The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-24
STRUCTURES on THE LEGISLATURE
To the Editor Of The Herald:

To the Editor of The Herald:
1t is very evident these IS something
the matter with our law making ma
chinery. Every session os pr L4gisla-
ture that meet, there is the same old
tinkering of laws. Id rs that were
fixed up in 1892 so they were sflre TO
hold come back to the session Of 1894
all full of Notes.-The a Lakcrs aIeye.
If a carpenter did not 10 a better Job
of work. after being paid for it, as our
law. makers are for their work, they
would be sued for damages. / hold
that the same law of damages that APP
plies to machines and artisans, should
apply TO our law makers, and more So.
In the one case nnly one individual
may be injured; in the other a whole
community or state is.
Take for instance the STRAY pound"
law. How many legislatures has tin
kered at the STRAY pound agony?"
And what have they done? made con-
fusion worst impounded" And why {?
Some lawyer, that really cannot tell a
cow from an OK, takes it in his head
that he can solve the STRAY pound
problem. And be begins; '.be it en-
acted, ETC.
Sec. 1. All cattle found running on
the streets, or highways, shall be de-
clared as strays." etc. And continues
to write twenty-three sections to
ENACT" something he really knows
very little about; and something that
contains very little law, and sometimes
not very much good sense.
Animals that are running on the
streets, are not like a stray piece of
paper that any one can pick up. They
belong to someone. Somebody has in
vested rights in them, and these rights
must be respected. But this same
animal goes into a neighbours. garden,
and destroys property. Some one has
invested rights in the property des-
troyed, and their rights must be re-
spected- And what then? That is al
ways Just where the Jump off, comes
in IN the stray pound law.
No one has been wise enough to fix
the law for good. Still / think it is a
very simple problem, and one that GER
tairly can be solved.
Let some wise stockmen, and some
wise farmers, who have an equal inter
est in the TWO sides of the question,
and some pound-keepers that have be-
come wise by what they have learned,
and suffered. through the absurdities
OF the former laws, come together from
all sections Of the country, for certain
sections have peculiar rights and inter-
ests, and I am satisfied they would
frame law that would hold water, :"
and one that would be esta blished on
righJ and equity-which all laws should
be. This plan | would propose in the
framing of other laws. Let the con-
hicting parties, and those who know
the most about the matter, be the
trainers of that law, and then let the
Legislature enact it,
Some might bring up the extra ex-
pense that this plan would entail 1
Will insure a workable stray pound law
for less expense than the Legislature
takes To make a law that will not work.
Yes. sir. am in favor that our Leg
islatures should be held in bonds and
penalties for the faithful performance
of their work. just as all other public
officers are held in bonds and penalties
for the faithful performance Of the
work which they do.
Some men no more want to make a
perfect law. if they could, than that a
cat wants to kill all the mice there is
in barn, and for the same reason, it
would destroy their occupation.
Tonpla