Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/89

 Hon, Rodney Wallace.

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��desires, and ambitions in the direction of public office. It is equally certain that any office which he will consent to hold, and which the people who know him can give, he can have without opposition.

MR. WALLACE AS A CITIZEN.

I come now to a part of my story which it is exceedingly pleasant to relate and of which I am able to speak, to no little extent, from personal knowledge. It is, after all, what one is as a man among men, which speaks most for his honor, or his dishonor. ^Vhat greater significance generous deeds have, when you know that behind them is no calcu- lating, grasping spirit, which is figuring out how much it can get in return, but a noble, generous, self-forgetful man- hood. V/e have a conviction that the conflict between labor and capital, which just now has reached a threaten- ing pitch of violence, might have been avoided if employers had not in so many cases endeavored to reduce men to mere money-making machines. As a rule strikes do not occur where laboring men are treated with the consideration due them as free citi- zens. The freedom of Fitchburg from strikes is due to the intelligence of the workmen, and the fairness of the employers. Another says, " noth- ing does more to destroy the spirit of socialism and communism and to disi- pate envy than to see wealthy men de- voting a part of their wealth to pubUc uses."

This introduces us to the most con- spicuous act by which the subject of our sketch has proved his public spirit and generosity of purpose as a citizen. I refer to his gift to the city of Fitch- burg of a beautiful public library, which, by vote of the city government, is to be called by his name. This act of benefi- cence reaches farther than appears to a

��casual observer. It secures to the city, for all coming time, a " Peoples' Col- lege," where the child of the poorest, as well as of the richest, the toiler as well as the man of leisure, may get a very important education. This build- ing is to be devoted to art as well as to literature, and we look to see it exert a refining and cultivating, as well as an educating influence over the rising gen- erations of our city. Its very presence, in a most conspicuous position, in the very heart of the city, will be educa- tional. It will prove itself a most valu- able adjunct to the excellent course of instruction given in our public schools.

For some years it had been in Mr. Wallace's mind to do something of this sort. In 1 88 1 he purchased what was kno\vn as the Ruggles property, oppo- site Monument Park. In the spring of 1884, when he left for his annual tout in the South, he placed in the hands of Judge Ware, Chairman of the Trustees of the Public Library, a genuine sur- prise to his fellow citizens. I clip from the Fitchburg Sentinel of March 26, 1884, the following account of the matter :

" Both branches of the City Council met on Tuesday evening and transacted the following business :

The principal business was

IN JOINT CONVENTIOy

Major Davis presided and announced that Judge T. K. Ware, Chairman of the Trustees of the Public Library, had a communication to present to the City Council.

Judge Ware said that he appeared before the Council at the request of Hon- orable Rodney Wallace, who, previous to his departure for the South, left with him the following communication which gave him pleasure and gratifica- tion to be able to present to the City Council :

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