Publication information

Source:
Milwaukee Journal
Source type: newspaper
Document type: article
Document title: “Czolgosz Is Contrasted with President M’Kinley”
Author(s): anonymous
City of publication: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Date of publication: 12 September 1901
Volume number: 19
Issue number: none
Pagination: 9

 
Citation
“Czolgosz Is Contrasted with President M’Kinley.” Milwaukee Journal 12 Sept. 1901 v19: p. 9.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
Leon Czolgosz (illustrations); William McKinley (illustrations); Leon Czolgosz (phrenological examination); McKinley assassination (personal response); Leon Czolgosz (compared with T. De Witt Talmage); William McKinley (personal character).
 
Named persons
L. A. Archer; Leon Czolgosz; William McKinley; Frederick Starr; T. De Witt Talmage [misspelled below].
 
Notes
Click here to view commentary on Leon Czolgosz by Frederick Starr (referenced below).

The identity of the illustrator cannot be determined.

Image retrieved from microform.
 
Document


Czolgosz Is Contrasted with President M’Kinley

 

     President McKinley and his would-be assassin, Leon Czolgosz, have been compared and contrasted and an estimate of the character of Czolgosz made by L. A. Archer of Milwaukee, a phrenologist of considerable repute in various sections of the country. He says:
     “Judging from the comparative size of the different lobes of the brain of Czolgosz he is a moral degenerate. The base of the frontal lobes is large enough to give him ordinary mechanical ability. A causal observer will readily notice the cramped appearance of the top and upper forehead while in the region of the ears the head spreads out like the head of all vicious animals. Here lies the organ of destructiveness. When large directly above the ears it merely gives energy, but if the head continues equally full a half inch further back, just above the mastoid process, large intellectual and moral faculties would be necessary to prevent its perversion.
     “The heads of the majority of ethic [sic] teachers are not only broad at the top, but are at least five to five and one-half inches in height, measuring straight up from the opening of the ear which is located at the base of the brain. The head of Czolgosz is not only narrow at the top, but is at least one inch below the average in height.
     “With the top head or moral organs deficient, a low narrow forehead where reason is located and such large animal propensities I am surprised he did not use a knife instead of a pistol.
     “He is without a doubt weakminded, yet I cannot agree with Prof. Starr of Chicago university [sic] in his statement that Czolgosz was alone in his terrible deed. His mouth indicates an easily influenced character. It matters not how lacking one may be in intellect and morals[,] they must necessarily have strong will power [sic] to originate and carry out a crime of such magnitude.
     “The question arises is he morally responsible for his actions? To my mind he is no more to blame than a bent tree is responsible for its crookedness. I do not mean that the conditions could not have been altered and the man made a law-abiding citizen, but that under the conditions under which he was born, raised and lived murder was the inevitable result.
     “Compare the head of Czolgosz with that of Rev. DeWitt Talmage and you find the same faculty large about the ears which caused the latter to say that the assassin should have had his brains crushed on the spot. Compare the head of Mr. McKinley with either of the above named and one finds large benevolence, reason and a comparatively small base of brain. Therefore, I was not in the least surprised to hear that our noble president was the only public voice which pleaded for and forgave his enemy with the Christ-like words, ‘May God forgive him.’ I have examined the heads of thousands of people, but I never saw a more perfect moral or intellectual development than in that of President McKinley.”