The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-15
A BAD TxAMpLE.


 A contemporary, the name of which we have, unfortunately, misplaced, is of the opinion that mo special harm and soms good may come from the gen. eraf admission of the fact that Presi- dent Roosevelt carried formidable re- volver in his hip pocket" Comment ing on this habit of the Chief Execu- tive of the nation, The Mobile Register says:
 The tendency of the comment upon the discovery that President RooseVel. carries a concealed weapon is toward the supposed be humorous feature or the nature story writers to please take notice, the inference being that, as MT. Roosevelt is armed, he may not pc disputed with safety. No cfltie sP the weapon is concealed. There nes the offense both of the President ana of the critics. It may be desirabie TOT the President to bc armed. No one knows at what moment some crank may try to modest or injure him. Al though the President is surrounded by occasion for the President to strike
 blow in his own defense; and if The thinks this, he should be prepared But why set the bad examPle ps Of IT, atte;mpsing ;n dg; weapons concealed. These laws are salut9ry. Their rigid enforcement ture of the case. however, the en- forcement is very difficult; and to make it more difficult here Is the President den under his coattail! Our chief trouble Is with the negroes. who be- lieve that they must carry arms of some sort both for offense and defense, It will be impossible to convince them or the heinousness of such practice if it becomes well known that the Presj- dent himself totes pistol.
 Possibly no harm can come of the general knowledge that the head of tho nation is a habitual law breaker, but we think exactly contrary to that view. for we are confident that harm will com of 1t. There are already enough bad examples set by men of position who should be scrupulous observers of both the letter and spirit of the law, and when it is generally known that the President of the United States is q pistol-toter. just like the common bully who so often causes trouble, the in- evitable effect will be bad Those who have a leaning in that direction, but refrain because it is considered bad form to go armed, will argue that if it Is right for the President to carry a gun concealed under his coat, there can Dc nothing wrong in others following such high example. It will not only be the negroes of the South who will be led astray, but the turbulently- clined of all races all over the country will think it right and proper to fol- low in his footsteps and pistol toting will be considered justifable and proper.
 The same contemporary from which we first quoted. argues that the Presi- dent has a legal right to carry con cealed pistol, but we do not admit the force of the argument. True, he IS the Commander-in-C Chief of the army and navy but we do not understand that army and naval officers when off duty and wearing citizens clothes have any more right to carry concealed pis- tols than others have. If we admit the contention in the case of the Pres ident, we are compelled to admit that it applies to all officers. down to the lowest grade, and that would make the laws against carrying concealed weap- ons a travesty. --,
 Nor do we take any more stoc'. in the argument that the President Is con- stant1y in danger and should be pre- pared to defend himself. Would either Lincoln, Garfield or McKinle.' have es- capped assassination by having a pis- tol in his hip pocket? Even if 1t had been generally known that each went habitually armed, we cannot see that 1t would have made any di' renee. As sassins do not take chances. and we have no reason to suppose that man who contemplates such a crime will stand Up before his victim and take the chance of being shot. Looking at it in any way we will we are pund 10 say that for one who lectures as much against law breaking as Roosevelt does. he sets a bad example by his own act