The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-03

thought, after having endeavored to
guide that thought Alright. He had just
been reelected to the presidency be-
cause the majority of our citizens, the
majority of farmers and wage
workers, believed that he had faithfully
upheld their interests for four years.
They felt themselves in close and inti-
mate touch with him. They felt that he
represented so well 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
like infamy of his act, he took advan-
tage of occasion when the president
was meeting the people generally; and
advancing as If to take the hand out
stretched to him in kindly and brother
ly fellowship, he turned the noble and
generous confidence of the victim into
an opportunity to strike the fatal blow.
There is no baser deed in all the annals
of crime.
SHOCK TO THE COUNTRY.
The shock, the grief of the country,
are bitter in the minds of all who saw
the dark days, while the president yet
hovered between life and death At
last the light was stilled in the kindly
eyes and the breath went from the lips
that even in mortal 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, crowning the
glory of such a life, leaves US with in
finite sorrow, but with such pride in
what he had accomplished and in his
own personal character, that we feel
the blow not 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 by
the splendid achievements of his life
and the grand heroism with which ne
met his death
nation, the harm done is so great as to
excite our gravest apprehensions and
to demand our wisest and most resolute
action. This criminal was a prOfeSsed
anarchist, infiamed by the teachings of
prOfeSsed anarchists, and probably also
by the reckless utterances 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 RESPONSE
bility for the whirlwind that is reaped.
This applies alike to the deliberate dem
agogue, to the explOiter of sensational
ism, and to the crude and foolish vision
ary who, for whatever reason, apollo
gizes for crime or excites aimless dis
content.
AT ALL. PRESIDENTS
The blow was aimed not at this pres
ident, but at all presidents; at every
symbol of government President Nc
Kin1ey was as emphatically the embodi-
ment of the popular will of the nation
expressed through the forms of law as
New England town meeting is in
similar fashion the embodiment of the
law-abiding purpose and practice of
the people of the town. On no cOnceiv
able theory could the murder of the
president be accepted as due to protest
against inequalities in the social or
DER save as the murder of all the free
men engaged in town meeting could
be accepted as a protest against that
social inequality which puts a malefac-
tor in Jail. Anarchy is no more an ex-
preston of social discomfort" than
picking pockets or wife-beating.
The anarchist, and especially the
anarchist in the United States, is mere
1y one type of criminal, more dangerous
than any other because he represents
the same depravity in greater
degree. The man who advocates an
archy directly or indirectly, in any shape or
fashion. or the man who apologies for
anarchists and their deeds, makes him
self morally accessory to murder before
the fact. The anarchist is a criminal
whose perverted instincts lead him to
prefer confusion and chaos to the most
beneficent form of social order His
protest of concern for workingmen is
outrageous in it's impudent falSity; for
if the political institutions of this coun-
try do not afford opportunity to every
honest and intelligent son of toll, then
the door of hope is forever closed
against him. The anarchist is every
where not merely the enemy of system
and of progress, but the deadly foe OF
liberty If ever anarchy is triumphant;
its triumph Will last for but one req
moment to be succeeded for ages by
the gloomy night of despotism.
NO WRONGS TO REMEDY.
For the anarchist, whether he preach
es or practices his doctrines, we need
not have one particle more concern
than for any ordinary murderer He IS
rot the victim of social or political in
Justice There are no wrongs to reme-
DIV in his case. The cause of his cTiml-
nality is to be found in his own evil pas
sions and in the evil conduct of those
who urge him on. not in any failure by
others or by the state to do justice to
him or his He is malefactor. and
nothing else He is in no sense, in no
shape or way, a product of social con-
dftions" save as a highwayman is
produced by the fact that an unarm-
ed man happens to have purse. 1t is
a travesty upon the great and holy
names of liberty and freedom to permit
them to be invoked in such a cause No
man or body of men preaching anarch-
istic doctrines should be allowed at