Yale University Library

39002006592951

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

SOCIAL LAWS.
By SOLON LAUER.
A vigorous and timely book, discussing some of
the most vital social problems of the day from the
view- point of Evolution and Natural Law. Ele-
gan tly printed and bound. Price, |1 2 . oo . Here are
a few notices from readers of the advance sheets :
FROM PRESIDENT THWING.
"The book is so able that it challenges dissent, as well as
awakens a sense of admiration for its boldness and intellectual
insight and force." Pres. Chas. F. Thwing,
Western Reserve University.

THE PROTEST OF COMMON SENSE.
"The protest of common sense against the varied fallacies that
bore fruit in the European revolutions ofthe last 130 years. * * *
Well written, clear, eloquent." — Boiton Journal.
CHANTS THE EPIC OF SUCCESS.
" In crisp and picturesque English the author deals with the
rights of capital and labor, the question of wages, the trust and the
labor union, taxation, monetary theories, charity and philanthropy,
expansion, theories,of government, etc.
** Chants the epic of success.
"Will be fiercely attacked by the so-called reformers of the
country, but conservative minds will commend its influence as
trending toward a sound political and industrial policy."
— Cleveland, 0., Leader.

CopjTighi b> Puidj-, Busiou.

~LU9i-h

mark'hanna

A SKETCH FROM LIFE

AND OTHER ESSAYS

By

SOLON LAUER,

AUTHOR OF

Life and Light from Above,

Social Laws, Etc.

CLEVELAND, OHIO
NIKE PUBLISHING HOUSE

1901

Copyright, igoi,
BY
Solon Lauer.

C^/J' /3S

^t ^Imperial ^^nx$f\
CI.EVBI.AHD, OHIO.

TO MY JOE ( HE KNOWS ) , WHO BE
LIEVED IN ME WHEN OTHERS DOUBTED ;
WHOSE HEART AND BRAIN HAVE
ANSWERED TO MY OWN, IN EVERY
LOFTY- THOUGHT OR SENTIMENT;
WHOSE AID AND SYMPATHY WERE
MINE WHEN FIRST I LAUNCHED MY
LITTLE BARK UPON THE STORMY SEA
OF LITERATURE ; THIS VOLUME, WHICH
I WISH WERE A MORE WORTHY TRIBUTE
OF MY APPRECIATION AND AFFECTION,
IS INSCRIBED.

A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.

As this volume goes to press, the whole coun
try, nay, the whole world, is stirred to its pro-
foundest depths of feeling, over the dastardly
assassination of President McKinley.
This outrage is the legitimate outcome of the
agitation which certain classes of demagogues
have been carrying on for years. The generation
and aggravation of class hatred, the wholesale
denunciation of rich men, the persistent attacks
and aggravation of class hatred, the wholesale
charges of robbery and oppression continuously
brought against large employers of labor, could
not but end in violence, sooner or later.
That this fiendish act of Czolgosz was inspired
by his long cherished hatred of rich men is evi
denced by the assassin's own words. Czolgosz is
one of a large and growing class who suffer from
Plutophobia. He says : "I hope he dies. I shot
him because it was my duty. The man who suc
ceeds him must not be the slave of capital, or he
will perish, too."
Emil Schilling, treasurer of an anarchist club
in Cleveland, said to a reporter of the Leader :

iv A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.
"The man who shot the President knew that
McKinley and his clique were taking millions
from the men who produce the wealth. What
could be more natural than that he should shoot
him?" Another individual is reported to have said that
Czolgosz ought to have shot Mark Hanna.
Among certain classes in this country the ha
tred for Mark Hanna is so intense that it would
not have been surprising had he been included
in the plot against McKinley's life. The idea
has been persistently inculcated by many papers
that Mark Hanna was the actual President, and
McKinley only his obedient and submissive serv
ant. Expressions from anarchistic sympathizers
in various quarters show too plainly that this
poisonous seed, scattered by the hands of dema
gogues, has taken root among the enemies of
government; and we may at any time expect to
reap a further harvest of blood from these lusty
but pernicious plants.
According to report, Emma Goldman, "the
High Priestess of Anarchy," and the inspiring
angel of assassin Czolgosz, uttered the following
sentiments in Chicago:
"Mark Hanna has been the ruler of this coun
try, not McKinley. McKinley has been the most
insignihcant ruler this country has ever had. He

A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT. v
has neither wit nor intelligence , but has been a
tool in the hands of Mark Hanna."
That the assassination of McKinley alone is
not sufficient to bring about the anarchist's dream
of an earthly paradise is evidenced by her further
remarks :
"/ am not in a position to say who ought to be
killed. The monopolists and the wealthy of this
country are responsible for the existence of a
Czolgosz." According to these words, the blood of Mark
Hanna, and of the wealthy business men whose
class interests he is mistakenly supposed to cham
pion, must be poured out in sacrifice upon the
altar of liberty, before the masses can be free
in this America. Is it surprising that the Gov
ernment Secret Service men have thrown a guard
around the person of Mr. Hanna? And must we
furnish guards for Pierpont Morgan, Russell
Sage, John D. Rockefeller, and their kind, to pro
tect them from the weapons of red-eyed mad
men like Czolgosz?
For years this hatred of our prosperous busi
ness men has been inculcated in the speeches and
papers of socialists and anarchists. Several
years ago, a revolutionary sheet published in
Chicago contained the following:

vi A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.
"A LETTER TO TRAMPS."
"StroU you down the avenues of the rich, and
look through the magnificent plate windows into
their voluptuous homes, and here you will dis
cover the very identical robbers who have de
spoiled you and yours. Then let your tragedy
be enacted here! Awaken them from their wan
ton sports at your expense. Send forth your
petition, and let them read it by the red glare
of destruction. Avail yourselves of those little
methods of warfare which science has placed in
the hands of the poor man, and you will become
a power in this or any other land. Learn the use
of explosives."
This fire of hatred against the prosperous and
wealthy, whose enterprise has given employment
and brought ever-increasing wealth to working-
men, is spreading far and wide. Its angry flames
leap to the sky, and show us in their lurid light
the forms of madmen arming for murder and de
struction. The horrors of revolution are upon
us, unless this devouring fire be quenched.
It is not enough that we shall quell the tu
mult of open riot whenever and wherever it
arises. The fire that smoulders in secret may
yet break forth and destroy the institutions of
our nation.

A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT. vii
In the dark cellars and the dusty lofts of cities
these agents of revolution hold their secret coun
cils, and plot against the lives and fortunes of
the rich and powerful. There is no open plot,
no visible organization ; but this brotherhood of
murderers exists, and carries on its bloody coun
cils in the silence and the dark.
Its wrath is fed by all the demagogues, of
whatever name, who cry against the rich and
prosperous; who magnify the poverty and suf
fering of the poor, and lay the real and fancied
wrongs of workingmen at the doors of those
who are victorious in life's battle.
Thousands of workingmen fall a ready prey to
demagogues, who come like wolves in sheep's
clothing to breed strife and discontent in Labor's
fold. They listen to the poisoned words of mal
ice, and the words rankle in their hearts. It is
but a step from discontent to violence.
Although thousands of workingmen know that
Mark Hanna has ever been a friend to Labor,
there are other thousands who have listened to
the envenomed words of demagogues until they
are convinced that Mark Hanna is their enemy
and oppressor and that President McKinley was
his meek and submissive slave. This sentiment
grew and strengthened until it found a logical
expression through the murderous hand of Czol
gosz, extended in Judas-treachery to take Mc
Kinley's life.

viii A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.
The assassination of McKinley is of far more
direful significance to the nation than was the as
sassination of either Lincoln or Garfield. The
murder of Lincoln was the last convulsive effort
of the expiring serpent of Secession, fixing its
poisoned fangs in the flesh of him who had given
it a fatal blow.
The killing of Garfield was the act of a mad
man, whose brain, naturally weak and unbal
anced, had become inflamed by the hatred en
gendered in party strife. Dreadful as it was, the
act had only a local and temporary significance,
so far as its motive was concerned.
But the death-blow to McKinley was aimed at
the wealth and prosperity of the nation. It was
inspired by class hatred. It was insane Poverty
striking blindly at the form of Wealth. It was
the act of a Samson, in blind rage seeking to pull
down the temple of national prosperity, whose
fall should be his own destruction.
To the befogged brain of the anarchist Czol
gosz, McKinley and his supporters represented
the brutal hand of corporate Wealth, snatching
from starving Labor the crust of meager oppor
tunity which Unionism has thus far insured for
its subsistence.
But it is not alone the anarchist who takes this
dismal and distorted view of the present indus-

