The record-union., 1896-07-26
PRESIDENT FAURES POSITION.
His Life In Danger From Anarchists
and Socialists.

Men loud against all forms of power"
are busy in many lands. Only a few
weeks ago the Shah of Persia was mur-
dered An anarchist bomb in Spain de-
stroyed several lives In the sheer wan
tonness of hatred. Then came renewed
| plotting against the Emperor of Russia.
A week ago a National Convention" at
Chicago denounced the right of the Gov
ernment to suppress rioting and to pro-
tect property from the spoliation of the
| mob; and fortnight hence an interna-
tional gathering in London will be sup
plementing the work of that at Chicago
with lurid diatribes against all rights
of property and hoarse peans in praise
of dynamite. To-day announcement is
made of another, happily impotent, at
tempt to murder the President of the
French Republic.
Not much is yet made known about
this latest would-be assassin save that
he seems to be a prosperous and intelli-
gent man. He once before endeavored
to get a hearing on some supposed
grievances by discharging pistol in the
Chamber of Deputies, and now says he
did not mean to kill M Faure, but mere
ly snapped blank cartridges at him to
acceptable plea. A man who goes about
swapping revolvers a his fellows is a
dangerous miscreant, whose proper
place is behind prison walls The blank
cartridge excuse has, moreover, been
made before, when the fact was that
ball cartridge had been used, but the
mark had been missed. The presump-
ton is that such is the present case. 1t
the cartridges We're blank, and that he
had no evil intent-not an easy thing to
do. Until he does so, he stands con-
victed of a deliberate attempt at muir
der.
Meantime the sincere congratulations
of every lover of law and order will go
out to NJ. Faure upon his happy es
cape from harm. He occupies a place
of power and honor and of blessing to
humanity. But it is to him place of
trial and of peril His next predecessor
but one fell a victim to an aSSasSin's
knife. His immediate predecessor was
frightened into resigning office. He
himself has been in peril from would-be
murderers three times before the pres
ent and has been more than once as
sailed, in person and in family by the
scarcely less deadly tongue of malicious
libel. Being a man of the people," he
is an especial object of hatred to those
demagogue-led miscreants who wish to
substitute mob rule for temperate pop
ular authority Yet he remains stead
fast and serene, giving the best service
of his life to the fatherland, and fearing
not even to seal that service with his
hearts blood
1t is not a light thing to occupy such
a place when men throughout the land
and throughout the world are pushing
propaganda of assassination. And
that is just what they are doing. Every
anarchist and social harangue against
authority is an incitement to strike
down the representatives of authority.
They may not always appear such in lit
eral terms. But that is their spirit, and
it is their spirit that influences the lis
tener. When the dema gOgue cries that
property is robbery, he tempts the un-
thinking and perhaps half-crazy hearer
to go out and seize or destroy the prop
erty of his neighbors. When he de-
clares that all Government is tyranny,
and that the fit doom of the tyrant is
death, he prompts the listening crank to
become murderer. Such influences are
not unknown here. They are rife in
France. Against them Felix Faure
stands with all the might of an heroic
nature, a bulwark of rational authority
and undertaking justice. AS such he
commands the sympathy and admira
ton of mankind, as his assailants re-
ceive it's hatred and condemnation
New York Tribune.