The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-14
PRESIDENT M'KINLEY.
An He and His Conduct of the War
Appear to English Eyes.

From the London Spectator, July 80.
Mr.. Mckinley is the only English speak
ing man who is invested with the powers
of sovereign within a irst-class state.
That position of itself makes him an OBJ
ject of great interest, and the interest Is
deepened by the circumstances amid
which he has been placed. Without
training in military business, or expert
ence in diplomacy, or habitude in manag-
ing great affairs, he was suddenly called
on to conduct a serious war which he
only half approved, to create the neces-
sary forces and to take resolutions GER
tain TO arouse the jealousy of half the
great Powers of Europe. He had at one
and the same time to organize a fleet,
to create an army and to make it clearly
understood that during war time the
United States would suffer no interfer-
ence 1t seemed at first that, crushed
by the weight of these responsibilities, the
President might fail. He was supposed
to be too much Of a politician, a word
which in America implies a man who
trims, his first selection for office excited
no confdence-his choice of Mr.. Sher-
man, indeed Is still unexplained-and he
seemed in his experience and his humane
aversion to boodshed so undecided that
observers expected a vaciliating admins
tration. Mr. Mckinley, ii was said,
would yield to the people, but he would
do as little as he could, and probably.
therefore, be unsuccessful in that little.
The total unreadineSs Of the country for
war, an uureadness in which European
statesmen could scarcely believe, Deepen
ed this impression, and for moment 1t
was generally held that Mr.. Mckinley
though a good man, would prove unequal
10 a task which might have oppressed
a Bismarck.
The doubt has now disappeared. II seems
probable that power, as occasionally hap
pens, has developed latent forces in its pes
SCISSOR of which the world did not suspect
the existence; but al all events it is GER
tain that Mr. Mckinley has risen to the
hight Of his circumstances, and, though
he cannot be Abraham Lincoln, he con-
vinces those around him that he has many
OF his great predecessors best qualities
All disposition to wobble has gone out of
him He Is aware, as Lincoln once said,
that ultimate decision IN executive mat
ters must rest with him; that the respon-
eibility before the people and before his
tory rests on his shoulders; and with that
certainty he has become as clear and firm
as IL he were a great man OF business at
the head of a great factory. Two resolves
have taken possession OF him-or shall we
say a conviction of TWO duties?-to carry
this war forward to complete success and
to execute the national, as distinct from
the party, viii; and with those resolves
heslta ton and oyeranxious care have alike
disappeared, and President Mckinley has
become a dangerous man 20 face. His own
people see, and the world begins 10 recog-
nize, that whenever the appeal from the
armies or the fleets or the departments
reaches the White House the orders that
come back are always clear, and are AL
ways in the direction of decided action.
Cubans give trouble, foreign powers give
trouble, the generals give trouble, critics
at home give infinite trouble, but Mr.. Nc
Klnley goes on steadily unhasting but I'M
dismayed.
The enlargement in his conception Of the
work 10 be done Is unmistakahle. The Pres
ldent was probably at first under the i'm
preston, shared by the whole Of his coun-
trymen, that the war would be a small af-
fair; but that impression has disappeared
and America is fighting Spain as II Spain