A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT. ix
trial situation in America. Czolgosz has simply
given expression in action to what has long been
expressed in language and cartoon.
It is not enough for us to stamp out the anarchy
of deed ; we must also stamp out the anarchy of
the printed and spoken word. It is not sufficient
for us to imprison or hang the anarchist who re
sorts to force; we must suppress in every legiti
mate way the demagoguery which inspires him.
It is of no use to brush away the web, and leave
the spider which is weaving it.
Czolgosz struck a blow for liberty and equality,
firmly believing that these great principles would
be subserved by the assassination of McKinley
and the intimidation of his supporters. The power
of the demagogue is always a despotic power ; and
this act of Czolgosz, which expressed the spirit
of demagoguery in its last and logical application,
was one of the most striking examples of despotic
power in the world's history. This point was so
forcibly and eloquently brought out in an address
given in Plymouth Church, Cleveland, by Mr. J.
G. W. Cowles, a prominent business man of
Cleveland and an active member of the Chamber
of Commerce, that I am constrained to quote
some of his words :
"Anarchy," he said, "which professes to aim
its blows at despotism, is itself the worst of

x A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.
despotism. When Czolgosz seized the pistol to
shoot our President, he grasped at absolute and
despotic power. Czolgosz already had the power
of the ballot, the same power which every Amer
ican citizen possesses. He was not satisfied with
that. Seven millions of American citizens by their
suffrage made McKinley President. One man
with his deadly pistol removed him from that of
fice. One man reached forth his frenzied hand,
and the destinies of a nation trembled in the bal
ance. One man smote the nation's head, and the
heart of the nation bled.
The Czar of Russia does not exercise such ab
solute and despotic power as this man usurped
and wielded, in the sacred name of liberty. The
worst despotism which the world has seen never
equaled this of anarchy's apostle Czolgosz in this
free land of ours.
Are we to tolerate this hideous form of despot
ism in cur midst? Life and liberty are not in
alienable where one man can seize and wield so
absolute a power. This is a form of despotism
which we must drive forever from our shores.
Life and liberty are not secure, where anarchy is
tolerated."

A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT. xi
HANNA AND McKINLEY.
A friend of Mr. Hanna, who has known him
for years, said to the writer : "Governor Mc
Kinley was fortunate in having Marcus A. Han
na for his personal friend and political adviser,
and the manager of his campaigns ; and Mr. Han
na was equally fortunate in his alliance with Mc
Kinley. It was a compact of power with popular
ity, which made both men greater and more
successful, and more useful to the public. The
personal affection and devotion of each to the
other was honorable alike to both, and an example
of the best qualities of friendship among men."
It is safe to say that no heart has been more
cruelly hurt by the stroke that laid McKinley low
than the big heart of his nearest and dearest po
litical friend, Mark Hanna. This stroke has
added several years to the burden of age, which
already bore heavily upon Mr. Hanna's shoul
ders. Since the dreadful news of that black Fri
day, when the heart of the President began to
fail, Mr. Hanna has been as one crushed by an
irresistible power. His face is drawn, his shoul
ders droop, and he leans heavily upon his cane.
His friend, for whom Mr. Hanna laid such a
sacrifice of health and labor upon the altar of his
country's welfare, is gone.

xii A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.
The strongest bond between Mr. McKinley
and Mr. Hanna was the tie of an enduring friend
ship. Next to this came the affinity of political
sympathy. They believed in the same great
principles. They clasped hands to work for the
same broad ends.
The notion that Mr. Hanna dictated the po
litical policy of the President can be entertained
only by those who are not familiar with the char
acter of the two men. They were one in an en
during friendship, whose foundations lay far
deeper than the community of their political in
terests. They were one in their adherence to cer
tain great principles which the Republican party
represents. But far above the personal aims of
either was the starry emblem of their country's
welfare, which they ever kept in view.
There are ignorant and malicious minds who
will see, in the death of President McKinley, the
setting of Mr. Hanna's star of destiny : and in the
unutterable grief that mantles him in gloom these
will see chiefly the regret of a man disappointed
of his political aspirations, and deprived of the
chief means by which his own imperious will was
executed. Mr. Hanna has been universally known as the
friend of President McKinley. Is it not possi
ble that this intimate relation has somewhat ob-

A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT. xiii
scured the vision of his own character and at
tainments? My own belief is that the influence
of Mr. Hanna in American politics has been
chiefly due to his own qualities as a man. His
strength, sagacity, political insight, his force of
character, his qualities of leadership, his inti
mate acquaintance with the business interests of
the country, must all be taken into account.
Mr. Hanna's friend is dead. Mr. Hanna's
power of leadership and command remain. We
shall now see whether this man's star is a sun,
or merely a planet, reflecting the light of a Pres
idential orb. If my estimate of Mr. Hanna's
character is correct, his star of destiny will not
be darkened by this eclipse that has fallen upon
the nation's chief.
This orb that rose above the smoke-stained
city by the lake is not an errant comet, with men
ace in its train to all the people. It is not a
planet, deriving its light from a Presidential Sun
to whose system it was attached as a leading
planet. It is a self-illumined Sun, a source of
light and power; and though it may never shine
from the President's chair at Washington, it will
still illumine the councils of the nation, and lead
its retinue of stars and planets along the track of
the national zodiac.
Mr. Hanna, in other words, will not drop into

xiv A PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT.
obscurity because of the loss of his friend, our
President McKinley. Mr. Hanna, like all men of
great natural power, intuitively knows his proper
place. He has often ridiculed the idea of a presi
dential nomination for himself ; but he knows his
power as a leader of men, and will not abdicate
it while life remains to him. In the councils
of the nation his voice will still be heard; and
because it is a calm, sane voice, the voice of a
large experience, the voice of a practical wisdom,
it will be heeded, and its utterance will have the
weight of a natural and underived authority.
His character as a statesman has been slowly
but surely emerging from the mists of popular ig
norance and misunderstanding; and it will yet
shine out clearly, by its own light, as one of the
most forceful, acute, able, that has arisen in the
nation's horizon. Mr. Hanna, as McKinley's
friend, would live for many years in the fond
memory of McKinley's hosts of admirers ; but
Mr. Hanna, the Senator, will be remembered for
his own strong qualities of leadership — exerted
during one of the most important epochs of the
nation's history — long after the popular concep
tion of his relation to President McKinley has
been obscured bv the mists of time.

MARK HANNA

MARK HANNA ; A SKETCH FROM LIFE.
 .>-o^e~<. 
The noble Cato, when someone suggested that
there ought to be a monument in memory of his
services to his country, rephed: "It is better
that people should ask why Cato has not a mon
ument than to ask why he has."
There are probably many people in the United
States who will ask "Why this sketch of Mark
Hanna?" When President Charles F. Thwing, at the
Alumni banquet given in celebration of the sev
enty-fifth anniversary of Western Reserve Uni
versity, introduced Senator Marcus A. Hanna
as one of the speakers, he remarked that it was
only after repeated solicitation, by letter, tele
phone, and finally by personal interview, that he
had succeeded in obtaining the Senator's consent
to his request.
"The Senator," he said, "asked me why I
wanted him to come out here today, among all
these college professors. I told him," continued
President Thwing, in his genial manner, "that
I had three reasons for asking him. I said to
him, I want you, first, because you are a Senator

4 MARK HANNA.
from Ohio, and Western Reserve University, as
an Ohio institution, has a claim on you ; second,
because you were once a student in Western Re
serve; third, because you are a jolly good fel
low! And," continued President Thwing, "on
the third ground he said he would come ; and here
he is!"
The rousing ovation which greeted the Senator,
as he smilingly stepped forward to address the
Alumni, proved conclusively that he was wanted,
on all these grounds and more. A chorus of yells,
from throats long trained to that exercise, showed
that the younger members of the company wel
comed Mr. Hanna especially- as "a jolly good fel
low." "What's the matter with Hanna? He's all
right!" concluded the vociferous greeting; and
Mr. Hanna proceeded, in his own characteristic
manner, to make some remarks appropriate to the
occasion; showing, by his vigor of language, his
pungent wit, his keen and incisive thought, his
free and natural gestures, that an intellect natu
rally strong, and cultivated by years of exercise
on the multifarious problems of practical busi
ness, may shine to advantage, even in the pres
ence of minds trained in the subtleties of mathe
matics and the classic languages.

