Chapter XVI [excerpt]

     When I was at Coney Island, I was asked, what I thought of William McKinley’s administration? I said: “I was glad when McKinley was elected for I had heard that he was opposed to the liquor traffic. I did not know then that he rented his wife’s property in Canton, Ohio for saloon purposes, and after his election he had been a constant disappointment to me; that he was the Brewers’ president and did their bidding; that we as W. C. T. U. workers, sent petitions, thousands of them to Mr. McKinley to have him refuse to let the canteen run. That we were willing to give our boys to fight the battles of this nation, to die in a foreign land, but we were not willing that a murderer should follow them from their home shores to kill their bodies and souls.” This was said at the time that he was thought to be convalescent from his death-wound. I said: “I had no tears for McKinley, neither have I any for his assassin. That no one’s life was safe with such a murderer at large.” This roused hisses; some left the hall and there was a murmer [sic] of confusion. One man threw a wad of paper at me, but I said: “My loyality [sic] to the homes of America demand that I denounce such a president and his crowd.”