The San Francisco call., 1896-06-19
MAN WHO MANAGED
McKINLEY'S BOOM,
A Pen Picture of Mark
Hanna and His
Methods.
His Best Work for the Candi-
date Was Done by Cor
respondence.
Opens Every Letter and Has Fine
Grasp of Detail-Wa No
Public Office.

One would hardly suppose that man
could manage a Presidential campaign
and at the same time conduct several i'm
mense business enterprises and neglect
none of them, and yet that is what M. A.
Hanna has been doing. Hanna is not
politician; he is business man, but as
business man he has surrounded him
self with the ablest politicians. The
most singular feature of the McKin-
ley campaign, as managed by Mr..
Hanna, is that it was almost en-
tirely a campaign of correspondence.
There were no missionaries sent hither
and thither, but the number of letters
that were written is amazing. And no less
amazing is the grasp of detail that Hanna
had of the various districts in the various
States, and the exact situation in each OF
the districts. A recent writer who spent
two hours very pleasantly and very profit
ably in Hanna's political headquarters one
day thus describes the scene: ''There
were present M. A. Hanna and Chair
man Dick of the State Republican
Committee. Everything was in perfect
order and absolute quiet reigned. Every
minute or two stenographer or mes
joining rooms.
bring me some ink, John,' said Hanna,
as the ofice-boy passed through, and take
these kilograms to the telegraph office at
once
"And, never ceasing In his work and
never looking up from his desk, Hanna
gave his orders or made known his wants
as each employe entered.
"'I see, said he, continuing to scratch
away with his pen and addressing Chair
man Dick, that you have marked this
Thirty-third District in New York ''Too
late.'''
4" Yes, sir, responded Mr.. Dick.
=" You are mistaken. The primaries
have not vet been held
Hanna opens every letter and assigns
it to the proper department for answer,
and the way in which he can rememb Der
what each letter contains is one of the
most astonishing things about the man.
He gets five deliveries of mail per day,
and at each delivery he now receives over
bushel basket full of letters. He plunges
into his correspondence as though it were
feast, and, not content with debating
ing large variety OF letters wherever he
thinks the influence of a personal COM
munication will be greater. Hanna is
vastly resourceful and many sided and his
capacity for work is immense.
Hanna calls the Mckinley campaign
a spontaneous outburst of the people, and
points to the heaping mass of unsolicited
correspondence with glow OF pride. With
an emphatic smash of his prodigious fist
upon the desk, he declares that the masses
are for Mckinley, and with a still more
vigorous smash of the selfsame fist he de-
nies that the Mckinley campaign is a
campaign of Doodle. He insists that no
money is being spent, and that manufac-
turers are not being fried, editors and
statesmen to the contrary notwithstand-
ing
And now for a pen picture of the man
who has suddenly risen before the eye of
the public. He possesses a burly frame, a
round head, a strong but not overintel-
lectual face, and he is without doubt a
very good liver. Hanna would i'm press
anv one as solid man, physically, men,
tally and morally. In manner he is bluff
and curt When he opens conversation
with you he does it with an ill-tempered
growl, and you mentally resolve that you
are about to spend few unpleasant mo-
ments. But at the next question his voice
melts and his eyes twinkle, and you find
that you are really having quite an
agreeable time. There is good blood in
Hanna, plenty of it. and Rudyard Kipling
would add, "Ah, the bowels of him." for
10 0F l.
orous, wholesome. and his capacity for
work rests upon firm physical conditions.
How did Hanna make his money! He
made it legitimately-tha is, mean it is
legitimate growth of solid business in
vestments and not the result of specula-
ton. He foresaw very clearly, and was
one of the earliest to foresee, the financial
possibilities of the Lake Superior iron ore
region. He became interested in the de-
velopment of the iron ore districts and
later in vessel property to transport the
ore to the railways and the furnaces, and
in that manner laid the basis of his colos-
sal fortune. Then he undertook to operate
street railways in Cleveland, and is now
the president of very profitable consoli-
dation of lines. he bought the Euclid
dNShQO OpCld-hOuoO DIT u OA5 Sdlu anu
this now yields substantial revenue.
The question is frequently asked: Why
is Hanna so deeply interested in McKin-
ley's campaign? He has certainly given
Mckinley a management which money
could not buy, for he is in the campaign
with all the energies that he possesses.
The local papers say that he is slated to
be Secretary of Agriculture, and he is
frequently pictured in blue jeans
hoeing potatoes in the garden. But Hanna
says he wants no Office, and he is
evidently sincere in his assertion. He is
in the campaign purely out of friendship
for Mckinley. He manifested the same
impersonal interest in Sherman's cam
paign eightyears ago, and did all he could
as delegate-at-large and potent factor in
State politics to keep Ohio in line for the
statesman from Mansfield. Sherman's
return to the Senate the last time was
largely due to Hanna's activity in his be-
half.
One must take a glimpse of Hanna s
home life to ascertain the completeness of
the man. 1t is simple and cheerful. He
likes to be with his family, and is in his