MARK HANNA. 5
HIS NAME ON ALL LIPS.
In introducing Mr. Hanna to the readers of this
sketch, I might add several reasons to those given
by President Thwing for introducing him to a
loamed assembly of College Alumni. Mr. Hanna
is a unique figure in our political world. After
years of successful business experience, control
ling some of the largest commercial interests in
Ohio, Mr. Hanna entered the field of political
work. His rapid rise to a power such as per
haps no man in America has ever attained before
makes a story which ought to appeal to all Amer
ican citizens who admire genius, in whatever
field it may exercise itself, and who applaud suc
cess, whenever it is the fruit of natural ability.
His name today is on all lips. No man in the
United States is more talked and written about.
In England he is called "the King-maker," and
people greedily read every item concerning him.
In this country, to strike the name of Mark
Hanna from our public prints would leave great
gaps of white in thousands of newspapers and
magazines; and scores of cartoonists would find
not perhaps their occupation but certainly their
most fertile subject gone.
The very newsboys in the city streets know
him by sight as well as reputation. Not lons^

6 MARK HANNA.
since, Mr. Hanna was on a street car in Cleve
land which was temporarily held by a blockade.
The newsboys and street gamins saw the back of
his head through the car window. At once a
shout arose: "There's Mark Hanna; hello.
Mark!" "Naw, it isn't!" "It is! It's Mark
Hanna! Hello, Mark!" Perhaps Mr. Hanna's
neck grew a bit red back of the ears at this noisy
demonstration ; but he kept his temper. He is
the man of the people, like Napoleon.
On another occasion Mr. Hanna was being
driven in a cab through one of the back streets
of New York city. The cab stopped, from some
obstruction. A grimy newsboy saw Mr. Hanna
through the cab window, and shouted, "Hello,
Mark Hanna!"
This universal recognition is no less a compli
ment to the cartoonists than to Mr. Hanna, for
it is largely through their art' that Mr. Hanna's
features have become so widely known. At bot
tom, the success of a cartoon depends as much
upon its presenting a recognizable likeness as
upon the idea to be conveyed. It is needless to
say that the cartoonists do not flatter Mr. Hanna
in their pictures ; but even Mr. Hanna himself is
forced to admit that some of them resemble him
about as much as certain photographs that have
been made of him !

MARK HANNA. 7
An amusing bit of news appeared recently in
a New York paper. It is presented here for the
edification of the reader.
"Mark A. Hanna to the bar," thundered Levy,
the court officer of the 121st street police court,
yesterday morning.
Magistrate Zeller straightened up as he heard
the name of the Ohio Senator.
-A.t the officer's summons there appeared before
the bar a small boy.
"Where is Mark A. Hanna?" asked the mag
istrate. "Here I is," piped the voice of the small pris
oner. He was Mark Hanna, of 140 East i32d street
and he was accused by Louis Kortis, of i East
i32d street, of stealing enameled letters from his
window. Several small boys corroborated Kortis' story
of the theft.
"What have you to say to the charge?" asked
^lagistrate Zeller, sternly.
Mark Hanna dashed away a gush of unmanly
tears with a small and grimy fist. "These fellers
are my political enemies, boss," he said. Where
upon the magistrate ordered his discharge.
"You bear a famous name," said the magis
trate.

8 MARK HANNA.
"Yes, sir," said the lad, "but it ain't my
fault. My father is a good Democrat."
"Yes, thank God," cried Mrs. Hanna, who ac
companied her boy, as she led him away.
A PERSONAL INTERVIEW.
I have, then, written this sketch of Mr. Hanna
firstly, because I think the public wants it. Sec
ondly, I know something about him. I was born
and "raised" not twenty miles from Cleveland.
Anyone who has lived very long in the vicinity
of Cleveland could not help knowing a great
deal about Mark Hanna. The city bears his
impress. He was an old story in Cleveland be
fore the country at large ever heard of him.
When I began writing this sketch, I asked the city
editor of the Leader whether that paper had
ever published a biographical sketch of Mr. Han
na. If so, I wanted to utilize it. All is grist that
comes to my literary mill.
The Editor laughed. "To print a biographical
sketch of Mark Hanna in Cleveland," he said,
"would be carrying coals to Newcastle. Every
body knows all about him But if there is any
thing in particular that you want to find out,
ask the old business men." I did so. What I
did not know, they told me.

MARK HANNA. 9
My first personal acquaintance with Mr. Hanna
was one morning two years ago, when I called
at his residence on the West Side, with letters of
introduction from the son of a former President
and others. Mr. Hanna was at home, reading
the morning paper. He was not in the best
of humor at first. His rheumatism was troubling
him. But he handed me a chair, and soon became
cordial and communicative.
I got my first rapid sketch for this pen-picture
of him then. He impressed me as one of the
keenest, clearest-headed men I had ever met.
His eyes were like electric lights. His words
were clean-cut, and went straight to the mark,
like bullets to the bull's-eye. He expressed his
opinion freely, on certain public questions.
"What do you think of the laws that are being
framed against the so-called trusts ?" I asked him.
"They're all unconstitutional, — every one of
them!" he exclaimed, with a frankness that sur
prised me. I had looked for a cautious answer, —
the answer of the politician. I received the frank,
unhesitating answer of the independent, fearless
business man. It is a marvel to me how this
blunt, honest, out-spoken man has ever succeeded
as he has in politics. In politics, honesty is not
considered the best policy. The politician is sup
posed to weigh every word he utters, to determine

IO MARK HANNA.
its effect upon voters. He cannot tell the public
what he thinks, but only what his party thinks,
and expresses in its platform. His utterance is
always official, never personal. He has no indi
vidual opinions, — or none to speak of !
I saw at once that Mr. Hanna dominated party
conventions and party platforms because he is
greater than they are. He knows it, and acts
it. He knows that masses of men follow'leaders
who are strong enough to command them. He
knows that masses of men take their opinions
from strong leaders. This is not exactly in ac
cord with some of our democratic ideas, but it
is a fact.
I will not betray Mr. Hanna's confidence by
repeating all that he said. I do not fancy that
he would object, but it would hurt the feelings of
some sincere people. Mr. Hanna probably did
not say anything to me that he was afraid to say
in public, if occasion should arise.
With reference to the "anti-imperialists" and
their work, he expressed unutterable disgust. He
seemed to think that it was the expression not so
much of perversity as of imbecility. That was
certainly a charitable view of it ! His contempt
for Boston was unmistakable. It was plain thatl
»he considered that place the hot-bed of all politi
cal heresy. Old women, garrulous gossips, med-

MARK HANNA. u
dling with matters beyond their widerstanding ;
sentimental quibblers, utterly lacking in com
mon sense ; such were the people who were harry
ing the Administration with their anti-imperial
ist nonsense!
But it was soon time for Mr. Hanna to go to
town. He rose and pressed a button. A car
riage, drawn by a handsome span of horses, was
driven to the door. Mr. Hanna courteously in
vited me to ride with him. During the pleasant
drive through the winding boulevards of the park
we chatted of various things. Mr. Hanna re
vealed the sunny, genial side of his nature, which
is sometimes concealed from unwelcome visitors.
I remarked that I hoped Mr. McKinley would
be nominated for a second term, and that Mr.
Hanna would manage the campaign,
"He will be nominated," rephed Mr Hanna, in
a tone that indicated the certainty of Fate ; "but
I must keep out of it. I have had two serious
attacks of heart trouble, and my physicians have
warned me against all manner of excitement."
How well Mr. Hanna has heeded that warning,
the public very well knows. His Hfeart was in
his work. It had to keep throbbing. Physicians'
warnings were wasted. I believe Mr. Hanna
would have died in his place rather than relin
quish what he believed to be his duty. Death will

12 MARK HANNA.
sometime stop his restless activity; but the fear
of death will never do so.
AN APOLOGY FOR MR. HANNA.
As I said before, I have written this sketch
of Mr. Hanna because I think the public wants
it. When I say the public, I mean a very large
part of the people of the United States, and a
goodly proportion of the people of all English-
speaking countries. There is a considerable ele
ment in the United States, however, that not only
does not want to know anything about Mark
Hanna, — at least, anything good, — but that will
raise a hue and cry against the writer for at
tempting to tell them anything.
To them, Mark Hanna is a Monster. He rep
resents all that is worst in our civilization. He
is a scamp Jupiter, who has got the Olympian
throne by purchase, and has corrupted all the
other gods. He builds earthly thrones of gold,
and sets rulers thereon, who meekly do his will.
He is the Boss Deity of the political Olympus,
with countless legions of purchased angels to
do his bidding. To these people he is the typical
plutocrat; and gold, and Pluto of the infernal
underworld, are the allied forces of his corrupt
ed kingdom.

