“I think now,” resumed the Senator, after quiet was restored, “that the bond and credit laws are dead. But I would not have you decide this question on the simple fact that the man who instigated them is a selfish hypocrite and schemer. I want you to understand these laws thoroughly and adopt or reject them on their merits. If they are good, it matters not who proposes them. Let them be adopted. If they are bad, it matters not what demon inspired them, they should be rejected.
“These laws are for what purpose? To introduce among you the most iniquitous feature of the competitive system.
“Once allow it to be introduced, whether under the guise of necessity or morality, whether by Shylock or by an erring angel, and I would not give a straw for your entire system. It will eat its way into the very heart of your body politic and destroy all that is worth having about it.
“History shows to my mind successive systems of slavery, one chasing the other through the earth.
“Bond slavery succeeded chattel slavery and has nearly crushed liberty to death in the great republic. There is not the slightest reason why the Co-opolitan Association should become indebted to private persons.
“We are the public, the law, the will of Idaho, and what we desire within the state that we can have. If we wish to build a railroad beyond the state we ought to have no difficulty in doing that.
“What is necessary to such a road? First you must have the line surveyed. That has been done. Next you must have the right of way. That will be somewhat expensive. But if the right of way costs us five million dollars why should we borrow it? We have it already. Even if we did not have it, let me remind you that from 1862 to 1892, a period of thirty years, Idaho produced nearly two hundred million dollars of gold and silver, and her producing population was at no time greater than thirty thousand persons. With a population such as we have to-day we can produce gold enough, if gold is needed, in a single year, to build this road.
“Would not Idaho be demented to borrow gold from a hypocritical agent of Rothschild when we can, without incurring debt, take it from our own valleys, creek beds and mountains?”
The Senator treated the question of bond issues from every point of view conceivable, with a power of description, illustration and argument that not only held his audience spellbound, but fixed its logic deep in the minds of all who heard him. Such was the effect of the affidavits which he read upon the mind of his reverend opponent that the latter declared his intention never again to enter upon the discussion of political questions or questions of public finance. Thenceforth he confined himself to religion and became a world-renowned pulpit orator.
When the election occurred the vote was overwhelming against all these laws, the last going down largely on account of the unpopularity of the two others known as the land and credit propositions. Our system did not permit the submission of a rejected law for at least five years after its rejection. The proposition to abolish the labor orders and pay all labor in non-transferable checks was a really meritorious one and ought to have been adopted.