The weekly examiner., 1901-07-20
NEVER IS LONESOME.
President Mckinley Knows How to
 Attract People.
Hns Ushered I'm am Era of Good Feel ing Which Has Had No Counter part Since the Days of Pres
 ident Monroe.
Especial Washington Letter.l

Especial We I1eIIeT.I (6T HAVE no doubt of the result;
 and when l am in the white house I will not be a lonesome president"
 Thus spoke Maj. Mckinley on the lawn beside his house in Canton, O., on the afternoon of the Sunday following the nomination of MT. Bryan in July, 1896. Sitting under a tree with Con gressman Apsley, of Massachusetts, and another friend, smoking after dinner cigars, Maj. Mckinley quietly made that statement which was then a prediction. Now it is a historic fact.
 The gentlemen were adverting to the fact that of the leading men of the po- Htical party which Grover Cleveland twice led to success. very few were in the habit of calling at the white house. No unkind word had been said nor any uncharitable criticism uttered con corning President Cleveland; but the fact was mentioned that he had been deserted by many of the men who had formerly supported him, when Maj. Mckinley said: ''I will not be a lone some president"
 He has not been lonesome. On the contrary, he has had more callers daily since he has been in the white house than he could always find time to greet and welcome there. Leading men of both political parties have con stantly called, and all of them have been on friendly missions. He has not been lonesome. He has not been austere, nor has he been repellant.
 Because he has emphatically an- nounced that he has no further po- litica1 aspirations, he may now be commended with tongue and pen by men who talk and write with non- partisan conservativeness. Therefore, the people may be told that, many months before his first election, Pres ident Mckinley determined that pub lie men should always be made well come at the executive mansion. That one fact, heretofore unpublished, will account in great measure for the pres ident's popularity with all classes of his fellow citizens.
 On the day following his first in- auguration President Mckinley went forth from the white house for stroll down Pennsylvania avenue. His ac- tion was surprise to the people. Dur ing the preceding 12 years preSi- dent had been seen alone in public in that manner. Grover Cleveland four years, Benjamin Harrison four years, and again Grover Cleveland four years, had been exclusively and exclusively incumbents of the white house with out appearing public thorough fare. When the narrafer met pgI- dent Mckinley on the day following his first inauguration there were only formal sa1utations in passing, but the memory of the narrator wildly re- called those words: ttI will not be lonesome president"
 It was strikingly apparent that Maj. Mckinley was showing himself to be a man of the people from the very be- ginning: and he was doing it to let them all know that he did not intend to be "a lonesome president"
 The reader must not erroneously suppose that any unkind reflections are directed towards the two preced- ing presidents in this contrast. They are not the only ones who have seen lonesome. days in the white house.
 Although every president has been revered and respected when his name has gone down into history, everyone of them was subjected to harsh, de- structiVe criticism during his as- cendancy; even the great and good Washington and Lincoln having been exceptions to the general rule It was the misfortune of Washington to