Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-13
THIRD TERM FOR MCKINLEY.

Although Mr.. McKinley's second
kerm is not yet two weeks old his po-
aitfcal managers are already putting
out feelers and preparing the public
mind for a third term boom. While
it wont be the first time an effort has
been made to give a President three
terms the flat failure of he other ef-
forts served to so strengthen and
ibuttress the traditional opposition OF
the American people to a third term
for Presidents that the question was
thought to have been forever settled.
But like certain other cherished ira
ditions of the American people that
have been laid low by the present adj
ministration, the anti-third term ira
dition, at least so far as Mr.. McKin-
ley's nomination in 1904 is concerned,
seems in a fair way to be laid on the
shelf together with certain foolish and
Anticipated ideas the American people
have held about the Monroe Doctrine
and the Constitution. All such rub
bish belonged to the old, not to the
new republic erected by the Mckinley
MorganeRockefeller combine. And as
the forces of modern progress cannot
afford to permit any step backward,
just SO these mighty industrial and
commercial interests, who see the
world within their grasp through the
assistance of their plant tool in the
White House, may not deem it advis-
able to permit said vast interests
to be imperiled by a change of admin
istration at a critical period. 1t is
1 a simple business matter with these
projectors of a worldwide trust. The
servility of the President is their main
hope and reliance in the upbuilding of
a universal trust, and it is not to be
supposed that these financial monarchs
care to risk. the wealth embarked in
this m~onopolistic enterprise by run
ming chances of the next President
being a man whom they cannot handle
SO easily. They have got Mckinley,
they could not find a man better suit
ed in all ways to their purpose, SO
why set him aside in Difference to a
mere popular whim, an ~antiquated
superstition against a third term for a
President? The New York Worlds
Washington correspondent says:
Mr.. Morgan has sent Mr.. Mckinley
word that his arrangements in railways,
coal and especially in steel, have insured
the continuance of prosperity for an in
definitely long period. With wealth rolling
In upon the American people, with the air
filled with the noise of their on-rushing
Industrial and political power, what could
be more natural than that they should re-
fuse to make a change, should refuse to
turn away from an established order Civ
ing full barns, full purses, full dinner pals
and for the sake of one of the minor ira
ditions of the fathers drive out the high
priest of prosperity?
$50 far as human eyes can see there
never before has been such an opportuni-
ty to break a1ky from the anti-third term
tradition"
Commenting on Mr.. Morgan's prom
Use of continued prosperity and the
consequent assumption that it will be
easy to induce the people to keep the
Agent of Prosperity in power, re-
CARELESS of Washington's maxim, the
New York Journal casts doubt on the
feasibility of the third term scheme
thus:
A tarl - So
The trouble with these sanguine hopes
is that there is nothing in our history to
justify them. TIL opposition to McKin-
ley on this March IL, 1901, is no more de-
moralized than the opposition to Grant
on March II, 1873, or the opposition to
Cleveland on March II, 1893. Yet in nei-
ther of those cases did the despised oppo-
sition need four years to pull itself to-
gether. The Democrats swept the field in
1874, and the Republicans won unprece-
denied victories of the fall of 1898, wher-
ever elections were held.
There are only two things in the way
of a third term for Mckinley. He cannot
get the nomination, and he could not he
elected if nominated. The third term is
sue was fought out in the Republican par
ty under Grant, and in the Democratic
party under Cleveland. Mckinley cam
not succeed where Grant and Cleveland
failed"
That sounds convincing, but will it
hold in view of the new element intro
duced into politics by Republican Ma
tional Chairman Hanna acting for the
trusts, namely, the campaign slush
fund OF millions? Grant had no such
manager as Hanna and no such fund
back OF his campaign. nor had Cleve-
land-else the result in both cases
might have been different. With the
Democratic party without funds
wherewith to carry on an effective u
tional campaign, while the other side
has unlimited millions at command
wherewtth to hood the country With
speakers and literature and to buy up
the lrem. With trust controlled indus