[untitled]
T horror that fills the civilised world
at the murderous outrage on President McKinley ought to give rise
to a feeling of the profoundest detestation and most undying hostility
to Anarchism, whatever form it may assume. Freedom of opinion is
one thing, but when the expression of that opinion leads to a vendetta
against Kings and Presidents and all in high places it is time that
civilised society made a determined effort to stamp out Anarchism
wherever it rears its hideous head, and protect itself in some drastic
way against every one professing that diabolical and barbarous creed.
What a sadly pathetic commentary on our 20th Century civilisation
when the head of a great and noble nation like America is probably
done to death while smiling on his would-be murderer, and offering
the fraternal hand of peace and good will! In the sublime confidence
indicative of a great mind, the ill-fated President laughingly disregarded
the warning of a friend, and went unguarded to what may be the last
function of the hundreds that he has attended during his official
career. But he is a brave man, and has often faced death on the
field of battle in the cause of his country during the great Civil
War. Mr. McKinley is the third President within comparatively few
years who has been an assassin’s victim. In Lincoln’s case, as with
President Garfield, there is but slight reason to doubt that the
murderers were more or less insane, though both were native-born
Americans. Czolgosz also, it appears, is American born of Polish
parents, whose excitable brain, such as it is, has been turned by
listening to Anarchists’ lectures and reading Anarchists’ literature.
He is said not to be mad; but it is difficult to account for so
hideous and uncalled for a crime by any reasonably sane person unless
he is a monomoniac [sic]. It is seldom that the world receives
such a shock as it sustained on Saturday on receipt of the news
of the murderous attack on the President of the United States—the
head of the greatest and freest country in the world, where the
persecutors of every country have found a refuge for the last century,
all that is required of them being that they should obey the laws.
Why, the very thought of such a home of refuge to the unhappy or
persecuted of the human race ought to have been of itself sufficient
to save the head of such a state from the weapon of the zealot of
any political cult. According to the latest wires, there is a very
good chance that the President will, as the intestines are uninjured,
yet survive. If he escapes septic poisoning for 24 hours he will
probably survive the injuries and the operation.
|