The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-09
MKINLEY's UNUSUAL SUCCESS.

IAdtIoh u an unusual man. + or NC
hinley is unusual in politics. Hun
dreds of the Mckinley sort of men
start into politics every year and drop
out again either in despair or disgust
Let US take, for instance, a young law
yer in an Ohio town the size of Wich-
tia who aSpired to succeed in politics.
such a young man, hoping to succeed
and keep his probity and conscientious
scruples unsullied soon drops out of
sight, If he is more faithful TO his con-
science than TO his politics. Upon en-
terlng politics he will find that the
hardest unrequited work in the world
is done in politics. While good citi-
zens are sleeping soundly or engaging
in the gayetieS and levities of society,
or running their noses over their own
private accounts. and building up alone
and selfishly their own enterprises. the
politician, that is the successful poll
tician all this while is spending his
time over the questions of party or
ganiZation and ward and precinct polls
and the fitness of aspirants and their
relative strength and weakness. Night
after night, the active politician works
with other politicians. He grows To
have an intense interest in politics, so
intense that he comes to be known as a
professional politician who stands for
his brother politician either right or
wrong; who stands for his party in
everything although he must sacrifice
his own personal views. and who worst
of all will stop at nothing to win a
party victory, his only excuse being
that the politicians ON the other side
would do the same thing had they the
chance. This is politics. 1t may not
be politics as the business man wants
to see it, or as the learned editor writes
about it, or as the pedantic essayist
theories about it, but it is politics, as
it is found in every town of any con-
siderable size in Ohio, as well as those
of every other state in the Union.
We will take a young man of great
political ambition. an ambition to be
president of the United States, and also
a great adherence of anything little.
unfair or dishonest. One month of
actual politics turns his stomach and
wastes his time, and he either sacri-
fees his high sense of civic prObity or
gets out of politics and goes into some
thing else.
Mckinley started as a young lawyer
in Canton, Ohio. He took a prominent
part in politics. He was a hard party
worker. He has probably attended
strictly to party organization and strug
gled valiantly for party success.
The strange part of Mckinley's pO-
litical character comes in. Undoubt-
edly he has attended upon such organ
ization and struggles. No man can 90
up in politics without being a party TO
such fights. But through it all McKin-
ley has been silent successful and
clean.
He has worked hard for his party
but always with q strict adherence for
truth and justice to- himself. And he
has crept up slowly, until today he is
the leading candidate for the pres
dency. If he is nominated be will
carry on the same kind of a campaign
that he has always carried on-imma- |
culately clean. He is one Of the few
men in this country today actively in
politics who can make a speech that
is not tainted with demagogy. He is I
one of the few men who can make a
speech and defend no one. He begins
his address with the assumption that
all men diSa gree with him and IL is his
duty 10 win them over by gentle argu- /
ment He befOulS no one. He be /
smirches no ones character. tie at
tackS no ones theory. But he attacks
the theory, and tries to win the man, !
who possesses ii, away from il.
There are many men of this kind in
the world, but strange 10 say they are |
weak. The ordinarily strong
man is the man who can accuse as ably /
as he can defend. that is. the man of
strong partisan character. Mckinley /
is not that, and therein is the greatest
in his character. For his /
speeches, free from rancor. or wit, or
protest, or accusation. warm an audi /
ence TO him more rapidly and more
steadfastly than the speeches Of a man I
speaking to his own most violent and 4
partiSans.
This is something new IN politics (
But il i here and il i a good thing 4
The strange thing Is that such q char
acter could have survived the pitfalls
Of practical partisan politics and have
arisen to such heighth. where it can
now demand the admiration OF the
practical politicians as vel as the PEG
pie a. large not actively engaged in the
business Of politics
This feat Mckinley has accomplish
ed. Other men have been awarded
a similar position in public life through I.
accident Mckinley has gained il
endeayor.
And when he becomes pTesl.iell u
viii have two questions il deal-nS WIN
men and measures. Is h. clean: Of /
men; is il right.-' Of measures
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HAIR AND HISTORY /
Those who know anything about rs
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