Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-05-10
WHY NOT HANNA.

The suggestion of Mr.. Perry S. Heath
that there is no man in the Republican
party who could get the next Presiden-
tial nomination so surely as could Sen
ator Hanna, of Ohio, is received with
more general credit than his assertion
that there is no man in the United
States who could be so easily elected.
Yet, since Mr. Mckinley has been
twice elected, why not his political
creator and mentor?
1t is said that if the Republican party.
after four ears more of trustism, ship
subsidyism and the like, should nom
mate Mark Hanna for the Presidency
its overwhelming defeat at the polls
would be certain. But why? Mckinley
stood and always has stood plainly for
these and kindred things, and he has
been twice elected. Why not Hanna?
Again, we are told that the boss of
a great party machine is never a mag
netic candidate for Office The people
instinctively distrust such man.
They know him to be, as a rule, a
crafty politician whose policy is con-
trolled by expediency. They want for
President man who is more of the
statesman and less of the politician.
Thus speak the opponents of Hanna
as Presidential candidate. Yet where
will we find in history President
whose policy has been more matter of
expediency than that of Mr.. Mckinley ?
Expediency would seem to have been
Mr.. McKinley's guiding star, for his
whole career has been. a long series of
backing and filling, trimming and re-
canting one day loudly proclailning his
plain duty only to abandon 1t the
next as matter'of expediency. There
is no public question of Importance
that Mr. Mckinley has not been on all
sides of as the political expediency of
the hour demanded. Yet Mckinley has
been twice elected
Then why not Hanna, who is at least
no trimmer, but is consistent to the
point of brutality?
We are told that the American peo-
pie would be alarmed at the nomination
of such man as Hanna, that they re-
member that he came into public life
&c fbe aocraditad ipctr11roapt nf tho
syndicates. But what of Mckinley
Has he not been as putty in the hands
of the same syndicates? When did Mr..
Mckinley ever fail to bow to the voice
of the trusts? 1t is true that it was
through Hanna's efforts that Mr.. Nc
kinley was rescued from bankruptcy,
was rehabilitated and put in line for
the Presidential nomination as a man
who would serve the purposes of the
trusts. 1t is true that Hanna bulldozed
the ST Louis convention into nominal
ing Mr.. Mckinley, and that he then re-
ceived the solid support of the trusts
IN the work of electing Mckinley. 1t
Is true, also, mat he has dictated the
Presidents policies in behalf of the
trusts, and that the people do not see in
Mr. Hanna anything but the agent of
the syndicates in public life. All this
Is true of Hanna, but is Mr. Mckinley
more virtuous? Who has really played
the more ignoble part in this plutocratic
drama, Hanna or McKinley-the bold
and fearless boss. or the spineless and
plant tool? Why say all the hard
things of Hanna, who has been open
and above board in his services to the
trusts and exempt from criticism Nc
Kinley, who has been even deeper and
more discreditably involved in the SER
vice of the same trusts, but has cloaked
his service beneath a sanctimonious
front, his mouth full of pious hypoc-
risies." In the view of Americans who
love fair play, Hanna emerges from
the comparison more creditable figure
than Mckinley
Yet one critic of Mr. Hanna declares
that the American people would re-
sent the nomination of Mr. Hanna to
the Presidency. They regard that of
fee as not within the reach of fat
hucksters whose highest conception of
craftsmanship is that of a CONNER
cialized service to the greedy syndicates
that seek further enrichment through
control Of government Mark Hanna
doesn't look like Presidential timber to
the American people They are not yet
ready to transform the White House
into the general Office headquarters OF
the trusts"
Bosh! Would or could the White
House with Hanna as the executive be
moro open to trust influence than II
has been during Mr.. McKinley's In