The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-19
The Fight Between Harrison and
Altgeld in Illinois.
INVOLVES THE COMMITTEE
Thomas Gahan Refuses to Attend the
Auditorium Meeting-A Scathing De-
nunciation of Altgeld by the
Committeeman.

tlOnal Committeeman Gahan, on the
one side, and the Altgeld wing of the
democracy on the other, reached an
acute stage to-day and threatens to in
volve the national committee in spite
of the strenuous attempts being made
to keep local quarrels out of the pro-
ceedings at next Thursdays meetings
of the national committee in this city.
Hon. Thomas Gahan, national commit
teeman from Illinois. in an open letter
to-day to the leaders of the Altgeld ele-
ment Of the party. explains his reasons
for declining to attend the Auditorium
meeting of Thursday night, and indi-
rectly appeals to his colleagues of the
national committee to refrain from at
tending the Altgeld meeting. Interest
is added to the occasion by the report
of Governor Altgeld's friends that Bry-
an some days ago accepted the invi-
tation to address the meeting. The let
ter of National Committeeman Gahan
follows
Chicago, H., July lS-The commit
tee of arrangements, Auditorium meet
ing of July 20th:
Gentlemen am just in receipt of
your letter of July Il. rendering me box
81 for the Auditorium meeting of July
10th
The published statements of the
chairman of your committee have made
it manifest that this invitation is not
rendered in good faith and is not one
which any believer in the integrity of
democratic organization could be ex-
pected to accept, and ordinarily a mere
declination of the box rendered me
would suffice; but since / am informed
by the daily press that a large number
of invitations have been sent by your
committee to members of the national
committee / feel it my duty as a demo-
cratic national committeeman from the
state of Illinois to give you and the
public the reasons which make it i'm
possible that l could accept the invi-
tation without stultifyng the demo-
cratic party of the state Of Illinois and
committing an injustice to the demo-
cratic party of Oh ago.
The membership Of your committee
on arrangements, in whose behalf this
invitation is rendered me, shows that in
its personnel this committee is entirely
composed of gentlemen who, in April
last, opposed the regular democratic
candidate for mayor and other charter
offices of the city Of Chicago and did all
in their power to bring about the defeat
of the regular democratic ticket and
the election of the regular republican
ticket at that election. Strange as it
may appear to those from abroad an
examination of the members of the
other committees arranging the pro-
posed meeting at the Auditorium shows
that every member of the Auditorium
committees likewise opposed the regu-
lar democratic ticket and its nominees
in the Chicago election of last April,
and likewise sought to defeat the regu-
lar democratic ticket and elect the re-
publican ticket at that election.
Il am a believer in the rule of the
majofity-and when the democratic
party ceases to believe in the rule of the
majority 1t will cease to be the party
of the people. The primaries and the
convention of last spring were held un-
der a law the principles of which were
approved and the passage of which was
publicly recommended by your fac
tional leaders. Notwithstanding this
and repudiating in advance the work
of that convention and will of the ma
jority, you sounded the battle cry Of
Anything to beat the regular demo-
cratic nominee and maintained a guer-
rilla war against the democratic party
and its regular organization until you
were rebuked at the polls by such an
overwhelming defeat as to effectively
silence your pretentions of a party or
ganization, until you saw in this dem
onstration of July 20 an opportunity
to temporarily galvanize the life.ess
seeds of party sedtion which you there
so zealously sowed. ! would be re-
creant to my trust as the representa-
tive of Illinois democracy on the la
tional committee if | did not frankly re-
view these facts. which are within the
memory of all and which should be
brought to the attention of the entire
democratic national committee as the
n1
of Illinois cannot attend your demon
stration.
''In the three years that it has been
my honor to represent the democracy
of Illinois on the national committee /
have considered it my duty to labor
for party harmony in the state of Illi-
nois and for the conciliation of all ele-
ments in order that we might in 1900
redeem Illinois to democracy by send
ing "a votes to the electoral college for
William ]. Bryan and sharing in the
triumph of that platform of principles
for which the democratic national COM
mittee so faithfully labored against
overwhelming odds in the dark days of
1896. If l saw in your proposed meet
ing. or in the membership of your sew
eral committees a single indication to
hope of party unity if you had held
out for a moment the hand of good
fellowship if you had for a moment in
your asseverations of democracy in
dicated that you would have accepted
the olive branch on any condition short
of surrender Of party organization
and party principles to the whim and
caprices and eXactions of hopeless
minority, / would have been the first
to make an overture in the belief that
the first duty Of a committeeman is to
the elements of his party.
But your action and your declarations
and the public announcement of your
present intentions have proven that
you are not an element of the demo-
cratic party. that its constituents here
cannot survive in your atmosphere and
that to accept your dictation is to sur
render that fundamental doctrine which
finds in the rule of a majority the sue
cess of the democratic party.
For these reasons and for the fur
ther reason that a sense of duty must