The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-03
HAD ENOUGH OF HANNA
The Next Chairman Has a Job
on His Hands.
THE SENATOR AN INCUBUS
An Embarrassment to Republican
Leaders-His Grip on the Presi-
dent-Great Opposition
in Ohio


The assumption that the management
of the republican party is a personal
perquisite of any man is dangerous as
we'll as unwarranted, and the remind
er, lest we forget" the work Senator
Hanna did to nominate President Nc
kinley four years ago, is unhappy at
this time, to say the least. President
Mckinley has given some official places
to personal friends, without regard to
civil service principles or to the party
welfare, but he is not pleased to have
it assumed that he regards the presi-
dency and all the patronage of the Of
flee as his personal perquisite, or that
he will ask the republican party to re-
nominate him in order that he may en-
phasize his personal ownership.
The next chairman of the republican
national committee will be selected with
a view to harmonizing and uniting all
the elements in the republican party,
and all the people who are ready to sup
port the great principles that will be
thrown in the scale of national cleo
ton with name of the republican can
didate for president to represent their
continuance as principles of govern
ment. If next June Senator Hanna ap-
pears to be the man who can harmonic
all these political elements into a COM
pact support of the republican ticket,
he will undoubtedly be selected for
chairman. But if he should not be so
regarded some other man will be Sc
lected as manager of the campaign,
and the personal obligations of che
president will have no weight in the
selection.
Mr.. Mckinley is good politician, and
if he is a candidate for reelection, as
he expects to be, he will not sacrifice
vote by asking the committee to
name for chairman any man who viii
arouse hostility to the ticket. This can
be stated as positively now as next
summer, and the friends of Mr.. Hanna
who are reminding the president of his
personal obligations to the senator are
not doing a service which either APP
precates.
There has been much gossip about a
change in the control of the committee.
1t has not been inspired by personal
enemies of Senator Hanna, but by earn
est republicans who want to remove
every cause for dissa tisraction among
republicans, SO that they can work IN
harmony next year. Mr.. Hanna seems
to be an embarrassment. He had to
make bitter enemies in the opposition
party by his management of the repub-
lican campaign of 1896, but since that
time the senator has entered politics
on his own account and he has made
many enemies within his own party,
not only in Ohio, but elsewhere, and
aroused prejudices against him which
are purely personal, and not because
he is republican senator or a personal
friend and earnest political champion
of the president.
Some of these personal enemies of
Senator Hanna are personal and poll
tical friends of the president, and the
loyalty Of most Of them to the presi-
dent and party would not be shaken
by the selection of Mr.. Hanna again to
lead. But there are others who would
be Influenced by their prejudices
against the manager, just as workmen
in a factory who liked the proprietor
would refuse to work under the direc
ton of manager who was obnoxious
to them.
The president understands this, and
Senator Hanna ought to. But whether
the Ohio senator does understand or
not, the president will not do anything
to ALLEVIATE republican votes, whatever
his personal obligations to Mr.. Hanna
may be.
There has been a great deal said
about the personal obligations of the
president to Mr.. Hanna and to other
personal friends. This talk largely
comes from those who claim to be in
the list, and who are fearful lest tht
president will forget" But Mr. Nc
to the presidency to a few personal
friends. He studied the election re-
turns in 1896 as carefully as anyone,
and was gratified to find that nearly
100000 men cast their votes for him
and made him president. He has been
so appreciative of this that he has
given high and lucrative offices to men
who were never before known as repub-
licans and who are not so known now.
President Mckinley is the first presi-
dent who has given recognition to lis
manager as statesman. He offered
Mr.. Hanna a place in his cabinet, but,
while making this offer. he did not press
it, for the reason that he knew it would
be severely criticised, and also because
Mr.. Hanna's craftsmanship was yet
to be tried and tested. Mr.. Hanna also
recognized that in the presidents caoi-
net he would be criticised more than
another, and that his acceptance would
subject the president to severe criti-
cism. He preferred seat in the United
States senate, and the president pre-
pared the way for gratifying that ann
bition by taking John Sherman from
the senate for his secretary of state.
He then used his influence to have Mr..
Hanna appointed to the vacancy.
Only the presidents influence secured
this appointment, for Governor Bush
nell did not love Hanna and refused 20
make the appointment until the presi-
dent sent Judge Day to Columbus TO
make the request in the name of Will
lam Mckinley. The governor could not
ignore such a request from the head
of the party and the chief executive,
and, much as he disliked Hanna, he
made the appointment.
This ought to acquit the president of
any forgetfulness toward Mr.. Hanna,
but he went farther, and when Mr..
Hanna was candidate for election be-
fore the legislature of Ohio and had the
opposition of republican members from
his own city, the president again came
to the rescue and eXerted every legiti-
mate influence in Hannas favor
Mr.. Hanna has been allowed to stand
for the national administration in Ohio
ever since, and under his leadership
the unity of the party under McKin-
ley's leadership has been broken into
factions, and the splendid republican
majority for Mckinley in 1896 has been
gradually wiped out, until this year the
vote of Nash was $4,000 less than a ma
jority. Mckinley in 1896 had 50 per