridges and
river banks of Santa Fe. | submit Wheth-
err this is fair to the other cities Of the
territory. All our towns and cities are
taxed for the support of these convicts.
They all bear the burden OF the cost OF
the prison, and all have the same right to
their labor. No one community should
be permitted to monopoize that labor for
the improvement OF its streets, bridges
and water ways, to the exclusion of all
the rest, and if the convicts are to be put
out to do public work i'll this way at all,
arrange the law so that every community
shall receive its proper due, and some
thing in proportion to its contribution to
to the betrayal of the public expenses.
The SD section provides that "all APP
plications for the pardon or commuta-
ton of any sentence of any convict con-
fined in the penitentiary shall be first
submitted to the board of penitentiary
commissioners, X but no convict
who shall have been sentenced to the
penitentiary shall be pardoned before the
expiration of his time, or have his term
committed by the governor, unless the
same be first recommended by the board
OF penitentiary commissioners.
The laws of the United States, section
lS4l, Revised Statutes, provide that the
executive officer of each territory "may
grant pardons and repreves, and remit
fines and forfeitures for ofenses against
the laws of the territory for which he is
appointed, and respites for ofenses
against the laws OF the United States"
AS the laws of congress appear to have
established no limitations or conditions
to the exercise Of the pardoning power of
the governors of the territories, created
by and acting under the government OF
congress, nor granted to the territorial
legislature any jurisdiction over that sub
ject, and as the territorial legislatures can
exercise no power over any subject nor in
any direction not vested in such legisa-
ture by the laws of congress, it would
seem somewhat conclusive that the legis-
lature possessed no authority to regulate
the pardoning power, and that in at
tempting the exercise OF such authority
that body transCends its functions, and
further, that in indulging ia such an at
tempt it is posturing before the intelligent
people of America in no enviable light.
In many respects this bill is proper
measure of legislation and would serve
useful public purposes. If its objectiona-
BILE features, constitutionally and other
wise, as herein indicated, could be elm
mated, it would afford HE pleasure to
contribute to its enactment into law.
But its defects, in the particulars de-
scribed, are too gross and palpable to per-
NIT Of executive sanction. There are 9TH
er and better ways of procuring occupa-
ton for the convicts so needful for their
moral and physical health and for the re-
lief OF the territory from the burden Of
their support, than to put them in open,
public competition with every description
of free labor.
The nature and extent of the infringe
ment Of the legislature upon the functions
of the executive department, illustrated in
this bill, are in their nature revolutionary
and dangerous. Our system of govern
ment rests, for its safety and perpetuity,
upon the coordination and perfect
equipoise of TIE three departments-ex-
ecutive, legislative and Judicial. The CO.
ordinate quality of these departments is
established and carefully adjusted by law,
and any usurpation by one Of the func-
tons of another, as those functions are
defined by the organic law, would unbal-
lance the entire system, and confusion
must ensue. 1t is solely for the more
perfect preservation of this established
and fundamental condition that | re-
spectfully submit to the legislature the re-
quest for the elimination of the obnoxious
defects indicated from this
bill, to the end that it may become one
Of the wholesome laws of the territory.
EDMUND &. Ross.
CAPITOL CHAT.