The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-13
TRADED OFF PARKER
DEM0cRATIC CANDIDATE sACRf-
 FICED IN IDAHO. .2
U2orts Concentrated to Elect Heitfeid Gcvernor-Platform Caused Loss of Mormon
 Votes.

Washington, Jan. 12.-Nearly the en- tire day in the Smoot investigation was devoted to testimony relating to politt- cal conditions in Idaho. Frank Mar tin and F. H. Holsheimer, prominent Idaho Democrats, testified that ma Jority of the Democrats of the State opposed ian unnecessary attack" on the Mormon Church, which they said was the effect of the anti-polygamy plank Of the State platform.
 !. H. Brady chairman of the Repub- 1ican State Committee, told of taking advantage of the Democratic charges in order to get votes for the Republi- can ticket. He charged also that the Democrats traded off Judge Parker, the Democratic candidate for President, for votes for former Senator Heitfeld, the Democratic candidate for Governor.
 !. w. N. whitcotton of Provo, Utah. gave evidence in relation to political couditions' in Utah.
 The defense in the Senator Smoot case before the Senate Committee ou Privilegee and Elections today, called to tthe stand F. H. Holsheimer. a prac- ticing lawyer of Pocatello, Idaho. He lived in Utah about twenty years be- fore going to Idaho two years ago. He belongs to the Episcopal Church, and said he always had been a Democrat except for time in Utah. when in com- mon with all Gentiles, he belonged to the Liberal Party.
 The examination of Holsheimer was confined almost entirely to political conditions in Idaho. He was a member of the last Democratic convention and served on the Resolutions Commit tee. On the Resolutions Committee, he dec1ared that he had opposed a plank flor the extermination of polygamy poIygamous cohabitation and the sepa- ration of church and State on the grounds that no plank of that charac- ter was needed, as there had been no plural marriages in the State since the manifesto. The witness said a major tty of the delegates were opposed to the plank. but that the resolution was forced on the convention but it was understood that former Senator Heit- feldt, who had been endorsed for Gov ernor. had made a pi' dge to the Na- tional Convention that 1t should be adopted.
 Afterward he was nominated by the convention for Congress, but subse- uuently declined to run on the ticket because the party leaders had refused to conduct campaign directed against the Mormon Church. These leaders the witness said, called their plan a campaign of puriication of Idaho homes.
 Because they were told that they would have to conduct their campaign ''on a high moral plane" Democrats not in sympathy with an attack on the Mormon church refused to make speeches in the 1904 campaign, said the witness. He thought there was nc necessity for the direct attack, as all young Mormons were opposed to poly gamy. He said that the principle of polygamy in Idaho is only ir Isolated cases, that there had been a Jew cases where children have been born in plural families since the mani. resto. but there are not more than twenty or thirty plural families in the State.
 Have you ever seen evidence of in- tereference by the Mormon church in politics?" asked Attorney vancott.
 T have not" replied MT. Holsheimer
 Cant the Mormon church get any thing 1t wants from the legislature in fdaho." T should say decidedly not They have never had anything. They are in the minority both in the legisla- ture and in the State" was the reply The witness was then cross examined by Mr. TayIer.
 Mr. Holsheimer could name only two Democratic leaders who refused to sun. port the anti-Mormon campaign, but he named six Democratic newspapers that were opposed to the campaign of the