USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 30
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RESOLUTIONS
A concurrent resolution of the ninth Legislature set forth: "That the forest reserve policy of the General Government as administered is detrimental to the interests of the State of Idaho, in that it has resulted in the practical transfer of jurisdiction over more than one-third of the state to a bureau of the General Government which has substituted rules and regulations inconsistent with the legal rights of the citizens of the state under the general laws by which the state is presumed to be governed.
"That it has included within its boundaries more than one million acres of land belonging absolutely to the State of Idaho, granted to the state by Congress under the Admission Act, which said act and constitution of the state provides the sole means of disposal ; that the grant of sections 16 and 36 was for the exclusive use of the public schools," etc.
The Legislature asked Congress to amend the laws so that the people's rights could not be suspended "at the will and pleasure of a department agent," and copies of the resolution were sent to the Idaho senators and representative in Congress with instructions to use their influence to secure such amendments.
Another resolution appropriated $75.00 for the purchase of a gold medal, of suitable design, for presentation to Mrs. Minnie V. Wessels "for assistance in rendering artistic services in arranging floral and agricultural exhibits at the St. Louis and Portland expositions." The resolution provided that the medal should be two inches in diameter, with the coat of arms of the State of Idaho on one side and a suitable inscription on the other.
FISH HATCHERIES
The work of establishing state fish hatcheries was commenced by the ninth Legislature, which passed an act appropriating $15,000 for the establishment
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of such an institution, the site to be selected and the money expended under the direction of the state game warden. The first hatchery, known as the Hay Spur, was established under this act on Silver Creek in Blaine County, one of the best trout streams in the state. In August, 1908, the hatchery at Warm River, in the Eastern part of the state was commenced. Congress authorized the sale of a tract of 1,280 acres to the state as a location for this hatchery, the land also to be used as a game preserve. Later in the year 1908 a third hatchery was located on Lake Pend d'Oreille in Bonner County. Three years later there were distributed to the lakes and streams of the state from the three hatcheries nearly three million young trout.
CAMPAIGN OF 1908
In the political campaign of 1908 seven parties nominated condidates for President and Vice President viz: The republican, democratic, socialist, prohi- bition, peoples, socialist labor and independence. Five of these parties were represented in the State of Idaho. The republican national convention nominated William H. Taft, of Ohio, for President, and James S. Sherman, of New York, for Vice President. The democratic candidates were William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, and John W. Kern, of Indiana. Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, and Benjamin Hanford of New York, were the socialist candidates for President and Vice President, respectively. The prohibitionists nominated at their national convention Eugene W. Chafin, of Arizona, and Aaron S. Watkins, of Ohio. Thomas Hisgen, of New York, was the independence candidate for President, and John Temple Graves, of Georgia, the candidate for Vice President.
In Idaho the republican state convention nominated Edgar Wilson, Addison A. Crane and John Lamb for presidential electors; James H. Brady, for gov- ernor; Lewis H. Sweetser, for lieutenant-governor; Robert Lansdon, for secre- tary of state; Stephen D. Taylor, for state auditor; Charles A. Hastings, for state treasurer; Daniel C. McDougall, for attorney-general; S. Belle Chamber- lain, for superintendent of public instruction; F. C. Moore, for inspector of mines; Thomas R. Hamer, for representative in Congress; James F. Ailshie for justice of the Supreme Court.
John C. Rice, Thomas C. Galloway and M. D. Mills were the democratic candidates for presidential electors, and the state ticket was made up as follows: Moses Alexander, governor ; Cornelius C. Boyd, lieutenant-governor ; Watson W. Snell, secretary of state; Jerome A. Bradbury, state auditor; David L. Evans. state treasurer; Frank L. Moore, attorney-general; Gertrude F. Noble, superin- tendent of public instruction; Harry Moore, inspector of mines; James L. McCleor, representative in Congress. No nomination for justice of the Supreme Court was made by the democratic party in this campaign.
The socialists nominated Mrs. Anna L. Munroe, John T. Lough and Grace E. Workman for presidential electors; Ernest Unterman, governor; John Cheno- with, lieutenant-governor; H. H. Freidheim, secretary of state; Thomas J. Coon- rod, state auditor; Florence E. Rigg, state treasurer; Louis E. Workman, at- torney-general ; George W. Herrington, superintendent of public instruction ; W. F. Bradley, inspector of mines; Sample H. Orr, justice of the Supreme Court; H. A. Barton, representative in Congress.
