“You have a wonderful city, Mr. Braden,” he exclaimed. “Your people have certainly built up a wonderful Commonwealth.” He looked at me as he said this, as if he attributed the wonders he had seen to me.
“Yes,” I replied. “The Co-opolitan has reason to be proud of his city. We have performed what has never before been achieved in nine years.”
“Very true!” assented my visitor. “But you should have added, Mr. Braden, that no people ever did as much in all time.” Here he smiled, and I had an undefinable feeling that he rather considered it would not have been done by the Co-opolitan Association, even, if I had not been a part of it. I found myself warming toward this sprightly, perfectly straight, white little old man wonderfully. He was either the most innocent, interesting and lovable or the most artful and cunning of men. I was inclined to think the former, but experience had taught me that such men would bear study.
“I am anxious, Mr. Braden,” said Mr. Hickman, “to investigate your system of co-operation with a view to establishing a similar system in England. Some of us have a plan on foot to aid our impoverished and idle classes to gain a foothold on earth and I have been sent by my association to study Idaho. It occurred to me that you could aid me in obtaining the information I desire.”
I certainly could not refuse so innocent a request, and I and my people always hastened to extend aid to such an enterprise as he described whenever it was proposed. I assured the gentleman that I would place my department at his disposal and recommended him to see Mr. Edmunds of the Educational department. The latter would place our historical records at his disposal and he would gain, from that source, the fullest information.
This white gentleman remained with me nearly an hour. A more entertaining conversationalist it has rarely been my fortune to meet. He had traveled extensively, was acquainted with most of the famous men of England, and the moral tone of his conversation was the highest conceivable.
“There is only one thing I notice about your system which I cannot approve,” said he. “Your Association has pursued a course calculated to destroy the value of all the public bonds in Idaho except those of the state. There are Boise City municipal bonds, for instance, which have no value in the market because you have constructed a magnificent co-operative city outside the territory affected by them. I do not see how you can escape the charge of immorality in refusing to pay them.”
These remarks were made by the white saint with such apparent sincerity that I did not at that time doubt they sprang from an honest heart. I met him many times after and he never referred to that subject again. He remained in Co-opolis three months, during which time he was a constant attendant upon church and I observed that he was often to be seen in the company of the members of the ministry. Just before he departed he called upon the Legislative Council, then in session, and asked to make a statement to that body. The request was granted and he spoke briefly. He said he understood that the Legislative Council was considering plans for the construction of a transcontinental railroad, that he understood the Association was not then prepared to build the road, but would be obliged to defer the completion of it until its finances permitted; that he was acquainted with numerous philanthropic gentlemen in England who were much interested in Co-opolitan success; that he was able to procure from these gentlemen a loan of one million pounds sterling for the Association, at the nominal rate of three per cent interest per annum, the bonds to run for twenty years; that he would use his best endeavors to accomplish this purpose, providing the Association would agree to purchase at the end of that time the outstanding municipal bonds of the various cities for fifty cents on the dollar. He said he had no knowledge as to who might be the owners of such bonds, but for the good name of the Association he desired to urge that this course be pursued.
The Legislative Council paid very little attention to this proposal, at that time, ascribing it to the gentleman’s ignorance of our system.
Mr. Hickman had not been gone a week before I made a discovery which startled me. I found that a petition was being circulated, under our Association law, asking the President of the Association to submit three laws, which were attached to the petition, to the people, to be voted upon at the next October election. What appalled me most was that they were being circulated by the clergy, who went from house to house for the purpose.