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William McKinley — and Twenty 
 Years After 
 
 By Nicholas Murray Butler 
 
 Address at Annual Celebration of William McKinley's 
 
 Birthday, by the Tippecanoe Club of Cleveland, Ohio, 
 
 January 29, 1920 
 
 Every circumstance of this gathering conspires to touch 
 the heart of a Ufe-long Republican and to inspire new faith 
 in the ideals and principles of the Republican Party as a 
 servant of the highest purposes of the American people. 
 The greatest of Republican leaders have stood in the 
 presence of this club. Its very name carries back to the 
 years w^hen the voices of Clay and Webster w^ere still to 
 be heard in the land, and when with the elder Harrison 
 the forces of nationalism and freedom that were later 
 to bring the Republican Party into being were already- 
 making themselves felt 
 
 This day is the 77th anniversary of the birth of William 
 McKinley, a native son of Ohio and its chiefest ornament; 
 a man who, as soldier, as citizen, as legislator, and as 
 president has left upon American history a mark that will 
 never be effaced. The tragic circumstances of his death 
 at the very moment when his power and influence 
 were at their height, when new and large plans were 
 maturing in his mind, have written his name high on the 
 sadly long roll of those who have fallen as martyrs in public 
 service. Lincoln was killed by an assassin blinded by 
 passion and sectional hate. Garfield was killed by a 
 typical representative of the shiftless and irresponsible 
 elements that move about in every large community. 
 
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 McKinle) was killed by one who professed himself con- 
 vinced, as far as his weak mentality was capable of con- 
 viction, that all government was an evil thing, and that to 
 murder the highest officer of the Government of the 
 United States would, in some mysterious way, advance the 
 day when complete happiness and unbounded prosperity 
 would be the lot of each and all. As John Ha\so truly said 
 in his eloquent and moving memorial address before the 
 two Houses of Congress: "Against that devilish spirit 
 nothing avails — neither virtue nor patriotism, nor age 
 nor youth, nor conscience nor pity". 
 
 The murder of McKinley foreshadowed the great con- 
 test that now engages a world's attention — the contest 
 between law and order and the established institutions 
 which freedom has built on the one hand, and on the other 
 the spirit of anarchy, destruction and ruin, that would 
 find in chaos some new opportunity- which order and 
 liberty unite to den}-. 
 
 It seems only yesterday that the shots of that httle 
 pistol, carefully concealed in the assassin's hand, were 
 heard 'round the world, carrying horror and consternation 
 to civilized peoples everj^where. For the third time in 
 less than forty yenvs a President of the United States was 
 murdered. That very fact gives us pause. "Assassina- 
 tion," said King Humbert of Italy, "is the professional 
 risk of kings." We had not supposed that it was also to 
 become a professional risk of presidents. If one may be 
 permitted to try to draw- a helpful lesson from the shock- 
 ing occurence at Buffalo, it is that that occurrence threw 
 into high relief, and forced upon the attention of even 
 the most unthinking, the fact that violence is every- 
 where the enem\- of peaceful progress under law and that 
 it can contribute nothing to human advance. 
 
 In this presence there is no need to trace over again the 
 familiar stor\- of \N^illi:mi McKink\'s life. Every detail 
 
 L-'J 
 
 i»oat-ce \Jr\k\ho\Kir\ 
 
of it is well-known. It is the story of a youth of sound 
 Scotch ancestr}', of modest beginnings, of frank and 
 earnest purpose, of courage in battle and of high standards 
 in civil life, as well as of amazing competence to lead and 
 to mould his fellow men. Whether as eager debater on 
 the floor of the House of Representatives, or as eloquent 
 orator directly addressing the people, or as President in 
 close counsel over grave matters of state, William Mc- 
 Kinle}^ never failed to exhibit high and fine character, 
 exceptional intelligence, and complete faith in the Ameri- 
 can people. He often succeeded where others failed, 
 because of his capacity for getting on with men. He 
 often carried a contest through defeat to final victory, 
 because of his constant hold upon controlling principles. 
 
