Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-05-31
Knife Hurled at Colonel
Before Kansas City Speech

Kansas City, Mo-, May 81. - Kan
sas Cl-y gave Theodore Roosevelt a
rousing reception. Never in his career
had he received a greater or warmer
welcome anywhere than that accorded
him to-day when he arrived here to
fill his engagement to speak on uni
versal training, preparedness and AM
ericanism. A conservative estimate
puts 10000 as the number of persons
who were gathered at the Union Sta
tion to greet the former President
when his train from Chicago arrived
shortly before 9 o'clock.
1t Is about a mile and a half from
the station to the Muehlebach Hotel.
where quarters had been provided for
Mr.. Roosevelt and along the entire
route the people were packed half
dozen deep on both sides of the
street.
Threw Four-inch Knife
The police arrangements were very
good and the crowds were prevented
from getting too close to the distin-
guished visitor, but about midway to
the hotel man in the crowd threw
jackknife with a four-inch blade at
him. The knife struck the automobile
in which Mr.. Roosevelt was riding
ano fell on the running board. 1t
came nearer to hitting John w. Nc
Grath, Mr.. Roosevelts private secre-
tary, than to Mr.. Roosevelt himself.
Colonel Roosevelt was standing
bCwing in his motor car when the in
cidont occurred. f. C. Shell, a men,
ber of the American Legion. who was
walking by the side of the car, a part
of the escort, suddenly heard some
thing strike the machine. He glanced
downward and saw an open pocket
knife at his feet. Shell picked It up
and handed it to a policeman. The
crowd was so dense that he made no
of nf-t 70 lyA
Made Light of Incident
Colonel Roosevelt knew nothing
about the occurrence until after he
reached his hotel. Then he treated il
as Il trivial matter, saying that from
the nature of the attempted assault
he thought it probably that of a Mex
iCan or Latina One of the
evening newspapers came out with a
seven column headline, "Knife Hurled
al Roosevelt" and that made more
excitement than did the assault itself
The man who threw the knife es-
caped in the crowd and was not ar
rested.
For Universal Training
Universal training based upon uni
versal service was urged upon the
youth of the National by Colonel
Roosevelt in his Memorial Day ad-
dress delivered as "a message to all
Americans" before Civil War veterans
of the .<orth and the Confederacy.
Appalling. he explained. to the
spirit of the thoroughgoing American
ism in all our people," the former
President declared that those who as
sert that there is no danger of the
United States ever being attacked are
either ignorant or forgetful of the
multitude of examples which show
how international conflicts arise, and
that lit is likely that IL we are not
strong enough to maintain our rights,
including the assertion of the Mon
roe Doctrine" the United States will
be subject to aggression which II
would he obliged to resent or else
abandon it's national greatness. Col
onel Roosevelt further said:
The people must choose as their
executive and legislative leaders at
Washington men absolutely national
in spirit; men whose theory of gov
ernment is as far as the poles from
the pork barrel theory - and this
whether the pork barrel be consider
ed from a personal, political or sec-
tional standpoint: men who look for
ward and not back: men who face the
facts as they actually are.
after this war we shall see a new
Europe; a Europe energeticaIlv de-
veloping new social and economic
means of meeting new problems.
"If. under these circumstances. we
take refuge in formulae dug out from
the wreckage of principles in the past.
instead of developing these principIes
SO as to meet the future, we shall be