Special Act Is Opposed

Minority Report on the Anti-Anarchist Bill.

     Washington, Feb. 10.—Representative Lanham of Texas, democratic member of the house judiciary committee, has presented a minority report on the bill for the protection of of [sic] the president against assault and conspiracy. While agreeing with the idea that the United States should not be made an asylum for anarchists and those who oppose organized government, yet he dissented from giving the president protection not accorded to other citizens. As to this he said:
     “I deny the proposition that one honest and law abiding man’s life is any more sacred than that of another. Any officer of our government is but the servant of the people and ‘the servant cannot be greater than his lord.’ The holding or possession of office does not of itself render any man incapable or immune from human frailties and imperfections. Public men among us can do wrong. There is no such thing as royalty or titled nobility or hereditary prerogative in the United States. With us there are no artificial distinctions and one good man is as much as another, and as much sanctity surrounds the life of one as it does that of another. The murder of the humblest citizen in our land is just as henious [sic], just as felonious, as that of the greatest or most distinguished. Murder is murder upon whomsoever inflicted and a human life is a human life by whomsoever enjoyed. The life of the highest officer in the country or that of any ambassador of a foreign government is no more precious in the sight of God than is that of the humblest and most insignificant resident of our great republic.”
     He pointed out that both Guiteau and Czolgosz, presidential assassins, have met death. He holds also that the states should deal with the subject and that this federal law probably would magnify the importance of assassination in the distempered fancy of those seeking to destroy rulers.