The morning call., 1893-06-29
THE PARDONING OF THE ANAR-
CHISTS.


nous in condemning Governor Altgeld of
Illinois for pardoning the three anarchists
-Fielden, Schwab and Neebe. The Chi
cago Tribune says that the Governor does
not reason like an American. LOT feel like
one, and consequently does not behave
like one. The arguments by which the
Governor iustifies his action were all
brought forward at the trial. and were
passed upon by two competent courts.
The facts Of the case were quite lately
rehearsed by Judge Gary in a magazine
article which has been widely read; it is
beyond dispute that in a mob of men call
ing themselves anarchists, and reused by
int1ammatory speeches calling for war
upon society and order, bomb was thrown
which killed number of policemen and
wounded others. 1t was proved to the
satisfaction of jury that the three men
who have now been pardoned were Access
sorry to the throwing of the bomb. In
law these men were guilty of murder and
had forfeited their lives. They were not
hanged, but instead were sentenced to the
penitentiary for life. Their liberation
fills the public with astonishInent. coming
as it does on the heels of the Inauguration
of a monument to the memory Of their
partners in guilt who were hanged.
1t seems narrow-minded to accuse Gov
ernor Altgeld of sympathy with anarchists
because he was born abroad. Govern or
Oglesby, who was born merican, COM
muted the sentences of Fielden and
Schwab. and it is we'll known that Gov
ernor Fifer, who was also born in this
country, was on the eve of pardoning the
whole gang when his backbone was stiff
fened by friends of order. 1t is probably
more correct to assume that Governor Alt
geld. who is an acute lawyer and a learned
penologist, allowed his mind to drift
into condition of confusion which pre-
vented his discriminating between honest
differences of opinion on political doctrines
and overt acts involving homicide. He
seems to have forgotten that man who is
so unfortunately constituted as to be I'M
able to appreciate the value of govern
ment. but who cannot be punished for his
opinions, is very different parsonage
from one who puts his notions into prac-
tice by taking life. We do not jail or cleo
trocute the man who believes that the world
would be better off if we had no Legisla-
lures, Il o executives, no courts.n police and
DO prisons, so long as he confines himself to
entertaining an abstract belief, but when
he carries his iconoclastic theories into
effect with dynamite we must, for society's
sake, put him out of the way, either in
prison OF on the gallows. That distinction
appears to have escaped Governor Alt
geld's mind.
1t is rather an unfortunate occurrence
for Chicago and Illinois. That city and
that State are largely peopled by Euro
peans who have for generations endured
such untold miseries from usurped author
ity that all a uthorlty is repugnant to
them. In their experience the law and its
ministers have always been Instruments
of wrong. They cherish a burning desire
for their humiliation. When they come
to this country they fall to discern that
authority is not usurped bere, that execu-
tives and Judges and policemen are all
the servants of the people, chosen by them
or their agents. and liable to dismissal if
they transcend the proper limits of their
powers. These foreigners do not see any
difference between them and the Euro
pean satraps who hold life and liberty in
the hollow of their hand. Their mario W
intelligence does not enable them to dis
Germ distinction between a country
where no man can suffer in property or
person except by the verdict of a jury of
his peers and land where Grand Duke
or military Governor may strip innocent
men of freedom and existence at his own
sweet will. Brought up in all atmospheres
of irresponsible despotism they have never
realized that there is any cure for real or
fancied evils except the knife and the
bomb. 1t is gravely to be feared that they
can never be educated to understand that
they can be any other cure. 1t is to be re-
GREETED that Governor Altgeld's pardon is
calculated to impair the value of the lesson
administered to the Haymarket assassins.