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Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Source type: newspaper
Document type: article
Document title: “Round-Up of Anarchists Made by the Secret Service”
Author(s): anonymous
City of publication: St. Louis, Missouri
Date of publication: 8 September 1901
Volume number: 54
Issue number: 18
Part/Section: 2
Pagination: 4

 
Citation
“Round-Up of Anarchists Made by the Secret Service.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 8 Sept. 1901 v54n18: part 2, p. 4.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
Secret Service; McKinley assassination (investigation of conspiracy); McKinley assassination (government response); anarchism (government response); William H. Moran (public statements); Jacob Czolgosz; Czolgosz family.
 
Named persons
Jacob Czolgosz; Leon Czolgosz; Emma Goldman; Samuel R. Ireland; William H. Moran; John E. Wilkie.
 
Notes
The banner headline on the top of this same page reads: Dragnet Sent Out to Round Up All Anarchists.
 
Document

 

Round-Up of Anarchists Made by the Secret Service

 

Dragnet Put Out to Enmesh Every Disciple of Emma Goldman in the United States.

POST-DISPATCH BUREAU,          
1347 Pennsylvania Avenue.     

     WASHINGTON, Sept. 7.—Chief Wilkie of the secret service will not get to Washington until tomorrow afternoon. However, he has telegraphed instructions ahead and the secret service dragnet has been put out. Every anarchist between Chicago and Mobile will be rounded up in the attempt to discover whether Czolgosz has any accomplices or is the member of any of the groups of Reds that have their headquarters in the various cities.
     Informally, it has been decided here and at Buffalo, where most of the members of the cabinet are, that the Reds of the country must be placed under a closer watch. It is not expected to arrest them or to imprison them, but the policy already tentatively formed is to scatter them and keep them moving so they will have no chance to plot mischief. It is the intention to ask for enough money to increase the secret service so men can be put in every center of population where anarchists are and keep the closest watch on them. The policy will be to disperse the gathering by pushing the members of groups or circles along. There will be a constant movement. Anarchists will be forced out of their places of abode by methods that secret service men know how to apply and the constant effort of the secret service will be to keep them from concentrating anywhere.
     The secret service officials now think that Czolgosz acted freely on his own responsibility and that he was not assisted by any anarchistic organization. The inquiries being made are largely directed from Buffalo. Detective Ireland, chief of the secret service division with headquarters at Buffalo, was near the President when the shot was fired, but the secret service men were ordered to Buffalo. The possibility of a disturbance was believed to lie in Cleveland rather than in Buffalo. Several detectives had already been ordered to Cleveland to watch over the President during his attendance upon the Grand Army encampment. The presence of many foreigners, and those suspected of anarchistic tendencies, led to the taking of unusual precautions. If there is a group to which Czolgosz belonged, the secret service intends to find it.
     The President has always protested against being surrounded by detectives and has remonstrated against secret service men being employed to guard him. In many cases he has been guarded without his knowledge. Much regret is expressed by the officials here that the efforts of those with the President were not able to prevent the shooting. In speaking on this point today Acting Chief Moran said:
     “The shooting of the President was evidently the act of an individual, and so far there does not seem to have been any conspiracy. Our officials at Buffalo who were with the President when he was shot say that Czolgosz carried his right hand against his breast, as though it had been injured. His hand was carefully wrapped and there was nothing suspicious about the man. The ruse of a wrapped hand was never used before. Had the assassin resorted to any of the old-time dodges he would have been pounced upon in a minute.”
     The officials here are in possession of positive information to prove that Czolgosz was not a member of an anarchistic organization at Paterson, N. J. A search of the secret service criminal records fail [sic] to show anything to identify the assassin with those who have been designated as cranks or dangerous characters.
     It is shown by the records of the pension bureau that Jacob F. Czolgosz was drawing a pension of $30 per month. It was allowed on account of a wound received in the right hand and arm through the explosion of a shell at Sandy Hook in 1899. The papers show that Czolgosz enlisted from 199 Hosmer street, Cleveland, O., Sept. 15, 1898. His connection with the assassin, if any, has not been established.

 

 


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