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Differs With His Party. At a meeting last week of the Democratic Club in Boise, M. Alexander, of Boise, delivered an ad dress, by invitation. A few days later his address was reproduced in the columns of the Boise Capital News, thus removing it from the privacy of the club room and giving it to the public in general. In his address, as published, Mr. Alexander de voted himself largely to existing business conditions and to the currency issues of the past and present, touching briefly and entertainingly upon other Na tional topics. He came finally to the question of polygamy, which has been made an issue by the Democratic party in Idaho. In his remarks he repudiated the wisdom of the party to which he professes allegiance and set up a standard of his own, calling upon the party to abandon its policies and beliefs and accept the poli cies and beliefs of M. Alexander, saying' : I want to say to you now, and I am speaking for myself, M. Alexander, that I am firmly op posed to the entire Mormon issue as it has been brought up in this State. The speaker took issue violently with his party and upon his party's most important question. His party said in its platform of 1904 : We demand the extermination of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation within the State of Idaho and the complete separation of church and state in po litical affairs. His party said in its platform of 1906 : We demand the extermination of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation within the State of Idaho and the complete separation of church and state in po litical affairs. We pledge the people of Idaho that, in the event of Democratic success at the polls in November, we will make effective by legislative enactment the wise and patriotic declarations in our State constitution, contained in section three, article six. Up to date, these reaffirmed principles stand as the expression of the Democratic party of Idaho, and in excepting to them the club speaker endorsed a policy of the Republican party and upon the issue of polygamy he is a Republican, if he is sincere, and not a Democrat. In another important particular, Mr. Alexander becomes an admitted apostate. He said in the speech of last week, before the Democratic Club : You must not expect much of a speech from me, as the last political hollering I did was about thir teen years ago, when I, in conjunction with other citizens, went down Main street hollering "Sixteen to one and no compromise" and "Free and unlim ited coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one without the aid and consent of foreign nations." I didn't believe a word of it, as I was a gold standard man at that time and am today. Perhaps, when the speaker said he was opposed to the entire Democratic Mormon issue of his State, he did not believe a word he w r as saying, for a man who will deceive his party at o.ne time will deceive it at another time. But, giving him the benefit of sincerity in this instance, why was he called upon to address a Democratic club? As a gold bug he manifests Republican instincts. As an apologist for the crime of polygamy, he accepts another Republi can doctrine. Thirteen years ago, by his own ad mission, he was sailing under false colors—mis leading his party associates in pretending to favor the double standard when opposed to it. Like every other man under the protection of the republic, this club orator is entitled to his own view on any public question. He may with propriety attempt the conversion of his political associates to his beliefs. But when he enters upon a public dis cussion of issues *in opposition to the policy of his own party, he gives to the champions of that policy the right of protest through public argument. In assuming that the Democratic party of Idaho is carrying on a religious persecution, Mr. Alex ander is echoing the false cry of the opposition party, for Democracy seeks only to extirpate and punish a crime that is fostered under the cloak of religion. When he says that "the fundamental idea of De mocracy is that every man twenty-one years of age shall be entitled to a vote, and only felony shall deprive him thereof," he asserts a principle that the Democratic party of his State is endeavoring to establish and enforce, for if polygamy is not a fel ony, what is it? "If there is in this State," said Mr. Alexander, "such a condition as plural marriages, polygamy or unlawful cohabitation, let us punish it by sending the guilty ones to the penitentiary, intention of the Democratic party, as expressed through its platforms, and when the Democratic party is able to elect the officials that prosecute and punish offenses against the laws, without making Such is the an alliance with the polygamous hierarchy, it will be.in a position to carry out the suggestion of Mr. Alexander to the letter. It can effect nothing in the direction of his expectations if it bargains with the offenders and grants them immunity in return for votes, which he expressly pleads for. He is supported in the presentation of his plan of a campaign by the newspaper that prints his ad dress, which says : The party that has the foresight and sense to apply sound business principles to its conduct during the next campaign will be the party that will land the officers in charge of public affairs. Landing the officers is not the entire mission of the Democratic party under its platform expressions. When it lands the kind of officers that will enforce the will of the platform, it will meet the demands of that document—not when it compromises with crime that it may enjoy the fruits of victory. The party as it is now organized is after some thing more than the spoils. It represents a high principle and will not be satisfied with a majority of the ballots on the next election day unless those ballots