America [excerpt]

     The experts, who examined the assassin Czolgosz as to his mental condition, have made their report and declared him sane. Whether or not he had accomplices may never be known. Dr. E. C. Spitzka, in a published review of his case, seems to think he had, and that the murder of the President may have been plotted by men who used the murderer as their tool. Of course his persistent denial of the participation of anyone with him in the act does not necessarily command credence—it is only what might have been expected if there had been a plot and his courage had not failed. The psychology of the anarchist of the present day is, in some respects, a problem, and it is an unpleasantly large one in connection with a certain proportion of the foreign-born labour element in this country. Czolgosz himself was hardly a native; though born in America, his associations had not been American. It has been said that he was educated in the public schools, but I am informed that such was not the case. It is not hard to define insanity in a legal sense in a way that might easily be made to include the modern anarchists; they are certainly out of harmony with their environment in any decently organized society, and if we credit them with any sort of sincerity, they are the most deluded of individuals. No one is inclined, however, to believe them irresponsible, and the prompt conviction and execution of Czolgosz has certainly had the full endorsement of public opinion.