MARK HANNA. 13
The intensity of the hatred felt by some people
in this country for Mark Hanna cannot be ex
pressed in words. Mr. Hanna does not, cannot
fully realize it ; and it is well that he cannot. I
know many Republicans who speak of Mr. Han
na in a tone of apology. " They have heard so
much about his rascality that they begin to think
it is true. They have not heard the things they
ought to hear.
I know other Republicans who waver in their
loyalty to the party because of this feeling that
Mr. Hanna has become its ruler, and that he is
not as good as he ought to be. One of my chief
reasons for writing this sketch is to tell these
people a few things about Mr. Hanna which may
serve to give them a juster estimate of his charac
ter. I do not conceal my preference for the Re
publican party in American politics. No party
is perfect. Political affiliation is at best a com
promise, a matter of expediency. But the Re
publican party to my mind is the party of safety,
the party of conservatism, and I wish it well. I
do not want any of its friends and supporters to
leave it because of ignorance and misunderstand
ing concerning Mr. Hanna and his work. I write
not so much in the interest of Mr. Hanna person-

14 MARK HANNA.
ally as in the interests of the party and the polit
ical policy which he so prominently represents.
NOT AN OFFICIAL DOCUMENT.
In sending out this little sketch to the public, I
wish it distinctly understood that it is in no sense
an official document. Mr Hanna has not been
asked to sanction or endorse it in any way. He
has had no part whatever in the preparation of it.
It has no relation whatever, occult or otherwise,
to any so-called "Hanna boom." It is simply one
of a projected series of biographical sketches,
which, when completed, will include a number
of the prominent men of" the day.
Mr. Hanna personally is averse to any formal
publication of his achievements, either in busi
ness or politics. His career has been that of a
public-spirited citizen, who has succeeded in
business as many other men have done, by virtue
of natural talent and close application, and whose
political notoriety has been very largely thrust
upon him, as a consequence of activities entered
upon from motives of disinterested patriotism.
This sketch, therefore, so far from claiming
any sanction or authority from Mr. Hanna, or
having any official relation to his past or future
career, is rather one of those afflictions which

MARK HANNA. 15
come to most men who achieve eminence in any
particular direction, and whose lives therefore
become to a certain extent public property.
Mr. Hanna has become so vitally connected
with our national history that people wish to
know more about his personality. Where others
might do worse, even if some should do better, it
is no sin for the author of this essay to offer it
to the public, in the hope that it may both serve
a growing public interest that is largely pardon
able, and present a juster estimate of Mr. Han
na's character than that commonly promulgated
by his political enemies. If it shall give his
many friends and admirers some pleasure and
satisfaction in the latter respect, and serve to fix
for future historians some of the fleeting facts in
the career of a unique and forceful character, its
main purpose will have been accomplished.
OUR INDUSTRIAL HEROES.
The reader will note that I do not deal with
Mr. Hanna as an individual alone, but also as a
man representing a large and increasing class, —
the business men, the empire-builders, the men
who are laying the foundations of a new and
grand civilization.
This is the age of science, invention, manu-

i6 MARK HANNA.
facture, trade. Antiquated dreamers, with va
cant eyes turned in upon their own misty spec
ulation, denounce it as a gross and materialistic
age. They mourn the absence of sentiment,
poetry, the fine arts. To them, these men of af
fairs are so many great brutes, trampling down
their fellows in their mad rush for material treas
ures. They do not see the real work which
these men are doing, in redeeming the earth from
the wild forces of nature, and preparing it to be
the home of such a civilization as the human
race has never dreamed of in the past.
I take it upon myself to defend this class of
men from the aspersions of their traducers. I
take it upon myself to say some good words for
this material world and its material interests. If
this is materialism, let the critics make the most
of it.
I believe in this world, and in the heroes who
are making it habitable. Where shall we find the
greatest heroes today ? Certainly not on the field
of battle, though war has brought forth brave
men and true, even in these days.
But in the field of invention, manufacture and
trade, in science, literature and politics, there are
characters as worthy of the pen of a Plutarch as
any that the classic writer rescued from the gath-

MARK HANNA. 17
ering shades of oblivion and made immortal with
the touch of his genius.
When a Plutarch looks, he sees what escapes
the eyes of common men; and at his glance, lo,
a race of heroes springs into being, where before
were sordid traders and haggling merchants.
The eye of genius touches with its revealing ray
the masses of struggling men who fill our fac
tories, our mills, our mines, who dig and carve
and pound and plow and reap, who sit beside
strange machines, or walk among whirling wheels
and buzzing bands and rattling chains; and be
hold, a race of gods appears, creating out of chaos
and night the forms of use and beauty that shall
make this world a heaven and human life a song
of joy.
Who shall say that these characters are not
worthy to furnish subjects for epic verse or he
roic annals ? In this warfare with the brute forces
of nature, every soldier who does his duty is
worthy of a laurel wreath; and the bold com
manders who lead and direct these warriors, who
plan and execute vast campaigns against the
brute forces of nature, — shall we not sing of
these as Virgil of old sang of "Arms and the
man" ? Shall we not write their names upon our
scroll of fame, that they may shine forth in sue-

i8 MARK HANNA.
ceeding ages like the names of ancient Greece
and Rome?
Greater are these names than any that have
graced the monuments of the buried past ; for the
names of the men of old are chiefly the names of
destroyers and ravagers; the lions and tigers of
the race, whose strength and courage and fierce
ness we admire, but whose deeds cannot com
pare with the deeds of these mighty builders of
the modem world, before whose all-conquering
arms Nature surrenders her deepest secrets and
pours forth her hidden treasures of energy and
substance to enrich and beautify the earth.
The men of old conquered savage tribes, or
poured the blood of their own brethren as liba
tions to the god of ambition. These warriors
fight with the forces of the under-world, and out
of darkness and the pit wrest light and glory for
their fellow men.
They grasp the very stars in their orbits, and
fasten them to their standards to light the fields
of their glory. Suns and moons are their tro
phies, brought back in triumph from cosmic expe
ditions. Space yields her treasures to these bold world-
conquerors. The sea and the earth-deeps are
transparent to their eyes.

MARK HANNA. 19
They toss mountains from hand to hand. They
drink up rivers, or turn them into new chan
nels. They scatter ships like birds, which in their
strong flight go to the bounds of the sea, and re
turn not fruitless.
Over the far-reaching continents fly their
dragon-trains, more wondrous than any miracle
of old.
Sea murmurs to sea, in the mystic whisper of
the telegraph. The lightnings are our messen
gers, which obey our word.
Who hath seen the like of it ? History is dumb.
What is the secret of Mr. Hanna's remarkable
power and influence in the political world?
It is not easy to account for any sort of great
success. At the bottom of every great achieve
ment lies a character that is great.
Success comes to the strong, the brave, the in
telligent. It does not come to weaklings, to cow
ards, to dull and sluggish intellects.
The whole world applauds success. These men
who can do what other men only dream of do
ing, — ^these men who hitch their wagons to the
stars, and are pulled by the very power of the
Cosmos, — these athletes in the world's Olympian
games, conquering all who come against them.

