Evening star., 1926-12-08
By the Associated Press.

subsequently elected. The defeat in
he primary came on the heels of the
! lenators vigorous stand in favor of
| American adherence to the World
| Court protocol and brought to a
| lose a congressional career of 20
| years, IA of which were spent in the
House Of Representatives.
Having been one OF the WealthleSt
| men in the Congress when he entered
| it in 1906, the Senator since that time
has spent many millions of dollars in
philanthropieS, most of which were
to institutions in Illinois.
Springfield, ILL.,, advices indicated
he possibility that his elected sue
,essor, Col Smith, would fill the re-
nainder of Senator Mckinley's un-
expired term, but at the same time
here were reports current in Wash
ngton that pressure might be brought
on Gov. Len Small to name some
other person for the present short
+erm of Congress to avoid a possible
delay to important administration leg
station which might occur IT Col.
Smith were appointed and the sub
ect Of primary campaign funds thus
brought before Congress.
Senator Mckinley, whose span of
more than 20 years in Congress, the
latter portion as United State Sena-
tor from Illinois, covered the insur-
gency among national legislators, the
Roosevelt bolt of 1912 and the pri-
mary scandals of 1926 was 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.
II really blundered into politics,
the Senator once said. Il was getting
unnecessary in my business. Things
went on without me. So when it was
suggested to me that l run for Con-
gresS l 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 nomi-
nation by Frank l.. Smith of Dwight,
Ill.,, in the 1926 primary as Mckinley
was finishing his first six-year term
in the Senate.
Spent Own Money.
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 hear
ing developed that while Senator Nc
Kinley had spent about $350000, it
was virtually all his own money.
Manag gers of his successful oppo-
nent, Col. Smith, who was chairman
of the Illinois Commerce Commission,
accounted for approximately S300,0O0,
much of it contributed by executives
of public utilities, an industrial field
in which Senator Mckinley had made
a fortune and been interested for
years.
His defeat was Immediately followed
by the Senator's decline in health and
serious illness of Sciatic rheumatism.
Aside from his political career, Sen
ator Mckinley was best known for
his contributions to educational and
religious institutions. His philanthro-
pies were unattended by publicity, but
his friends estimated in 1925 that his
gifts to education had passed the mil
lion-dollar mark.
Was Regular" in Party.
Party regularity was a cardinal
principle with Mckinley. He was q
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 Cannon
was known "a the "cZar" of the House
of Representatives and insurgency
arose among legislators because of
party discipline.
Mckinney and an uncle were in the
banking business in Champaign and
branched into the public utilities in
dustry. acquiring traction electric
light gas and other interests which
eventually were known as the Mckin-
lev Syndicate. Their chief properties
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 world
Uncle Joe" Cannon and his brother,
William, also bankers, owned the Dan
Vile street railways, which they sold
to the Mckinley interests and which
eventually We're chiefly disposed of to
the Studebaker and other utilities in
tereSts.
Always a regular Republican, from
| "standpatter" times to farm bloc"
days. Mckinley directed the admins
tration campaign for the renomi-
| nation Of President William Howard
| Taft in 1912 when the Rooseveltians
split the Republican party.
Opposed Roosevelt Charges.
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 Y,
home to the storm center, Chicago,
and predicted an unsuccessful bolt
from the Republican party. Roosevelt
accepted the challenge, and soon after
his arrival in Chicago his adherents
left the party convention and organ
lied the Progressive or Bull Moose
convention and nominated Roosevelt
for the presidency.
The defeat of both Roosevelt and
Taft by Woodrow Wilson. the Demo
cratic nominee, took Mckinley down
10 defeat in his home district, and he
was out of Congress in 1913 and 1914.
He was again elected to the House,
however, and in 1921 was elected to
the Senate by a few thousand votes
the votes of women-over Col. Smith,
who finally defeated him in 1926.
Besides owning transportation lines,
Mckinley believed that he was the
greatest traveller in the United States.
He had travelled 100000 niles in
25 years-more than a million miles
of the total in nine years-including
80 trips across the Atlantic, three
jourpayS around the world. several