140 



CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



cepted as a protest against that social inequality 

 which puts a malefactor in jail. Anarchy is no 

 more an expression of " social discontent " than 

 picking pockets or wife-beating. 



The anarchist, and especially the anarchist in 

 the United States, is merely one type of criminal, 

 more dangerous than any other because he repre- 

 sents the same depravity in a greater degree. 

 The man who advocates anarchy directly or indi- 

 rectly, in any shape 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 confusion and chaos 

 to the most beneficent form of social order. His 

 protest of concern for working men is outrageous 

 in its impudent falsity; for if the political insti- 

 tutions 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 des- 

 potism. 



For the anarchist himself, whether he preaches 

 or practises his doctrines, we need not have one 

 particle more concern than for any ordinary mur- 

 derer. 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 unarmed man 

 happens to have a purse. It is a travesty upon the 

 great and holy names of liberty and freedom to 

 permit them to be invoked in such a cause. No 

 man or body of men preaching anarchistic doc- 

 trines should be allowed at large any more than 

 if preaching the murder of some specified private 

 individual. Anarchistic speeches, writings, and 

 meetings are essentially seditious and treason- 

 able. 



I earnestly recommend to the Congress that 

 in the exercise of its wise discretion it should 

 take into consideration the coming to this coun- 

 try of anarchists or persons professing principles 

 hostile to all government and justifying the mur- 

 der of those placed in authority. Such individu- 

 als as those who not long ago gathered in open 

 meeting to glorify the murder of King Humbert 

 of Italy perpetrate a crime, and the law should 

 insure their rigorous punishment. They and 

 those like them should be kept out of this coun- 

 try; and if found here they should be promptly 

 deported to the country whence they came; and 

 far-reaching provision should be made for the 

 punishment of those who stay. No matter calls 

 more urgently for the wisest thought of the Con- 

 gress. 



The Federal courts should be given jurisdic- 

 tion over any man who kills or attempts to kill 

 the President or any man who by the Constitu- 

 tion or by law is in line of succcession for the 

 presidency, while the punishment for an unsuc- 

 cessful attempt should be proportioned to the 

 enormity of the offense against our institutions. 



Anarchy is a crime against the whole human 

 race; and all mankind should band against the 

 anarchist. His crime should be made an offense 

 against the law of nations, like piracy and that 

 form of manstealing known as the slave-trade; 



for it is of far blacker infamy than either. It 

 should be so declared by treaties among all civil- 

 ized powers. Such treaties would give to the 

 Federal Government the power of dealing with 

 the crime. 



A grim commentary upon the folly of the an- 

 archist position was afforded by the attitude of 

 the law toward this very criminal who had just 

 taken the life of the President. The people would 

 have torn him limb from limb if it had not been 

 that the law he defied was at once invoked in 

 his behalf. So far from his deed being committed 

 on behalf of the people against the Government, 

 the Government was obliged at once to exert its 

 full police power to save him from instant death 

 at the hands of the people. Moreover, his deed 

 worked not the slightest dislocation in our gov- 

 ernmental system, and the danger of a recurrence 

 of such deeds, no matter how great it might grow, 

 would work only in the direction of strengthening 

 and giving harshness to the forces of order. No> 

 man will ever be restrained from becoming Presi- 

 dent by any fear as to his personal safety. If the 

 risk to the President's life became great, it would 

 mean that the office would more and more come 

 to be filled by men of a spirit which would make 

 them resolute and merciless in dealing with every 

 friend of disorder. This great country will not 

 fall into anarchy; and if anarchists should ever 

 become a serious menace to its institutions, they 

 would not merely be stamped out, but would 

 involve in their own ruin every active or passive 

 sympathizer with their doctrines. The American 

 people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath ia 

 once kindled it burns like a consuming flame. 



During the last five years business confidence 

 has been restored, and the nation is to be congrat- 

 ulated because of its present abounding prosper- 

 ity. Such prosperity can never be created by law 

 alone, although it is easy enough to destroy it 

 by mischievous laws. If the hand of the Lord 

 is heavy upon any country, if flood or drought 

 comes, human wisdom is powerless to avert the 

 calamity. Moreover, no law can guard us against 

 the consequences of our own folly. The men who 

 are idle or credulous, the men who seek gains 

 not by genuine work with head or hand, but by 

 gambling in any form, are always .a source of 

 menace not only to themselves, but to others. 

 If the business world loses its head, it loses what 

 legislation can not supply. Fundamentally the 

 welfare of each citizen, and therefore the welfare 

 of the aggregate of citizens which makes the 

 nation, must rest upon individual thrift and en- 

 ergy, resolution and intelligence. Nothing can 

 take the place of this individual capacity: but 

 wise legislation and honest and intelligent ad- 

 ministration can give it the fullest scope, the 

 largest opportunity to work to good effect. 



The tremendous and highly complex industrial 

 development which went on with ever accelerated 

 rapidity during the latter half of the nineteenth 

 century brings us face to face, at the beginning 

 of the twentieth, with very serious social prob- 

 lems. The old laws, and the old customs which 

 had almost the binding force of law, were once 

 quite sufficient to regulate the accumulation and 

 distribution of wealth. Since the industrial 

 changes which have so enormously increased the 

 productive power of mankind, they are no longer 

 sufficient. 



The growth of cities has gone on beyond com- 

 parison faster than the growth of the country, 

 and the upbuilding of the great industrial cen- 

 ters has meant a startling increase, not merely 

 in the aggregate of wealth, but in the number of 

 very large individual, and especially of very large 