20 MARK HANNA.
standing with folded arms awaiting new assail-
ants, conscious of superior power, strong in the
victories they have won; — ^these men, I say, fas
cinate the multitude, and easily wear the laurels
which are placed upon their brows.
THE LION IN HIS DEN.
Mr. Hanna is a Colossus, who tosses commer
cial interests and political offices like baubles.
Senators and Congressmen, millionaire business
managers, aspirants for political favors, newspa
per men, even clergymen and college presidents,
jostle together in the corridors leading to his pri
vate office in the Perry-Payne Building, Cleve
land. If you wish to see him, you approach the rail
ing that separates the numerous business offices
of M. A. Hanna & Co. from the outside world.
Here a colored porter takes your card, and car
ries it to some inner sanctum, where it is received
by Mr. Hanna's private secretary.
If you are a "persona non grata," you are re
spectfully informed that Mr. Hanna is too busy
to see you today. If your business is deemed
of some importance, it may be disposed of by the
private secretary, who will meet you, when your
turn comes, in his private office. Meantime, per-

MARK HANNA. 21
haps, you sit on a long bench in company with
others who are waiting.
If your business really justifies a personal in
terview with Mr. Hanna, you will be informed
that Mr. Hanna will see you, as soon as he is at
liberty; and you will be invited to leave the ple
beian bench in the corridor for a seat in the office
of the secretary.
When your turn arrives, you are ushered by the
secretary into Mr. Hanna's private office.
Your reception will depend upon your per
sonal relation to Mr. Hanna, and the importance
of your business.
Letters of introduction, from whatever source,
count for but little. Mr. Hanna is not awed by
great names.
Mr. Hanna is no snob, no aristocrat, in the or
dinary sense of the word; but he is a man who
can read character by its natural signs, and who
recognizes no other passport to his favor.
When you have been introduced to him, if you
are a stranger, he calmly awaits the statement of
your business. He has no time for mere words.
What you would say, you must say briefly, con
cisely. He looks you through and through with his
keen dark eyes. They are searchlights, from

22 MARK HANNA.
which no secret can be hidden. If you are dis
sembling, you will not deceive those eyes. What
ever your words may say, those eyes will detect
the lie in your mind.
It is said that one of the principal elements in
the success of Napoleon was his ability to esti
mate the character of his associates. In the busi
ness and political world, this faculty is quite as
important as in the military, and Mr. Hanna pos
sesses it to a remarkable degree.
When you have stated your business, Mr. Han
na will probably ask you a few quiet questions.
You will perceive that he does not waste words
upon superficial matters, but each question goes
to the bottom of the business. Practical above
all things, he seeks always for some guarantee of
success. It is not a question whether the plan
be a good one, — but, will it work in practice?
If it will not, Mr. Hanna will have none of it.
As he sits quietly at his desk, with a certain
massive dignity and poise, you feel that you are
in the presence of a man of power. He is not a
mere figurehead. He is the man who does things,
— large, masculine, with a certain quiet command
in tone and gesture which indicates the natural
leader of men.
His mind acts quickly but powerfully upon

MARK HANNA. 23
whatever question comes before him. He has
the Napoleonic grasp of details, and his self-reli
ance is born of the consciousness of his own
power. In his business councils he is what Grant was
in his councils of war. He sits quietly listening
to the various remarks, reserving his own. When
all others have spoken, he gives his opinion, in a
few quiet words ; and his business associates as
sert that he is almost invariably correct.
As you talk with him, his secretary enters with
a dozen letters, and presents them for Mr. Han
na's reply or signature. Turning to his desk, he
with a few strokes of the peh disposes of ques
tions involving perhaps thousands of dollars, and
the destinies of hundreds of men. He turns the
searching power of his strong mind upon each
letter, and you catch perhaps a few words of his
intructions to the secretary, — "Tell Mr. Cortel-
you" — or, "Write the Senator that," etc.
Having disposed of these matters, he turns to
you again, and without the loss of a single thread
of your discourse, resumes the consideration of
your business.
You are inevitably impressed with his immense
power of application and concentration of mind.
Quietly, with no display of effort, as an ocean

24 MARK HANNA.
liner turns in the harbor, his strong intellect ap
plies itself to each matter, weighs each statement
and each argument, and renders its derision in a
few well-chosen words.
Here is a type of intellect which has not yet
been included in the world's category of genius ;;
the type of the successful business man. ¦
But why should it not be so included? Are
the classic languages and the higher mathematics
the only worthy field for the exercise of intellect
ual powers?
Must a man devote the powers of his intellect
to problems of physical science, or to abstract
questions of law and ethics, in order to be recog
nized as a man of culture?
In the complex affairs of the modem industrial
world are problems quite as worthy of intellectual
power as are the more classic problems of purely
professional life.
When you have in a brief interview conclud
ed your business with Mr. Hanna, you retire, to
pass, perhaps, in the corridor, a Senator or two ¦
who have called to pay their respects, or a half-
dozen coal or street car magnates, who have come
to discuss with Mr. Hanna some business project.
How this man can manage so many various af
fairs, commercial and political, and manage them

MARK HANNA. 25
all so successfully, is a mystery to those who do
not appreciate the immense native strength of his
intellect, cultivated by many years of application
to complex and weighty problems.
MR. HANNA A PHILANTHROPIST.
Mark Hanna is no aristocrat, in the common
sense of that term. He is a good fellow, acces
sible to his friends and to those who have any
real business with him. He is full of kind im
pulses, though his blunt manner at times might
seem to belie the statement.
Those who know him intimately could give
many instances of his generosity toward worthy
causes and individuals.
This man, whom his enemies picture as a fat
and brutal tyrant, driving men to do his imperi
ous will by the sheer power of brute authority,
is at heart tender, benevolent, generous.
There is not a church society, not a hospital or
rescue home, not a society of Sisters, not a char
itable institution of any kind in Cleveland that
does not in the hour of its need turn to this im
perious tyrant, and receive of his substance the
aid required ; and as for cases of individual char
ity, they are too numerous to mention, even if it
could be done without the violation of a sacred
confidence.

26 MARK HANNA.
It is not alone the politician in want of a job
who seeks the ear of Mr. Hanna; but scores of
persons in need of assistance for themselves or for
some public cause come to his office in the Perry-
Payne Building, and not one is ignored or slight
ed. If Mr. Hanna knows how to disburse dollars
for political purposes, he knows also how to dis
pense them for charitable ends. There is no rec
ord of his benefactions, and he would not al
low it to be published, if there were; but the
curious might learn of many a generous and
praiseworthy act which should go far toward
softening the aspersions of his enemies, if it were
known to the general public.
Mr. Hanna has been for many years President
of the Board of Trustees for the Huron St. Hos
pital in Cleveland, and has helped the institu
tion with money and with counsel. His recent
gift of $50,000 to Kenyon College is not large
enough to attract general attention in these days
of princely gifts to educational institutions, but
it is worthy of note as one of many instances
of generosity on the part of this much-misunder
stood and slandered man.
The usefulness of a prosperous business man
to the community, however, is not to be judged

MARK HANNA. 27
exclusively or even chiefly by his public or pri
vate gifts of money. The best gift of any man
to the pubHc is, after all, the man himself. If he
well serves the public interests in his business, if
he employs many men, and treats them with jus
tice and generosity, he is a public benefactor,
though he never gave a dollar to charity or edu
cation.
MR. HANNA AND THE WORKINGMEN.
In his relation to the thousands of working-
men who are employed in the various enterprises
managed by Mr. Hanna, we see the real character
of the man revealed. Mr. Hanna's men do not
strike. If they have a grievance, Mr. Hanna's
door is open. They can come in and state it.
In the coal mines, the shipyards, and on the
street railway lines managed by Mr. Hanna, there
has never been a strike. Instead, there may be
seen at the offices various testimonials from the
employees bearing witness to the just and gener
ous treatment accorded them by Mr. Hanna.
After the great strike of the employees of the
Big Consolidated, in the summer of '99, the em
ployees on Mr. Hanna's lines, the Little Consoli
dated, were presented with $5,000, to be divided
among them, in consideration of their loyalty
to the company's interests.

