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     “Assassination,” wrote James A. Garfield to John Sherman twenty-one years ago, “can no more be guarded against than death by lightning, and it is not best to worry about either.” Eight months later the assassin shot him down. He was quite right, though, about the worrying. It would be foolish and unmanly in a President of the United States to go about his duties in a cold sweat of fear. But reasonable precautions can be taken against both assassination and death by lightning. And it is not difficult to devise reasonable precautions. They may not always be effective, but it is all that can be done. While the President should not be secluded it is not wise to mix him with handshaking crowds numbering thousands, which was done at Buffalo, where the detective plan of protection broke down.