The Need of National Legislation Against Anarchism [excerpt]

     Without reflecting in the least on President McKinley’s immediate predecessors, it will be conceded that the loss of no other man who has occupied the executive chair would have been felt so much in a personal sense by the mass of our citizens. His gentleness, his wisdom, his patriotism, his splendid domestic fidelity, his unvarying cheerfulness had made him the friend of every one with whom he came in contact. The hundreds of thousands who had heard him speak at one time or another were charmed by his magnetic personality. McKinley had but to show himself anywhere to carry away the hearts of all beholders. Even the stress of politics, fatal to so many, left no evil wishers behind. It is of record that Mr. McKinley had almost as many friends among the active Democrats as among Republicans, and with Republicans he was a popular idol. His concern for the workingman’s welfare was made manifest on every occasion. All his efforts were directed towards securing the highest pay and shortest hours for the toilers, and the laboring people, realizing this, and in appreciation of the magnificent results he had achieved for them, almost worshipped him. Altogether, he was a man who in theory and in practice stood for the best interests of all the people as he understood it, and for everything that was praiseworthy and progressive in our national life.
     In this tragedy at Buffalo there were none of the conditions that made the assassination of Lincoln at least understandable. There was not even the pretext of a reason, such as encompassed the shooting of Garfield. Not the wildest stretch of imagination could conceive any betterment for the masses in Mr. McKinley’s taking off. He simply fell a victim to the unreasoning propa- [728][729] ganda of murder. The assassination was inspired by the pernicious teachings of the men and women who are the avowed enemies of all government, and who seek, through the bloody instrumentality of assassination to accomplish their anarchistic purposes.
     It remains to be seen whether this crime, striking so near to the nation’s heart, shall at last give some effect to the efforts so often made to secure legislation against its perpetrators and advocates; for, after all, the man who fired the shot at the President was the least of the criminals. The men and women who egged him on by their teaching and preaching were far more guilty than he. Without them he would never have been inspired with his mad design. President McKinley would be alive to-day had these others, who have not even been molested, but permitted to continue their teachings, been dealt with in the first instance as their criminality deserves.