Show p A POLITICAL MACHINE IN MOTION I sT > I I THE PROCESS OF 3IAXUFACTtmiNG SEOTXJtEWT OF STIRRING UP EV J1L8IASiL AXD OF PRODUCING CONVIOTIOAS AS IT IS ACTUALITY 1UL1IED ON AT THE NATIONAL REPpBLIClAN HEAD QUARTERS IX NEW YORK THE MEN WHO SET TH MACHINE IX MOTION StARK ICANNA POWELL CLAYTON COLONEL STOIWIS GENERAL OSBQRNE AND CORNELIUS X BLISS DESCRIBED A THY AiP PlSAlt AT THEIR DAILY WORK INTERESTING SCENES AND PIG TURESQUE1 VISITORS I Copyright 1896 The S S McClure C NEW YORK Sept 5There Is probably 1 l ably no piece of mechanism that requires L re-quires such careful poise such nicety in handling and such cJose attention I as the central national organization of a great political party I is welded together to-gether from a thousand diverse parts it consists of wheels within wheels and L i the task of keeping all these parts I working in harnony of making the wheels revolve 1 at once and in the same direction requires not only a I rater mid to direct them but able lieutenants to carry out his orders I There must be no friction and above i all there mast be no mistakes for in apolitical v a-political campaign a mistake once i made 19 often impossible of remedy To one who pictures the political machine from the result i produces the first sight of i is apt to be disappointing v disappoint-ing The Republican national campaign i cam-paign committee occupies eighteen rooms in the big white building of the Metropolitan Life association which atands in Maddson Square close t f the eddying whirl of the centre of the great citys life The rooms resemble the offices of a big corporation more i than anvthmr else There is nothing of the atmosphere of intense excitement that characterizes the nominating convention II con-vention or the higthslntiitg enthusiasm of the political meeting There is less xioise and more business Only when r the work of the day is vcr under way I when the managers are at their desks I e and the lung pocession of vitUors begins f be-gins to arrive is added the element of picturesque that makes the scene full of Interest t The day begirs early at the political headquarters By eight oclock the rooms are open the attendants are on post and the clerks and assistants have begun to arrive Half an hour later the heaas of the various departments I begin to come in The first arrival is I a solidly built man who wears a blue I t suit and a somewhat battered straw I r hat His gray beard is closely trim I jned and his blue eyes have a pleasant look In them as he speaks to his assistants 4 f as-sistants He is deliberate even slow i of motion but when he sits down at his desk this > air of deliberation disappears r anSi he goes rapidly through the work l before him For half an hour the two assistants have been sorting over a huge pie of mail that covers a table at + OTie side of the room and now they place a big stack of letters before the greybearded man who sits down at the desk and pitches into the work without shopping to take off his hat i HP Is General Osborne the secretary of the national committee and the man who after the chairman is chiefly responsible re-sponsible for the conduct of its affairs af-fairs From 500 to 800 letters are received re-ceived and answered every day at the l headquarters and the majority of these come directly to the attention of General Gen-eral Osborne He decides whether the f appeal of the county or state committee com-mittee if Oshkosh shall be submitted to the executive commIttee or politely refused he considers the suggestion of this politician or that for the conduct of the campaign In some particular g tate or section and he is in constant communication with the absent mem ben of the committee Bed ¼ his desk is a long distance telephone giving direct connection with the Chicago headquarters and report re-port are exchanged between the two olaces once or more every day This is enough to keep anyone busy but it is only a part of General Oabornes work I He receives hundreds of callers listens patiently to their suggestions and tries to send them all away satisfied He succeeds pretty well to and the man who wants to be placed in charge of the campaign in his section or to have the committee take up some pretty scheme that he has devised goes away smiling happily over the memory of f the secretarys cordial handclasp and the secretarys cheerful words forget t ing until ho is well outside the building at least that so fa as the advancement advance-ment of his cause is concerned he is exactly where he was before so fares i far-es can be ascertained The chairman Ie C cn acJtned cairman rI I 1 f l 1 I L t II tJ J kc W 2 V t ri i Oorn lins V Bliss General Clayton Mark Hanna Chief Sec Osborne 1 of the committee divides his time between be-tween the New York and the Chicago headquarters and in his absence most of his duties devolve upon the secretary secre-tary While the secretary has been looking over the mornings mal his associates I have come in and the crowd of visitors h begun to arrive This ceaseless tide of callers that flow up and down I the long halls all day long is made un of all sorts and conditions I reaches I the flood early in the afternoon and j does not ebb away till the end of the I day There are politicians from everywhere every-where and nowhere here a congressman congress-man from Oregon and there a heeler from the eighth ward there are men with large schemes to make Republican can success certain if they fail here I they will go over to the Democratic headquarters there are lean and hungry hun-gry Individuals and fat persons wreathed in smiles and bathed in perspiration per-spiration there are orators male and lemale white colored and nondescript there are fakirs great and small gent peddlers and bunco men there i are women whose husbands or fathers i belonged to the party there are newspaper news-paper men messengers and scrubwomen scrubwo-men the sombrero of the Texan brushes against thr > shiny silk hat of the