Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/242

 ALTGELD

ON MUNICIPAL AND GOVERNMENTAL OWNERSHIP^

(1897)

Bom in 1847, died In 1902; entered the Union army at the age of sixteen ; Judge of the Superior Court of Chicago, 1886-1891 ; Gover- nor of Illinois, 1893-97, when he pardoned three anarchists; ad- vanced the cause of prison reform.

Aside from the money question, the most seri- ous problem that confronts the people of Amer- ica to-day is that of rescuing their cities, their States and the federal government, including the federal judiciary, from absolute control of corporate monopoly. How to restore the voice of the citizen in the government of his country ; and how to put an end to those proceedings in some of the higher courts which are farce and mockery on one side, and a criminal usurpation and oppression on the other.

Corporations ihat were to be servants and begged the privilege of supplying cities with conveniences, or of serving the country at large, have become masters.

We have had thirty years of colorless politics in which both of the political parties were simply conveniences for organized greed. There was

» From a speech In Philadelphia on Labor Day, September 5, 1897. 208

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