:

for many hours. An account of the obsequies must be deferred until next week.

The Accession of President Roosevelt

As soon as Mr. McKinley's death was seen to be impending, the VicePresident and the members of the Cabinet were summoned to Buffalo. Mr. Roosevelt, on the almost positive assurances of the physicians that President McKinley was in no immediate or probable danger, had gone to the Adirondacks to bring home his wife and family from the Tahawus Club, many miles from the railway and several miles from the telephone. When mounted messengers arrived on Friday, they found that the Vice-President had undertaken a pedestrian excursion. Parties were at once sent in search, and late in the afternoon Mr. Roosevelt received the startling news not far from the top of Mount Marcy. At about five o'clock in the morning, after a ten-mile walk to the club-house, in which Mr. Roosevelt set a furious pace which outdistanced all his guides but one, and after a difficult and almost reckless ride in a storm, the Vice-President reached the railroad and was speeded at sometimes more than sixty miles an hour toward Buffalo, where he arrived early Saturday afternoon. The oath of office as President was administered to him in a private house that afternoon by Judge John R. Hazel in the presence of five members of the Cabinet. Before taking the oath of office Mr. Roosevelt made the following important and significant declaration : "I wish to state that it shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity, and honor of our beloved country." Following the ceremony it was announced that all the members of the Cabinet had been asked to retain office for the present, and that no special session of Congress would be called. If needed to confirm appointments, a special session of the Senate might be called without summoning the House of Representatives, but as Congress meets early in December, it is not thought that even this will be necessary. President Roosevelt's first official act was to issue a proclamation appointing Thursday, September 19, as a day of mourning and prayer throughout the United States. Among the thousands of

expressions of honor to the dead from monarchs, statesmen, and men of note the world over, none is more apt and terse than one sentence in this proclamation: "President McKinley crowned 2 life of largest love for his fellow-men, of most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude; and both the way in which he lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met his death, will remain forever a precious heritage of our people."

and the first of his ancestors born in this country, his great-grandfather, served with honor in the Revolution. From Pennsylvania the family moved with other pioneers to Ohio, and there at Niles on January 29, 1843, the future President was born, the seventh of nine children. His education was through the common school, a local seminary, and a partial course in Allegheny College. Then came a short experience in school-teaching, an equally short experience as a post-office clerk, and two months after the outbreak of the Civil War the boy of eighteen entered as a private the ranks of a volunteer regiment (the Twenty-third Ohio) in which another future President, Rutherford B. Hayes, was Major. From that day until the regiment was mustered out, a little over four years, McKinley was never absent a day on sick leave, only once on a short furlough; he fought in every engagement always with honor, more than once with notable gallantry or wise technical skill, while his promotion was steady from private to Major. A natural inclination to remain in the army was abandoned in deference to the arguments of his father and others, and the study of law was taken up in Canton, the town which became his home thereafter. From the time of his boyhood he had been an ardent Republican; politics soon became a part of his public life, and he was elected for a term Prosecuting Attorney in a strongly Democratic county. In the State campaign of 1875, fought on the Greenback issue, Major McKinley spoke often for Mr. Hayes, and so effectively that thereafter he was in demand in other States as a

campaign orator. In 1876 he was elected to Congress by 3,300 plurality, after a vigorous contest waged chiefly on the high tariff issue, and he was easily re-elected for six more terms in succession, while ais defeat after fourteen years' service in Congress is attributed in part to a redistricting of the State by his political opponents, although it was also a part of the Democratic "tidal wave" of 1890. In Congress Mr. McKinley was active and competent, and was a most useful man to his party, although not, for some years at least, regarded as a brilliant leader. He soon became known as a special advocate of the protective system, and was thoroughly equipped with all the statistics and arguments in favor of a high tariff. He spoke repeatedly in opposition to the Wood, Morrison, and Mills bills, served many years on the Ways and Means Committee, and as Chairman of that Committee gave his name to the famous tariff measure passed by the Fifty-first Congress, although it is well known that the bill was not entirely satisfactory to Mr. McKinley in the form in which it was passed. From this time on he was universally recognized as a National leader of the Republicans in all that related to the tariff. His defeat for Congress was instantly followed by a movement to make him Governor of Ohio, and he defeated by over 20,000 votes a Democratic Governor (Campbell) who had been elected in 1889 by 11,000 plurality.

