Chief Wilkie on M’Kinley’s Death

Head of Secret Service Says Death Was Unnecessary and That Reception
Should Never Have Been Held.

     Chief Wilkie, head of the United States Secret Service, quiet and unassuming but keen-eyed and observant, who delivers an address at the Saturn Club tonight, arrived in Buffalo this morning and registered at the Lafayette Hotel. He had little to say about his department but in referring to the assassination of President McKinley declared that distressing event was entirely unnecessary.
     “The reception,” he continued, [“]should never have been held. It was held against the earnest protest of Foster, McKinley’s personal guard, and Cortelyou. It is always dangerous to hold public receptions when the people can come to the President with bundles in their hands.”
     Commenting on the statement of a negro that he had knocked Czolgosz down after the shooting Chief Wilkie said it was not so. “The man he struck was one of our men who had wrenched the gun from the assassin’s hand,” said Chief Wilkie.
     “Foster, who was the rPesident’s [sic] personal guard, is now custodian of the department at Washington.
     “From that day to this the rPesident [sic] has always been closely guarded. We do not fear the known criminals as much as we do these persons who believe they have been called upon to remove the head of the nation.”