The Chicago Martyrs—and After [excerpt]

     It is with surprise and shame that I see this year’s commemoration of their death inaugurated in FREE SOCIETY with eulogies on the act of of [sic] a lunatic, Leon Czolgosz. (4)
     Whatever force the act eulogized might acquire had it been performed by a person in full possession of his faculties, it loses every vestige of significance before the well-established dementia and irresponsibility of the perpetrator.
     But suppose it were true that Czolgosz was a “self-poised man.” Can the notion be for a moment entertained by any sane mind that his act was helpful to the cause of progress! (5) McKinley was no bloody tyrant. He was a tool. Moreover, he was the representative of the majority in this country. It was for the interest of capital to bamboozle that majority into accepting him as their representative; but the fact remains that the great mass of the people of the United States regarded McKinley as their representative and they supported the atrocious acts of his administration.
     They were perfectly agreeable to the theft of the Philippines; they applauded the headlong rush of this country toward financial inflation; they viewed with pride the suicidal policy of the man they had elected. No matter that the people of this country were the mere puppets of a ring of capitalists, they are the ones with whom a Czolgosz must reckon, and it is folly to imagine that they will ever see any point in murder. As a matter of fact, McKinley has become a saint, and in his dramatic death at the climax of his career, he exerts a more insidious influence than if he had been allowed to live and reap the harvest of his sowing. The forces of government have profited, and have in every way recruited strength to oppress. I denounce every attempt to drag the Chicago martyrs into companionship with Czolgosz.