[Letter VIII] [excerpt]

. . . Mr. Hanna said he would meet me when he came to New York. I did not call upon him here, because I felt then that his methods were, and feel now that they are, ruinous. There has been no period in history, when, according to my data, civilization has received such destructive and disintegrating blows as it has since 1896, since the United States has been under the dictatorship of Mark Hanna.
     In this connection, it seems fitting that I should relate an incident that occurred while I was abroad. During a discussion of the economic questions with a Kentish gentleman in an hotel in London, I remarked that it was my impression there would soon be assassinations or an assassination resulting from our false methods. A few hours later, upon coming down from my room, I met this gentleman again. “How strange,” he began, “have you heard the news? President McKinley has been assassinated. What a marvelous coincidence,” he added. This conversation and the assassination of Mr. McKinley must have occurred at or about the same time.