According to the prison authorities at Auburn thousands of letters for the assassin of President McKinley were received during his confinement at the Auburn prison. Some of these missives were accompanied by flowers overs or dainty delicacies sent to the prisoner by women of high social standing in various parts of the country. All the letters expressed approval of the crime committed and conveyed messages of sympathy and encouragement. From another class of sympathizers the prison authorities received letters threatening them with vengeance if the sentence of death should be executed.

What has become of these letters? It was reported that the first intention of the New York State authorities was to destroy them with the personal effects of the assassin. Fortunately, this rash resolve was not carried out.

"Eventually they will be destroyed," Superintendent Collins is reported to have said; "but it has struck me," he adds, "that perhaps we should make a list of them, especially of those letters signed with full and proper names in which condolence was offered to the prisoner or threats against us were made. My plan is to get the addresses of these people and keep the list for police reference. I believe there may come a time when such a list would be valuable in running down anarchists."

The time for making use of the letters is now--this very day. A list of the authors with their addresses should of course be prepared and kept for police reference. But the task of "running down the anarchists" devolves mainly upon the people themselves, and they are entitled to all the information which has come into possession of any of their public servants. Moreover, the letters to the assassin are of right public property. They deal with crime against the republic and constitute a part of a great public tragedy. The people have the same right to be informed of the contents of those letters and the names of their authors as they had to demand that the death sentence of the 3assassin should be published.

It is not to be supposed that the sympathizers with the assassin will object to the publication of their letters. Expressions of approval of such a monstrous crime, after the bloody deed is done, disclose a firmly rooted conviction that must needs welcome the widest possible publicity. Most if not all of the letters were certainly written with the understanding that they would be published; and none of the authors have the right to demand that his or her letter be withheld from the public.

There is another phase to this question which is of great practical importance, especially at the present time. The people are demanding more stringent laws for the suppression of anarchy and our lawmakers are engaged in the preparation of bills that will meet the case. A large number of such measures are framed upon the assumption that our anarchists are aliens and that the growth of anarchism may be arrested by enacting a sufficiently rigid immigration law.

All agree that foreigners of pronounced anarchistic views should be barred from the country. But what of our native specimens of the breed? Most of the frequent outbursts of lawless sentiments in various parts of the country during the past few weeks have been the ravings of native anarchists. The ranks of our theorizing, babbling "reformers" are liberally sprinkled with men and women of more or less hazy anarchistic views, and some chairs in our higher schools of learning are held by men who teach and preach anarchy to our youth.

The publication of the letters to the assassin of President McKinley would throw a most valuable light upon anarchism as a social force in the United States. It would unmask the whole front of anarchy and reveal the make-up of its forces. The people would learn whether the touching notes and delicacies sent to the assassin came from servant girls with foreign names or from American ladies of high social position; in short, it would be revealed who these sympathizers are, how many are aliens or adopted citizens, and how many are men and women to the manor born. With the aid of this 5valuable light our lawgivers could make better and more effective laws, and what is, perhaps, of greater importance, it would enable the people to direct their own campaign against lawlessness so as to obtain the best results.

The people are entitled to the letters in question, and they should be published in full without delay.