SCENE ON LAKE COEUR D'ALENE
FISH HATCHERY, COEUR D'ALENE
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No nomination for justice of the Supreme Court was made by the prohibi- tion state convention. The presidential electors of this party were Herbert A. Lee, Dean Hamilton and Jennie G. Headley, and the state ticket was composed of the following candidates: William C. Stalker, governor; Robert Foster, lieutenant-governor; William M. Duthie, secretary of state; James H. Egbert, state auditor; Ida Puntenney, state treasurer; Herbert A. Lee, superintendent of public instruction ; Charles V. Price, inspector of mines; William G. Light, representative in Congress.
Only a partial ticket was nominated by the independence party. Thomas R. Dunson, Benjamin Mairo and James Irving were the candidates for presidential electors; E. W. Johnson, for governor; Nils Sundquist, for secretary of state; Thomas J. Jones, for attorney-general; Ernest C. Grant, representative in Con- gress. All the other places on the ticket were left vacant.
The election was held on November 3, 1908, and the entire republican ticket was elected. For presidential electors the vote was as follows: Republican, 52,621 ; democratic, 36,162; socialist, 6,400; prohibitionist, 1,986; independence party, 119. For governor, Brady received 47,864 votes; Alexander, 40,145; Unterman, 6,105; Stalker, 1,981 ; Johnson, 131. Three constitutional amend- ments were voted on at this election, but only one was adopted. The amend- ment to Section 6, Article 18, relating to the election of county officers and the employment of deputies, was adopted by a vote of 33,443 to 26,837.
BRADY'S ADMINISTRATION
James H. Brady, eighth governor of the State of Idaho and a son of John and Katherine (Lee) Brady, was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1862. While still in his boyhood the family removed to Kansas, where he graduated at the Olathe high school and attended the State Normal School at Leavenworth. In 1894 he came to Idaho and organized the James H. Brady Investment Company, of which he was president. In 1900 and again in 1908 he was a delegate to the republican national convention, and from 1904 to 1908 he was chairman of the Idaho state central committee of his party. He was nominated and elected governor in 1908 and was nominated for re-election in 1910, but was defeated by James H. Hawley, the democratic candidate. On January 24, 1913, Mr. Brady was elected United States senator for the un- expired term of Weldon B. Heyburn, whose death occurred on October 17, 1912. At the expiration of that term, Mr. Brady was elected for a full term of six years, ending on March 4, 1921. He died on January 13, 1918, and on the 22nd of the same month Governor Alexander appointed John F. Nugent to the va- cancy in the United States Senate. Mr. Brady was a trustee of Whitman College at Walla Walla, Washington; a member of the Kansas Historical Society; an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic; and chairman of the advisory board of the National Council of Women Voters. His home was at Pocatello.
TENTH LEGISLATURE
Governor Brady's term of office began with the opening of the tenth legisla- tive session on January 4, 1909. By virtue of his office, Lewis H. Sweetser,
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lieutenant-governor, became president of the Senate, and Paul Clagstone, of Bonner County, was chosen speaker of the House. In his message the governor reviewed the condition of the state institutions; advocated the enactment of a direct primary election law ; recommended an amendment to the state banking law to give the bank commissioner more authority and power to prevent un- authorized and unsafe practices by banks; the enactment of laws to encourage prospectors and promote the mining interests of the state; and an indeterminate sentence law for persons convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary.
Under the act of the preceding session providing for the appointment of a commissioner to revise and codify the laws, John F. MacLane was ap- pointed commissioner. Governor Brady, in his message, recommended the early adoption of the commissioner's report. The code was adopted by an act approved on January 12, 1909, the eighth day of the session. The same day this act was approved, Weldon B. Heyburn was elected United States senator for a second time.
Governor Brady called attention to a plank in the republican platform de- claring in favor of "an effective county local option law, so that the people in every county in this state can have the power to decide whether or not the liquor business shall be carried on within their respective county boundaries," etc., and urged the passage of a law conferring such power upon the people. A local option act was approved on February 20, 1909.
