“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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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