The central record., 1914-03-19
Eloquent Tribute To The Memory Of
Goebel, By A. 0. Stanley.

Congressman A. o. Stanley was the
chief orator of the day at the unveiling |
Of the handsome bronze statute erected
to the memory of VIM. Goebel at
Frankfort on March 10th. The weather
was so unfavorable that the unveiling
services were held in the Representa-
tive Chamber of the Capitol. So elo-
quent and effective was the address of
Mr.. Stanley in detailing the life and
character of Kentucky's martyred
Governor that the members of the Leg
islature who heard the speech were in
fiuenced largely in this way to pass the
Finn Railroad Bill dealing with the
regulation of freight rates. We here
give an excerpt of this beautiful tri-
butte.
STANLEY PAYS TRIBUTE.
Congressman A. o. Stanley said:
HE sat for an hour in the seat of
authority, gazed into the admiring eyes
of his assembled countrymen, heard the
tumultuous applause of devoted thou
sands, and then in the flower of his
virile and vigorous manhood he fell at
the very threshold of the splendid vista
of honor and distinctions that opened
before him.
"A generation ago William Goebel
spoke at times almost in an unknown
tongue. He talked of the separation
of the business of transportation and
production. He demanded the rigorous
and effective regulation of common
carriers; that they should be impartial
in rates to shippers and just in the
payment of taxation to the State.
with ever-increasing emphasis. as
a candidate for Governor and as your
nominee for that high office, he declar
ed that the rate issue, the bottom ques-
ton in this fight that from which pub
lie attention should never be directed
was whether the laws of Kentucky
should be enacted. construed and exc
cuted by the people of Kentucky. or
by powerful and privileged interests.
For the raising of that issue he was
denounced as demagogue. assailed as
an assassin, pilloried by corrupt and
subsidized press. Every detail of his
private and public life perverted and
distorted by the evil ingenuity of envy
and hate. His sacred and sainted deeds
We're dragged from the tomb and held
up to contumely and contempt by ser
vile hirelings and salaried slanderers.
And when his malignant foes and their
accursed gold had failed to debauch the
electors or defeat the fixed purpose of
the people, in utter desperation they
fired the black heart of murder and
armed the assassin for the dastardly
deed that closed in darkness his great
career and covered the Commonwealth
with pail of horror and of shame.
What were the crimes for which
William Goebel fell?
HE protected the Railroad Commits
sion of Kentucky from the miners and
sappers who sought to destroy it, and
with lash of pitiless scorn, drove
from the corridors of the Capitol nest
of lobbyists who sought to debauch the
legislation and despoil the State
LIMIT FOR HOURS OF LABOR.
''He proposed to limit the hours of
labor for an army of men engaged in
the most perilous enterprise known to
peace or war, that the toiler might
commune with the family he sustain
ed, and that hundreds of men might
not be dashed to death, because some
weary wreck driven without rest or
repose, through the long hours of the
day and the night, fell asleep at the
key or the switch.
He proposed to confer upon the
engineer at the throttle the same mea-
sure of protection which for years the
law had secured to the tramp upon the
highway. He proposed to extend and
enlarge the meager and Intellectual
powers of the Kentucky Railroad Com
mission, that it might become an actua
shield, to the shipper from eXtortior
and to the State from fraud and chi
cane.
LET impartial history-looking back
over twenty years of Federal legisIa-
tion-say whether William Goebel was
an incendiary or seer. The reforms
he proposed for a State became the
goal and the models for the law-mak-
ers of nation.
Monuments are erected to the liv-
ing, not the dead. We need no storied
urn or animated bust to redeem from
Oblivion the fame of William Goebel.
His name is engraven upon the hearts
of his countrymen and his deeds mark
the proudest and most tragic page in
the history of his country.
'This is not monument, but bea-
con. 1t is erected here not to mark
the resting place of the dead but to
direct and inspire the onward march
of the living
Work In Ryan CommanderY.