Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-12-05

of the people; his one anxiety in ev-
cry crisis was to keep in closest touch
with the people-to find out what they
thought and to endeavor to give eX-
preston 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. believed
that he had faithfully upheld their in
terests for four years. They felt them
selves in close and intimate touch
with him. They felt that he repre-
scented so well and SO honorably all
their ideals and aspirations that they
wished aim 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 lnfamy of his act. he took advan-
tage of an occasion when the Presi-
dent was meeting the people general
ly; and advancing as if to take the
hand outstretched to him in kindly
and brotherly 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 ali 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 mortal agony utter.
ed no words save of forgiveness to his
murderer, Of love for his friends. and
of unfaltering trust in the will of the
Most High. Such death, crowning
the glory of such a life leaves us W tn,
infinite sorrow. but with such pride
in what he had accomplished and in
his own personal 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 lift
ed up by the splendid achievements OF
his life and the grand heroism with
which he met his death
Anarchy and the Anarchist.
When we turn from the man 10 the
nation, the harm done is SO great as
to excite our gravest approximations
and to demand our wisest and most
resolute action. This criminal WAS a
protested anarchist, infiamed with the
teachings of protested 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 applies
alike to the deliberate demagogue. to
the exploiter Of sensationalism, and to
| the crude and foolish visionary who.
| for whatever reason, apologies for
! crime or eXcites aimless discomfort.
The blow was aimed not at this
| President. but At all Presidents; at
every symbol OF government. Presi-
dent Mckinley was as emphatically
the embodiment OF the popular will of
| the nation expressed through the
forms of law as New England town
meeting is in similar fashion the en-
bodiment OF the law-abiding purpose
and practice of the people of the
town. On no conceivable theory could
the murder of the President be accept
ed as due to protest against "ineQuali'
ties in the social ORDER save as the
murder of all the freemen engaged in
a town meeting could be accepted as q
protest against the social inequality
which puts malefactor in jail. An
archy is no more an expression of so
cial discomfort" than picking pockets
or wife-beating.
The anarchist, and especially the an
archist of the United States, is merely
one type Of criminal, more dangerous
than any other because he represents
the same depravity in greater degree
The man who advocates anarchy di
rectly or indirectly. in any shape OF
fashion, or the man who apologies fol-
anarchists and their deeds, makes him
self morally accessory to murder be
fore the fact The anarchist is q
criminal whose perverted instincts
lead him to prefer confusion and chaos
to the most beneficent form OF socia
order. His protest of concern fol
wCrkingmen is outrageous III its impu
dent falsity; for if the political insti
tutions of this country do not AFFORD
opportunity to every honest and in
telligent son of toll, then the door o
hope is forever closed against him
The anarchist is everywhere not mere
ly the enemy of system and OF pro
gress, but the deadly foe of liberty.
ever anarchy is triumphant, its tri
umph will last for but one red mo
ment, to be succeeded for ages by tn,
gloomy night of despotism
For the anarchist himself, whethe
, he breaches or practices his doctrines
we need not have one particle NOR,