28 MARK HANNA.
During the summer just past ('oi) the wages
of all the street railway, employees were volun
tarily raised by Mr. Hanna; and in recognition
of this act the employees prepared and signed
a testimonial of their gratitude, which is now on
file in Supt. Mulherne's office.
Is this the "bloated aristocrat" we see pictured
in the cartoons of the Democratic and Populist pa
pers? Is this the man who drives his Juggernaut car
of wealth over the prostrate forms of the nation's
workingmen ?
Is this the friend and champion of "the trusts,"
who squeezes the life-blood of labor to make rich
wine for bloated capitalists?
Let our comic artists lampoon Mr. Hanna, the
politician, if they must, for that is a part of the
game of politics ; but let them recognize the real
character of Mr. Hanna the man, the friend of
capital and labor alike, who stands for co-oper
ation between Work and wealth; with equal jus
tice to both.
It is easy for the demagogue to point to Mr.
Hanna's wealth, or to his business relations with
great corporations, and by so doing arouse the
envy and discontent of workingmen who do not
know his real attitude toward labor ; but his own

MARK HANNA. 29
employees know of his justice and genet osity,
and have only words of praise for him.
In these days of strife between the corpora
tions and the labor unions, it should be known,
to Mr. Hanna's credit among workingmen, that
he was the first man in our industrial history to
recognize and respect a labor union.
Mr. Hanna's political policy is based upon the
idea that success and prosperity for the capital-.
ist means success and prosperity for the men in
his employ. He recognizes the right of working-
men to organize in the interests of better service
and higher wages.
He deplores strikes and lockouts, and justifies
them only as a last resort, in the interest of jus
tice. He believes in arbitration between employ
er and employee, whenever there is a real griev
ance on either side.
Acts of arbitrary authority he does not sanction,
whether committed by the capitalist or the work
ingmen. Thus he stands as a representative of
the interests of both capital and labor ; although in
the popular mind he seems to be the partisan of
trusts and corporations.
There is no doubt but that Mr. Hanna's posi
tion as Chairman of the National Republican
Committee, in which it became his duty to assess

30 MARK HANNA.
the business men of the country for campaign
expenses, has prejudiced him in the minds of
very many, who saw, in his intimate relation
to the wealthy firms and corporations of the coun
try, evidence of hostility toward the working peo
ple. But if Mr. Hanna's theory of the commun
ity of interest between capital and labor is correct.
the more money he drew from the wealthy, to
defend the business interests of the country, the
better it was for the working classes, who were
bound to share the ensuing general prosperity.
Certain it is that genuine prosperity cannot be
the exclusive lot of any particular class. Pros
perity which is based upon real production must
be, in the nature of things, universally diffused.
Whatever increases production, must in the long
run augment the welfare of the whole human race.
Thus, business enterprise, though usually based
upon selfish motives, becomes philanthropy of a
practical and permanent sort.
THE MAN OF AFFAIRS.
A man like Mr. Hanna must be judged by other
than classical criterions.
He could not translate a page of the Iliad or the
Aneid; but he is himself a most notable part of

MARK HANNA. 31
that wondrous life of the twentieth century whose
epic is yet to be written.
He is not a Homer, but a Ulysses ; not a Plu
tarch, but one of those types of men which Plu
tarch delighted to portray, in his inimitable
"Lives." He is a man not of words, but of deeds ; no
speculator, in the dim, mystic fields of meta
physics, but a downright practical man, who sees
the relation of coal and iron to the higher civili
zation. He knows that the foundations of civilization
are laid in material prosperity ; that not gold, but
granite, is the solid stuff on which our national
temple must be builded. Your art, your learning,
your philosophy, rest upon the earth.
He will have no unsubstantial cloud-temple,
shifting and floating, for his abode ; but an house
builded with hands, resting on solid rock, and
compact of right earthy materials.
What is Law, to such a man as this? What
is Government?
Let us look closely at these things, brothers.
Law is no system of metaphysics, for the exercise
of sophomores. It is a most downright, prac
tical thing, for the settlement of disputes over
material interests.

32 MARK HANNA.
Where there is no material interest, there is no
law, or need of law.
Where there is no industry, no trade, there is
no need of Government.
A naked soul in the world has no need of Law
or Government. Who can rob the mind? Who
can steal a thought, a fancy? Who can restrict
or prohibit thought?
It is when an idea becomes embodied in a thing.
that Law is born. That thing may be injured,
stolen, destroyed. It may be exchanged for oth
er things. Then trade begins, and Government
is born. Mr. Hanna represents this practical view of
Law and Government. He is impatient of theo
ries, but zealous for facts.
Ideals are well enough for poets, but will they
work in practice? Let the poet sing of the new
race, god-like, unselfish, loving and serving one
another. Let him chant of the New Social
Order which is to be, when selfishness and strife
are dead, and no man seeks to dominate the
thoughts or actions of another. Mr. Hanna will
grant the beauty of the song, but he will not
embody it in a political platform.
He knows very well that the masses of men
arc selfish. He knows that they struggle and

•MARK HANNA. 33
fight like beasts for supremacy. He knows that
they need restraint.
He says, "Government means the fostering and
protection of our material interests. It means
the regulation of manufacture and trade in a
manner conducive to the highest material inter
ests of the whole nation."
Mr. Hanna represents material prosperity. In
an age of unprecedented material development,
it was inevitable that such a man, of strong nat
ural powers, should rise to eminence in the po
litical world.
The scholar may sneer at the manufacturer, the
merchant; but it is their day, and they can af
ford to let him sneer.
A HERCULES IN POLITICS.
Mr. Hanna made a success of business, and by ,
applying his business talent to political work he 'J
has achieved a most remarkable success in poli
tics. Mr. Hanna had long been a warm friend and
admirer of Mr. McKinley. When he started in
to secure Mr. McKinley's nomination, he pro
ceeded upon business principles. He organized
a bureau of clerks, and got himself in touch with
the working elements of the party throughout
the entire country.

34 MARK HANNA.
He spared neither strength nor money. He
worked like a Hercules. He hardly took time to
eat or sleep. He spent probably one hundred
thousand dollars of his own good money in this
preliminary work.
He broke his constitution, but he also broke
the party machine, and got McKinley before the
people. When he went to the Convention, he
carried McKinley's nomination in his pocket. By
the tireless energy of one man, the elements of
the Republican party were organized into a solid
legion, whose banners bore the image of McKin
ley. This Hercules of politics, whose labors were
not twelve, but a thousand and a thousand thou
sand, has shown the people of the United States
that a political machine may be constructed for a
good man as well as for a bad one; that money
may be poured out in unstinted measure for the
welfare and prosperity of the whole people, as
well as for the enrichment of a set of mere politi
cal spoilsmen ; that generalship and command may
be exercised for universal as well as for individ
ual ends ; and that politics and patriotism are not
yet hopelessly severed in American public life.
In all his political work Mr. Hanna has been
his characteristic self. Most politicians are dip-

MARK HANNA. 35
lomats. They feel the public pulse, they look at
the public tongue, they prescribe according to the
symptoms, and thus hope to gain credit as skilled
doctors of the law.
Mr. Hanna alarmed his political friends, and
brought consternation into many a political camp
by his bluntness and outspoken frankness. He
called things by their right names He blurted
out his honest opinions. He offended some, and
frightened others, who were not accustomed to
such plain speech and manners.
But when Mr. Hanna makes a promise, he
keeps it. If he says "I'll do what I can for
you," he means it. When other politicians say
this, it usually means a polite dismissal of the
applicant's claims.
HANNA HAS NO HORNS.
Mr. Hanna very well knows that he is mis
understood by many people, and that there is
great prejudice against him among certain classes.
He has done what he could to remove this mis
understanding and prejudice, and has achieved
a notable measure of success, especially in some
sections where he has made political speeches.
At first, his political associates tried to keep him
from going before the people. They were fearful

36 MARK HANNA.
for the results to the party. They knew his blunt
honesty and frankness. They knew that his very
figure was odious to many of the people.
But Mr. Hanna went. In fact, he went, he
spoke, he conquered.
He said to his friends : "Something is due to
me! I'll go, and let them see that I haven't got
horns !"
Harper's Weekly, Oct. 20, 1900, says of Mr.
Hanna: "Chairman Hanna is about to start on
an extended tour of South Dakota and Nebraska.
One reason that Mr. Hanna's campaign speeches
have been potent in the campaign . is that his
audiences find, generally to their surprise, that
he is not a monster in appearance, and does not
wear dollar marks all over his clothes."
HANNA AS AN ORATOR.
As an orator, Mr. Hanna was, to use the ex
pression of a Cleveland banker, "a surprise party."
They had known him as a keen, clear-headed
business man, terse of speech, quick of decision,
vigorous and aggressive in all his dealings.
They had not realized that there was in him a
strain of Irish eloquence, inherited from no one
knows what rebellious agitator of the Emerald
Isle; for Hanna's ancestry, like McKinley's, was