 It is unusual for American statesmen to show any real 
 mastery of the facts of commercial and industrial life, 
 or any capacity to make use of these facts in the formula- 
 tion of pubHc policy. The strength of American states- 
 manship has lain rather on the legal or juristic side of our 
 public life, and in the development of underlying political 
 principles in argument, in statute, and in executive act. 
 Daniel Webster is a conspicuous illustration of notable 
 achievement in this field of public endeavor. William 
 McKinley^was strong where Webster was less so, and he 
 in turn rarely if ever entered upon the field which Webster 
 made so largely his own. Alexander Hamilton is the 
 one many-sided genius in our history who was equally at 
 home in the juristic and in the economic aspects of political 
 life and problems, and his place at the head of the list of 
 constructive American statesmen is secure. 
 
 McKinley's keen study of the facts of industry and his 
 special powers of clear exposition, have forever identified 
 him with the cause of a protective tarifl^. Alexander Hamil- 
 ton, Henry Clay and William McKinley form the succes- 
 sion at whose hands this fundamental doctrine of the Re- 
 
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publican Party has been moulded and developed. Hamil- 
 ton, Clay and McKinle}- alike would have resented the 
 notion that there was anything fixed or sacred about any 
 particular schedule or rates of duty, and the}- would have 
 equally repelled the charge that they had in mind to care 
 for the interests and privileges of any portion of the com- 
 munity, much less of a favoured class. Fhese three states- 
 men, each in his own time, in his own wa}^ and under the 
 circumstances that surrounded him, urged the doctrine 
 of economic independence as a necessary corollary to 
 political independence. Each of them urged the imposi- 
 tion of tariff duties in order that industries might be 
 developed and diversified and that an American standard 
 of living might be established and maintained, not at all 
 in the interest of those who might happen to be immediate 
 beneficiaries, but because those policies were essential to 
 the prosperity, the happiness, and the independence of the 
 whole people. 
 
 The constitutional and the theoretical issues, once so 
 much emphasized in these debates, are no longer discussed 
 among us. Facts have made such discussion unnecessary. 
 The only questions remaining are those as to the practical 
 application of the principles for which Hamilton, Clay 
 and McKinley stood, to changed conditions of domestic 
 and international trade. All three would have been the 
 first not only to acclaim but to propose such adap- 
 tations. Their service lay in the fact that all three 
 saw beneath and behind the purely theoretical and 
 academic discussions of these practical questions, and took 
 account of the stern facts of human life and human in- 
 dustry, which should alone control far-reaching public 
 policy. 
 
 The unparalleled success of President McKinley in his 
 dealings with the Congress of the United States is proof, 
 if proof were needed, that our American government can 
 
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be made to work effectively if one knows how to work it. 
 The frequent differences, rising sometimes to the dignity 
 of quarrels, between the Executive and the Legislative 
 Departments of the Government, are not, as the history 
 of the McKinley administration shows, a necessary 
 consequence of our constitutional system. They are 
 rather the effect of inadequacies and peculiarities of the 
 temperament of individuals. An executive who under- 
 stands the constitutional rights and privileges of the 
 Congress, and who respects the judgment and the con- 
 victions of its members, will be able to cooperate with 
 the Congress as McKinley did, even in most difficult 
 and controverted matters, without personal friction or 
 public damage. 
 
 Strong men choose strong men as counsellors. Weak 
 men are afraid to have strength in their neighborhood. A 
 president who called John Hay to be Secretary of State, 
 and Elihu Root to be Secretary of War, was conscious of 
 his power to work with the best abiUty that the nation 
 had. It would be difficult to recall an administration in 
 which men of large ability worked more effectively and 
 more harmoniously together in the formulation and 
 and execution of public policy. 
 
 McKinley's ways have often been described as win- 
 ning, and winning they truly were. I recall an instance 
 when I was asked by a group of business men to 
 carry to President McKinley their vigorous criticism 
 of his proposed policy in regard to Porto Rico. The}' 
 objected in particular to some of the aspects of his 
 fiscal policy regarding that Island. President McKinley 
 listened to my exposition of those objections and critic- 
 isms with the utmost patience and with perfect 
 courtesy and good feeling. When I had finished he 
 said, in his quiet impressive way, "Now let me tell 
 you how this Porto Rico matter seems to me." Then 
 
