The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-29

|
which affected the prosperity of that bank.
went into politics and proceeded to learn
/ that business as he had the manufactur-
| ing of pig iron. MIR. White adds:
The business man in politics Hanna's
! invention twenty years ago..
We have here the plain statement that
Mr.. Hanna went into politics as an ANA
teur because he saw it to be good business.
! There was time when Men like Jefferson.
| Monroe. and their associates considered
| politics-or. as they called it, statesman
ship--to be in itself sufficient occupation
! for a man of large and scholarly attain
ments. They took the business of guiding
! the destiny Of their country rather more
seriously than they should, perhaps. In
those days it was fashionable to talk about
patriotism and to discuss civic ideals and
| the influences which should make of the
| United States of America a great nation,
one to take part in the shaping of the life
of the world. They studied not altogether
| the price of bacon or pig iron, or even the
| commercial conditions which should throw
, the course of trade toward or away from
their own Virginia plantations. They con-
sidered craftsmanship business closely
| akin to philosophy, and thus they put into
the Declaration of Independence a great
many things about life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness and general principles
Of human welfare, and omitted to say any
| thing specifically about pig iron. The busi-
ness man in politics was an invention
which they did not know about. They
would hardly have thought that man
who had, until considerably past the age
of forty. given his attention wholly to gro
ceries, iron, coal, shipping, and other bust
ness enterprises could then pick up the
fate of his country and play ball with it
But they died long time ago and 1t is
not fashionable at present, because it is
not practical, to talk much about the prin-
ciples Of government or the theory that all
men were created free and equal.
Mr.. White, after explaining the educa-
tion which prepared Mr.. Hanna for the
trade Of craftsmanship. proceeds to dis
cuss what he seems to think the mystic
rious and unaccountable friendship between
Mr.. Hanna and William Mckinley. Ac-
cording to him, this friendship is only to
be explained on the basis of a sort of Da-
vid and Jonathan attraction. He says of
Hanna that "he grappled it 1.-THE friend
ship to him with all his heart and mind"
This is interesting. 1t is the touch of SEN
timent which many people think entirely
absent from the character Of the Ohio boss.
For thorough business man, brought up
on pig iron, to cherish romantic affection
for an Ohio politician seems about as queer
as anything in comic opera. But Mr..
White says ii is so, and IL, as a journalist
and writer of political editorials, he can
honestly explain the connection between
Mr.. Hanna and the President without re-
ferring to business transaction in which
Mr.. Abner Mckinley, Mr.. Hanna. and Mr..
kchlsaat were concerned some years ago, |
he may at least claim the merit of entire
originality.
We then have description of Mr.. Hanna
as he appeared at the st. Louis Convention.
We also have history of the making OF
that convention. II is referred to as 1.-The
Mckinley syndicate" and we are told:
The st. Louis Convention 4 meeting Of q
a Ia.
All emotionalism remote from the con-
stitution of that body as a skyrocket from a !
table of statistics. Hanna had planned the syn
dieate, he had promoted it. he had made it
go. He knew the men in the majority,
and he knew that they there to vote for
Mckinley, and he knew that they were men who
accomplish their ertis. Ii old story 10
Hsnna-ihe picking and handling of men,
If that is not the description of packed |
convention, what is? Yet little further
on We have Mr.. White declaring with all |
the earnestness of the Mugwump whom |
he abhors that the convention was not |
as certain opponents expressed it, sewed |
up in sack. branded. gagged, and de- |
livered; that it was. in fact. a free con-
,yention. There is a legend of a dog who, |
in lodging an electric car, turned around |
so quickly that he trod on his own tail. |
1t takes a clever journalist to contra |
dict himself in one paragraph so success |
fully that he does not see that he has |
done it. We also have a description OF |
the way that st. Louis Convention-the
unemotional-acted after Senator Can
mons speech:
1.-THE Yah man was in the hands of mob
ifsrna devoted himself the plcas1irable ex-
citerIen; OF the chase He storrned and reared
with the mob: he guyed and he choered with the
mob lie was OF ii, led by it, enjoying it, wiioop
ing it up
From this point the article is as full of
contradictions as it is of epigrams. and
that is saying a great deal. We have
on one page this statement:
at is not that Hanna is so entirely dis
pleased with what Quay has done as the way
it is dong, for Hanna is no prude.''
And on another, this:
with his undeniable virtues . cash
register conscience. fidelity, love of truth-with
his eficency-and that coyereth a multitude Of
Eins-Uith his sense Of humor, that anchors him
to sanity, Hanna is walking. breathing, living
body Of the American spirit
Perhaps, in some later emanation of
his remarkable mind, Mr. White will ex
plain how a man can be a lover of truth
and not 'prudish'' enough to disapprove
Of the political deeds Of Matthew S Quay.
Again, we have the statement, made
point blank. that Hanna is not a boss
because he has too well developed a sense
IF humor, and because a national boss is
impossible TO the American people. There | !
ire mere new things about Hanna in this I
article than most of its readers ever
lreamed OF. But in the next column we
ind this:
'He is dominant in his party. Yet in his |
domination he does not dominner. lie accom- 1
dishes his end. but not 10y diplomacy, not by |
pla, ing man upon man, not like Ponius PLATE
nut like Hcroi When he gets in tight |
Dlaces such as the senatorial election of 1sg. |
re does not fight with the foil, but rough and
tumble hand to hand. and with such clubs, |
lnrlir liz and thor Inns ffrrruI of fl,c