The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-09-13
OUR WASHINGTON LETT Err.

WASHINGTON, d. c., September 9th.
Mr. EDIToR:-The terrible calamity
which has befalen President Mckinley
has been almost the sole topic of CONVEX
sation in Washington since Friday night.
The news came just as people employed
in the departments were going home to
dinner, and Just before the shops closed
for the ght There were some hundreds
at all. They stood a'out in front of the
bulletin boards watching for the latest
report and discussing the news. The
three great newspaper offices the Times,
the Post and the Star-all occupy build
ings on Pennsylvania avenue within about
four blocks of each other, and that part
of the great thoroughfare was black with
people. To one standing in front of the
Treasury and looking toward the Capitol
it might have seemed that an actual
shadow had fallen across the pathway
which has been twice traversed by Presi-
dent Mckinley on his way to take the
oath OF inauguration. These crowds were
not mere curiosity impelled sensation
hunters. They felt a sense Of personal
atfiiction, for there has been no more pop
ular President in the White House since
its erection than Mr.. Mckinley has been
so far as his private character is concerned
His enemies are made by his public acts
and the party to which he belongs; his
personal friends are found in all parties.
The lesson taught by this tragic event
was pointed out Immediately. AS one
energetic person put it, in discussing the
first bulletin This means Round up the
Reds" While to the masses of the peO-
pie the tragedy was unexpected and I'M
accountable, it was not so to many astutc
observers of public events in this city and
elsewhere The assassinations of the
Empress Elizabeth and King Humbert
foreshadowed only too plainly the selec
ton of another victim in the near future,
and the United States, as yet untouched
by anarchistic plots of this kind, was the
field most likely to be selected for the
next coup. President Mckinley owed his
misfortune to the fact that he happened
to be President at this particular time, not
to anything whatever that he may have
done.
This is fortunate, since it relieves all
his antagonists from the fearful odum of
having suggested or encouraged any crazy
f1n tn Sncb primn Tho
matter had been carefully arranged and
planned by Il society of anarchists, and
the man selected to do the deed calmly
did as he was told. The question is, how
such things can be prevented in future?
1t is futile to expect to prevent them by
guarding all public men. The network
of police in Russia does not protect the
CzaI. There is no way of shutting out
immig grants which will absolutely nullify
the danger. The suggestion of a morning
paper the day after the event, that re-
striction of immigration is the lesson
which it teaches, became absurd when it
was found that the assassin was born in
this country. The remedy seems to be
strict police supervision of such dangerous
societies. They are against the law, as
much as burglars association or MUIR
der club would be; in fact, they are muir
der clubs. They should be compelled
either to hold their meetings in public,
with the understanding that incendiary
speeches will not be tolerated, or they
should We suppressed, Imprisoned and de-