"This state," said the governor, "should be properly represented at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition to be held at Seattle, opening in June of the present year. Its object is the exploitation of the resources of the whole Pacific coast and Idaho is vitally interested in the Western half of our National Empire. * *
* It is to be regretted that our last Legislature failed to provide for it and there is a question as to what we will be able to do in the very short time we have to prepare for a proper display of our resources. Nevertheless, I believe in Idaho as I believe in you, and I believe that you can point the way. I therefore commend this subject to your thorough consideration with the as- surance of my hearty cooperation and support in making an exhibit that will be a credit to our state."
The Legislature appropriated $30,000, "or so much thereof as may be neces- sary," and authorized the governor to appoint three commissioners, who were to receive no compensation except actual expenses, to prepare an exhibit for the exposition. The act creating the commission also provided that county commissioners, "at their discretion," appropriate a sum not exceeding that which could be raised by a tax of one-half mill on each dollar of taxable property, in addition to the $30,000 appropriated by the state, or prepare an exhibit from the county subject to the state commissioners. Through the cooperation of the three commissioners appointed by the governor and the commissioners of the various counties of the state, Idaho made a creditable showing at the exposition and received a number of awards.
A school for the deaf, dumb and blind was established at the Town of Good- ing and a bond issue of $25,000 was authorized for the erection of suitable buildings, etc. The tenth Legislature authorized over half a million in bonds, to wit :
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University of Idaho
$125,000
Lewiston Normal School
52,750
Albion Normal School
36,000
Industrial Training School
55,000
Academy of Idaho
36,000
Capitol Building
60,000
School for Deaf, Dumb and Blind
25,000
State Penitentiary
20,000
Northern Insane Asylum
35,000
Soldiers' Home
18,500
Bridges
43,000
Total .$506,250
The $43,000.00 of bridge bonds mentioned were for the construction of three bridges, $18,000.00 being appropriated for a bridge across the Kootenai River at Bonners Ferry, $15,000.00 for a bridge across the Salmon River in Idaho County, and $10,000.00 for a bridge across the Snake River on the line between Lincoln and Cassia counties.
Other acts of this session appropriated $15,000.00 for the purchase of certain lands of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation; while still other acts made May 30th (Decoration Day), and the first Monday in September (Labor Day) of each year legal holidays.
THE DIRECT PRIMARY LAW
The most important statute passed at this session, however, was undoubt- edly the direct primary law. This act provided that all nominations for state or county officers should be made at a primary election instead of by delegates to party conventions as theretofore. The matter or a primary election law had been discussed for several years prior to its enactment and was generally acquiesced in as being a proper exercise of legislative authority. The people of the state very generally believed that many of the evils attending the nomination of officers at party conventions could be cured and that a great reform in political matters would be had by the enactment, which in effect would do away with conventions of political parties except those held for the purpose of selecting delegates to National conventions called for the purpose of nominating candidates for president and vice president.
The results of the primary election law, however, were never entirely satis- factory. Amendments were several times made, but it was found practically im- possible to formulate a law which would prevent the members of one political party declaring their conversion to the political principles of another patty and voting at the primary election for candidates of such party to fill the offices. It was also found that the expenses attending a primary election where state offices were involved almost prohibited a man of moderate means from becoming a candi- date for an office in case his nomination were contested. It was also found that in the case of most state offices, the candidates being comparatively unknown, it was impossible without great expense to inform the people as to the merits or demerits of such candidates. Strong opposition to the primary election law
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gradually developed throughout the state. In the primary election of 1918, a political organization known as the Non-Partisan League composed princi- pally of farmers had been formed, which included as part of its membership a majority of the electors in a number of counties of the state. The leaders of this organization met in Boise prior to the primary election and there nomi- nated candidates for the various state offices, irrespective of their political affilia- tions and pledged the persons so selected to become candidates of the democratic party in the primary election. The majority of the persons so selected had not been theretofore members of the democratic party and were not recognized as belonging to that party. A few who had affiliated with the party prior to the selection had declared their adhesion to the Non-Partisan League and announced their intention of abiding by the conclusions reached by that convention. For the few offices for which nominations were not made by the non-partisans. endorsements of candidates of other parties were made and non-partisans were advised to vote for them.
