The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-20
AitgeiG'c New York Speech.

AS we have previously said, John p.
Altgeld. governor of Illinois. is intel
lectually one of the ableSt men in the
United States. We think that he puts
his extraordinary menta! abilities to
vicious uses when he employs them to
advocate a debasement of the currency
and a curtailment of the just power
Of the federal government TO enforce
national law. We consider that an able
man on the wrong side is dangerous
in exact proportion to his ability; and
this is why in our opinion the real
menace behind the showy but super
fetal Bryan is the calculating, the
shrcwd, the plausible disciple of
Machiavel, Altgeld. a careful reading
OF Altgeld's New York speech strength
ems this conviction. 1t emphasizes the
subtety and the adrOitnes1 of which
this leading spirit in the present or
ganized revolt against stability and
good order is the master.
Primarily that speech was q defense
II reviewed in detail his course during
the Debs railroad insurrection. He
declared he was on that occasion ready
to furnish troops during the strike
whenever demanded by local civil au-
thorities, and he held he had no right
to use the state militia without such
requisition. He said he furnished
troops on the request of the federal
authorities in southern Illinois, and was
ready to do the same for the federal
authorities at Chicago, but they never
asked him for such aid He said that
none of the civil authorities in Chicago
asked him for troops until he himself
through friend urged Mayor Hopkins
to make such a requisition, when he
had 5000 members of the Illinois ma
tional guard on duty within a few
hours The governor asserted that fed
eral troops were ordered under arms
three days before there was any riot
Ing in Chicago, and that they We're in
camp in Chicago day before the strik-
ers began to destroy property. He
asserted that the regulars did not pre-
vent rioting, but on the contrary pro-
Voked 1t. He gave the police and the
militia all the credit for quelling the
disturbances. He insisted it was un-
constitutional for the president to send
federal troops to quell local disturb
ance unless requested by the legisla-
ture or the governor of the state He
argued that to permit such action made
the president dictator, and estab-
lished new and dangerous principle
in American government.
If this were truthful representa-
tion of the facts, Altgeld's deductions
might be admitted. But it Is not the
truth. The disturbance was more than
local. 1t involved more than msde-
meanOr. 1t blocked interstate traffic
and travel and ohstructed the mails.
1t jeoparded the peace and safety of
the entire community. While Mayor
Hopkins, of Chicago, was waiting for
Governor Altgeld to act and while Gov
'ernor Altgeld was waiting for Mayor
Hopkins to act, each trying to throw
the responsibility for decisive action
on the others shoulders, the president
of the United States, bearing in mind
that national authority had been set
at defiance, put forth the military force
Of the federal government and broke
the Instructions backbone. AS he said
in reply to Altgeld's protest: "In this
hour of danger and public distress dis
cussion may well give way to active
effort on the part of all in authority
to restore obedience to law and to pro-
tect life and property"
Governor Altgeld says the presidents