The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-11-11


tho accusation OF fraud. Some OF his
loficiui acts both OF omission and OF com \
,nission We're called by the very hardest |
inpnies. In three wosds. Mis- Administration /
Ismelied to htuyen and AL Ohio knew IL. 1
| Was Mckinley guilty or not guilty,
Here. again, inquiry SIS baked by the. neg
alive character DC tho man. He probaalr !
J could not by any overt act OF his own, I
be even frankly dishonest. He can auib
bic and temporize with dishonesty He
can shape his tongue to all manner OF
dishonest speechhe does. Worst OF all
he ean--and does-become the facile toll
CT dishonest men
That is, / think, the worst that can be
said against Mckinley; though, heaven
knows that as bad enough, for It is max
i'm of statecraft that weak man is often
more dangerous than bad man.
AS governor of Ohio Mckinley was such
a tool "The governor said one OF his
republican friends six years ago, 'is not
man OF great executive ability and he Is
not a good fudge of men, This, of course
lie only another way OF saying that he does
not lead men, but Is led By them. so
when he was governor of Ohio all sorts
Eof rascals were fosted upon him TO Eli
the Offices where there was chance for
spoils And while he was running aboat
the country damning the administration
at Washington land especially damning
Grover Cleveland for gollbug, striving
TO "dishonorn silver the rascals In office
plundered at will, with the result that
the Mckinley administration Is still re-
memhered in Ohio as one OF the worst
even in that corrupt State for peculation
and malfeasance in office. He got the
a., sl,fs sasaFln - N "a
, holding his commissions got the game.
Nest of those scandals, being local In
character, are forgotten now. They are
! Of no special consequence anyway. What
matters &c, for example, that In his hrst
, term Mckinley converted a surplus Of
, 81, 3T0 900 in the State treasury handed
over to him by Governor Campbell, into a
, deficit OF Sl,297OO0? That is ancient his
: tory. So is the financial record OF his
second term. which was even more dis
p creditabe
Who remembers now the deaf and dumb
: asylum scandal? II bore heavily at the
time on Colonel Clark one of Governor
f., Mckiuleys appontees, and scarcely less
4 so upon the governor himself, but now it
4 is forgotten.
There was the William z. Mcdonald
: scandal. nasty mess involving another
: appointee, out of which Mckinley came
by no means unscathed.
n ~
There was the Adjutant General Pocoak
= scandal, wherein McKinleys reputation
=, suffered more for manifest folly AMI
v weakness than for any other reason.
There was the penitentiary scandal ant
= its attendant disgrace of the Elliott ant
= other paldons, a political job OF the dirt
= lest character. in which the governor was
- very deeply involved, indeed. No les
than sixty convicted criminals were pa
II rolled" as the phrase Is in Ohio solely b!
r political influence and for political ends
, II was like Mckinley that he should at
10 tempt to pass the burden of his disgrac
a., over to the State boardb OF pardons, but n
- one In Ohio was deceived. The govefno
mr. had full authority II Ae chose to eXercis
n. II and nobody doubted, in spite OF all HI
:, protests. that he did exercise IL as part O
~ political deal.
IN ii there rs small pleasure in trsilin
through this mire, there is still less l
taking hold Of the troubles OF Mckinney
81, private life Yet no understanding of h
a. public career can be perfect without
w. knowledge of a single incident OF sue
We character that would ordinarily be eX
T.. empt from scrutiny.
refer of course to- the baukruptc
wh!ch threatened Mckinley some eigf
en- years ago but was ayerted by the int
o. position Of three friends who passed u
tn. hat for him end saved his estate. II
enough to know that one of the three WI
Marcus A. Hanna OF CleYeland, for the IL
lit cident is thus revealed as the beginnir
ne of enc of the most extraordinary fellow
u ships since Dr. Faustus sold his soul
the chap in the red tights.
ns ! am not going deeply into the hiso
u of the business which ended by brhgi.
yer McKinleys nose 10 the grlndstone
~ bankruptcy. 1t will suffice for prese
lrS purposes to repeat MtRinleys own We
.hg sicn-or the substance Of it in brief NJ
up Kiney was associated with a man mani
IN Walker in tin plate factory at Young
n town The exact terms Of the partnersh
lns are neither here nor there the signihca
fact being that when the business ca
~ TO grief, as it unhappily did, about $1lu,l
40 of notes came TO the surface bearing NJ
ne Kinley'e name. There were ninety-sey
2us of these notes and they ranged from $lC
q to $1,000. For some time the paper h
ana been hawked about the banks IN Youns
; town and neighboring towns till 1t becal
20. drug on the market.
" ~
on. The smash, as have said, brought
ers governor face to face with liabiliti
at which he was wholly unable 10 meet.
- had never had a larger income than {
ORA salaries of his various poiltlcal Jops'
estate was small one, the largest as
ms. being the now famous home in Can't
is What to do?
te" Mckinley offered several explanatio
be- which give here for what they are wor
g he said that he had no idea OF the amo
,,IS OF paper outstanding, having signed 20
Of the notes to retire others and 81
posing, OF course, that the originals
been destroyed. He said ne had indor
due Walkers paper as an act OF fr!endsi
2 OF supposing him to be solvent and ne
Nat contemplating the possibility of h4v
-, himself TO pay. The receiver of the
AVeu plate works found fifty notes Endorsed
and Mckinley in blank. l do not know W
y to the governors explanation was of
I,te fact.
~, Well, some men would rather own VI
ie'+' being knave than fool. Sc
roll wouldn't. Apparently Mckinley is one
d o. the latter. At any rate. he 'fessed W
lovo acts which would drive most ordin
business men into the asylum insteat
'"s the White House