Strenuous efforts were made in the courts to prevent the non-partisan candidates filing their nominations as democratic candidates, but the Supreme Court of the state, upon the matter being presented to it, decided that there was nothing in the primary election law to prevent this being done. In the primary election all of the non-partisan candidates were nominated and only one dem- ocratic candidate for a state office received a majority. Former Lieutenant- Governor Parker, the candidate for state treasurer, had no opposition for the reason that a republican had been endorsed by the non-partisans for that posi- tion. In the election that followed, a strange situation developed. A majority of the democratic nominees were men who had never affiliated with the democratic party and did not profess their intention of affiliating with that party in the future. This necessarily resulted in many lifelong members of the democratic . party refusing to sustain their candidates for the various state positions, except for treasurer, and supporting the republican candidates for the Lower House of Congress, as well, two men having been nominated on the democratic ticket as candidates for Congress who had theretofore been politically opposed to the party. This anomalous condition of affairs caused the people of the state to conclude that a law permitting a political outrage of this kind should no longer have its place as a part of the statutes of the state, and reflecting these views, the Legislature, meeting on the first Monday of January, 1919, passed an act repealing the primary election law so far as it pertained to state matters, providing for party county conventions to nominate state officers and continuing the primary election law as a part of the election machinery applying to county elections.
PUBLIC PARKS
By an act of Congress approved April 30, 1908, a tract of land situated in townships 46 and 47 North, ranges 3 and 4 West of Boise Meridian, and being a part of the old Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, situated near the Southern end of Lake Coeur d'Alene and particularly well adapted for park purposes, had been set aside as a park, provided the state would accept the terms of the act and pay a moderate price therefor. The provisions of this act were accepted by the Legislature at this session. Two years later the necessary appropriation was made and a public park was created known as Heyburn Park. It was placed
SHOSHONE FALLS, FIVE MILES EAST OF TWIN FALLS, 212 FEET HIGH, 950 FEET WIDE
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HISTORY OF IDAHO
under the control of a Park Commission consisting of the governor, the game warden of the state and a commissioner appointed by the governor. Considerable sums of money have been spent in beautifying this park and in making it a pleasure ground to be used by the people of the state, so that it has now become one of the beauty spots of the Northwest.
Another wise provision of law suggested by Governor Brady and enacted by this session of the Legislature was an appropriation for the purpose of purchasing certain lands in the vicinity of the Shoshone Falls to be bought of the state and to be set aside as a public park to be known as Shoshone Falls State Park. The sum of $2,400.00 was appropriated for the improvement of this park, the money to be expended in behalf of the state by the county commissioners of Twin Falls County on condition that that county should appropriate a like sum for such improvements. This county met the full requirements of the act and Shoshone Falls Park has become one of the show places of the State of Idaho. It is to be hoped that in the future the State Legislature will appreciate the vast benefits that will accrue to the people of the state by extending the improvements so well commenced, because by so doing they will make of Shoshone Falls a show place bearing the same relation to the Northwest that Niagara Falls bears to the State of New York and the Dominion of Canada.
The keen insight of Governor Brady and the wisdom of the Legislature in regard to matters that would in the future benefit the State of Idaho was never better displayed than in the advocacy of the necessary appropriations to estab- lish Heyburn Park and Shoshone Falls Park and commence improvements upon each which would be extended during coming years, finally making them posses- sions of which Idaho would well be proud.
THE ELECTION OF 1910
For the first time in the history of the state candidates for state and county offices in Idaho were nominated under the primary election law instead of under the old system of state and county conventions. The republicans, after a notable contest in the primary election renominated Governor Brady, Lieutenant-Gover- nor Sweetser, State Auditor Taylor and Attorney-General McDougall for their respective positions. Burton L. French was nominated as representative in Congress, W. L. Gifford for secretary of state, O. V. Allen for state treasurer, Grace M. Sheppard for superintendent of public instruction, Robert N. Bell for inspector of mines, and the veteran jurist Isaac N. Sullivan, who had graced the supreme bench of the state from the time of its organization, was renominated for justice of the Supreme Court.
