The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-12-06

Vldudl. Inc dow was not almeQ aL
tyranny or wealth. 1t was aimed at
one of the strongest champions the
wage worker has ever had; at one
of the most faithful representatives
of the system of public rights and
representative government who has
ever risen to public Office. President
Mckinley filled that political Office
for which the entire people vote, and
no president-not even Lincoln him.
self-was ever more earnestly anxious
to represent the well thought out
wishes of the people. His-one anxiety
in every crisis vas to keep in closest
touch with the people, to find out what
they thought and to endeavor to give
expression to their thought after hav-
ing ~endeavored to guide that thought
Alright. He had just been reelected
to the presidency because the major
ity Of our citizens, the majority of
our farmers and wage workers believ-
ed that he had faithfully upheld lneir
interests for foul years. They felt
themselves in close and intimate
touch with him. They felt that he
represented so we'll and so honorably
all their ideals and aspirations, that
they wished him to continue for
another four years to represent them.
And this was the man at whom the
assassin struck! That there might
be nothing lacking to complete the
Judas-like infamy of his act, he took
advantage of an occasion when the
president was meeting the people gen
orally, and advancing as if to take
the hand outstretched to him in
kindly and %brotherly fellowship, he
turned the noble and generous conf
dence of the victim into an opportunity
to strike the fatal blow. There is
no baser deed in all the annals of
crime.
The shock, the grief of the country,
are bitter IN the minds of all who saw
the dark days, while the president yet
lowered between Life and death. at
last the light was stilled in the kindly
eyes, and the breath went from the
lips that even in agony uttered no
words save of forgiveness to his muir
derer, of love for his friends, and of
unfaltering trust in the will of the
most high. Such a death GROWING
the glory of such a.life, leaves us with
Infinite sorrow, but with such pride
in what he had accomplished and in
his own character, that We feel the
blow not as struck at him, but as
struck at the nation. We mourn a
good and great president who is dead,
but while we mourn we are lifted up
bv the splendid achievements of his
life and the grand heroism with
which he met his death.
When we turn from the man to the
nation, the harm done is so great as
to excite gravest a~pprehensions and
to demand our wisest and most reso-
lutte action. This criminal was a pro-
fessed anarchist, inflamed by the
teachings of %professed anarchists, and
probably also by the reckless utter
ances of those who on the stump and
in the public press appeal to the dark
and evil spirits of malice and greed.
envy and sullen hatred. The wind
is sowed by the men who preach such
doctrines, and they cannot escape
their share of responsibility for the
whirlwind that is reaped. This ap-
plies alike to the deliberate dema-
gogue, to the exploiter of sensational
ism and to the crude and foolish Wis
ionary who, for whatever reason
apologies for crime or excites aimless
discomfort.
Inc blow was aimed lot at this
president, but at all presidents, at
every symbol of government. Presi.
dent Mckinley was as emphatically
the embodiment of popular will of the
nation, expressed through the forms
of law, as a New England town meet
ing is in similar fashion the embodi.
ment of the l%aw-abiding purpose and
practice of the people of the town
On no conceivable theory could the
murder OF the president be accepted
as due to protest against Inequalities
N the social order !" save as the
murder of all the free men engaged
N a town meeting coulu be accepted
IS a protest against that social in
equality which puts a malefactor ir
5ail. Anarchy is no more an expires
sion of social discomfort" than pick
ing pockets or wife beating.
The anarchist, and especially lne
anarchist in the United States, is
merely n type of criminal, more
dangerous than any other because
ne represents the same depravity il
a greater degree. The man who ad
%vocates anarchy directly or indirectly
IN any shape or fashion, or the maj
who apologies for anarchists an(
their deeds, makes himself moral,
accessory TO murder before the fact
The anarchist is a criminal who's,
perverted instincts lead him to prefe
confusion and chaos to the mos
!, benificent form of social order. Hi
protest of concern for working mel
is outrageous in it's impudent falsity
for if the political institutions of thi
country do moi afford opportunity t.
every honest and intelligent son o
; toll, then the door of hope is foreye
closed against him. The anarchis
is everywhere not merely the enem,
OF system and of progress, but tn
deadly foe of liberty. If ave- anarch,
is triumphant, it's triumph will las
for but n red moment, to be sue
ceeded for ages by the gloomy nigh
t OF despotism. For the anarchist him
| self, whether he breaches or practice
his doctrines, We need not have on
particle more concern than for an
ordinary murderer. There are n
wrongs to remedy in his case. TIL