Ex-Chief Drummond on Anarchy

     A very interesting article dealing with the relation of Anarchy to the assassination of President McKinley appears in a recent issue of The Chief, from the pen of ex-Chief of Secret Service, A. L. Drummond. The writer is a man well posted as to the methods and motives of the people who comprise the criminal classes, and none probably is better informed as to what is done and plotted in the inner circles of Anarchist societies. Mr. Drummond takes the view that the assassination of Mr. McKinley was the result of an Anarchist conspiracy. He says in his article:

     Much has been written and talked about whether there was or was not a conspiracy behind Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, some maintaining that there was, and others that there was not. There has also been some severe criticism of the Secret Service Detectives who were, supposedly, guarding the person and life of the President.
     Personally, I am of the opinion there was a conspiracy. I believe it has been clearly demonstrated that Czolgosz had no fixed or even uncertain income for a considerable time prior to the date of his arrival in Buffalo; also that he visited San Francisco, Chicago and other places during the present year, and that at some of these places he has been known to meet several pronounced Anarchists. Now ask yourself these questions: Why was he in San Francisco at the time the late President was there? What was he doing in Chicago in consultation with Anarchists? Why was he in Rochester, N. Y.? Why was he in Buffalo in consultation with a well known Anarchist? And lastly, where did he get the money to defray his living and other expenses during the past six or eight months previous to the day he committed one of the most dastardly crimes ever charged to mankind? Bearing in mind that all the while that neither he nor his people have attempted to show where he had an honest dollar at his command, is there any rational conclusion for you to arrive at but the solitary one: His co-conspirators furnished it? In the case of Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln on the 14th day of April, 1865, there was a conspiracy, and it was shown. In the case of Guiteau, who on July 2, 1881, shot down Garfield, there was no conspiracy, but a personal grudge, an imaginary grievance conceived in the brain of a scoundrel who had been disappointed in not securing a public office at the hands of the President. These were their motives.
     Look where you will it is difficult to find a young man of sound mind willing to assassinate any man in cold blood without a cause or an imaginary cause at least, as some would try to make it appear in Czolgosz’s case. No, sir, Czolgosz was not alone; he was the tool of a society of assassins, call them Anarchists or Nihilists, or whatever you please. The tools used by these assassins are selected in different ways; some volunteer, and some are chosen by lot to do the deed, once a deed is decided upon. You will notice that it is the young men who usually commit these acts of murder. They are schooled by older and more careful heads, crafty, cunning and cowardly. Those who are leaders, promoters, as it were, seldom go beyond the inciting of others to acts of violence. They do not take any very great risks personally. They are the ones who preach Anarchy and Nihilism in the secret confines of their meeting places, where they feel quite sure no one hears their voices save those of their band, who are sworn not to divulge a word that is spoken under the penalty of death, if discovered to be a traitor to their unholy cause. Youth is selected because of the fact that it is fiery, ambitious to do something to make a name, and because the youth is not likely to ponder or weigh the consequences like an older or more experienced person. You may rest assured that Czolgosz was carrying out the work assigned him by his society of co-conspirators, for it is a fact that he did not know President McKinley, and could have no motive in doing such a deed as an individual. It has been said, and truly said, Anarchism seems to be and is an anomaly, when it exists in this country. American conditions never created it, and we never heard of a person whose family has been in this country for two generations who was willing to accept the appellation, or any one who could even speak the English language at all intelligently, who would acknowledge that he was an Anarchist. It is an exotic, produced under the oppressive conditions of Continental Governments, and entirely out of place in this land of ours; yet it exists here, and one of the ablest and most beloved of men who ever occupied the Presidential chair has been stricken down in its name. Czolgosz belonged to the lowest order of Anarchists. He was a disciple of those who proclaim themselves the enemies of all laws and of all persons more fortunate in this world’s goods than they; of those who meet in dark tenements to plot against life and prepare bombs to hurl destruction against organized government; of malice in its most hideous form; and sooner or later the authorities will surely discover the link between him and his associates.
     There is no doubt but that our legislatures, both National and State, will be active this coming winter, from one end of the country to the other, in framing and enacting laws, with a view to ridding the country of those of this class who are here, and of preventing others from landing on our shores; and I hope they succeed. It occurred to me when I occupied the position of Chief of the Secret Service of the United States Treasury Department that it would be a good thing to enact a law whereby this government could deport [8][9] to his own country every person not a citizen by birth or adoption who had been convicted of a crime; that is, that a record of all such convictions be kept, and that upon the day a sentence expired the person be delivered into the custody of an officer of the United States whose duty it would be to see that he left our shore on the first ship that sailed away. I even went so far as to write my views to the Honorable Cabot Lodge, who was Chairman of the Senate Immigration Committee at that time, and that gentleman expressed his approval of the scheme, but it was too late that session to do anything. I again urge this idea upon Congress, as I am sure it would aid this country in ridding itself of thousands of criminals who are not and never intend to become citizens of the United States.