Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-07-18
HANNA FOR PRESIDENT.
The Ohio Boss Can Have the Nom-
fnatiOn II He Is Disposed
to Want 1t.

When the mention of Mr.. Hanna In
connection with the presidency was
first made, he was inclined to treat 1t
as q joke. He may have been honest
in SO regarding it, OF he may have
been testing the popular feeling, to see
how the suggestion would take" In
either event Mr.. Hanna has ceased to
joke about the matter. Very probably,
the mor he thinks about it, the better
he likes the idea. He would be q
strange man, if he were not proud to
be even suggested as a possible candi-
date for president of the United
States; and Mr.. Hanna is not of the
shy, shrinking sort of Americans-if
there r any such Americans-who
would feel utterly disqualified to fill so
high an Office. Mr.. Hanna, whatever
his limitations, is a sanguine, ener-
getic. practical man, and he would look
upon the presidency of the United
States very much as he would look
upon the presidency of a great trust.
in the modern sense of the word: as
Just the place for a skilled combiner
and organizer and mar of business.
Such being the probable attitude of
Mr.. Hanna himself, what of his
chances? 1t is early yet. but unless
the conditions change greatly who has
a better chance for the republican
nomination? Who has half as good a
grip on the machinery of the repub-
lican party? Who else is so close to
the big business men and corporations
that virtually control the machinery
and the candidate-making process of
the republican party? To whom
would the Mckinley administration be
so likely to throw its aid as to Mr..
Hanna, if he should see a chance to
win and decide to make a canvass?
Mr.. Hanna will not be a receptive
candidate" in case he should enter the
race He will not hunt for delegates
with a brass band, but neither will he
sit still and expect delegates to come
to him by some mysterious process
of gravitation or natural attraction.
He will organize his canvass, as thor
oughly and as systematically as he
organized the Mckinley delegate-hunt
of 500, and before the other candidates
know it, he will have the field to him
self; assuming, hat is, that there
should be reaction within the repub-
lican party lines against Mckinley
ism, from which Mr.. Hanna could
hardly d~isassociate himself, even did
he so desire.
The chances are that Hon. NJ. A.
Hanna is not worrying about his abil-
ity to get the republican nomination,
if he really wants it. He has never
failed, so far, to get about all he want
ed, and he knows the power of or
ganization, machine discipline and
"spot cash" in controlling republican
conventions. What Mr.. Hanna would
like to know is, what the democratic
party would do. He is probably not
worrying about his personal unpopu-
larity with the voters" of which some
thing has been said. Gen. Harrison
had been beaten for governor of In
diana before he was elected president.
James G. Blaine and Henry Clay, pop
ular idols both, never reached the
presidency. Certain leaders seem TO
think hat Mr.. Hanna would be an
easy candidate to defeat, and there is
a buckle in their tones as they speak
of him as a logical republican candi-
date; but Mr.. Hanna probably does not
doubt his ability to win hands down,
as against such platforms and candi-
dates as have been put forward in
the name of the democratic party in
1895 and 1900. If Hanna could only be
sure that the illogical issue" of 1896
would be again at the front in 1904i
But there exists a strong likelihood
that the democratic party will be do
ing business on a common-sense basis
in 1904, with a national platform of
live issues and a candidate to match
it; and Hanna knows iti-Albany Ar
gus.