The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-03-15

deRenerated into a commercial business
and that there were few lawyers who
placed their conscience and love of
principle above their fee. He had little
confidence in the ceremonies, forms
ard red tape which cucumber the ad-
ministration of law and by means of
which justice is strangled while the
longest purse succeeds. He believed
that law should be used for the sole
purpose of administering justice and
that it had been sadly perverted from
it's high and lofty purpose by sordid,
money-making age.
He was a man of great executive
ability and restless energy. Had his
talents been given to money making
he might easily have been a merchant
prince or a successful promoter of in
dustrial combinations. Had he been
willing to sell his talents to the high
est bidder in his profession he could
have held any place that the profess
sion offers to the lawyer.
AS a statesman, this country has not
produced his like in devotion to the
people, in breadth Of view and in pow
er Of intellect, since Thomas Jefferson.
Had John P. Altgeld been willing to
follow the course OF the ordinary poll
tician, be guided by self interest, adj
vocate those men and measures which
the strong and wealthy wished, or
been willing to truckle to popular feel
ings and impulses there would have
been no place in politics he could not
have attained. But with John P. Alt
geld money, intellect, friends, political
position were only valuable for one
thing, and that one was to serve the
cause Of justice to which he devoted
all the energies of his life.
His loyalty to principle was higher
than his loyalty to friends. He never
had a friend, political or personal, to
whom he could not say 'Good-by'
when he required to choose between
the principles in which he believed and
the friends he loved. Over and over
again he lived to see his friends desert
him for what they called safer leaders
and men of less uncompromising views,
and while he parted with these friends
reluctantly he never hesitated IN his
choice.
TO the cause Of the working men and
the poor he was always true. He did
not believe they could be wrong.
He was not Pharisee or hypocrite
and he did not desert his friends or his
cause and go over to the enemy simply
because he could not approve of every
detail of their campaign.
Governor Altgeld always and at all
times stood for human liberty. He be-
lieved that no excess Of human liberty
could be as evil as tyranny. He be-
lieved the world needed more liberty
rather than less. He never stopped to
count his followers when he went into
, battle, or consider results when he
took a position. He was moved simply
by a. determination Of whether the
principle he advocated was right or
wrong. BY the ordinary man he had
often been thought cold, unresponsive
and shallow. The fact is, that he was
one of the most sensitive men whom I
have ever known. No man was more
keenly sensitive to abuse and vilifica-
ton than Governor Altgeld, but his
love of truth and justice caused him to
| unflinchingly submit to this abuse
rather than to compromise his con-
science to the flattery of man.
However keenly he felt the criticism
and malicious abuse of his fellow man,
! his pride never let him admit it, even
to his friends. He had so much faith
! and trust in his own ideas of right