Remedies for Lawlessness Proposed

[Special Correspondence.]

     No topic has for a long time so engrossed public attention as the cowardly attempt to assassinate President McKinley. The labor world joins with all other classes in reprobating this act of an insane crank. He calls himself an anarchist, but even they refuse to admit that he is one of them or that their teachings are in any way responsible for his mad act.
     It is likely that investigation will prove the assassin simply an irresponsible crank, acting upon his own initiative and without any connection with an organized band of conspirators. It is to be hoped that no set of people in this country are so lost or so blind to the real spirit of our institutions as to believe that the murder of our chief executive by a cowardly assassin could have any possible justification. It is more likely that Czolgocz belongs to the ignorant and fanatical class who are admitted so readily to our shores, without question as to their antecedents or as to their intention to conform to both the spirit and the letter of our institutions.
     Every citizen, regardless of class or station, felt a thrill of horror and indignation that the president should have been attacked in the performance of one of the most peaceful and democratic functions which fall to the lot of our chief executive. Probably no president has ever been personally more popular than McKinley; whether one agreed with him politically or not, it was impossible to escape the influence of his kindly and genial personality on meeting him.
     The attack upon the president has raised a good many puzzling problems. It is out of the question that the ruler of a free country should seclude himself from the public for fear of assassination. Yet it is terrible to think that the recent attack may be duplicated in the future, at any time.
     The first remedy is one that organized labor has been advocating for years. That is, that more stringent immigration laws shall be passed, and that they shall be strictly enforced. The greed of certain classes of employers for cheap labor should not be allowed to throw open our gates to every fanatic and criminal-minded person who chooses to come here.
     Next, the spirit of our free institutions should be better observed. The vast combinations of capital should remember that they are not the masters of the country. We must have more education, more enlightenment, a higher conception of the duties of citizenship, more individual responsibility among the masses of the country.
     Organized labor has tried to accomplish this work in the past. It will not relax its efforts in the future. It will welcome all aid from those who perhaps are just beginning to see the necessity of such effort.

EVA MCDONALD VALESH.     

     Washington, D. C.