Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-06-06
rSpec.al washington Letter. j


playing the fool. az usual, BY
4 y plotting to assassinate Gar
Nicholas of Russia. Most as
suredly anarchists are the most In
cormgible idiots on earth. They are.
Just as apt to kill wise and humane
ruler as d despot What good could q
sane man suppose would come Of kill
ing Mckinley or the president Of the
French republic, King Humbert Of
Italy OIL. Empress Elizabeth Of Austria
These fools claim that their object is
to Go away with all government. They
ought to have learned by this time Of
day that killing individual rulers has
no tendency whatever to abolish gov
ernment In this country, for instance,
there are eight men who may by law
succeed .seriatim to Colonel lRoosevelt's
place should he die while in office. 1t
would be remarkable performance
should the anarchists manage to kill
him and all the eight presidents in
posse at one fell swoop. And suppose
they did What would happen? If
congress were in session, 1t would pass
an emergency measure instanter APP
pointing somebody president pro tenn.
and till a special election could be
called to elect a president. If congress
were not in session, it would get itself
together in FIVE days and do the same
thing somebody acting on his own
M <4;<,, ,s,oe,i5a,,f ,x,1,;la f.x,,, o,,,ns,e,
was getting itself together OF course
there is no provision in the constitu
ton or laws for the performances
which | have mentioned, but the law
of self preservation is the first law of
nature. We would act on it, and every
body would acquiesce in the proceed
ings as necessary and proper
In the case of crowned heads the
assassination of the reigning soyer-
eigns and their immediate possible
successors does nothing for the aboli-
ton of government, for in almost ev-
cry case there are scores of persons in
being who may lawfully succeed to
the throne. In Great Britain and Ger
many there must be hundreds, for the
Brunswickers and Hohenzollerns are
prolific folks President Roosevelt
cannot charge them with race suicide.
Gar Nicholas also has numerous blood
relations who are in the line of success
sion. He is not a great monarch, but
he does his best according to his lights.
which, it must be confessed, are some
what dim and Pickering. He Is not
cruel as czars go. He is q reformer
SO far as he Knows how to be and SO
far as he Is permitted to be by cir
cumstanees and his advisers. So was
his grandfather, Alexander II. He is
known in history as "the liberator
because he freed the serfs. The nihil-
lists murdered him at the very moment
when he was about to sign a paper
granting many new privileges to the
Russian people. That paper was never
signed. for he was succeeded by his
gloomy, savage and tyrannical son,
Alexander III, who was reactionary
of the most pronounced type. So by
the death of liberal car the Rus
SLAMS fell out of the frying pan mtc
the fire. SO in all human probability 1t
will be, to a certain extent at least, if
they succeed in assassinating Nicho-
las. It's a great pity that all the an
archists on the face of the earth could
not be rounded up and either hanged
or imprisoned for life at hard labor.
If the present gang could be utterly
extirpated, it would be some consider
able time before a new gang could pc
raised. It would be good radiance