Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-24
QUAY THE sTRATEoIsT
Once Beat Tammany In lts Own Ball.
wlek--Hls Dislike for President
Harrison Prompts Bitter
Epfgram
BY GEORGE NOx MCCAIN
ATOR MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY

by GEOkGE NOA MCCAIN -
CENATOR MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY
~ was beyond doubt one Of the greatest
political tacticians and strategists this state
has ever produced. His master strokes did
not come to him as inspirations. but were
the product of slow processes of thought
worked out to an elaborate, and usually sue
cessful, termination
The cleverest scheme Quay ever evolved
was during the presidential campaign of
1SSS when. as chairman of the national Re-
publican committee. he led the fight for
Harrison and Morton
New York was the pivotal point and he
was early aware that the Democrats pro
posed to colonize that city extensively and
by an elaborate system of fraud control the
returns. II he could only secure a fair reg
istration of every voter in the city he would
be able to thwart the Democratic plan.
This Quay accomplished in very simple
fashion. but at considerable expense to the
Republican committee.
He had all the necessary printed forms
and blank books prepared ostensibly for the
| publication of a directory of the city. New
York was divided into hundreds of districts
and trusted men sent out to get record of
! every voter, his occupation and place of
! residence. as though for city directory.
The work was completed within ten days,
and then Quay had in his possession COM
! plete poll of the metropolis, particularly of
the downtown wards. where the greatest
| frauds were contemplated.
1t completely blocked the Tammany
scheme of electing Cleveland.
! TWO national figures in the Republican
l. party who during their official careers
were given credit. rightly or wrongly. for
! possessing to an unusual degree an unsym
pathetic and habitual frigidity in their inter-
course with politicians and statesmen were
President Benjamin Harrison and Vice
| President Charles W. Fairbanks.
AS to President Harrison / think the
charge was far fetched The only time
ever met him personally I found him
| dgnfed and quietly reserved, yet cordial
and responsive gentleman. Returning from
the convention which nominated him, called
| at his home in Indianapolis, and was granted
| a very satisfactory interview. Harrison had
| strong religious convictions. and his ways,
in that respect, were not the ways of the
! then junior senator from Pennsylvania.
That the impression with regard to Vice
| President Fairbanks was pretty widely dis
| seminated may be gathered from the fact
/ that 80. Henry several times in his famous
JEFF Peters, stories filings this criticism at
| Mr.. Fairbanks.
SShotoi quay, III private uuT-
| ing Harrison's administration, made no
secret of his personal dislike for the Presi-
dent. During Harrison's entire admins
tration Quay kept pretty much at
arms length by the White House.
Upon one occasion a Pennsylvania
politician who desired postofice appoint
ment was particularly insistent that Quay
take up his case directly with the President,
but Quay demurred and evaded the issue.
But. senator" persisted the applicant,
lets go to the White House together and
open the case frankly with the President
No. replied Quay, with his peculiar
grim, quiet smile. Its no use. The only
thing they ever open at the White House is
oysters; and then they open them with
prayer"
CENATOR QUAY made and unmade more
politicians and leaders in the course of his
career than any other man, except Simon
Cameron perhaps, in the history of the state
The accident of politics." however much
practical politicians may sneer at the ex-
preston, is verify. In no case was it so
well Illustrated as in that of the late Sec
reta:y of Agriculture N. B. Critchfield,
whose career as a state figure covered a
period of quarter of century.
In his early years Mr.. Critchfeld had been
Baptist clergyman, but later on became in
terested in educational work. His debut in
politics was an accident. He was a native
of Somerset county, which, by the appor-
tionment of 1874 was made a part of the
Thirty sixth senatorial district together
with Fulton and Bedford counties.
particularly bitter and acrimonious fight
for the Republican nomination for state
Senate in the Thirty sixth district took place
in 1890. The conference became deadlocked
and it was decided that the question of
candidate would have to be settled by the
state committee.
In the midst of the struggle the name of
\. B. Critchfeld was suggested as a COM
promise by some of his Somerset friends and
neighbors, and ne was induced to become
dark horse candidate. =.
had known him personally and intimately
for number of years, and one morning in
the late summer Of 1890 received call from
him at my home in this city. He stated
his position frankly and asked il would see
Senator Quay in his behalf as a compromise
candidate.
called on Quay, who was in the city at
the time, stopping at the Continental Hotel
Three days later, at meeting held at the
old Monongahela House in Pittsburgh n. B.
Critchheld, of Somerset, was named as the
senatorial candidate. He remained in the
Senate until 1898, and from 1908 to 1916
was secretary of agriculture
His entrance into politics was purely an
accident.
THOMAS Fl. GARVIN, chief clerk of the
House of Representatives was member
of the House for four sessions from 1893 to
1900 He went up from Delaware county.
His long experience in state politics has made
him an exceedingly clever judge of men and
bubbling well of recent political anecdote,
incident and history