The democratic candidates were as follows: James H. Hawley, governor ; E. J. Hunter, lieutenant-governor; O. V. Badley, secretary of state; E. W. Jones, state auditor ; Joseph Carruth, state treasurer ; Frank L. Moore, attorney- general; Gertrude F. Noble, superintendent of public instruction ; Jay A. Czizek, inspector of mines ; A. M. Bowen, representative in Congress; J. L. McAlear, justice of the Supreme Court.
S. W. Motley was nominated for governor by the socialists; M. C. Gifford, for lieutenant-governor ; D. J. O'Mahoney, for secretary of state ; G. W. Triplow, for state auditor; Jessie M. Myer, for state treasurer ; C. H. Felton, for attorney-
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general; Elizabeth H. Crabbe, for superintendent of public instruction ; C. B. Pendleton, for inspector of mines; J. H. Coon, for justice of the Supreme Court; Rolla Myers, for representative in Congress.
Whether the prohibitionists were satisfied with the local option law passed by the preceding Legislature, or whether they disliked the ordeal of nominating candidates by the primary election method, is not certain, but at any rate no prohibition ticket was placed in the field in 1910.
The election occurred on November 4, 1910. The vote for governor was as follows: Hawley, 40,856; Brady, 39,961 ; Motley, 5,342. Mr. Hawley was the only candidate on the democratic ticket to be elected. His plurality over Brady was 1,095, and the republican candidates, except governor, were elected by pluralities ranging from a few hundred to 15,019, the latter being French's plu- rality for representative in Congress. Three constitutional amendments were adopted-the first giving the Legislature certain powers relating to county and municipal officers ; the second amending section 6, article 5, so that a district judge might be called to sit on the supreme bench in cases where one of the justices of the Supreme Court was disqualified from any cause; and the third relating to the indebtedness of the state.
CHAPTER XVI FROM HAWLEY TO DAVIS
HAWLEY'S ADMINISTRATION-ELEVENTH LEGISLATURE-WESTERN GOVERNORS' SPECIAL-EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE-POLITICAL CAM- PAIGN OF 1912-HAINES' ADMINISTRATION-TWELFTH LEGISLATURE-ALLEN'S DEFALCATION-ELECTION OF 1914-ALEXANDER'S ADMINISTRATION-THIR- TEENTH LEGISLATURE-PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION-ELECTION OF 1916- ALEXANDER RE-ELECTED-FOURTEENTH LEGISLATURE-POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1918-FIFTEENTH LEGISLATURE-ADOPTION OF NEW METHODS OF STATE GOV- ERNMENT-SELECTION OF GOVERNOR'S CABINET.
James H. Hawley, ninth governor of the State of Idaho, was born in Dubuque, Iowa, January 17, 1847, and is of English; Irish and Dutch ancestry. Governor Hawley's mother died when he was but an infant, and in 1849 his father went to California leaving his son with relatives at Dubuque, where he was educated in the city schools, graduating from the high school there in 1861, the youngest member of his class. Upon leaving school he went to California and in 1862 left his home with relatives there without their knowledge, attracted by the glowing reports of the rich gold fields on the Salmon River, and came to what is now the State of Idaho, where he has ever since resided except while tempo- rarily absent for three years in California engaged in study. In the fall of 1868 he returned from California and resumed mining in Boise County, where he had retained his mining interests, and in 1870 was elected a member of the lower house of the Legislature from Boise County. At the close of the legislative session he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the territory; was elected to the upper house of the Legislature in 1874; was one of the county commissioners of Boise County from 1876 to 1878, was district attorney for the Second Judicial District from 1878 to 1882; practiced law at Hailey from 1884 to 1886, when he was appointed United States district attorney for Idaho by President Cleveland ; removed to Boise in 1890 and in 1893 formed a partner- ship in the practice of law with William H. Puckett; was elected mayor of Boise in 1902; was nominated by the democratic party for governor in 1910 and elected ; was nominated for re-election in 1912, but was defeated, although he received more votes than any other candidate on the democratic ticket; then resumed the practice of law as senior member of the law firm of Hawley & Hawley; was democratic candidate for the United States Senate in the elec- tion of 1914 and was defeated by James H. Brady.
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