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CHAPTER X

Governor of Ohio

T the election of 1890, as we have said, the Democrats so manipulated the districts as to defeat Mr. McKinley by 300 votes in a district normally Democratic by 2,900, and thus prevent his return to Congress. Great was their rejoicing at this. They thought they had crushed their arch-enemy at last. But they reckoned without the chief factor in the problem. The answer to their exultation came unhesitatingly. Mr. McKinley in the following year was nominated by the Republicans by acclamation for Governor of the State.

The platform of the Convention re-affirmed the devotion of the party to the patriotic doctrine of protection, and recognized the McKinley bill as the ablest expression of a principle enacted in fulfillment of Republican promises. It made declarations in favor of such legislation by Congress as would in every practical mode encourage, protect, and promote agriculture. It demanded protection of the wool industry. It declared that gold and silver should form the basis of all circulating mediums, and expressed the desire to add the entire production of the silver mines of the United States to the currency of the people.

A MEMORABLE CAMPAIGN

Then followed one of the most memorable campaigns ever waged in the Buckeye State. Mr. McKinley began his campaign on August 1, and for three months he traveled night and day, making from two to a dozen speeches a day, until he had visited eighty-four out of the eighty-eight counties of the State, and made in all 130 speeches. His campaign was on national issues, on the

tariff, on protection; and so eloquently and passionately did he defend his principles that great crowds turned out to hear him. The attention of the whole country was drawn to the State of Ohio and the campaign. Newspaper correspondents followed the champion of protection in his tour of the State, and filled the press of the country with descriptions of scenes novel in political campaigns.

The Democrats contested every inch of the ground stubbornly, but the people turned to McKinley as the apostle of the true dispensation, and women and children said he had made protection and tariff plain to them. In that campaign, the first general campaign. Mr. McKinley had ever made, he was pronounced the best votegetter ever seen on the stump in Ohio. He won the admiration of Democrats, as he won the devotion of Republicans, and his election by a majority of over 21,000 votes was gratifying to one party, without being a source of bitterness to the rank and file of the other party.

MCKINLEY RENOMINATED FOR GOVERNOR

The opening of the second Cleveland Administration in 1893, was followed by a business distrust that in a brief time developed into a widespread panic. Even the greatest financial combination in the land, the Associated Banks of New York, practically suspended payment, issuing clearing-house certificates in place of money. Dismay took the place of hope; ruin succeeded prosperity.

In the height of the panic Governor McKinley was renominated by the Republicans of Ohio by acclamation. A spirited contest followed. His opponent was the Hon. L. T. Teal. Nothing was to be said of the personal fitness of the candidates, and the campaign was conducted on the basis of party issues. The revulsion against the protective policy was reaching its end, the people were repenting of their temporary change of sentiment, and the issue brought before them was that of protection or free trade.

The discussion extended throughout the Fall; when at length the people came to indicate their opinion at the ballot-box, their

verdict showed the change in public opinion. McKinley was re-elected Governor with a plurality of 80,955; up to that time the largest but one in the history of the State.

Mr. McKinley's record as Governor was an admirable one. He never forgot that he was not alone the representative of the party which had elected him, but the Chief Magistrate of the whole State, and he was untiring in his efforts to secure for the State a wise, economical, and honorable administration. He took great interest in the management of the public institutions, making a special study of means for their betterment, and securing many important and much-needed reforms. He urged the preserving and improving of the canal system, and was an earnest promoter of the movement for good roads. To the question of tax reform he paid much attention and repeatedly urged its importance upon the Legislature. Many questions relating to the welfare of workingmen became acute during his administration, and were dealt with by him in a spirit of intelligent sympathy.

MCKINLEY A WISE AND FIRM GOVERNOR

He had already long been known as an advocate of an eighthour system, and of arbitration as a means of settling disputes. between employers and employees. It was due to his initiative that the State Board of Arbitration was established in Ohio, and to its successful operation he gave for nearly four years his close personal attention. He made various wise recommendations for legislation for the better protection of life and limb in industrial pursuits, and as a result several salutary laws to such effect were put upon the statute books. When destitution and distress prevailed among the miners of the Hocking Valley, he acted with characteristic promptness and decision. News that many families were in danger of starving reached him at midnight. Before sunrise he had a carload of provisions on the way to their relief.

Many times during his administration the peace of the State was disturbed by unseemly outbreaks requiring the application of

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the restraining power of the Government. This power McKinley exercised with great firmness and discretion. Fifteen times it was necessary to call out the State troops for the maintenance or restoration of order, but on no occasion was the use of them in any respect oppressive. During the summer of 1894 strikes and other disturbances prevailed, especially on the chief railroad lines, and for three weeks the regiments were on duty, acquitting themselves most creditably for the protection of property and enforcement of the law, without any unnecessary harshness towards either party to the disputes. On two noteworthy occasions desperate efforts were made by ill-advised mobs to commit the crime of lynching. Governor McKinley promptly used the military forces of the State to prevent such violence of law and dishonor of the Commonwealth, and showed himself a thorough master of the trying situation.

A distinctive feature of the McKinley administration was the absence of red tape and needless formality. In his method of transacting business the Governor was concise and direct, and in his intercourse with the people, though dignified, he was always approachable and genial. Access was readily had to him at all reasonable times, and no matter of actual interest ever failed to receive his courteous, prompt, and painstaking attention.

HIS FINANCIAL MISFORTUNE

During the period of Mr. McKinley's governorship occurred a most serious misfortune, due to his misplaced confidence in an old friend, and unhesitating readiness in coming to the rescue of one in financial straits. The result of his overconfidence and unquestioning kindness of heart was the sweeping away of the small fortune which he had spent his life in accumulating. Some attempt was made to attach discredit to his name on account of his failure, there being a few who suggested that there was some wrong-doing But when the facts became known, they were connected with it. found to redound to his generosity and goodness of heart, and served to add to his already great popularity.

The misfortune was due to the business failure of his friend, Robert L. Walker, of Youngstown, Ohio, which swept away not only all his own wealth, but that of Governor McKinley as well. The facts of the case are briefly as follows:

The two men had known each other from boyhood, and had always been close friends. As a young law student, a struggling lawyer, and a Congressman, Major McKinley had several times. been aided with loans of money by Mr. Walker. These loans were chiefly needed to enable Major McKinley to meet his campaign assessment. As his reputation grew, the assessments ceased, he paid back the loans, and in the last ten years of his Congressional career, he succeeded in accumulating about $20,000, which he invested in real estate and securities. His wife had inherited a fortune of about $75,000 from her father. Early in 1893, Mr. Walker went to the Governor and asked him for assistance. The banker said that he was hard pressed for ready money, and he wished the Governor to indorse his notes, which he then intended to have discounted. Without hesitation, the Governor cheerfully consented to give this aid to the old friend who had helped him in his early years, and indorsed about $15,000 worth of paper, payable in thirty, sixty and ninety days. This paper, he was assured, would be discounted in three well-known banks. Later on he indorsed a number of notes which, he understood, were made for the purpose of taking up the notes which he had first indorsed, and which had become due. Mr. Walker was at this time the president of a national bank, a savings bank, a stamping mill company and a stove and range company, and was interested in several coal mines in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He was credited with possessing a fortune of more than $250,000, and his personal and business standing was so high that a prominent Ohio business man said that he would have indorsed Mr. Walker's paper for half a million dollars the day before his failure.

When, in addition to these facts, it is remembered that he had been a boyhood companion and generous friend of Governor