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The Commoner.
VOLUME 4 NUMBER 2L
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Historic Telegrams that Passed Between
Governor Altgeld and President Cleveland
- The full toxt of Governor Altgcld's
telegram to President Cleveland pro
touting against the order to send fed
eral troops to Chicago, tho president's
reply, and the second telegram of the
jjiovornor roltoratlng Ills protest In an
elaborate attack on the constitutlonal-
lty of tho president's act, are .printed
ltoro through tho courtesy of Mrs. John
Ji. Altgold. The three tolograms wore
read by President Clovoland in his
speech to tho students at Princeton, N.
"j last night, and on them ho based
much of his argument In defonso of tho
position ho took at tho tlmo of tho rail
road riots In Chicago.
ALTGELD'S PROTEST BY TELE
GRAPH. Executive Oillco, State of Illinois,
July 5, 1891. Hon. Grovor Clovoland,
President of tho United b'tatcs, Wash
ington, D. C Sir: I am advised that
jou have ordered federal troops to go
into service in tho stato of Illinois.
Surely, tho facts havo not been cor
rectly presented to you in this case, or
you would not have taken this stop, for
it is entirely unnecessary, and, as it
eoems to mo, unjustifiable. Waiving
rll questions of courtesy, I will say
that tho stato of Illinois Is not only
abld to tako care of itself, but it
stands ready to furnish the federal
govornmont any assistance it may need
' clsowhero. Our military force is am
ple, and consists of as good soldiers j
an can bo found in the country. Thoy
bavo been ordered promptly whonover
and whorevor thoy were needed. Wo
havo stationed in Chicago alone threo
legimontS of infantry, one battery and
one troops of cavalry, and no better
kc Idlers can bo found. They havo boon
rqady ovory moment to go on duty,
and havo been and are now eager to
gc into service, but thoy have not
teen ordered out because nobody in
Cook county, whether official or private
citizen, asked to have their assistance
or oven intimated in any way that
their assistance was desired or neces
sary. So far as I havo been advised, the
local officials havo been able to handle
tho situation. But if any assistance
wero needed tho state stood ready to
furnish 100 men for every one man
required, and stood ready to do so at
a moment's notice. Notwithstanding
these facts tho federal government has
been applied to by men who had politi
cal and selfish motives for wanting to
ignore the state government. We
have just gone through it long coal
strike, more extensive here than in
any other stato, because our soft coal
field is larger than that of any other
state. We have now had ten days of
tho railroad strike, and we have
promptly furnished military aid wher
ever tho local officials needed it.
In two instances the United States
marshal for the southern district of
Illinois applied for assistance to-enable
him to enforce tho processes of the
United States court, and troops were
promptly furnished him, and he was
assisted in every way he desired. Tho
law has been thoroughly executed and
every man guilty of violating it dur
ing tho strike has been brought to
justice. If the marshal of the northern
district of Illinois or the authorities of
Cook county needed military assist
ance thoy had but to ask for it in order
to get it from the state.
At present some of our railroads are
paralyzed, not by reason of obstruc
tion, but because they cannot get men
to operate their trains. For some rea
son they arc anxious to keep this fact
from the public, and for this purpose
they are making an outcry about ob
structions in order to divert attention.
Now, I will cite to you two examples
which illustrate the situation:
Some days ago I was advised that
tho business of one of our railroads
was obstructed at two railroad centers,
pnd that there was a condition border
ing on anarchy there, and I was
e sited to furnish protection so as to
enable the omployos of the road to
operate the trains. Troops were
promptly ordered to both points. Then
if. transpired that the company had not
sufficient men on its line to operate
one train. All the old hands were or
derly, but refused to go to work. The
company had large shops which
worked a number of men who did not
belong to the railway union and who
could run an engine. They were ap
pealed to to run tho train, but flatly
1 of used. Thoy were obliged to hunt up
soldiers who could run an engine and
operate a train.
Again, two days ago, appeals which
were almost frantic, came from the
officials of another road stating that at
an important point on their line trains
were forcibly obstructed, and that
there was a reign of anarchy at that
place, and they asked for protection
so that they could move their trains.
Troops were put on the ground in a
few hours time, when the officer in
command telegraphed me that there
was no trouble, and had been none at
that point, but that the road seemed
to have no men to run trains, and the
sheriff telegraphed that he did not
need troops, but would himself move
every train if tho company would only
furnish an engineer. The result was
that the troops were there twelvo
hours before a single train was moved
although there was no attempt at iu
terference by anybody.
It is true that in several instances
a road made efforts to work a few
green men and a. crowd standing
around insulted them and tried to
drive them away, and in a few other
cases they cut off Pullman sleepers
from trains. But all these troubles
wero local in character and could eas
ily be handled by the state authori
ties. Illinois has more railroad men
than any other state in the Union, but
as a rule they are orderly and well
behaved. This is shown by tho fact
that so little actual violence has been
committed. Only a small percentage
of these men have been guilty of in
fractions of the law. The newspaper
accounts have in many cases been
pure fabrications, and in others wild
exaggerations.
I have gone thus into details to show
that it is not soldiers that the rail
icads need so much as it is men to op
erate trains, and that the conditions do
rot exist here which bring the cause
within the federal statutes, a statute
that was passed in 1881 and was in
reality a war measure. The statute
authorized the use of federal troops
Jn a stato whenever it shall be imprac
ticable to enforce tho laws of tho
United States within such states by
the ordinary judicial proceedings. Such
a condition does not exist in Illinois.
There have been a few local disturb
ances, but nothing that seriously in
terfered with the administration of
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