Part of Anarchist Scheme

“A Crime Not to Protect Our Chief Magistrate.”

Special to The New York Times.

     MILWAUKEE, Sept. 6.—Henry C. Payne, National Republican Committeeman from Wisconsin, and an intimate friend of President McKinley, said of the attempted assassination of the President:
     “The news of the attempted assassination of President McKinley, whether the wounds prove fatal or not, fills me with unspeakable horror and grief. I have known the President more than a quarter of a century intimately, as no one could who had not daily and hourly associated with him. There never lived a man of more kindly disposition, with a more loving and affectionate heart, more tender and sweet in his sympathy, and in his private life more devoted to his family and his friends. In these regards he is the most remarkable man I ever have met in public life.
     “The attempt upon his life was not because he was William McKinley, but because he was President of the United States, and I believe is only the carrying out in one detail of a general plan upon the part of the Anarchists to kill the rulers of the leading nations of the earth, and I feel that it is almost a crime that our Government does not take precautions to protect our Chief Magistrate from assassination.
     “If the President dies, it can only be a great calamity to the country. Our people almost unanimously have come to have the greatest respect for and confidence in him. God grant that his life may be spared.”