The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-04-13
CHAS. A.. TONNES ORATloy
ON LIFE OF JOHN P. AITGELD
Portions Delivered by Tho Hon.
AItqeld Memor Service the Garrick Theater
Chicago, March 10, 1907, the Fifth Anniversary
Tho o p Altgeld.

perience, and by study and reflection,
ne was democrat in the generic sense
as well as In party political affiliation.
he loved. the simple virtues. the old
fashioned ways. His spirit was kin to
the patriot fathers of our heroic age.
Modern commercialism did not touch
him. 1t could neither assimilate nor
understand him. He feared 1t. He
distrusted its corrupting, materialistic
tendencies. He believed it's current
II unrestrained must undermine not
only the supports of private character,
but, In time, the foundations Of the
Republic.
Believing this, and being a man Of
sincerity and courage, he said it. Not
seeing immediate results, he said 1t
again and yet again, as ceaselessly and
as relentlessly as ever old Cato called
for the overthrow Of Carthage. Be-
Ing man Purpose, he went to the
limit of his capacity to put into action
these things that he believed, and,
believing, declared. In political dis
cussion he not only treated principles,
but also suggested programs. At con-
ventions he formulated policies and
adopted platforms. In office he put
his convictions into practice and
taught by example as we'll as by pre-
cept. He was constant challenge to
the social and industrial abuses Of his
day. He was potential Nemesis to
all special privilege. While he lived
In undiminished vigor 1t could never
relax its vigilance; or, should his in
f1uence increase answerably to his in
dustry and his fortitude, could It ever
know security.
There was thus an irrepressible con-
f1ict between Altgeld and the dominant
economic forces Of his age. He sur
vived into their predominance from
an earlier and simpler system. Born
thirteen years before the Civil War,
and brought at once into the state
whose founders had been the artifcers
of the ordinance of 1887, his youth
was nurtured in the atmosphere Of
Benjamin Wade and Joshua r. Gid
d1ngs. It was the era Of the public
beginnings Of Abraham Lincoln, Of
the renascence Of the principles Of
THOMAS Jefferson and of the Declara-
ton Of Independence. There was alb
road in the land a lim1tless enthus1-
asm for liberty. Men believed in the
necessity and the eternity Of justice.
They talked about it. They sang
about it. They prayed about it. They
were getting ready to die for it.
Upon the sobriety and steadfastness
Of his exotic German stock there was
thus grated to be readily assimilable,
whose fruitage was a life's sincere
and lofty purpose. Rooted in the soil,
the tree stretched forth it's branches
toward the sky and made largess Of it's
fragrance with every passing breeze.
This composite Of conviction and en-
thusiasm carried young Altgeld into
the war. In the years that followed
it his maturing Judgment took note
Of that remarkable development
whereby, in a brief period of time,
the idealism Of 1860 was transformed
into the naterialisn Of 1900. It is
probable that no war, such is the in
nate and ineradicable brutality Of
slaughter, can be so glorious as not
In some measure to deprave the ma
jority of those who wage it, and es-
pecially Of those who conquer in it.
The war taught us the dangerous les
son Of our strength. It bred discon-
tented energy. When the enemy dis
persed We attacked the wilderness.
When We ceased recruiting armies, we
went to organizing corporations. The
national debt piled up by war taught
us to think In hundreds of millions
in time of peace land from the man.
agement Of military loans We grad
uyif ~
stock Our affairs erected to glory
were cast down by the iconoclasm Of
wealth, while the inspiring formulas
of the ancient service gave place to
the magic Of a single word, "Suc-
cess.":
When once the getting Of money has
become the supreme and controlling
object Of a people, it modif1es their
entire system Of ethics. The end just
if1es the means. Morality has as lit
tie practical relevance as a nursery
rhyme. Expediency becomes the fin
al sanction of conduct. For a time
the ancient standards are paid a Ger
tain perfuntory and formal observance,
while everybody knows that right and
wrong are meaningless terms in a
stake and where the implements are
the primal instincts Of savagery REIN
forced by all the resources and dis
cipline of civilization.
1t is impossible to estimate the
strength Of the forces arrayed against
| a man who has the temerity to throw
down the gauntlet to the benef1ciaries
Of this system. Social ostracism, fin
anctal ruin, political extinction, the
| poison of SANDER, and most potent of
all, the terrors Of Misrepresentation
accusation ad sophistry through the
| news and editorial columns Of a SUBJ
servient press; these are some Of the
innumerable perils man must face
who braves the resentment of threat
ened privilege. Such perils Altgeld
incurred, with full knowledge Of their
character, in order to expose the evils
of our social and economic order and
In the hope Of arousing his fellow
citizens to the performance Of thei1
duty. Every resourse of the system
he opposed was employed against him
to Its limit. No other man in oul
-