As President

The reaction against the Democrats following the panic of 1893 aided in Mr. McKinley's re-election as Governor by the enormous majority of 80,000; this and his extraordinary tour of campaign speaking in 1894 (he traveled 16,000 miles, made seven speeches a day on the average, and addressed 2,000,000 people), and his unselfish and honorable fidelity to John Sherman in the National Convention of 1888, brought him into great prominence as a candidate for the Presidency, so that his nomination in 1896 was greeted by his whole party as logical and strong. In the campaign that followed the silver question first came to the front as a great National issue. Republicans as well as Democrats were divided on this subject, and it was

recalled as evidence of the shifting lines that Mr. McKinley himself had in 1877 voted for a Bland free silver coinage bill. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act, supported by Mr. McKinley, was regarded by many as an effort at compromise and as an attempt to hold the silver Republicans of the West in line. The adoption by the Democrats of Mr. Bryan as their candidate, with a 16 to 1 free coinage platform, made the silver issue predominant, and Mr. McKinley as the campaign went on interpreted the not very positive declaration of the Republican platform more and more in favor of a gold standard. The election gave Mr. McKinley 271 out of 447 electoral votes and a plurality of about 600,000.in a total of 7,000,000. President McKinley's first administration will be remembered chiefly, not for its new tariff measure, the Dingley Law, which at first seemed the point upon which administrative effort was concentrated, but for the growing indignation at the Spanish outrages in Cuba, the popular demand that the United States should interfere, the outbreak of fierce indignation at the destruction of the Maine, and the short, decisive war that followed. These events, the resulting issue of expansion or imperialism, so called, and the second defeat of Mr. Bryan in 1900 by a greatly increased electoral and popular vote, are too recent and too familiar to need recapitulation here. Mr. McKinley's private life was that of a man of attractive personality, kind disposition, and large-hearted serenity. Probably no American public man has ever had fewer personal enemies or submitted to fewer bitter personal attacks. His married life, while. it had great griefs in the deaths of two children and in the invalid condition of his wife, has been beautiful in the tender affection between the two and in the devotion of the strong, earnest husband to the weak and sometimes helpless wife. Mrs. McKinley in her bereavement has to-day the sympathy, not conventional but personal and heartfelt, of men and women the country over and, indeed, in large measure, the world over.

forty-two years of age, and hence the youngest President who ever filled the executive chair. He is in a way a peculiarly typical American, as strains of Dutch, Scotch, Irish, and French blood are found in his line of descent, while at the same time eight generations of his father's family, it is said, have lived in New York during two and a half centuries. Many people are surprised to know that he was of delicate health in boyhood, and that his athletic strength was gained by dint of moral and mental determinationa truly characteristic trait when the effect on his character is considered. Elsewhere we speak editorially of President Roosevelt's personality, opportunity, and responsibility. The chief events of his public life may here be briefly reviewed. He was graduated at Harvard in 1880, studied law at Columbia, and even then was full of the central idea which has governed his life-that to be a good citizen a man must be an active and open fighter for principle, not a passive observer and critic. Acting on this ideal, he plunged into local politics, served three terms as member of the lower branch of the State Legislature, and as an independent man as well as an independent Republican struck out at corrupt politics wherever he saw a chance. During this service he was chairman of two committees having to do with New York City, and learned much about the things that should be done in this city in the Police Department and other ways; he also came into prominent notice during this time by his vigorous opposition to Roscoe Conkling and the third-term scheme, and a little later as an unsuccessful Republican candidate in the spirited "triangular campaign" for the Mayoralty against Abram S. Hewitt and Henry George. The fine reform and organizing work done by Mr. Roosevelt as Police Commissioner under Mayor Strong in 1895 were only two weeks ago described with enthusiastic fervor by Mr. Jacob A. Riis in the pages of The Outlook. It is not too much to say that Roosevelt and Waring left standards of efficiency in their departments towards which their successors, if honest and energetic, must continually strive. On a broader scale and of vital National importance was Mr. Roosevelt's work in 1897 as Assistant Secretary

