The Indianapolis journal., 1904-06-01
HOUNDED TO INSANITY.

With the tragic suicide of Mayor McLane,
of Baltimore, it is to be hoped that his
local critics in general, and the Manu-
facturers' Record in particular, are salts
fed. They did not give him time to draw
his breath after the great fire before they
began to charge him with 'incompetency"
and mot rising to his responsibilities"
and other vague crimes of omission
without, so far this paper has observed,
ure. AT this distance it is difficult to dis
cover the motive for these attacks, but
this much about McLane is known of all
men: He was young man of thirty-six
years. scion of one of the most dis
tinguished families of Baltimore, earnest,
intelligent and evidently imbued with the
determination to keep spotless the shield
he had inherited from long line of men
that had been honored by their State. He
served four years as state attorney with
great intelligence and success, and was
nominated by the Democratic party for
same reason that Folk is to be nominated
for Governor of Missouri-because the peo-
pie 'clamored for him and would have no
other.
He did not go into office with blare of
reform trumpets, but he set to work at
once clearing out the old ring that had
misgoverned the city for decades and fill
ing their places with honest men, regard
less Of their political faith The local
Democratic leaders turned savagely against
him. and doubtless, he was disappointed
when the independent press not only failed
to support him heartily, but ranged in
varying degree from indifference to such
opposition as is shown by these extracts
from an attack in the Manufacturers Rec
ord of last week:
The situation which Baltimore faces to-
day is more serious one than it faced
the morning after the fire. Then it simply
had to face the destruction of its business
center, the upsetting of business conditions
and the great financial loss. Every day
since then there has been growing upon
the business people of this community the
appreciation of the fact that 1t is facing
an incompetency vastly more damaging
than the great fire. From the very begin
these conditions and strenuously urged
that the business people OF the city Should
take hold of the matter The time
has long since passed for mincing words.
The time has come-in fact the time came
within one week after the fire-for the
business people Of the city-the men who
have at heart its welfare as well as their
own individual success--to bring upon the
mayor sufficient pressure to compel him
to ask for the resignation of every member
of the Burnt District Commission, includ-
ing himself exN officio, and then after they
have gone that far, how great would be
the blessing IL Mayor McLane would rise
TO the occasion by resigning himself from
the mayoralty.
Well. the wish is realized, somewhat more
tragically, perhaps, than was hoped by the
Record. and there is opportunity for the
late mayors critics to justify themselves
before the people. OF course, there is no
set of circumstances that can excuse the
| weak crime of suicide, but the environ
ment and the point of view of high
/ strung young Southerner, whose high
minded efforts were persistently misrepre-
sented until he believed they were generally
| misunderstood, make his action at least
understandable. just as we understand why
| the Japanese so readily slays himself In
response to public opinion.