Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-12-08
Death Sen. Mckinley
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take an interest in the world series
baseball contest. Since then his |
strength has been gradually weak
ening.
Friends of Senator Mckinley de- |
clared that the last session of con-
gress Slapped his strength consider
ably, as did the strenuous primary |
campaign in which he was defeated
for denomination by Colonel Frank |
l.. Smith.
Senator McKinley's public service |
dates from the first Roosevelt adj
ministration. During the interven- |
ing 20 years, he was chairman and |
treasurer of the congressional COM
mittee and later became secretary
of the senatorial committee. He
managed the campaign of William |
Howard Taft for president in
1920.
He was early in his career reputed
to be one of the wealthiest men In
congress, according to his private
secretary. C. A. Willoughby.
I'm recent years, however. he con-
Quoted a campaign of donations to
charitable institutions" Mr.. Will
toQ6hOy oolu, anu III tuc ldSL eISuC
or ten years he probably donated be- |
tween ten and twelve million dollars
in private and public philanthro- |
pies"
He maintained the Mckinley |
Working Girls Home in Chicago and |
the Sarah Haskell Stevenson Home
for Girls, the latter institution being
a day nursery accommodating about |
200 babies. His most recent dona- |
ton was 100000 to hospital fund |
Of the University of Illinois.
Senator McKinley's great hobby |
has always been the education of !
boys" his secretary said. For in |
stance, the Mckinley Fund at the |
University Of Illinois for seniors to !
whom money is loaned to enable |
them to complete their final college |
year. He always puts the young |
man on his honor"
The death of Senator Mckinley |
brought to three the number of |!
senators who have died since the |
close of the last session of congress |
Senator Albert B. Cummins, and |
Senator Bert NJ. Fernald of Maine. |
All were Republicans.
William B. Mckinley, whose span |
of more than 20 years in Congress.
the latter portion as United States
senator from Illinois, covered the |
insurgency among national legisla-
tors, the Roosevelt bolt of 1912, and |
the primary scandals of 1926, was
a business man and philanthropist.
By his own avowal, he "blundered
into politics" because his business
was running so smoothly he had
nothing else to do. |
81, |
the senator once said. Il was get
ting unnecessary in my business.
Things went on without me. So when
it was suggested to me that I run
for congress, ! accepted Just for
something to do. I never regretted
it."
McKinley's "blunder" lasted from
the time the Republicans of Cham
paign, ILL.,, and the nineteenth con-
gressional district sent him to the |
lower house of congress in 1905 until |
he was defeated for the party NOM
lnation by Frank l.. Smith, of
Dwight, ILL.,, in the 1926 primary as
Mckinley was finishing his first six
year term in the Senate.
1t was the huge expenditures in
that last campaign that brought a
Senate investigating committee to
Chicago after the Pennsylvania pri-
mary expense scandal had aroused |,
national attention. The Chicago /
hearing developed that while Sena- !
tor Mckinley had spent about $780,
O00. it was virtually all his own |
money.
Managers of his successful oppo-
nent. Col. Smith, who was chairman
of the Illinois commerce commits
sion, accounted for approximately !
S30O,0OO, much of it contributed by
executives of public utilities, an in
dustria1 field in which Senator Nc
kinley had made a fortune and been
interested for years.
His defeat was Immediately fol-
lowed by the senator's decline in
health and serious illness of sciatic
rheumatism.
Aside from his political career.
Senator Mckinley was best known
for his contributions to educational
and religious institutions His phi
lanthropies, were unattended by
publicity, but his friends estimated
in 1925 that his gifts to education
had passed the million dollar mark.
Party regularity was a cardinal
principle with Mckinley. He was a
friend and neighbor of Uncle Joe"
Cannon, of Danville, who represented
the eighteenth congressional district,
adjoining McKinley's old district, the
nineteenth. in the days when Can
non was known as the GEAR" of the
house of representatives and insur-
gency arose among legislators be-
cause of party discipline.
Mckinley and an uncle were in the
banking business in Champaign and
hy-cy ,n1 s,tn hn -; 10, |
dustry, acquiring traction, electric
light, gas and other interests which
eventually were known as the Nc
Kinley Syndicate. Their chief pro-
perties were the Illinois Traction
System which built the Mckinley
bridge over the Mississippi river at
st. Louis, one Of the most costly
electric railway structures in the
uncle Joe" Cannon and his
brother, William, also bankers, owned
the Danville street railways, which I
they sold to the Mckinley interests
and which eventually were chiefly |
disposed of to the Studebaker and |
other utilities interests.
Always a regular Republican. from
"standpatter" times to farm bloc
days., Mckinley directed the admin
istration campaign for the re- nomin-
alton Of President William Howard
Taft in 1912 when the Rooseveltians |
split the Republican party.
Mckinley issued a statement de-
scribing Roosevelt as an ajax defy
ing the lightning" and denied the
Roosevelt charges of(stolen conven-
ton seats. He challenged Roosevelt
to come from his Oyster Bay. N. T.,
home to the storm center, Chicago. |
nrodirfad yfnCIJncpGSfn1 holt
from the Republican party. Roosevelt |
accepted the challenge and soon after ]
his arrival in Chicago, his adherents
left the Marty convention and organ.