of the Navy; how greatly he contributed to the readiness of the navy for war has been warmly acknowledged by President McKinley, Secretary Long, and is known the country at large. Wisely, most observers now admit, when war came Mr. Roosevelt followed his natural inclination for active service, arguing that his example in showing that men who advocate aggressive measures should themselves be ready to fight as well as talk would be of greater worth than any bureau services. With his old friend Leonard Wood he organized the "Rough Riders " regiment and might have found volunteers for ten such bodies of men if he had had time. When Colonel Wood was made a BrigadierGeneral, Mr. Roosevelt became Colonel and carried his men through the San Juan fight and through the even more dangerous campaign of fever and privation that followed with courage and wise leadership. His election as Governor of New York followed his return from the war. His nomination for the Vice-Presidency was only doubtful in that it seemed uncertain whether he would be willing to accept it, but after some hesitation he acceded to the wishes of his party, was nominated by acclamation, and undoubtedly added to the strength of the ticket, while his activity during the campaign was characteristic in its sustained energy. A few of Mr. Roosevelt's most widely known books are "The Wilderness Hunter,” “The Winning of the West," "American Ideals," and "Oliver Cromwell." Mr. Roosevelt has more than once contributed to The Outlook; an article on Governor Taft, written for The Outlook this summer by Mr. Roosevelt, will be found in another place in this issue.

law became alarming. In all parts of the land it received some sanction in the pulpit, much in the press, and much more in impulsive talks on the streets and in the stores. The excuse for it everywhere was the inadequacy of present laws for the present emergency. It soon became known that if the President lived the maximum penalty for the assault upon him was ten years' imprisonment, and it was widely believed that speeches and articles inciting men to such assaults could not be punished by any law, State or Federal, unless some overt crime were the direct result. This last belief was unwarranted, so far at least as it related to incendiary speech. In New York State, for example, the present law provides that

Whenever three or more persons assemble with intent to commit any unlawful act by force; or assemble with intent to carry out any purpose in such a manner as to disturb the public peace; or, being assembled, attempt or threaten any act tending toward a breach of the peace, or any injury to person or property, or any unlawful act, such an assembly is unlawful, and every person participating therein by his presence, aid, or instigation is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Under this statute the mere presence at meetings in which there are calls to violence may be punished by imprisonment for one year, and both John Most and Emma Goldman, who have been arrested in connection with the present crime, have already served terms in the penitentiary the former's plea that he had told his audience that the time was not yet ripe for action being ruled out by the court as entirely non-essential. In point of fact, no evidence of the existence of a plot to kill President McKinley has been discovered. Emma Goldman and other reputed Anarchists have been arrested, the first because Czolgosz declared that her general denunciation fired his brain, the other because the police rightly propose to probe all possible theories to the bottom.

tion or laws of the United States." Here, however, it is essential that a conspiracy be proven. Neither in the Federal law nor in the State law is there any clear provision against the publication of literature inciting to murder, except through the liability of the publishers if some crime results. When John Most was first approached on the news of the assault at Buffalo, he ridiculed the idea of holding philosophical Anarchists responsible for such outrages, cleverly comparing this with the supposed law in China holding a man's school-teacher responsible if he commits a crime. But the issue of " Freiheit " which had gone to press before the crime at Buffalo was reported contained such quotations as these from an Anarchist writer of a half-century ago:

The greatest of all follies in the world is the belief that there can be a crime of any sort against despots and their accomplices. Such a belief is in itself a crime. Despots are outlaws; they are in human shape what the tiger is among beasts-to spare them is a crime. As despots make use of everything, treachery, poison, murder, etc., so everything should be employed against them.

The road of humanity leads over the peaks of barbarity. That is once for all a law of necessity dictated by the reaction. We cannot get around it, since we will not give up the future. If we wish to attain the end, we must wish for the means also; if we wish the life of peoples, we must wish the death of their enemies. If we wish for humanity, we are "Murobliged to wish for murder. We say: der the murderers. Save humanity by blood and steel, poison and dynamite."

