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Show WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY. Whatever errors may be laid at tho door of Grover Cleveland few dared challenge his judgment in the selection of strong men for the cabinet. The greatest man in President Cleveland's cabinet was 1 William Collins Whitney, who died in Xew York I on Tuesday under an operation for appendicitis. Xot so illustrious a personage as Commodore Jack Barry, "the father of the American navy," because Barry earned his title as a tighter rather than a builder, ex-Secretary Whitney's name will somehow be linked with Barry's in our naval exploitation. ex-ploitation. ,H'o is often called the "father of the I new navy," and none will care fo dispute the title, j It is for his great work in placing the United States navy iu the foremost-rank that he is best known, j ! Whitney's zeal was really the crowning act of the ! i Cleveland administration. When Secretary Whitney started in to restore I the former sea prestige of the country, ho found j it impossible to get the desired steel work for the new vessels on this side of the Atlantic, but tirrnly re fused to let any contracts abroad, and in S7 succeeded in closing contracts which provided for the construction of a plant suitable to the re- ' quired purpose on this side of the water. When he retired from the cabinet in ISO twelve modern fighting vessels of different types were, chiefly as a result of his labors, finished or in pn.:-css of com- j pie t ion. They were the foundation of tho present j navy. Back of his determination to have all the material used iu the construction of tb'j new ves- j sels turned out in this country was a desire to make the United States independent of the rest of the world for supplies in case of war, and as a result-of result-of this the largest and finest plant of the' kind in the worM is now here, j Mr. Whitney was the leader of the Cleveland forcesin 1802, and proved himself a born leader. He adhered to thy Cleveland wing of the party in ISOO and after that timo was less active in polities, j although he continued to be regarded as one of the j strongest men in the party. He was conspicuous j as a financier and was an important factor in tho j business world of Now York and the nation. j At the time Grover Cleveland was a candidate j for sheriff of Erie county his friends contributed J the funds necessary for election expenses. Today I this once poor Buffalo lawyer is a man of opu- I lence and much wealth. How did he Income so j wealthy? Judge Goodwin has one way of answer- j ing, but it does not explain all. It was by follow- j ' ing the advice, the tips, which William Collins j Whitney gave to him, that laid the foundation of j Grover Cleveland's wealth a fortune which no j former president ever possessed on leaving Wash- i ington and retiring to private life. i , i I |