The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-07-08
4 GREAT MAN AT THE HELM.
A POWER MYSTERIOUS AND
MIGHTY.
Altgeld Has Good Grip on the
National Situation.

Sound Money, Correspondence Bureau,
Chicago, June 24.-The Democratic ma
tional convention will be held here in just
two weeks. Usually, when a convention
is SO near it is easy to prophecy pretty
accurately what the platform and who
the candidate will be. This year it is
different What Mark Hanna was to Nc
Kinley, John P. Altgeld, of Illinois, Is to
the Democratic candidate. He is the
Moses, the leader, the court of last re-
sort. To him must come the asptrants
and to him must their claims be made.
Unless they can pass a 95 per cent exam
ination in the tenets Of the 16 to theory
they cannot pass into his class Of year,
ings. That is what ails Horace Boies, Of
Iowa. There is little doubt that II Gov.
Bcies was little more heavily silver
plated he would meet the appreciation Of
the ANgeld machine and be pushed into
enough prominence to readily secure the
nomination of the Democrats at the July
convention.
The fact of the matter is that the DEM
ocrats are in a distinct quandary as to
what they will do when they meet here.
It IL easy enough to tell what the plat
form will be, but when it comes to the
candidate it is quite another matter.
Never in the history Of the party was
there evidenced such thorough going
Inclination to let the Office seek the man.
1t had been expected that the sound mon
ey men would experience some difficulty
in finding man willing to be sacrificed
on the gold standard altar, but not the
not hi - 1,kv~ -
pected that the free silver wing was go
ing to have any difficulty in finding a
candidate.
1t is going to be the old story of the
dog in the manger again, at least that is
the way It looks to me. Teller headquar-
ters have been opened in this city, with
the idea Of securing his nomination at
the Democratic convention. That is hard
ly Likely to come about. To begin with,
Teller himself does not seriously desire
the nomination on the Democratic plat
form. Teller is Republican. That he
bolted the st. Louis convention goes for
nothing. What Teller would like to do L.
to establish an Independent free silver
party and be its candidate on q is to
platform, and nothing else. If ever the
friends of free silver had a chance they
have one now. There is not shadow of
doubt that II the free silver men of the
country would get together, forget their.
f2ctional differences for three months,
and all work steadily and strongly for
silver, they could sweep the country I'm
fortunately they will do nothing OF the
kind. The Populists are fighting with the
Democrats, the Republicans are at log
gerheads with both, and junction Of
the free silver forces seems at the pres
ent time as impossible as the permanent
and complete admixture of oil and water
The more look over the situation here
the more am impressed with the sound
sense of Senator PETERS interview,
which sent to Sound Money so fully last
issue. ooh, he doesn't know blessed
thing about it" said gold standard man
to me in Washington, when told him
what Senator PETER had said. "He was
a preacher before he got into the senate,
and he doesn't know the first thing about
the game" It strikes me that some Of
cur friends had better watch Senator
PETER. My impression is that he knows
the game" very we'll indeed, and will
nightly astonish the enemy one of these
days.
If Boies should be nominated for pres
ident by the Democrats it will be against
tAC WASAAOO VI wv %1AI6NAOs XAl DVACS NJ
not enough Of a free sllverite to satisfy
the taste of Mr.. A;tgeld. Boies is willing
to compromise on bimatallism. Altgeld
hates the very sight Of a ''straddle," and
that is what he irrevcrently terms Boies'
peaceable measure. The consequence is
that the nomination OF Bo.es will mean
the overthrow Of the power of Altgeld,
and that is somewhat unlikely contin-
gency. Altgeld is power in Illinois,
and before the campaign is over he will
have become even more of national fig
ure than he now is.
Suppose we take a glance at this man
Altgeld and see what he looks like to an,
other man. The first thing that will
strike the observer IS the mans awful
pallor. It is not the paleness of student
but the pallor of one i'll Of mortal COM
plant. 1t Is known that Altgeld is far
from being either strong or well man,
but the doctors have not yet been able to
give name to the thing which makes
lis face the color of unbaked paste.
Tall, thin to the verge Of emaciation,
bent much by leaning over books, Altgeld
IS man to remember. Some philosopher
once said that in every ones face could
be found the trace Of some animal whose
body he had amin ated in previous ex-
istence. Wild as this theory may be,
every one of us can call instances where
the truth Of the first part Of this decla-
at.on is apparent. Altgeld is case in
point Partly because of his way Of trim
ming his Redeemed beard, partly from the
angle of the cheek bones, and the set OF
the PIERCING eyes, Altgeld reminds one If
the hunting wC.f.
Personally, he is a man among men.
Utterly fearless Of criticism, wheth er
newspaper or individual, he does what
seems best to him with an utter disre-
gard Of what other people may do or
think. He has been called an anarchist,
meddler, bondholding millionaire a
grinder Of the poor, socialist. free
thinker, and encourager Of discomfort
among the masses. the enemy Of law and
order, foe to vested and corporate in
terests ever ready to incite the worker to
strike or riot.
The poor have accused him Of being q
a plutocrat and their bitter Zoe: the
rich have declared him an anarchist, So
cialist, and friend of the lawle8s.
All those things have been said about
John p. Altgeld. governor Of Illinois, Just
renominated for another terms a year