534 Presidential Addresses 



or fashion, or the man who apologizes for anarchists 

 and their deeds, makes himself morally accessory to 

 murder before the fact. The anarchist is a criminal 

 whose perverted instincts lead him to prefer confu- 

 sion and chaos to the most beneficent form of social 

 order. His protest of concern for workingmen is 

 outrageous in its impudent falsity ; for if the political 

 institutions of this country do not afford opportunity 

 to every honest and intelligent son of toil, then the 

 door of hope is forever closed against him. The 

 anarchist is everywhere not merely the enemy of 

 system and of progress, but the deadly foe of liberty. 

 If ever anarchy is triumphant, its triumph will last 

 for but one red moment, to be succeeded for ages 

 by the gloomy night of despotism. 



For the anarchist himself, whether he preaches 

 or practices his doctrines, we need not have one par- 

 ticle more concern than for any ordinary murderer. 

 He is not the victim of social or political injustice. 

 There are no wrongs to remedy in his case. The 

 cause of his criminality is to be found in his own 

 evil passions and in the evil conduct of those who 

 urge him on, not in any failure by others or by the 

 State to do justice to him or his. He is a malefactor 

 and nothing else. He is in no sense, in no shape 

 or way, a "product of social conditions," save as a 

 highwayman is "produced" by the fact that an un- 

 armed man happens to have a purse. It is a travesty 

 upon the great and holy names of liberty and free- 

 dom to permit them to be invoked in such a cause. 

 No man or body of men preaching anarchistic doc- 