MARK HANNA. 37
of Scotch and Irish blood, and dwelt amid the
green hills of County Antrim, from which have
come to America's shores so many elements of
strong and noble character.
His eloquence is not of the schools. It lacks
the artificial graces of a studied style and prac
ticed gesture. But it has the force and vigor of a
manly character behind it; a directness like that
of Antony, persuasive by its very honesty, com
pelling assent by virtue of that mystic force which
we call personal magnetism. It has wit and a
homely wisdom in it; the wisdom of a large ex
perience in the matters of which he speaks.
If he knows little about a particular subject.
he is as mute as the Egyptian sphinx. Dynamite
would not blast an opinion out of him. But what
he knows, of that he will speak.
He is not satisfied to know a little about a
subject. He must dig under it, look over it, sur
round it and take it captive, before he will ven
ture to discuss it.
This is the same quality that made him succeed
in business as a young man. When he went into
the grocery store of Hanna, Garrettson & Co., in
the early days of Cleveland, he made up his mind
to know all about groceries. He built up a large
trade with the vessels plying between the Lake

38 MARK HANNA.
Superior mines and the port of Cleveland, an(
soon became a partner in the firm.
Those who have met Mr. Hanna in business oi
political councils feel and acknowledge a powei
in him to sway the minds of other men, which ii
quite beyond the influence of mere words. Wher
he feels that he is right, you might as wel'
pepper the rock of Gibraltar with pebbles as as
sail him with arguments of mere expediency.
He will not retreat, he will not compromise
He stands like Fate, proof against all prayers
and tears.
This adamantine character has won him many
a victory. Men weary of battering against that
wall of rock.
And yet, having gained a victory, he is generous
toward his conquered enemy." His head is hard,
but his heart is tender.
He can strike with mailed hand, and strong
men hesitate to invite his blow; but he can also
caress like a child.
THE MAN OF FLESH.
He is by nature sunny and genial, fond of a
joke, grasping your hand with a strong, mag
netic clasp ; but the rheumatic pains of old age,
and the carking cares and myriad trials of his

MARK HANNA. 39
political work have made him a bit irritable,
and those who know him best respect his moods
the most.
It is a bold man who, without the sanction of
a worthy cause, will venture to beard this lion
in his den. Intrude upon him with vain and
frivolous questions, seek to pry into affairs which
he prefers to keep secret, annoy him with re
quests for an interview, and you may hear the
lion's growl.
Wary reporters have learned to question him
by telephone, a method which is conducive to
personal safety at least, if not to lengthy inter
views. Very often the reportorial fancy must
patch out the information which the reportorial
nerve was not sufficient to obtain in full by
personal attack.
And yet, Mr. Hanna is no ogre, sitting in his
cave and glaring at all intruders. He is often jo
vial, even boisterous in his mirth.
He has the solid, fleshly body which denotes
the man of the world. He does not dine on
dewdrops, nor sup on ambrosial airs.
He has plenty of good clay in his makeup. He
is in his place among the brick and stone struc
tures of the modern city. His rugged nature
likes the atmosphere of the busy street better
than that of the scholar's study. He is here not

40 MARK HANNA.
to write or say pretty things, but to seize upon ele
ments such as iron, coal, copper, wood, stone,
and out of them construct things of use in this
material world.
He belongs to this reptilian age of material de
velopment. He represents it, in the world of law
and politics.
The historian of the future will look back upon
the men of this age with wonder and amaze
ment. They will be to him as the mammoth, the
megatherium, the plesiosaurus are to us.
These colossal figures which dominate the ma
terial activities of this age, — ^these Carnegies,
Rockefellers, Morgans, Hannas, who crush their
enormous way through our industrial forests,
treading (Jown all that opposes them, — are mak
ing paths through the erstwhile impassable jun
gles, which shall become the highways of the
world ; and all men shall walk in them, and thank
these mammoth pioneers, who cleared the way
for liberty and prosperity.
It is not surprising that Mr. Hanna should
have been drawn to political work. He is of
the earth, earthy, in the best and truest sense.
He is no dreamer of dreams, but a worker in
downright material elements. He is not here to
sing of the world to come, but to do his share of
drudgery in the world that is.

MARK HANNA. 41
This throbbing earth, with its puffing engines,
its smoking factories, its humming wheels, its
rushing trains and steamships, its singing wires,
vibrating with thought, its mines of treasure, its
reservoirs of oil, its broad fields heavy with pro
duce ; this is his native home. He is no exile here,
from some ideal star-world, biding his painful
time, and assuaging the pain of life by the sing
ing of psalms and the muttering of pious phrases.
To him, this world is not a vale of tears, to be
got through with sighing and groaning, hoping
for a heaven beyond. It is a divine world, made
for man to dwell in, furnished with the raw ma
terials for all that the body and soul may need.
To convert these raw materials into things of
use and beauty ; to tame wild nature, and harness
her elements ; to build homes and fill them with
all that can make the life of man more comfort
able and happy ; this is to him the proper aim and
work of man.
To further this work is the true object and
aim of law and politics. Mr. Hanna is not inter
ested in passing resolutions of respect for dim
ideals. To build up commerce, to open chan
nels of exchange, to encourage manufacture, to
regulate the social machinery in the common in
terest, — this is his conception of the work of poli
tics.

42 MARK HANNA.
This fleshly man, this denizen of the material
world, is fitted for the work which he has under
taken. He is a natural leader and commander
of men. He gathers them around him as the
mother-hen gathers her chicks.
In his Washington home, in the historic old
Cameron house, he is surrounded by senators and
congressmen and other public characters. His
forenoons are spent in meeting men. He sees
more people than any man in Washington except
the President.
His friends have tried to dissuade him from
spending his energies in this wholesale social
intercourse. But he was made for the public.
He would droop and die in a solitary existence.
He must meet and mingle with men. He must
clasp hands with them, he must speak with them
face to face, eye looking into eye.
He cannot deal with them by literary or other
long-distance methods. He must feel the throb
of their pulse, hear the sound of their voice. He
is a human sun, radiating warmth and light;
and it is necessary that there should be a plane
tary system revolving about him.
This is the sort of man that nature sends to
lead and inspire the multitude. In him they see
themselves, and feel their power. They follow

MARK HANNA. 43
and obey, because their aims and interests are
embodied in him, their leader.
PRACTICE VERSUS THEORY.
Mr. Hanna is a statesman, but not a philoso
pher. He does not weave speculative systems.
Theories of government are to him air, vapor,
smoke. He is concrete and practical. Fine . (
declarations of ideal truths are to him but so many ^
empty words, until their practical application has
been proven by experience.
The freedom of Cuba, for instance, — what does
it mean? It means freedom for the Cubans to
do as they please, so long as they please to do i
what is right. But we must have some guaran- I
tee of their intentions. We have capital invested
there. We have tobacco plantations, sugar mills
and other interests. These belong to us, to men of
the United States ; not to the Cubans. How do
they propose to treat these possessions of ours ?
It is evident that Cuba is not wholly for the
Cubans. Some of its most important interests, —
without which it would be a mere island, and no
nation, — ^belong to citizens of the United States.
Who shall govern these business interests, if
not the men who own them ?
The sentimentalist may cry out, and raise the

44 MARK HANNA.
shout of "imperialism;" but facts are facts, and
they are ever stubborn things.
This is the practical business man's view of all
these problems, and Mr. Hanna seems to repre
sent this view in national politics. It is not neces
sarily a base and sordid view. It is not neces
sarily inconsistent with sentiment, certainly not
incompatible with justice to all concerned.
What is a nation? Is it land, merely? So
many square miles of dirt?
Is it not rather the wealth that has been created
there upon that land ?
If the land is the nation, then the red men
were the rightful rulers of America. But could
.they rule our railroad's, telegraphs, factories,
mines, and other forms of created and developed
wealth ?
They who produce and own must therefore con-
\trol and govern.
To understand this truth fully, in all its mani
fold applications to political problems, is to un
derstand men like Mr. Hanna, who represent the
so-called commercial idea in politics.
If the application of this principle, either in
the United States or our insular possessions, shall
seem to conflict with our traditional theories of
government, then it is plain that these theories
must be modified or abandoned.

