Treatment of Anarchists

     HERETOFORE the American people have not considered anarchy as a problem which came home to them nearly. We have mourned with other nations when their rulers were struck down by some of these rabid creatures, who, enjoying the protection of the law, strike at the bases of all law and society; but we have never felt that in our land of large individual freedom and simple republican institutions the hand of anarchy would be raised against our rulers. Since it has proved to be otherwise, we must meet the problem squarely and concentrate all the power which our constitutions allow to exterminate these vile creatures. They seek by organized action to abolish law. They go further: they would abolish the family, that institution which cherishes all the private virtues of the individual. As against them, organized society as a whole and every institution which we value is on the defensive. Should they be held within the protection of the institutions, which through untold ages men have painfully builded for themselves with so much blood and suffering? We trust that our legislatures will deal with this matter in a spirit of conservative wisdom, at a time when the passions of the present hour have subsided.