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in less than five minutes, in the simplest language, with 
 complete mastery of facts and with cogent argument, 
 he sent me back to New York with all objections and 
 criticisms completely answered . The group whose spokes- 
 man I had been were at once won to his point of view and 
 continued to give him ungrudging support. A man ot 
 smaller mould or quicker temper would have speedily 
 grown impatient under these criticisms, and might not 
 have taken the trouble to bring those who wished to be 
 his friends and supporters into a full understanding of his 
 policies. Wherever 3^ou touch the personal history or the 
 personal record of William McKinley you find this 
 gentle, kindly disposition always in evidence. They were 
 wrong who mistook it for weakness. It was the gentle- 
 ness of a strong and kindly man, conscious of his high 
 purposes and clear as to his ruling principles. It was this 
 trait, as much as anything else, which gave William 
 McKinley his power over the House of Representatives, 
 his influence over successive National Conventions of his 
 party, and finally his hold upon the confidence and af- 
 fection of the people of the United States regardless of 
 section, of party or of creed. 
 
 When President McKinley was preparing his famous 
 speech to be delivered at Buflr'alo on September 5, 1901, the 
 very day before he was shot, he was perhaps unconsciously 
 building a bridge between the policies which had been 
 uppermost in his mind for twenty years, and those to 
 which new conditions and new opportunities beckoned 
 him. That speech contains conclusive evidence that 
 President McKinley was looking fonvard and was prepar- 
 ing the public mind to follow him in new policies of 
 national development and usefulness. The results of the 
 Spanish War, with their new responsibilities, had greatly 
 changed both the point of view and the temper of the 
 American people. President McKinley felt this and was 
 
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pointing the way to new developments of policy. He 
 particularly liked the sentence "Expositions are the time- 
 keepers of progress," and he made it the text of his speech 
 at Buffalo. When he went on to say: "Isolation is no 
 longer possible or desirable;" "Our capacity to produce 
 has developed so enormously, and our products have so 
 multiplied, that the problem of new markets requires our 
 urgent and immediate attention;" "What we produce 
 beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent 
 abroad"; "The period of exclusiveness is past"; "Commer- 
 cial wars are unprofitable," he was pointing the way to 
 just such policies as those upon which the conditions of 
 this moment invite us to enter. The world of 1920 is an 
 echo of these prophecies of 1901 . 
 
 The twenty years that have passed have carried us a 
 long way from the world on which President McKinley 
 looked out when he made his last speech. Since that time 
 the growth of industry has been everywhere phenomenal. 
 Agricultural production has advanced by leaps and 
 bounds. New inventions have made the several nations 
 many times more dependent upon each other than was the 
 case at the time of our war with Spain. In the midst of 
 all this came the Great War, which has already effected 
 a dozen revolutions, some violent and some peaceful, 
 with more yet to come. In what better spirit and with 
 what sounder principles than those of President McKin- 
 ley's last speech can we enter upon the new and severe 
 tasks that just now open before us.^ 
 
 During the sixteen important years from 1897 to 191 3, 
 the Republican Party did great service to the nation. 
 The Administrations of McKinley, of Roosevelt and of 
 Taft mark a period of constantly expanding progress, 
 of new and difficult problems wisely solved, and of large 
 issues met in a spirit of finest patriotism and public 
 service. What is to be said of our situation at this 
 
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moment when eight years of Democrat Administration 
 are drawing to a fortunate close? Was our Government 
 ever in so great confusion? Was there ever so much in- 
 competence, extravagance and waste in the oversight of 
 the pubHc business and in the disbursement of the pubhc 
 funds : Was there ever so unscientific and so burdensome 
 a weight of taxation? Was there ever so httle thought 
 for the morrow and so complete concentration upon the 
 temporary poUtical advantages of today? Was there 
 ever so marked an exhibition of personal and autocratic 
 rule as is shown by the stubborn unwillingness of the 
 President to take into his confidence the Senate, a co- 
 ordinate part of the treaty-making power, with the result 
 that the whole world waits on the edge of chaos until the 
 President consents to yield his purely personal views, so 
 that a treaty of peace may be ratified under such conditions 
 as shall both protect the independence and the sovereignty 
 of the United States and better equip it for larger service 
 to humanity and to the peace of the world ' Was there 
 ever a time when our foreign relations were in so great' 
 disorder, and when suspicion and unfriendliness were 
 directed against us from every side? Was there ever a 
 time when our Government looked witli sucli calm con- 
 descension upon distress and rapine at our ver>- door, 
 or when it declined to raise a hand to check a great 
 political and social pestilence which, having ravaged the 
 helpless millions of wretched Russia, is now seeking ways 
 and means of communication that it ma\' infect with its 
 poison healthy populations in other parts of the world? 
 The spectacle is appalling, and it is wholly due to the 
 incompetence which has marked the present Adminis- 
 tration in its formulation and direction of public policy. 
 What are we to expect when the ordinal) processes of 
 Government and of diplomatic intercourse are held in 
 check, while personal and official agents of the Executive 
 
travel about with secret messages to engage the attention 
 of governments and of ruHng groups in other lands? 
 
