Clinton County Republican-News
May 19, 1927

THE BATH HORROR

Forty children were killed Wednesday forenoon at Bath.  As many more were injured,
some of them crippled for life.  At least four adults, honorable and useful citizens
were robbed of life.  Never before has Clinton county been visited by such a tragedy -
and never again, we hope.  And all this was the result of the insane rage of another
citizen of that peaceful Clinton county community.

Every week - almost daily it sometimes seems - people lose their lives in groups.
All over the country and all over the world there are tragedies where dozens 
of innocent people go to death.  But seldom does this happen to a group of children.
And almost never are these horrors the result of a fiend's planning as was the case
in Bath yesterday.

Andrew Kehoe, according to people of Bath, has long been opposed to the township
agricultural school in that village.  He fought its establishment.  He fought 
the expense of operating it.  He was a leader of those who were opposed to the 
higher tax it imposed upon the community and township.  Because of his activity 
and the leadership he fell heir to, he became radical and most unreasonable 
on this subject.  Being heavily in debt on his farm, the added taxes contributed
to his loss of the farm on a mortgage this spring.  Evidently this was the last
straw.  Andrew Kehoe became a maniac.

Light hearted, laughing children left their homes on the beautiful spring morning
for the school.  Less than two hours later their mangled little forms were 
lying in a mass of wreckage and debris.  Why?  Because one man was incapable, 
or too stubborn, to recognize the need of modern educational facilities.

Fond mothers and fathers waved cheery goodbyes to their loved little ones early
Wednesday morning.  Two hours later they gropingly lifed the edges of a quilt 
or sheet that covered a twisted little body, praying that God had spared their 
little one, only to find the terrible worst.  Why?  Because one man, Andrew Kehoe,
allowed his passions to run rampant so long that it resulted in maniacal wholesale
murder.

One stoical young father, already having identified the lifeless remains of two
of his dear little ones, joined the search among the ruins only to uncover the 
third baby of his little brood.  As he tenderly carried this child toward the 
grass plot where the other two lay, the agony in his face was terrible to witness.
Would Andrew Kehoe in his sane days have caused this father and mother the anguish
they are now experiencing?  No!  He allowed the comparatively trivial problems 
of his workaday world to unbalance his mind.  He forgot God.  He forgot his friends.
He ignored the beauty of the spring day.  He was oblivious to the sacredness 
and beauty of innocent childhood.  Black, bitter and unreasoning wrath filled 
his soul.  He would kill.  He would [maim].  He would wreck.  Anything, 
everything - nothing was too terrible to satisfy the rage he had developed - 
and all because of a few paltry dollars.

What is the lesson?

What can the people of the country - for the whole country has been attracted by 
the horror of the catastrophe - learn or conclude from Andrew Kehoe's dreadful act?

Is the Bath township tax situation serious enough to warrant despondency 
or insanity among its citizens?

Is the building of a modern institution which equips children 
to meet the problems of the world a burden - or is it a privilege?

Andrew Kehoe's act has no parallel, so far as we know, in the history of Michigan.
That he was insane there is little doubt.  But he was not always insane.  To start
with he was merely antagonistic.  Then he became radical.  Constant brooding resulted
in murderous insanity.  He was the victim of the progress of his own lack of balance -
but with him to his ignominious end he took the lives of over forty children.

What a terrible price to pay for narrow-mindedness.  What an awful calamity for
one peaceful little community to bear for one man's lack of ordinary American 
ideals.  What an overwhelming and crushing grief for mothers, fathers, relatives 
and intimate friends.  Never before have we known of aversion of the cost 
of education taking such terrible form.  There are, however, many people 
who unthinkingly hamper and discourage the progress of good schools 
and other institutions for the welfare and happiness of the pulic.

What are we going to do about it?

What about Bath township with its one school in ruins?

What will this township of Bath with its bonded indebtedness do?  Its schoolhouse
is gone; its people are grief-stricken; and there are still over two hundred 
school children in the township.  No insurance can be collected from the explosion.

Isn't it high time, right now, to start some sort of a relief fund 
that will in a measure lighten the terrible burden that community faces?