The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1904-09-23

and sometimes even hourly called into
council by William Mckinley to advise
him as to the best thing to be done
to preserve the honor and the dignity
Of the nation, Charles Warren FAR
banks was always foremost III the INST
He was summoned to the White House
night after night. and during a time
! when the grayeSt matters were under
consideration the most important OF all
the conferences were held in the Fair
! banks home on Massachusetts avenue.
There We're gathered the senator's ans
the cabinet officers who represented the
| inner council of the nation, the men
who possessed the absolute confidence
of President Mckinley. 1t was IN the
ufoCaIrS library OF the ra1rDankS home
that some of the most important de-
cisions of these trying times were first
formulated.
There were scarcely half a dozen Of
the big men OF the nation present at
those historic conferences. and it is a
sufficient indication of the capacity for
public service which Senator Fairbanks
has manifested to refer to the fact that
although he had been in public life less
than a year his value as a constant ad-
wiser Of the President in the face of
an in1amed public sentiment and on the
eve of almost inevitable war grew great
er day by day. Other men who partici-
pated in those conferences remember and
bear cheerful testimony to the extraordi-
nary capacity of the Indiana senator
for looking at all sides of a question Of
public policy and for giving his opinion
dispassionately, without the slightest sus-
picion of personal bias and with some
thing like a sacred Difference to the best
interests of the nation.
The history of those momentous con-
ferences Will never be written, as a mat
ter of course. Mckinley has gone, Ho-
bart has gone, Hanna has gone, and
only a few are left of the men who ac-
tually shaped the destinies OF the nation
in the early months Of 1898, who per-
sisted III a wise conservatism when de
lay was necessary, and who provided the
| means for carrying the war to a sue
cessful and a glorious conclusion. That
he was even included in the brilliant list
OF the confidential advisers Of William
Mckinley in the face Of war is a suffi-
eient honor for any man.
An Honor for the Indiania1.
It is an additional honor for the In
diana senator, who has been chosen as
/ the Republican nominee for the vice
presidency, that his associates in public
life. in their private conversation, in
| variably refer to his broad-gauge ability
to grasp public questions, to his personal
integrity, and to his deep study of con-
stitutional and international law.
1t is a fortunate thing for the republic
that a man of this stamp should have
been chosen for the nomination. The re-
suit is that in the event Of the triumph
Of the Republican ticket, which now
seems absolutely secured, the President
~inaugurated next March will have had
| the benefit OF more than three years of
actual experience in the duties of his
office, while the vice-president who will
take the oath Of office at the same time
| will have behind him not only the bene-
fit Of more than seven years in the
United States senate, but also Of his
membership in the inner circle Of public
men who actually do things, and who in
! times OF trial determine the policy Of the
nation.