Such appeals as this have nothing in common with appeals to the reason of the majority to change the government under which they live, or even to set aside all government. Appeals to the reason of the majority no American in his sober moments would even restrain. But appeals to the minority, to the few, to the individual, to destroy by violence the government desired by the majority, or the men elected to administer that government, are in their essence treason against democracy, and our democratic State must protect the sovereignty of the people as jealously as an autocratic State protects the sovereignty of its king. We want no hysterical legislation restricting the Anglo-Saxon rights of peaceable petition and protest; we want nothing that will enable Anarchists to assume the rôle of martyrs and regain any of the popular sympathy their

crime has alienated; but we do want laws, both Federal and State, treating assaults upon the lives of those in whom the public life centers as assaults upon the Government itself.

The Financial Situation

The depression of prices upon the Stock Exchange which followed the assault upon the President was not accompanied by any change for the worse in general business conditions, while on Monday a sharp rise in stocks followed. There was indeed a slight increase in the number of commercial failures as compared with the week preceding, but the total number was less. than the low record of the corresponding week last year (the fairest basis of comparison), while railroad returns, the surest register of business activity, showed at gain of thirteen per cent. over a year ago, and thirty-five per cent. over four years ago. The depression upon the Stock Exchange was in part due to sensitiveness to the feelings of investors, still more to the universal disposition of brokers to anticipate the effects of waves of feeling, but most of all to the fact that the assault upon the President synchronized with the announcement that the surplus reserve in the New York City banks had fallen ten millions during the week, and was within six millions of the minimum allowed by law. This announcement did seriously threaten a scarcity of money, particularly as it came before the end of the harvesting season, when there is need of unusual sums in the rural districts to pay farmers for their crops and farm hands their season's wages.

The Clearing-House

Committee in New York prepared to relieve, through the issue of certificates, any sound banks which might find their reserves reduced below the legal minimum, and Secretary Gage came to the relief of all the banks by increasing the Treasury deposits with them and offering to buy $20,000,000 worth of bonds at liberal prices. Upon the deposits made with the banks, which now aggregate more than a hundred millions, the Treasury gets no interest, but upon the bonds repurchased —even at the high prices-the Treasury saves nearly two per cent. a year. week's purchases added about ten million dollars to the amount of money in circulation, and prevented a further decrease

Last

in the surplus reserve in the banks. In paying out this money the Treasury merely relieved a contraction occasioned by a continued surplus of revenues over expenditures-a surplus which still averages five millions a month despite the revenue reduction act.

The Schley Court of Inquiry

The Court of Inquiry asked for by Rear-Admiral Winfield Scott Schley met in Washington on Thursday of last week. The opening of the court was attended with considerable ceremony and a brilliant display of uniforms. Admiral Dewey, Rear-Admiral Benham (retired), and Admiral Howison (retired) constituted the Court. Admiral Schley was represented by counsel, and counsel was present in the interest of Admiral Sampson. At the very outset formal protest was entered by Admiral Schley in person against Admiral Howison as a member of the Court of Inquiry. This was supported by evidence from newspaper men and civilians who stated that Admiral Howison had, long before the inquiry was demanded, expressed himself freely and forcibly with regard to the relative professional merits of Admiral Sampson and Admiral Schley, and had criticised the latter's conduct in certain particulars. The evidence on this point was stronger than had been expected, and while no one believes that Admiral Howison acted improperly under the circumstances, as he certainly could not foresee that he would be placed in a position of judge in the matter, still it seemed just and reasonable to the Court that a naval officer who had spoken so freely should not be a member of that Court. The Court of Inquiry as a whole, therefore, concurred in Admiral Schley's objection, and Admiral Howison was allowed to retire from the bench. This naturally caused a delay in the proceedings until the Secretary of the Navy or his representative should appoint another officer to succeed Admiral Howison. Rear-Admiral Francis M. Ramsay has since been appointed. It is certain that the investigation will be carried on with great thoroughness, and it is hoped that the people and press of the country will refrain from forming a final opinion in the matter until the evidence on both sides has been pre