The San Francisco call., 1910-03-07
Thomas Collier Platt
Is Called by Death
FORMER SENATOR
DIES SUDDENLY
One Time Easy Boss" and Ros=
cOe COnkIing's Colleague
Passes Away

NEW YORK, March 6.-Thomas Col
lier Platt formerly United States SEN
ator from New York and for many
years a national figure in republican
politics, died at 3:45 this afternoon in
the daparament of Mr.. and Mrs. Gustave
Adele, in West Eleventh street, from
whom he had rented three rooms for
the last four years. Mrs. Adele had
been his nurse
DR.. Paul Auterbridge, his physician,
said tonight that the cause of death
was chronic and acute Bright's disease.
The body was removed tonight to the
home of Frank II. Platt. a son, and
will be taken Tuesday to Owego, n. Y,
the senator's birthplace, where it will
be buried. Funeral services will be
held Wednesday at the Presbyterian
church in Owego.
END Is SUDDEN
The end was startlingly sudden. An
hour before the senator died his two
sons, Frank and Edward, with their
families. and his widowed son, Harry,
with the latters daughter, Charlotte,
and son. Sherman, had left the house
after their usual Sunday visit. The
senator said at that time that he felt
very well and thought he would read
the SunudN PdptIS- <Al u CiOCh tiS
was taken with a fainting spell and
Doctor Auterbridge was hurriedly
called. The family was notified and
returned in haste. Platt recovered from
the first relapse. but sank into uncon-
sciousness again at $3.50 o'clock and
died Is minutes later. The relatives
were all at the bedside.
Only last Wednesday Senator Platt
was at his office down town For sew
aT ba bad in hao
and latterly the use of his legs had al
most deserted him, but his condition
until today was not looked upon as
more serious than usual. although a
physician called upon him daily.
KNOWN AS EASY BOSS
Thomas Collier Platt, the Easy Boss"
of earlier and brighter days. was for
many years not only the republican
leader of his state. but a figure in ma
tional politics shoulder to shoulder
with men of such rank and reputation
the late Matthew Stanley Quay of
Pennsylvania.
Both were men of exceptional intel
lectual attainments and both turned
them with signal success to party or
ganization. Quay died still a power;
Platt outlived his time and felt him
self in late years out of touch with
the moving spirit of events.
In Twenty Years in Congress-"
James G. Blaine described Platt as
businessman of great personal pop
ularity. He has an aptitude for pub
lie affairs and is a man of strong in
f1uence in his state. He is no debater
but has strong common sense and quick
judgment of men"
Yet with all his native judgment,
wide experience and skill as an or
ganizer, it became the fate of Platt to
60 L
ations with others than for anything
he did of his own initiative.
NOTED ACHIEVEMENTS
Twice in his life Platt was the center
of the national stage-once when he
resigned with Roscoe Conkling from
the United States senate and was in
stantIy nicknamed Me Too" Platt, and
once when he induced Theodore Roose-
welt to run for vice president with Nc
Kinley, very much against Roosevelt's
better judgment in the face of his re-
peated declarations that nothing could
induce him to accept the nomination.
There could not be better instance
of Platt's skill in persuasion and ma
nipulation or of the irony that mocked
his ripest wisdom. Mckinley was shot,
Roosevelt became president and the
days of Platts domination in the state
lapsed into senility.
His bodily strength declined rapidly.
He made a second marriage, which
ended in the courts, and he was sued
by Mae Wood, formerly a clerk in the
government employ, for a divorce on
the strength of a third marriage, never
proved to have taken place.
EPISODE WITH CoNkLING
The episode with Conkling, which
was not exceeded in public excitement
say the newspaper files of that day,
by any event in the civil war, was as
follows:
Platt was elected to the senate in
1881 He and his colleague, Conkling,
became embroiled with Garfield in a
bitter controversy over the appointment
of William H. Robertson to collector of
the port of New York The selection