 If pitiless publicity could be had for but one-tenth of the 
 happenings of the past eight years, the people of the 
 United States would be aghast at the spectacle. When 
 war was imminent and while war raged, no party voice 
 could properly be raised in criticism of even the most 
 outrageous acts. National unity in the face of national 
 responsibihty and national peril was then imperative; 
 but war is over and the time has now come for the plainest' 
 of plain speaking in regard to the policies and acts of the 
 Administration that we are so bent upon displacing as 
 quickl}- as the provisions of the Constitution will permit. 
 
 But it will not be sufficient to content ourselves with 
 criticism, however severe and how^ever well merited, of the 
 present Administration. The people expect of the next 
 administration genuine progress in dealing with the 
 problems that confront us. The Republican Part}' must, 
 and I believe will, show itself capable of doing just this. 
 
 First, as to the international situation. By frank and 
 fair dealing and by maintaining our traditional police' of 
 urging the substitution of law for force in the settlement 
 of international differences, we must repair the damage 
 that has been done by the grave blunders and the purel}' 
 rhetorical diplomacy of the present Administration. We 
 must regain the confidence of other nations in our com- 
 mon sense and in our regard for the real facts of national 
 and international life. We must come down from the 
 clouds and walk on the earth. Whatever form the 
 society of nations may take, America's part in it must be 
 that of an independent, self-controlled and cooperating 
 equal. We have no desire to dominate and we have no 
 intention of being dominated. Least of all do we pro- 
 pose to allow our national policies to be put in commission, 
 or to take any part in a reckless adventure into inter- 
 
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national socialism. The American people are ready to act 
 with broad-mindedness, with sympathy and with generosity 
 in helping their sister nations and in maintaining the 
 peace of the world; for as McKinle}' himself said nearly 
 twenty years ago: "Isolation is no longer possible or 
 desirable." 
 
 Second, as to the domestic situation. Here the con- 
 trolling questions are economic and industrial. Their 
 solution involves a large increase in productive industry 
 under just and humane conditions, greater economy and 
 thrift, a steady contraction of our over-expanded credit 
 system, a drastic reform in our methods of taxation, the 
 development of a policy of cooperation rather than of 
 antagonism between government and business, and a 
 quick reduction in the amount of public expenditures. 
 All those are in a large sense matters of business, and they 
 effect not only every so-called business man, but every 
 man, woman and child in the nation. The extravagance 
 at Washington is something quite astounding and it cannot 
 be cured until we have a well-ordered budget system, 
 under the terms of which the Administration will have to 
 become openly responsible to the Congress and to the 
 people for recommendations as to how the year's revenue 
 shall be raised and how it shall be expended. The 
 Congress, in turn, will them become the constructive critic 
 of the Administration, and the people will then be able to 
 determine just where the responsibility lies for those things 
 that are done and for those things that are undone, for 
 those undertakings that are begun and for those under- 
 takings that are refused. 
 
 Our whole administrative machinery at Washington 
 needs to be overhauled and reorganized on modern lines. 
 We have mended and patched our administrative ma- 
 chinery for more than a century, but conditions have 
 now become such as to compel the scrapping of much that 
 
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has been and introducing new and modern machiner}- in 
 its place. Only a few days ago the senior Senator from 
 Colorado related in the Senate the number of steps that 
 had to be taken and the amount of red tape that had to be 
 unwound by constituents of his who desired permission, 
 under the statute, to divert a certain amount of water 
 from a small tributary of a river in Colorado that is 
 classed as navigable but that is never navigated . Imagine 
 the constituent's despair when, having found it necessary 
 to run the gauntlet of a half dozen Government bureaus in 
 three different departments, he finally found himself 
 engaged in negotiations with the Government of Mexico; 
 and this is but one instance among thousands. 
 
