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Show FIVE MINUTE CHATS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS By JAMES MORGAN ' . WAITED HIS TURN : -i 1843 January 29, William Mc Klnley born at Niles, O. 1861-65 In the Civil war. 1867 Became a lawyer In. Canton, Can-ton, O. 1869-71 Prosecuting attorney of his county. 1871 Married Ida Saxton. 1877-91 Member of congress. 1892-96 Governor of Ohio. 1896 June, McKinley nominat- I ed for president by the Republican national convention con-vention at St. Louis. November, No-vember, elected. WILLIAM McKINLEY challenged nnd disproved the old saying that the presidency casts its shadow on no man but once and that if the chance be missed then it will never come again. Twice the Republican nomination seemed to be within Mc-Kinley's Mc-Kinley's reach in the national conventions con-ventions of 18S8 and 1802. Each time he put It away, content to wait his proper turn, when ho. did not have to shake the tree to briDg down the ripened fruit of his patience. Mckinley was beaten for the speakership speak-ership by Thomas B. Reed in 18S9, and he left Washington a defeated congressman con-gressman only six years before he returned re-turned as president-elect. Had he bt'en sr -aker, and, instead of Reed, incurred in-curred the title of "Czar," or had he not beer turned out of congress . . . . 1 -Ik William McKinley. had he won those smaller honors he well might never have won the highest honor. A disappointment manfully borne eulists the popular sympathy, and the author of the McKinley bill entered the contest for the presidential presiden-tial nomination in 1S90 as one who had suffered martyrdom in the cause of the protective tariff, i After teaching school a terra or so, McKinley was called in the Civil war, that hard university which graduated the men who were to lead the nation through four decades. Having gone into the army as a private in the regiment of another president-to-be Rutherford B. Hayes he came out at twenty-two a captain, with the brevet title of major. Becoming a lawyer at Canton, O., again he found himself In the midst of Industries in their struggling Infancy. And for 14 years he was the spokesman spokes-man in congress of that industrial district. The young major, when he came to Canton, was a clean-cut, up-stundmg figure genial in his nature, but with a sober dignity. His readiness of speech, when on his feet, came from his practice prac-tice of the art in the debating societies of his school days. His habits also had been properly formed in his hoy-hood hoy-hood when he joined the Methodist church at ten and grew up a youth who was as careful to keep his tongue as his collar clean. All doors In the little town naturally natural-ly swung open with a welcome to -such a nice young man," and a major ma-jor to boot. Although he was yet r, when Ida Saxton. the banker s daughter, who had been to school In w York city and who had jut come back from Europe, smiled yes to h.m while thev were "taking a buggy ride be banker smiled, too, and made them I wedding gift of one of the best nouaet n8 Canton. It was from the , nt porch of that honeymoon deTM Bthat McKinley made his campaign j for the presidency In IfeJO. , VKln ev's is one of the best-nnd of the most pathetic-love stones 2 ic 'ecords of t,,e r 1 With the birth of her second IT,?'. he wife was left an Invalid. 2S.e a of both of her children wlth-. wlth-. fveor of her wedding day utter-rwhelmed utter-rwhelmed her nervous organiza-l organiza-l n a d he" shattered health remain-r.henceforth remain-r.henceforth the constant object of - h"Sb"hn hSe rco-know from A1,rUro minn e when she would "'TTnto a swoon, he made her his pass into a - , Once when companion on his nnd WILLIAM McKINLEY - 1897 March 4, William McKIn-ley McKIn-ley Inaugurated 24th President, aged fifty-four. 1898 Feb. 15, the battleship Maine blown up in Havana Ha-vana Harbor. April 21, War declared against Spain. July 7, Hawaii annexed. Aug. 14, City of Manila captured. Dec. 10, treaty of peace signed in Paris. 1899 Feb. 4, the Philippine War began. 1900 Aug. 15, the Allied Expedition Expe-dition to Pekin. 1901 Sept. 6, McKinley shot by Leon Czolgosz. Sept. 14, died, aged fifty-eight. fifty-eight. 4- EVENTS make sport of the schemes of mice and men. McKinley entered en-tered the race for the presidency on the tariff issue, was elected on the money issue . . . and the greatest problems that confronted ' bim in the" White House were the fate of a chain of islands off the coast of Asia aud the destiny of China! Spain had been engaged for two years in a desolating struggle to hold in subjection the re-s citing island of Cuba, and two happenings pushed McKinley into the conflict in spite of himself. In a private letter, the Spanish Span-ish minister at Washington scoffed at the president as a "politicastro" in plain American, "a peanut politician" poli-tician" and plainly intimated that the fair promises which the Spaniards were giving him were only a trick to fool the administration and the American Amer-ican people. Within a week of that exposure, the battleship Maine was blown up in Havana harbor, with tne loss of 2GG American lives. After withstanding for nearly two months the popular outcry of "Remember "Re-member the Maine," the president yielded, nnd war was declared. In ten days Dewey had smashed the enemy squadron In Manila bay; in ten weeks another squadron was sunk or captured off Santiago; in three months and a half poor old Spain threw up the sponge. It took twice as long to make peace as to make war. The Philippines caused all the trouble. As we had not captured the islands in the war, many believed that we should let them 1 alone. But McKinley decided to demand de-mand from Spain the surrender of the Philippines. Without waiting for ratification, the president dispatched a military expedition expe-dition to take over the Philippines, proclaiming to the revolting Filipinos the policy of "benevolent ass'mila-tion." ass'mila-tion." The resulting war dragg.'d its unpleasant length for two years before be-fore the Inhabitants unwillingly bowed to their new master. It was the strange fortune of a president whose entire public life had been given exclusively to domestic questions to plant the flag in the distant dis-tant Philippines and to send it to the pink walls of the Forbidden City of China. In the march on Peking for the rescue of the forgein legations from the siege of the Boxers, or Chinese revolutionists, the United States joined other powers for the first time in a military expedition. Under the high statesmanship of John Hay, the secretary of state, the United States had already, before the Mrs William McKinley. Boxer rebellion, laid a restraining hand upon the nations that were looting Chinese territory and had drawn from them pledges to keep an "open door" to trade in the ports they were seizing seiz-ing at the point of the gun. The "open door" has remained ever since the chart of our course In the East. If w-e will only continue to follow It and should succeed In Inducing others to follow it a while lonBer, until the Riant of the Orient awakens from hla long slumber and shakes off his foreign for-eign despollers. an emancipated China will he the imposing monument of William McKinley's presidency. (Copyright, U'M. by Jamea MorSan) |