eastern senator the vagrant breeze that wandeis in at the window s h r < i through the almost populistic whiskers I of the man from Kansas and fans the smoothshaven cheek of his fellow Republican Re-publican from Maine the picturesque dress of the southerner is side by side I with the conventional garb of the New York financier I is an illassorted I crowd alike in this thing only that nine out of every ten have some scheme to extract money from the supposedly sup-posedly exhaustless store of the campaign cam-paign committee I The tide breaks about Colonel Storms the sergeantatarms of the national committee TaU erect handsome suave ansd graceful in manner he keeps a his post all day receives everybody thac one talks with everbody passes thar along to the proper person fo him to see dismisses this one with a pleasant pleas-ant good day and a courtly wave of the hand His task is a most trying one but his temper ha been tried in every form a annoyance in successive campaigns and nothing can move him now A man came into the office today to-day with dandruff on his coat collar and dust on his eye glasses there was excitement in his eye and he came toot to-ot point at once Im from Turpie Ind he said and I wane the national committee to let me have a hundred thousand dollars dol-lars t stamt a newspaper there I will be a great thing for the cause Like the stone of David the truth shall smite the Goliath of I am very sorry said the colonel his voice full of regret but just at present the financial condition of the thE fnac1 conditon te committee doesnt warrant such a large expenditure I trust however that O will continue to labor zealously for the cause And the man from Turpie Ind found himself moving toward the door before he realized what had happened hap-pened A woman was waiting for the colonel colo-nel when he returned I have here a letter for Mr Hanna my husband was a Republican he used t be postmaster at Speonk I wish that rOu would give my daughter a place as typewriter cant you 7 The colonels voice was full of tears as he assured the woman that at present pres-ent no addition to the clerical force would be made A little later there was an invasion of men with ideas for campaign devices de-vices One man bore a papier mache elephant with the word Gold lettered on his side hs Very latest thing he began the committee should order 10000 of them tem ate once Excellent thing said the colonel but you see we are not purchasing campaign emblems now we leave that to the clubs The room occupied by Colonel I Storms if ihe museum of the headquarters headquar-ters I is filled with specimens of all kinds of campaign devices left thereby there-by Lese visitors The elephant referred re-ferred to above is the latest addition to the collection He stands proudly on the top of a desk with a tuft of red white and blue feathers sticking from his trunk and looking like an animated feather duster On the walls are hung a gt number of pictures of McKinley McKin-ley and Hobart in which they are represented rep-resented a belonging to every nationality nation-ality from Scandinavian to Hottentot The most interesting of these alleged portraits ore a couple in which the noble no-ble features of the Republican candi dates are stamped upon American tin Against the wall stands a huge oil painting of Major McKinley which is a wonder in its way The candidate is pictured standing in the attitude affected af-fected by cigar store Indians and others of that ilk His right arm outstretched out-stretched supports the American standard stand-ard the folds of which float gracefully behind him Or the other side of Mr McKinley is a curious looking bird which strongly resembles the molting crow but which is in reality intended to represent the great American eagle These are but a few of the exhibits which include campaign buttons badges and emblems In the greatest I variety A few doors down the hal is the I room where the campaign orators con gregate this is the headquarters of General Powell Clayton of Arkansas who has charge of the bureau of the speakers General Clayton comes from a hot state but there is nothing sluggish slug-gish about i methods of doing business busi-ness and he puts in longer hours than anybody else about the headquarters He occupies a very trying position forte for-te natural eagerness of each state committee to secure the most brilliant mos brlat orators makes the assignment of speakers speak-ers a difficult task and he is overrun with applicants who want to expound Republican doctrines at the expense of the committee Of late there has been a gea Influx of boy orators The la e applicant was a 11yearold whose parents had brought him from a small village up the Hudson to display dis-play his powers uT Is my son said the father I He can give Bryan cards and spades and beat him on the stump 1 Hes a regular wonder broke in the mother You should hear him speak Koscziosko Henry speak Koscziosko I Kociosko Henr spk Kosczioko I for the 1O gentleman I Henry began in a shrill piping voice that would have been as effective as a 1 penny whistle in addressing a political meeting The general controlled his I I emotion a well as he could and explained ex-plained that it wouldnt be giving the j i k + = J opposition candidate n fair show to pit I such oratorical ability a Henrys against him Next door r General Clayton is the room O National Comm teeman Scott of West Virginia who represents the committee in it relations with the state and other subcommittees Politicians Poli-ticians of more or less note from every part of the union are to be found here talking over the progress o the campaign paign in their own sections and the room is the scene of almost constant consultation I is in fact the anteroom ante-room to the quarters of the chairman This is the corner room the largest and pleasantest of all and suggests itself as the keystone of the series It is a leystne seres I occupied oc-cupied only by Mr Hanna