Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1902-02-14

The pleas of sentimentalists for viii,
lam McKinley's assassin as in some
way irresponsible" are conclusively
refuted in the elaborate report on his
physical and mental status recently
published by Drs. Carlos Macdonald
and Edward A. Spitzka. These men
are among the foremost in their
branches of the medical profession, DIR
Spitzka as an anatomist and DR.. Mac.
Donald as an alienist. They agree that
the assassin was physically normal and
mentally sane and responsible for his
crime. The only thing that allied him
they say, was 1.-The social disease, an
archy;" that is, he was a moral per
vert. who had deliberately abandoned
himself to wickedness. "When he MS.
s~asstnated President Mckinley" re.
marks DR.. Macdonald, "he was in all
respects Il sane man, both legally and
medically. and fully responsible
Taking all in ALL" adds DR.. Spitzka,
the verdict must be socially diseased
and perverted, but not mentally dis
eased,' The most horrible violations
of human law cannot always be con-
doned by the plea of insanity. The wild
beast slumbers in us all. 1t is not
always necessary to invoke insanity
to explain it's awakening" 1t is re-
lated of Il celebrated English divine of
the eighteenth century that whenever
he saw IL criminal led to execution he
used to say, in all sincerity: But for
the grace of God there goes myself"
He did not refer to any particular per-
sonal escape from guilt, but merely
stated in the language of his own time
the general principle stated by DIR.
Spitzka in the speech of modern sci
ence. 1t is a solemn fact, says the
Chicago Inter Ocean, that every human
being has within himself the capacity
to be a Guiteau or a Czolgosz. While
environment may impel him one way
or the other. the ultimate decision is
not made by his environment, but with
In his w soul. Those who would teach
us otherwise virtually deny the exist
ence of human will. With it's freedom
to choose between good and evil, and
reduce man to the level of q machine.
They are not ven logical in their de-
NAL. If they We're they would not talk
of restraint" and mental treatment"
of criminals. They would do as we do
With a machine which breaks down or
becomes the instrument of mischief.
We do not attempt to change the
"mind' of an erring engine, for it has
none. We merely repair it physically
and start it up again. But the "all-
crime-is-disease" fanatics, while af-
frming that man is merely a machine,
ask lis not only to repair his physical
injuries, as we do with q criminal
wounded in resisting the police, but
also ask us to medicine the soul, which
they declare he has not. Illogical alb
surdity could go no further. The an
archist is a victim of n social disease"
but it is wholly of his w creation.
He has willfully abandoned himself to
rebellion against the established order
of the universe. That shows us every.
where the reign of law, but the anarch.
list will have no law. He denies the
existence Of any law a his own de.
sires, and against all government as the
embodiment of law lie wages war. By
his denial Of the established order of
the universe he perverts his own son,
and plunges it into ~wickedness. He
becomes Il lawless wild beast, doomed
to destruction. Such Czolgosz was.
such he had made himself, and as such
he was rightly destroyed.