stand for the purification of the domestic life of all the people of Idaho. ^ BcinkCTS' Pcinic Comptroller Ridgely, of the currency division of the Treasury Department, talks more sensibly on the financial panic and the causes behind it than any of the others that have endeavored to explain the exist ing condition. Mr. Ridgely says the collapse not due to the failure of a few individual banks, not caused by lack of public confidence in the banks, but was caused by lack of confidence on the part of men who conduct the banks. They lacked confidence in themselves and in their reserves. They feared that the reserve system would break down and it did break down. Their appre was was hensions led them to believe that there would not be enough currency to fill their demands and with common impulse they, tried to render themselves and their customers secure and found that there was not The financial expert of the Boston' Transcript complains that the inland banks have secured more than their share of a scarce article,' evidence that they took warning early. He says that the reports enough, by considerable. of National banks under the last call of the troller show that the "reserves of Western banks are disproportionately large to their needs at such a time." through additional bank circulation has disappeared, somewhat unaccountably, and the Boston man solves comp New currency imported from abroad and created the mystery with his accusation that it has West. He does not think it is fair for the banks of gone a section to hoard more than their share, when there is only so much to go around. These two authorities relieve the people of the charge, made officially and unofficially, that it their lack of confidence that brought on the panic, when the trouble came upon them so suddenly that they were unable to employ their hoarding instincts. The Comptroller of the Currency says : was If the banks had known that there were facilities for exchanging any reasonable amount of deposit credits for note credits without depleting cash serves, and, further, that the reserves that they had were on deposit where they would be immediately and surelv available in currency, there need have re been no alarm among them. There would have been no scarcity of currency; no derangement of the do mestic exchange; and there would have been no panic among the banks nor among the people. The Comptroller attributes the trouble to a faulty reserve system and suggests the adoption of the Eu ropean plan of a governmental central bank of issue and reserve, through which provision could be made for furnishing the actual cash when cash is needed. Congress has not yet entered the remedial field and the country has the promises of Speaker Cannon and Senator Aldrich that it will let the subject alone, for the present at least. As they control most of the important legislation of the two branches of Con gress, their assurance that little or nothing is to be done may be accepted. Such is the preamble to a revelation from on high "given through Joseph, the seer, in Nauvoo, Han cock County, Illinois, July 12th, 1843," according to the "Doctrine and Covenants" of the Mormon church, beginning on page 463. Passing along through sixty The Law of Polygamy. For behold ! I reveal unto you a new and ever lasting covenant ; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory; For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundations of the world; And as pertaining to the new and everlasting cove nant, it was instituted for the fullness of my glory; and he that receiveth a fullness thereof, must and shall abide the law, or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God. paragraphs of verbiage, the "revelation" reaches the kernel of the argument and the mand of the Lord" authorizing the institution of polygamy is promulgated. It is denied by the descendants of Joseph Smith, founder of the church, that he gave the polygamy revelation to his people. They claim that it corporated in the "Doctrine and Covenants" after his death and that it was the production of a carnal mind. But the "revelation" still occupies its finally com was in accus tomed place in the literature of the Mormon church and it is understood to be the last decree handed down from on high through the mediumship of Jo seph Smith, who was killed in the year following. The later "revelation," called "the manifesto, vising the faithful to refrain from polygamous prac tice, proclaimed through Wilford Woodruff, dent of the church, is not accorded a place in the look of "Doctrine and Covenants" of the Mormon ad presi church and those that follow the teachings of the book are given merely the polygamous utterance for their guidance. The "revelation" of July 12th, 1843, contains also a comm and to women to abide by the law as it was transmitted through Joseph Smith, saying: And again, verily, verily, I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my Priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God, for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon those who receive and abide in my law. The law as revealed permits a man of the church to take as many wives as he may care to select. The language is, rather, a command and the penalty of disobedience is everlasting damnation. It directs woman to submit and the penalty of her disobedi ence is eternal destruction. In its fulfillment it is therefore a soul-saving ordinance. The question is often asked, how womankind accept the operation of the polygamous faith of the church. It is because of implicit belief in the doc trine of the church and full faith that the fate of the damned will be measured out to dissenters in the hereafter. The "revelation 1 woman. that has enslaved woman, through a pretext that God ordered her degradation. can was not transmitted through a It was one of the masterstrokes of the sex