and Mr Hobart the candidate for vicepresi dent who takes a active part in the management of the campaign and is in almost daily attendance a the headquarters head-quarters This room is the goal of almost every caller at the headquarters ters They all want t see Mr Hvuina but very few of them really get to see him They are carefully sifted a they pass along the line and a colored ps aong lne ad man stands at the door of the corner room to guard against intrusion Even with this care the occupant of the room is kept busy receiving single callers or visiting delegations When Mr Hanna is in New York he usually spends his mornings in receiving receiv-ing callers ad the Hotel Waldorf and arrives at the headquarters about noon There are always several men awaiting I await-ing him and his arrival causes a small buzz of excitement There are whispers whis-pers of Thats him See thats Hanna na as the great man makes his way through the wanting throng pausing only to speak to those with whom he is acquainted He goes at once to his own room and as soon a he is settled behind the heavy oak desk in the heavy oak car which he easily fills he is ready for business Mr Hannas manner in dealing with the questions that come before him for decision is sharp and decisive but always pleasant He keeps himself in a cheerful cheer-ful frame of mind and though not a humorous man he can appreciate a good joke and frequently gets off a witticism of his own It is the politicians politi-cians business to smile but Mr Han nas smiles seem t come from inherent good nature What chiefly impresses one about the man who controls the political situation today as far a the Republican party is concerned is the fact that he is at all times master of the situation The somewhait heavy jaw and the firm lines of the mouth tell of the love of power and the ability fly to wield it This is indeed the keynote key-note of Mr Hannas character he is masterful He is a unique figure in contemporary politics and would be impossible outside of America With the arrival of the chairman the business of the day is in full swing In a suite of three small rooms not far from Mr Hannas the national treasure Mr Cornelius N Bliss is ensconced The management of the financial end of a national compaign is cmpagn far from being its least important part I To the minds of many politicans it overshadows all others But the work of the treasurer is done very quietly His consultations ore usually held with men who talk very little but very muc to the point o with the chairman chair-man himself The management of the campaign finances lies almost entirely with these two men and little is known about them to anybody else I As the afternoon wears on the executive exe-cutive committee is called into session ses-sion in a small room adjoining that of the chairman There the whole political polit-ical situation is discussed as it develops de-velops from day to day and the committees com-mittees ptan of action is outlined They form an impressive group these men a they gather about the table co dis the that mean so cuss te measures tat may me 0 much to their party and to the country coun-try but in appearance they are business busi-ness men rather than typical politicians politi-cians They might be the directors of a great railway with Mr Hobart sitting sit-ting one side saying little but listening listen-ing with keen interest t everything that goes on for their counsel Vita the conclusion of the meeting of the executive committee the work of the day begins to draw toward its close Letters are sent out decisions on points that were in abeyance are announced and the various departments depart-ments prepare for the close of business busi-ness But there is one department in which the activity never ceases from the beginning to the close of the day That is the publication bureau I Is in charge of Mr Guthridge a former Washington correspondent and is a branch of the main publication bureau which is located in Chicago and is in charge of Colonel Heath From these publication bureaus campaign literature litera-ture is sent out by the ton while fresh pamphlets intended to convince the voter ore all the time in preparation From here the campaign of education is usually carried on and it is an unusually un-usually important department this yearIt is almost incredible said Mr Guthridge the demand for campaign literature We have been utterly unable t meet it tnus tar Already forty different dif-ferent pamphlets most of them dealing I deal-ing with the money question have been prepared and thirty million copies of them are to be printed From present indications that wont be a bit too much There is no regular closing hour at the Republican headquarters With the coming of 6 oclock most of the visitors vis-itors depart one by one the heads of the various departments and their ad numerous nu-merous assistants follow Finally two colored men come down bearing between be-tween them a large sack filled with the mail which has accumulated during the day The letters go forth all over the land bearing the field orders of the commandeers to the great army that is at work in every part of the country for the success of their partys cause The two colored men are the last to leave the building except one The elevator man who rune the Gpeciad lift I retained for the service of the Republican Repub-lican managers waits in Impatience and finally locks the elevator shaft and goes home Still the man upstirs in the corner sits alone in his heavy oak chair behind the heavy oak desk thinking possibly of the splendid structure struc-ture he has built up looking perhaps into the future perhaps into the past but still sitting there while the twinkling lights come out along the streets and the great city undergoes its nightly transformation from a workshop work-shop to playground At last he rises puts on his hat and walks slowly down the stairs the last to leave the building build-ing E W MAYO |