Show THE MORMON VOTERS arri THE TO TAKE THE TEST avril and are arrested and prosecuted for perjury idaho nov 2 spec ial to the deseret news the political situation in idaho is decidedly unique so far at least as the mormon population in this territory is concerned the infamous amons test oath which has worked bo successfully heretofore in preventing the mormon element from exercising the rights of franchise is now being wrestled with a spirit of determination and even desperation i your readers are al that the late ruling by fudge berry forbids every eligible voter belonging to the mormon church from voting therefore afi the cormons mormons would enjoy their civil rights there remains but one thing to do so it is said namely to withdraw from membership in their church prom what I 1 can leam quite a number of mormon voters have sacrificed fellowship in their church rather than remain longer the victims of outrage and infamy this move has as might have been expected aroused the anti cormons mormons to a pitch of desperation and every available means known to political trickery is being devised and will be executed to exclude the ox cormons mormons from the polls the registrars in preston have refu sedi to reg erthe ex cormons mormons and have put their names on the rejected list tha intention so far as known in the before mentioned places is to prosecute the registrars as provided under the law for refusing to do their duty on the other hand tho anti mormon faction bas already arrested eight of ex mormon loters who have registered on the ground of perjury from salina and Burton warrants are out for some thirty two others these men are free kom the church and prepared to me et tho issue they arenow in jail awaiting a hearing which will coma off toi morrow your correspondent over heard a gentleman who is a witness state that bennett the notorious anti mormon offered to let these men off provided they would promise not to vote it is evidently a case of intimidation timi dation the political fever hereabouts is high and seemingly there is trouble to find candidates for paying offices among those arrested are george briggs H B simmons WH Wilkes james watts jamesm cook D 0 waton and win westover governor stevenson came down from blackfoot Blackf oct thursday night he had been consulting with the democrats of bingham county who seem to view the situation in a very gloomy light as to this particular county on wednesday H M prosecuting attorney for bingham county robert hays deputy sheriff and some six other prominent ke were arrested by marshal bai d on complaint of J ed smith assistant prosecuting attorney for idaho charging them with conspiracy in that they attempting to intimidate voters A writ of habeas was immediately out and the prisoners taken before judge berry and discharged on the ground that there was no such officer in idaho as united states commissioner though there was in utah the ruling while it may be good law is considered a surprising one in face of the fact that lor years polygamists have not only been bound over by these officers whom judge berry says aro not officers but have drawn their pay regularly from the united states the arrest of cheso men is said io have been a movement by democrats to counteract a plan of the cans who propose arresting every mormon who has registered whether ho has left tho church or no and one of the points on which beckett was arrested is said to be that ho has written declaring he would have certain men arrested if their names were not withdrawn from ibo lists by wednesday last furthermore it is knovs that warrants have been issued by probate judge Shoemak her for the arrest of something like or mor mons and it was just about as hays was going out to rexburg Rex burg to make tho arrests that ho was arrested himself the alan of the republicans is said to be to arrest every mormon whose name is on the registry lists bring them before who would their bonds ing from to taking it for granted that of them were arrested it will require from to in bonds to secure lease this amount cannot be raised as the law of idaho requires that in securing bonds the assessment roll shall be consulted and that a man must be worth the amount of the bonds abobo all ness and property exempt from execution ft is said by somo that there is not enough property in tho whole of bingham county to bail the men out if the number arrested be equal to the number of warrants and iho men would be compelled to languish in jail until after the election and their votes thus bo lost to further this plan judge berry was to close his court thursday until the day of november so that it would bo impossible to secure ine release of the parties on a writ of abbas corpus Whatever the arrange to to this lost end may have been it is certain they have failed for the court remains open and will continue open until after the election is ovar rumor has it that berry was interviewed by governor stevenson |