Evening journal., 1913-10-03
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
How the Nation Trusted
Mckinley in the Spanish War
BY Holland.

II presume that history will record
as the great achievements of the admin
istrations of President William Nc
Kinley. first, the establishment OF the
single gold standard; and, second the
consequences of the war with Spain,
which were the acquisitions of the Phil
ippine Islands, with their stupendous
potential relation to the future trade
Of the United States with the Far East,
and the indepedence of Cuba. But II
were to write the history OF Mchin-
iley's administration / should with en-
phasis call attention to one incident
that is without precedent in the history
of parliamentary governments"
This remark was made to me by
Chauncey NJ Depew some years ago,
while he was still serving as United
States Senator from New York. ask
ed him what the incident was to which
he referred and he replied:
81 refer to the appropriation by Con
vress of fifty million dollars just after
the war with Spain began, an appro-
priation which committed the disposal
Of the entire amount to the discretion
of the President.
I LOOK SOlnt pains az thc 'AhN w.
look up the history of appropriations
by Congress and by parliamentary bod
les and / was unable to find a single in
stance where an appropriation OF any
considerable amount had been made
with specifying the purpose for which
the money was granted. The people OF
this country and Great Britain have al
wavs been Jealous of their exclusive
right to state for what purposes the
appropriations are made, forbidding al
wavs the diversion of the appropria-
tions to any other purpose than that
set forth in the grant
But here was an appropriation ol
hftv million dollars, one of the largest
ever made by Congress, with no Other
designation OF its purpose than that The
expenditure Of the funds should be alb
solutely and exclusively at the discre
tion of the President.
ITO my thinking, this incident
furnishes one Of the strongest o.
proofs of the fundamental belief o.
the American people in the per
manence and soundness of their insti
tutions. Congress had perfect con
fdence in Mckinley, for he had takei
as many members of Congress as h
could conveniently summon to a con
ference into his confidence. I don
think the history of the White Hous
can recall any more momentum
gathering than we're the two or thre
which took place in that building a
the request of Mckinley at the tim
of the Spanish War.
what took place at those confer
ences has never been fully reveale
and never will be. Nor was it know
until after the war with Spain wa
ended why Mckinley deemed the stu
alton so grave that he felt justified D
appealing TO the entire Congress an
TO American citizens.
"There sat with him men of pre-
eminent position as Democrats and
pre-eminent position as Republican
He smoke to them. however, as cit
zens aud as legislators I have bee
tola that his manner and his wore
were extraordinarily impressive. A
that we now know is that Mckinle
had discovered that we were utterl
unprepared to go to war with Spal
and that some of our toruhcauoi
were useless for lack of ammunition
Money in large amounts was neede
Immediately to make good these o.
fciencies. Mckinley in most graph
narration described the condition
several of the great ports. He ais
said that it was imperative as PIT
cautionary measure that Spain shou
not know of this emergency. Iher
fore it was imperative that the mon'
granted by Congress to meet u
emergency should be granted direct
10 the President. The grant y"
made without dissent
"The incident tends to show q
strength of our institutions
copyright. 1913, by f. J. EdWar'
All rights reserved).
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards VIII U
How the American Nice-Preslae
secomes Chief Executive