The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-04-01
DEMOCRATS CHAMPION The MORMONS.
A Pretext for Resisting Idaho's
Claims to Statehood.
The Great Commonwealth Which
Was Recently a Wilderness.
How the People Have Dealt With The
Mormon Residents.
Especial to the Press.l

Especial to the Press.l
WASHINGTON, March 31.-The Democrats
having made up faces at woman suffrage in
order to keep Wyoming out of the Union,
will now try their hands at the indirect
championing of Mormonism in order to keep
Idaho out, the House. having decided to
give its sanction to the admission of Wyom-
ing, which brings into the Union an area as
as large as Delaware. New Jersey, Massa-
chusetts and New Hampshire combined.
The Imagination hardly responds to the pic
ture of vast domain, material prosperity
and general progress in commonwealth
building which is painted by the champions
of the admission of this latest applicant at
the door of the Union. idaho is that great
triangular territory which the student of
even the latest Biographies looks upon as a
land Of savage Indians. or at best of uncouth
and unruly miners. But the reality is very
different. Where ten years ago there were a
few over thirty thousand people in all the
vast region Of the territory, there are today
nearly one hundred and twenty thousand
people. with nearly twenty-five thousand
children of school age educated in the school
houses that adorn nearly every settlement.
And there Is today, In place called Moscow
in al Idaho county called Latah, state uni
versity in the course of construction, for the
support Of which an annual territorial tax of
one. half mill has been assessed.
Once Idaho comprised all of that vast re-
gion which is now included within its own
limits and the limits of Montana and Wyom-
ing. When those territories were carved off,
Idaho was reduced to its present size of &c.
294 square miles, extending from the British
possessions on the north to Utah and Nevada
on the south from Montana and Wyoming
on the east to Oregon and Washington on
the west, having length from north to
south of 41O miles, and width from east to
west varying from about 80 miles on the line
of the British possessions on the north to
3O6a miles on its southern boundary line.
The territory contains 55,22S,160 acres,
100000 of which are agricultural, 10,000,-
900 forests, 100000 grazing and mineral,
100000 rough and mountainous. unfit for
cultivation and not known to contain min
erals, 1,228,160 lakes and rivers On the
16, 900 acres of agricultural land in the
territory, but a small proportion has been
surveyed about 100000 acres have been
entered or filed upon under the several land
acts Of Congress.
The deep soil in the valleys and on the
plateaus in the eastern and southern coun-
ties is composed of decayed vegetable mat
ter, mixed with sufficient mineral and de-
cayed rock to give warmth and great pr0duc-
tiveness. This division Of the territory. con-
tains over one-half Of the arabic lands In
the territory, the greater portion of which
requires irrigation. In the northern counties
dark, deep loan of great depth prevails.
This section of Idaho does not require irriga-
tion, and is In itself an empire. Alkali soil
is limited to narrow strips in widely sepa-
rated localities, and rarely interferes with
Through this new land course great rivers
with unfamiliar names. The great Snake
river bears upon its flood volume of water
equal to that of the Ohio; and there are 9th
ern ears, the Salmon river. the Spokane. the
Boise, the Bruneau, the Cgur 'Alene, Koo-
tenai and Lemhi, each the lord of many
sparkling tributaries.
adopted at territorial convention which as
sembled at Boise City on the Fourth of last
July. At an election held November 9TH OF
last year, the instrument was adopted by
vote of 1888 for, to LIS against The
frage and elections, is made the ground for
the objections of the Democrats as was the
corresponding clause in the constitution OF
Wyoming. But the grounds for objection
are different The constitution of Idaho
directs the legislature, to pass the appropri-
ate laws, but does not specify the Australi-
an system so particularly as is done in the
Wyoming. instrument. There is no
clause allowing woman suffrage IN the
which disfranchlses ali Mormons. There
are in the territory not enough Mormons to
constitute more than one tenth OF It's popu-
lation. But to remove all possibility of
their ever obtaining control this clause has
been put in the constitution:
Section 3.-No person is permitted to vote,
serve as juror. or hold any civil office who is
under guardianship, idiotic or insane. or who has,
embezZlement of public funds, bartering or SELL
ing or Offering to barter or sell his vote, or pur-
chasing or offering to purchase the vote OF anotn-
er, or other infamous crime, and who has not been
restored to the right of citizenship, or who at the
time of such election is confed in prison on con-
pafriarchica, plural, or celestial marriage, or In
violation Of any law Of this State of or the United
manner teaches, advises, counsels, aids, or en::
courages any person to enter intS Dlgamy, 10Y
samy celestial I'll su9n marrare to puEa Re
OF to commit any such crime; or who is amember
agement Of any order Organization, ma association
corporation or society which teaches, advises,
counsels, encourages, or aids any person to enter
ipto blgamy, polygamy,. or such patriarchal or
plural marriage, or which teaches or advises that
the laws of this state prescribing rules of civil
conduct are not the supreme law of the state;
nor shall Chinese nor persons Of Nong0ian de-
scent, not born in the United States, nor Indians
not taxed who have not severed their tribal rela-
tions and adopted the habits of civilization either
vote, serve as jurors, or hold any civil office.
Now, those same Democrats who objected
to the Wyoming constitution because it al
lows women to vote, now object to the Idaho
constitution because it does not let Nor
mons vote. The Democrats do not come out
squarely and say that they think that Nor
mons are the right sort of citizens to have
the powers of the ballot; but they take ref
uge In technicality that no Mormon shall
be disfranchised until he shall have been
tried and convicted as Mormon. In other
words, the Democrats say that the people of
Idaho shall not disfranchise the several
thousand Mormon voters in the new state
until each Mormon shall have been caught.
separately tried, convicted and sentenced:
OF course. If this had to be done, it would
never happen that any large proportinn of