Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-02-18
A GREAT LEADER.
John D. Long on the Late Senator
Hanna.

While Mr. Hanna has been con-
/ spicuOuS figure in our national life only
| since 1896 when he conducted the cam
paign for the nomination of William
Mckinley at st. Louis for the pre-
sidency, is should not be forgotten that,
for many years prior to that time, he
had been one of the leading business
men in the middle West, connected with
large commercial enterprises. in
terested in public affairs and a poten-
tial influence in them. and, although
holding no public Office. for that very
| reason all the more trained to take
broad views and to act from disin-
terested political motives. 1t was the
training of a man until sixty years of
| age in the lines of the large develop
ment of material and industrial inter-
| est, contact with the whole range of
| capital and labor. appreciation of the
vital importance of right principles of
| currency and credit. and participation
| in all movements for general pros
| perity based Oh solid foundations.
When. therefore. in 1896, he came to
| the front IS the chairman of the Re-
publican national committee. he was
| the man for the place, bringing to it
| not only the weight of personal charac-
| tetr, but a hold on the confidence of
| our monetary and industrial interests.
He was the very antipodes of the craze
which had at that time infected the
Democratic party and which, under the
| lead OF its eloquent candidate. threat
ened the foundations of financial secu-
rity. He at once gave to the cause he
| lead force and strength which. stead
| lily and unerringly pressed. won the CO.
operation of every conservative inter-
| est, carried the day. and inaugurated
| a new era of national uplift. Today.
| that craze is the faint memory of an
| unsubstantial dream.
1t was inevitable, however. that such
| a leader should be made the target for
all sorts of attack. criticism, belittling
| and ridicule. In the pictorial papers
he was iiamingly pictured as gro
! tesGue, bloated figure, clad in flowing
robes dotted with dollar marks. And
| it is one of the unhappy incidents Of
| on" necessary license in such matters
that. while everybody knows the mean
| inglesSneSS of all such rot, it yet has
| left its impression on the minds even
| of many who espoused and rejOiced in
| the success Of the cause, the brunt and
| malicious shafts of which fell on him.
Since then, as senator from the great
state Of Ohio, he has been one Of the
| most conspicuous and influential men,
bers of the United States Senate, and
| one of the leading factors in our VA
| tional political life. Previously unac-
| customed to public speaking, and never
| an orator in the formal sense, he at
| once developed the faculty of straight
| forward, effective speech, and held his
own in the sharp interchanges of de-
bate. In the councils of his party he
| has been foremost leader. If any
business interests in his party. as there
| always are such, were impatient with
| the present order of things. they turned
| to him as the one man IN the country
| for a new Presidential leader, though
| his good sense and his just recognition
| of the desert of the present administra-
| ton, and of the duty of all good men
| and true to stand by it. at once repu-
| dated such suggestion, and he has new
! er wavered from that position. Bluff.
frank and outspoken on every subject.
| strong in conviction and unhesitating-
ly giving it utterance he at once made
warm friends and awoke strenuous OPP
position and detraction. 1t is the old
story. another illustration Of Tom
Reeds apothegm that the only states
man is a politician who is dead. Only
the green turf over the departed puts
hiin in focus and frees him from the
distortions Of the public eye.
II is pleasant to think that now will
come the deserved recognition of the
man as he was, not without his faults,
1 h,,f ro,.
good. a factor in our recent great devel-
| opnlent and progress. a. promoter of
| enterprise and commerce and industry
and trade and material growth, one of
the strong towers in the national citi-
del. The Panama Canal is a monu-
ment on which his name is written.
| Nor is there nobler tribute to his
breadth of mind than the Civic Fedora
ton. of which he was president and
founder. An employer Of labor. yet no
man was quicker than he to recognize
that our danger is not in the honest
though interested efforts of labor as
we'll as capital TO promote its materia!
interests. 1t is not in the efforts which
men. who in the atmosphere of our
political equality feel the discouraging
INEQUALITIES Of the general well-being.
I uidhe 10 better tnelT cOnQltlCn by the
cries of social or industrial reorgan-
ization. He was not without ambition,
but believe nothing would have graft
fled his ambition more than success in
mis- endeavor to do full justice to the
great industrial body of the people. to
have brought their interests into har-
mony with invested capital. and in that
way to have bettered the whole social
condition. and made firmer the founda
tons of the republic.
I recall with especial pleasure the
man as well as the senator. I saw him
first at the National Republican Con-
vention of 1854. when. as a leading
delegate from Ohio, he was hard at
work for the nomination of John Sher-
man. He was then in the prime of