The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-07-23
CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS.
By FRANCIS E. LUEPp.

The nomination of Charles w. Fairbanks As
Vice. Presidential candidate on the Republican
ticket was really the nomination Of the State
Of Indiana. In other words, Mr. Fairbanks
control Of the politics of his State is such as no
other leader since Oliver P. Morton has exert
ed Next to Senator Hanna he probably would
be accorded first place in the list Of recent
American politicians for his ability as an or.
| ganizer The methods of the two men differ
80 essentially, however, that no fair comparison
could be made between them by any system of
parallels. Hanna was of the commanding
type. He was positive obviously alert at all
times. aggressive in spite of his genial manner.
/ direct in his statements and unchanging OF
purpose. Fairbanks is still hunter. He
makes no enemies except through evaporation
with his refusal to lose his temper. He never
courages his adversary to come on. Whoever
| descends upon him with hostile design finds
him scft-voiced and gentle, unruffled outward
ly, beaming all around, perhaps just trife
Oh, dear, no! While the intended assailant is
rampaging about. and brandishing his arms,
! and making faces and uttering threats OF
slaughter, Fairbanks is quietly spreading his
| net. Woe to the fatuous soul who charges
| down upon him with the notion that 90 bland
will have chance to repent bis folly in cap
tivity.
and its purlieus as the Tall Sycamore Of the.
Wabash. The title would apply with far more
| appropriateness to Fairbanks, who succeeded
| him in 1897 Fairbanks is so tall and slender
! that with his large head he has to stoop very
| slightly to keep proper poise in walking as
| well as to bring his ear and his lips somewhere
near the level of the ordinary man with whom
1. IL -
Senate as well as out, the jury lawyer; Fair
banks puts no fiery rhetoric into his speeches.
| but argues with his audience as with court
If be regards controversy as worth carrying
on he will not shirk 1t, and will put the best
view of his side to the front; but he will do
| this in such way as to convey no possible per-
sonal affront, and as IL he assumed on general
| principles that his adversary really sgreed with
him, though compelled by advenitious con-
ditions to take the opposite ground. There is
hardly public speaker in the country who
can take it for granted that thereis no other
side to proposition than his own, and yet
treat with such respect the perfinctory sug-
gestions from the misguided or uniformed
gentleman who essays to make case against
him. His manner breathes thespirit Of the
patient teacher wrestling with the pupil who
is putting foolish questions only for mischief,
while the other boys and girls are looking on
to see who is coming off the better in the en-
counter.
Mr.. Fairbanks was born on farm, and his
boyhood was spent in the fields and forest.
But, like many other successful men Of modern
times, he had to pick up q little money at
newspaper work while preparing himself for
his professional career at the bar. While q
student at Wesleyan University he met a young
woman who afterward became his wife, and
who, besides bringing to him Of her own Volt
ton willing heart and ready hand OF help, by
accident threw into his way the opportunity Of
lifetime which he was quick to seize. They
had settled down in Indianapolis. Her father
was connected withythe Terre Haute d Evans
vile Railroad. which failed. and the young
lawyer was called in to straighten out some Of
its affairs. With that genius for hard work
which has stood him in good stead in many
later emergencies, he plunged into bis task as
lift contained million-dollar fee. Itdid not
of itself; but that one case was handled so
cleanly and completely that no railroad enter
prise of any account has been undertaken in
Indiana since then without his having share
in it. Ready insight into the possibilities Of
development of piece of property and pru-
dent outstanding and Redistribution Of its re-
sources have been the main keys to his success
as railroad lawyer. They have also enabled
him to put his money into the best ventures
while they were still hanging apparently in the
balance, and to grow rich along with the other
first security He has also been very
happy in his real estate investments.
The late President Mckinley was great adj
mirer of Senator Fairbanks. They belonged
in one sense to the same school politicians, in
preferring to treat every adversary as possible
friend. Mckinley, however, had a gift for
saying simple things in q most impressive
manner; Fairbanks would be noted rather for
saying impressive things in a conventional
manner. This difference always did and al
ways will put McKinly, in the popular esteem,
among the wise and profound statesmen of his
generation, whereas Fairbanks will never get
full credit for what he really has said and DONE
Fairbanks is man who wears well, how
ever, and possibly with all his seeming re-
serve he is actually very frank man when
frankness strikes him as called for. This was
illustrated when, in 1885, the Republican par
ty in the State of Indiana was rent from top to
GPes6am, sthough Knowing that the latter
had minority for following. Before going
| to the national convention that summer Fair
banks told Harrison candidly that he should
support Gresham. Harrison, who was sus-
| picious man by nature and very bitter in his
luminosity toward Gresham, was taken quite
by surprise at this straightforward treatment,
and expressed his qualification with unaffected
| cordially.
He had reason later to feel even more kindly
| toward Fairbanks, who, at point when the
| two factions were about to clash in the pres
| euce of the whole convention, with bad results
| for the party at large, went to Harrison's rep
/ resentative and arranged naOdus Vivendi under
| which, however much they might differ over
| local affairs they should keep the peace in the
national arena instead of mutually encourage
| ing the enemy. Both sides lived up to the COM
pact like men. With a nice sense of his obli-
| cation as leader to set good example to his
| followers, he was the first prominent man in
| Indiana. after Harrison had been nominated.
| to offer his services on the stump. Stirred by
this the whole Gresham contingent turned in
| and gave their late foe most generous support
| both during the campaign and at the polls.
| There is a side TO Mr.. Fairbanks nature
| which does not come to the light for exploita-
| ton very often. and then by accident-that is,
his interest in struggling young men from his
| own section OF country. He has been the
4 means of setting more than one ambitious and
promising young fellow upon his feet and, of
| course, they are his debtors for life. In these
| in his own political walk. Not everybody
who applies to him for assistance gets it, by
| any means but he shrewdly reserves what he
| has to do and give for those whom he believes
| capable of making effective use OF it. Mrs.
Fairbanks is said to be his trusted adviser in
| such matters as in others. She has the same
taste for politics as her husband, but goes at
| the business in more pronounced way.
am not sure whether Mr.. Fairbanks has
| ever made any special use of the coat of-arms
which belongs to him as member OF the
group of American descendants of Jonathan
Fairebanke the English ancestor, who migra-
ted in the seventeenth century and settled in
Contentment-later christened Dedham-in
the present Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In view of the fact that the Senator has been
the architect of his own fortunes, and that he
was nominated for Vice-P President with view
to making him candidate for President four
years hence, he could afford to set up new
insignia of his own. 1t was one of his colleagues
in the Senate who suggested that he should
take crane for crest since, Though, like
the crane, he may seem merely to mediate,
when be shoots out his neck he usually gets
G-l T. AZ