The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-11-09
HOW THE TWO FIRST BECAME
ACQUAINTED.
Mckinley Defended Some Striking
Miners Employed by Hanna and SEE
cured Their Acquittal.

Senator Hanna as young man
was interested as a junior partner in
a coal mining enterprise which his
father had helped put upon it's feet
near Alliance. O. He was well-to-do.
dressed rather luXuriously, and carried
himself with the air of a man who
realized his Importance to the COM
munity. one day there was trouble at
the mine, and eleven of the laborers
We're arrested for some violent demon-
stration. They procured bail and
sought out a young lawyer named Nc
kinely, whom they had heard of as
poor and struggling, but clever, and
whose own hard knocks i'm life they
believed would make him particularly
sympathetic with their condition. Nc
Kinley heard their story, and told them
he would defend them, and charge
them nothing except the court fees
and expenses.
on the day of the trial the eleven
men were ranged up before the bar,
and i'm the foremost seats on the other
side sat young Hanna and a friend of
about his own age, also the son of
rich parents, and equally prosperous
i'm appearance. As soon as the wit
nesses had been examined it became
plain that there were almost equal
measures of right and wrong on the
parts of employers and employed, and
that sentiment rather than weight of
logic would settle matters with the
jury. Mckinley, in relating the story
years after to a friend, says a WASH
ington correspondent of the New York
Post, said:
IF my life had depended upon it, l
could not have resisted the impulse
that seized me suddenly to play the
demagogue. There was something so
provocative of all that was satirical
in me, to see whose two SNUG figures
over there, and the two contemptuous
smiles which met my gaze whenever l
looked across at them, that | address
ed the court in this style: May 1T
please your honor, / shall not attempt
to review the evidence in this case, for
it is so simple and direct that no one
could fail to see the bearings of each
item, and your honor knows the law
better than l could expound it to you.
But turning to the jury, 1 shall ask
you gentlemen merely to let your eyes
follow mine in a sweeping view of this
court room. over yonder sit two sleek,
well-fed, carefully groomed sons OF
wealth and fashion Observe their
soft hands, their blooming color their
dainty raiment. On this side sit eleven
men of toll, pale from the lives they
lead underground, far hidden from the
health giving rays of the sun. They
probably have never had, for week
sustenance of their families, so much
food, or so good, as those two young
handles waste at one of their eXtraVa-
giant feasts. These poor fellows are
doomed to lead unnatural lives in an
unwholesome atmosphere, and prob
ably go down to premature graves, in
order that our gentle young Lucullus
and his friend may robe themselves
in purple and regale their jaded PAL
ates with peacocks' tongues Admit
ting, gentlemen, that there is rlBht on
both sides, and wrong on both sides,
which do you consider has had the
greater strain upon it's temper ana us
instinct of good order|
I'm this VEN | proceeded for twenty
minutes, perhaps, and then sat down
and enjoyed the frowns and scoWls
with which my rich opponents regard
ed me- Their sarcasm has now turn
ed to anger, and / doubt not, If they
could have wrought their will with me
at that moment, they would have be-
haved worse than the eleven miners
had been accused of behaving. The
Jury surprised us all with the prompt
ness of their verdict, and my clients
walked out of the room, free men, al
most while the judges charge was sun
ringing in our ears.
Il met Hanna a year or more after
that. 1 was naturally disposed to
avoid him. as 1 supposed he still cher
ished a grudge against me. TO my
surprise, he came forward with ms
hand out, Mckinley said he, i was
an angry as 1 knew how to be the
day you made that speech. l was
never so awfully scored in my life,
But when l came to think it over, 1t
was a wonderful speech and / could
not help admiring the man who could
make such a use of such material.
The next time we meet in a court room
1 hope it will be as counsel and client,
not as enemies.
His frankness went to my heart.
confess that 1 had been a little Dit
ashamed of my line of attack upon
him, and l had many times been COM
PEELED to call up the memory of his
sneering face in order to justify my
conduct to myself but from the day
we shook hands we became friends;
and a stronger truer friend, in season
and out, in good weather, and bad,
have never had than he!"