Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-06-18

The visitor would be filled with admi
ration for the genius which has grasped
and controlled the almost infinite com
plexity of details involved In politi
cal understanding of such magnitude
He would be amazed at the patience
the persistence, the energy, the knowl
edge of human character, the courage
and self-reliance, the creative imagina
tion, the executive capacity that have
been brought to bear upon the Conven.
tion, in advance of its assembling.
He would be all the more astonished
| when he learned that the great game
had been played and won by single
| mind. not against one other mind, but
against the combined skill of the most
| adroit and experienced politicians o.
the country. When the visitor beheld
the Convention of nearly thousand
delegates, of all sorts and from al
around, harmoniously registering the
will of this one individual, proceeding
in all respects according to the plans
formed weeks beforehand by this one
| mans brains, and making history ol
the largest kind ON specifications fur.
nished solely by himself, woulo moi
| the first question be this?
What is the name of this truly Ma
poleonic genius? He has indeed dem
| onstrated his fitness for the chief Office
of your Government. He has we'll
earned the prize"
The answer would be:
"His name is Mark Hanna. But ii
is not Mark that we are going to nom
mate for President. 1t is William Nc
Kinley of Canton, Ohio, a neighbor
and protege of Hanna's."
Then the traveller from Mars would
very probably rejoin:
That strikes me as curious. Who
is this William Mckinley, anyway? Is
he an abler man than Hanna? Per-
haps Hanna is deeply in his debt?
What has he done for Mark Hanna or
for the country, that this prize, which
in the eternal fitness of things belongs
to Mark Hanna, should be assigned to
him?"
1t would require only a short time
to explain to the intelligent visitor
from afar that this was an affair not OF
men but of principles. Hanna, it was
true, had shown himself to be a per-
sonage of remarkable political ability,
perhaps of greater ability than McKin-
ley could be said to possess; but Nc
Kinley stood for certain principles
cherished by the Republican party;
and it was as the representative of
those principles that Mckinley was to
be nominated by the Convention.
"You interest me greatly" the visi-
tor would say. These principles
which William Mckinley represents,
and which Mark Hanna does not rep
resent, what are theyP l have heard
much discussion in the streets and in
hotel lobbies concerning the money
question, for example. Tell me what
principles William Mckinley repre-
sents in regard to that question"
IT lo ho lot.
form of the Convention"
"Who makes the PLATFORM"
1.-The Committee on Resolutions in
the first place; it is afterward adopted
by the vote of the delegates.
s'And who makes up the Committee
on ResolutionsP"
''Mr. Hanna does. The platform
will undoubtedly be shaped according
to his ideas of what is right and expe-
dient.''
At this point a look of perplexity,
not unmingled with disgust, over
spreads the fine features of the celes-
tial voyager. Hanna, Mark HANNAH"
he exclaims. Everything seems to
come back to Hanna. Even the prin-
ciples which this William Mckinley is
to represent are to be supplied by
that extraordinary Hanna. He is the
organizer, the controller, the master.
He furnishes the delegates, the money,
the brains; and now you tell me he
also furnishes the principles. l am
not very familiar with your modes OF
selecting candidates, or with the laws
governing the evolution of your states
men, but common sense is not confined
to the planet whereon at present |
stand. What, in the name of Dog
Star and all the lesser luminaries of
heaven, has William Mckinley to do
with the situation? Why, in the name
of Pleiades and the Belt of Orion,
should not this Convention nominate
Mark Hanna himself?n
And in all St. Louis there is not one
person who can satisfactorily answer
that simple question.-N. Z. San.