 The domestic questions are business questions, to be 
 handled in accordance with business principles and under 
 the protection of the principles of the American Govern- 
 ment and its ideals. 
 
 Many are justly disturbed at the concerted attacks upon 
 the principles of our Government, and even upon our form 
 of government itself. These attacks, so often made in the 
 name of democrac}^ are without exception not only 
 undemocratic but anti-democratic. The Bolshevist rule 
 in Russia is even more autocratic than the Tsar ever dared 
 to be. It denies ever}^ principle of democracy, and it 
 would, if it could, invade other nations and destroy 
 democracy wherever it is to be found. Let us give 
 solemn and severe warning that while we shall maintain 
 and earnestly defend the constitutional rights of free 
 speech, free press, and free assemblage, we shall not 
 permit these rights to be turned into an instrument for 
 doing wrong either to other citizens or to the Govern- 
 ment itself. Common sense draws the line between 
 liberty and license. Clear thinking indicates the point 
 at which harmless and futile talk becomes a direct incite- 
 ment to disorder and mob violence. Let us maintain the 
 
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fundamental principles of American civil libert\', but for 
 ever}' one v^ho abuses those principles let the law take its 
 swift and sure course. 
 
 One of General Garfield's most important public 
 speeches was made here in Cleveland on the night before 
 the Ohio election in 1879. After reviewing the history- 
 of the Democrat Party, with its amazing inconsequences 
 and contradictions, he stated that that party had in its 
 later histor}^ given to this country no great national idea 
 or doctrine that had lived to be four years old. He 
 asserted that whenever that party started in a campaign 
 it looked at all the political barns to see how the tin roosters 
 were pointing, to learn from the political weather-cocks 
 which wa}^ the wind was likely to blow, and then 
 made its doctrines accordingl} . In what respect has 
 the Democrat Part}' changed in the last fort}' }'ears.^ 
 When conditions were favourable it has seized upon a 
 Republican policy, notably the reform of the banking and 
 currency system, and enacted it into law. But which 
 one of its policies is consistent and certain for, let us say, 
 eight }^ears.^ Has the Democrat Party any policy 
 toward Mexico other than one of wanton waiting.^ Has 
 that party any polic}^ in international affairs save blindly 
 to support the latest recommendations of the President, 
 regardless of their soundness and regardless of their effect 
 upon the future of the United States and of the world? 
 What policy has the Democrat Party in regard to public 
 finance r Its latest exploit is the amiable suggestion of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury that the excess profits tax be 
 abolished and the deficit made good by an increase of the 
 income tax. The objections to the excess profits tax are 
 overwhelming, but one wonders whether the Secretary 
 in making his suggestions had taken pains to calculate 
 the result. The highest authority in this country tells 
 us that if the whole of the deficit caused h\' the abandon- 
 
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ment of the excess profits tax were to be met by income 
 tax, the normal rates of the lowest incomes would have to 
 be 30%, and people with incomes of $15,000 would have 
 to give up about one-half of their income each year. 
 What is to be said of the business capacity of an Adminis- 
 tration that solemnly brings forward proposals like these? 
 General Garfield in the speech to which I refer called 
 upon the young men of Ohio to come out of the camp of the 
 Democrat Party. He described it as looking far more 
 like a graveyard for the dead than a camp for the living. 
 Such a spot is no place in which to put the Hfe of a young 
 American who is just beginning to discharge his public 
 responsibilities as citizen. Come out of that camp. 
 Come over into a camp whose army of occupation is 
 dedicated to liberty, to order, to law, to justice and to 
 progress. Come over to a camp where no parley is held 
 with the enemies of America, and from which no half- 
 Bolshevists are sent on messages of public business. Come 
 over to a camp where confident hope for the future is built 
 upon the deeds of the past. Come over to a camp where 
 Lincoln and Grant, and Garfield and Harrison, and Mc- 
 Kinley and Roosevelt and Taft have been captains, and 
 join the great army of American men and women that is 
 at this very moment awaiting the bugle call and the order 
 Forward, March, to a new campaign of victory and public 
 
 Additional copies may be had by addressing 
 
 Box 213, P.O. Sub-Station 84 
 
 New York City, N. Y. 
 
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