Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-07-06
One NIadman-and Others

wv who discuss the attempts of Frank
w Holt TO destroy the Capitol at Washing
ton and assassinate J. Pierpont Morgan say
he is crazy-he is, of course; but is he in
sons, of his mind or lack Of mind, to whom
no such -uspicion yet has attached? So far
proclaimed beliefs go, there is not a great
deal Of difference.
Holt says the American traffic in arms is
unneutral and diabolical; so do others whose
arguments appear in the newspapers and are
recited in public speeches.
Holt says this government tolerates this
traffic on the part Of its citizens because the
love of gold animates the President, the Con-
gress and the people; say other mon, whose
sanity has not yet been questioned.
Holt says that If the traffic were stopped
the war would stop; others proclaim the same
view. but they are still at large.
Holt is not alone in his obsessons. He is
just a trile more unbalanced and desperate
than other subscribers to the same cult The
cult itself is almost incomprehensible to any
save the firm believer in it's tenetS. It is not
indorsed officially at any rate, by the German
government. which has never attacked the
legality of the arms traffic Certainly its
dogmas have never been lived up to by the
German government for during every war of
the last decade the German traffic in arms
has gone on uninterrurtedly. German can
non and ammunition slew thousands in the
Ger War, the Balkan warA and the war be-
tween Turkey and Italy. One never heard
on these previous occasions that humanity
had any right to be shocked.
The discovery is more recent-coincident,
in fact. with the discovery that for American
merchants to sell arms to belligerents was not
to Germanys advantage. Thereupon and
Immediately it became manifest to some Ger
man partisans that the practice was inherent
~ evil, and should be stopped at all hazards
In minds that cannot perceive the incon-
gruities and self contradictions of the anti
arms-traftic arguments, some logical faculty
has become atrophied. They function no
longer as well-balanced minds ought to func-
tion-and from mental to I; moral break.
down is no great step. Holt, man of un-
usual intellectual gifts and attachments, took
the step quite easily. First convincing him
self that the sale Of arms TO the allies was
potential murder, he persuaded himself with
out difficulty that 1t was a highly praise
worthy thing to slay the individual he held
most largely responsible.
Danger inheres in the rumble humble of
such fanatics. From mad talk and mad
brooding they move to madden actions It
was crack-brained fanatic in Sarajevo
burning to avenge what he conceived to be
the wrongs OF his people, who plunged Europe
into war. Gavrio Prinzip had no personal
grievance against the royal pair he slew If
he hao peen capable OF thought, he must have
known that the Archduke Francis Ferdinand
was the dominant figure in that Austro- Hun
garian party which stood for greater free
dom and more privileges for the Slav sub
jects OF the empire. Prinzip was crazy. that
is all. So is Holt
How many others. potentially quite as dan
gerous. ar al large in this country? What
steps shall we take to guard the nations
leaders against the possibility of attack?
lhese matters we submit, are worthy of
prompt attention