The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-09
RICHARD OLNEY DIES SUDDENLY,
 AGED 82 YEARS
Continued From Page One.)


 Richard Olney served successively as attorney general and secretary ot state during the administration of President Cleveland. and although at the head of the State Department for the short period of one year and nine months only, he won reputation as a statesman of commanding ability and force, His greatest triumph was his successful insistence upon arbitration of the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela.
 Approximately disregard1ng the warnings that rigid maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine might plunge the United States into war with Great Britain, President Cleveland and Sec retary Olney carried out their own ideas of diplomacy In his famous message sent through Ambassador Bayard to Lord Salisbury, British sec- retary of state tor foreign affairs, MT Olney, promising the inalienab1e right of the United States to intervene in questions affecting the territorial in- tegrity of South American countries, saAd in part:
 Great Britain both admits that there is a controversy and that arbi- tration should be resorted to for it's adjustment. But while up to that point her attitude leaves nothing to be desired, it's practical effect is com pletely nullifed by her insdstence that the submission shall cover but part of the controversy; that as a condition of arfbitrating her right to part of the disputed territory, the remainder shal be turned owed to her. Upon what princdple-except her feebleness as a nation-is Venezuela to be denied the right of having the claim heard and passed upon by an impartial tri- lbunal? Tt is so, because will 1t to be so,' seems to be the only tustifica,- tion Great Britain ofcers.''
 Although Lord Salisbury at first re- fused to submit to the American de- mand, upon further representations he receded from his attitude and agreed to the arbitration of the entire dis pute.
 MT. Olney's firmness previously had become familiar to the American pub- lie through his action in the great Chicago railroad strike and subsequent riots, when as attorney-general he up- held the right and duty of the gov ernment to employ troops to crush the disorder. ~
 In refutation of charges that this attitude indicated his hostility to labor unions, MT. OlneY, in a special brief filed in a federal court in Pennsylva- mia in the case of a railroad trainmen's strike on the Reading Railroad, only, five, months after the end of the Chi- cago strike, upheld the right of labor to organize and urged that all labor troubles should be arbitrated.
 MT. Olney was born in Oxford, Mass, in 1885. His father was a textile manufacturer and banker. In the years following his graduation from the Harvard Law School in 1858, MT. Olney won high distinction in his profession and became an au. thority on matters of probate, trust and corporation law. His sole ap- pearance in public office before going to Washington was in 1875, when he served one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
 When, in 1904. he permitted the presentation of his name at the Demo- cratic national convention as a candi- date for the Presiden nomination, he received 38 votes, including the solid support of the Massachusetts delegation. President Wilson urged him to accept appointment as am- bassador to Great Britain and later offered i'm the position of governor of the Federal Reserve Board, but in each instance MT. Olney declned.
 His public utterances always con- thoughtful attention and at tracted widespread comment. Long after his retirement from his compar- atively brief career in public office, MT. Olney's counsels were eagerly sought by members. of the Democratic party.