MARK HANNA. 45
But does it in truth conflict? Government by
the consent of the governed means that our busi
ness men in Cuba and elsewhere shall not be taxed
or otherwise controlled by a government which
does not recognize their rights, or admit them
to a due share of influence in the national councils.
It is a very simple proposition, though much
beclouded by irrelevant discussion. When it
comes to legislation affecting property, the own
ers of that property should have a voice com
mensurate with their interests. Here, the vote
of the pauper should not weigh as much as that
of the wealthy capitalist. If by our theory of
government it is made to weigh as much, then
property must defend its interests as best it can.
We talk of bribery and corruption in our poli
tics. It sometimes happens that the capitalist is
guilty of bribery for the same reason that the
small boy is often guilty of lying ; namely, for rea
sons of self-defense.
MOSES SMOTE THE ROCK.
In his position as chairman of the National
Republican Committee, Mr. Hanna performed a
work of inestimable value to the business inter
ests of the country. For his purpose all possible
means were placed at his disposal. When this

46 MARK HANNA.
Moses smote the rock of corporate wealth, a plen
tiful stream gushed forth. No man had ever
such power to raise money for political purposes.
"He could walk down Wall street any day and
raise a million dollars," says one who knows of
what he speaks.
What was the secret of his magnetic power,
which could draw such treasure from its hidden
vaults? A part of the secret lay in the char
acter of the man. He had been for many years
known to the business interests of the country
as an able and honorable leader in the business
world. It was known that he had himself con
tributed very heavily to the work of nominat
ing McKinley. He was recognized as a com
petent leader, who understood the business situa
tion, and who could be trusted to do everything
, that was for the best.
The rest of the secret lay in the issues which
were at stake.
The Goddess of Liberty was in danger from the
quacks. She was a healthy goddess, her veins
pulsing with good red blood. But there were
those who declared that she was very ill. They
said she was suffering from anaemia, or lack of
blood. How did they propose to reinforce this alleged
paucity of vital fluid ?

MARK HANNA. 47
They proposed to inject water into her veins.
In solemn council, with Doctor Bryan as chief
consulting physician, these wise doctors of the
law proposed to inflate the arteries of the god
dess with a fluid which, though it is a constit
uent part of vital blood, must not exceed a safe
proportion, or it becomes poisonous and fatal.
The life of the goddess was in danger. Loyal
men rallied to her defense. It was a question
of life and death.
Mr. Hanna undertook the case. The efficient
way in which he treated it made him famous as a
political physician. He proved his right to the
title of Doctor of Laws, which has been bestowed
upon him by Kenyon College. He saved the life
of the Goddess of Liberty.
"How We Elected Mr. McKinley ; by the Lieu
tenant General of the Republican Forces."
How a book with this title would, sell, if Mr.
Hanna would only write it !
Think of the tons of printed matter sent out
from headquarters !
"We have 4,000 newspapers in line that print
our stuff, when we start the machine," said Mr.
Hanna one day in a conversation.
Think of that, ye editorial scribblers! One
paper only prints your "stuff," and you never
cease to sing of the "Power of the Press."

48 MARK HANNA.
Four thousand advocates, each with a myriad
of metal tongues, shouting from the housetops!
Four thousand apostles, with miraculous powers,
speaking in all known and unknown tongues, each
one heard in a thousand or a hundred thousand or
half a million homes at once!
Is it a wonder that the people heard, and were
convinced ?
And think of the army of orators that invaded
the cities, the villages, the country cross-roads;
all thundering their warning into the people's
ear! Is it a wonder that this Gospel of Prosperity,
so published and so preached, should have num
bered its converts by the million?
Aside from the merits of the Gospel, a move
ment planned and executed on such a colossal
scale could not but succeed.
"Providence is on the side of the largest bat
talions," said Napoleon.
In politics, success is apt to be on the side
of the heaviest contributors for campaign ex
penses.
AS CAMPAIGN MANAGER.
But few people realize the enormous amount
of work involved in managing a presidential
campaign. Mr. Hanna is admitted to be the

MARK HANNA.

49

most remarkable chairman the National Com
mittee has ever had. He is no boss, ruling by
virtue of his power over so many legions of obe
dient slaves. He is a natural leader, whose influ
ence with his co-workers is that of experience,
intelligence, intuition, energy. He has the con
fidence of the party leaders to a most remarkable
degree. There is something Napoleonic in this mastery
of his. Men who have been leaders for the past
thirty or forty years defer to this new arrival
upon the field of politics. When the young Na
poleon was sent to command the Army of Italy,
officers whose heads had turned gray in the serv
ice of France looked with suspicion and envy upon
this little corporal who had been placed over
them. But the little corporal soon demonstrated
that his position could be maintained by native
power, aside from official appointment.
Mr. Hanna doubtless met with some opposi
tion at first; but it was not long before he was
recognized on all sides as the natural leader of
the Republican forces. His power of organiza
tion, cultivated through many years of strenuous
business experience, his exact and calculated
methods, his almost reckless expenditure of
money, his quickness of perception and action
in emergencies, his policy of concentration upon

50 MARK HANNA.
doubtful points, all remind us of the great
French general.
CAMPAIGN AMMUNITION.
This Napoleon of American politics has ruled
and swayed far greater interests than Bona
parte in the height of his career. But his wea
pons are the instruments of peace. His armies,
beside which Napoleon's legions were but a cor
poral's guard, are armed with torches, pamphlets,
newspapers. His most deadly missiles are words
of eloquence, shot from the lips of thousands
of orators, or bullets of speech fired from the
myriad batteries of the press.
During the campaign of '96, millions of docu
ments, ranging from the small leaflet to the
"Campaign Text-book," a well-bound volume of
456 pages, were distributed throughout the length
and breadth of the land. Thousands of articles,
in the form of printed slips, or put into plates
ready for the press, were distributed to newspa
pers all over the United States. The cost of all
this literary ammunition mounts into the hun
dreds of thousands of dollars.
FOREIGN TONGUES IN AMERICAN
POLITICS.
Mr. Hanna's legions are of all nationalities, like

MARK HANNA. 51
those of the Roman armies. But for the services
of competent interpreters, Mr. Hanna would need
the apostolic gift of tongues in order to deal with
them. One folder issued in vast numbers during
the campaign was printed in twelve different lan
guages : English, German, Italian, French, Nor
wegian, Swedish, PoHsh, Hungarian, Dutch, Bo-i
hemian, — even Hebrew and modern Greek ! Mr.
McKinley's speech of acceptance was printed in
several languages, and a portion of it in Greek.
When I saw the Greek text of the latter, I
could scarcely believe my eyes. The language of
Homer, Demosthenes, Pericles, — modified, to be
sure, by the lapse of centuries, but still the old
classic language of Greece, — here in this new
western world^ its accents used to promulgate
the gospel of the Republican party of the United
States ! Verily, times change, — and we change
with them. It wrenched the idiom a bit, and Mc
Kinley, in Greek type, had an unfamiliar aspect ;
but there it was, in the letters made familiar to
every schoolboy by Xenophon and Homer.
From an article by Luther B. Little in Mun-
sey's Magazine for September, 1900, the follow
ing is quoted, as giving some interesting details
concerning the work of a great national cam
paign: "Presidential campaigns in the United States

52 MARK HANNA.
are conducted on a tremendous scale. It is said
that four years ago the Republicans alone spent
thirteen millions of dollars in a little more than
four months.
No department of this vast machinery receives
more attention from the managers of the two
great parties than the "literary bureau." While
it continues^ it is the greatest publishing business
in the world.
Thousands of men are kept busy in writing
and distributing campaign literature, which is sent
forth in hundreds of millions of pieces to all parts
of the United States. Moreover, carloads of doc
uments inserted in the official record of Congress
purely for campaign purposes at the direction of
leaders of both parties, are printed and distributed
at the expense of the government.
The average person, to whom campaign docu
ments are almost as familiar as newspapers,
knows nothing of the machinery which produces
them. It is one of the most remarkable chapters
in the modern complexity of politics.
Hundreds of millions of pieces of printed
matter in the form of campaign literature are
sent to the voters of this country in a Presiden
tial year. Like the seed in the parable of the
sower, they fall on all sorts of ground. Some
fall by the wayside and are sold as old junk after

MARK HANNA. 53
the campaign is over. Some fall among the thorns
in the camps of the enemy, and a hostile political
committee springs up and chokes them. Some
fall into the stony ground, where there is no or
ganization to distribute them properly, and they
wither away to become wrapping paper during the
next four years. But some fall into good ground
and bear fruit, if not a hundred fold, at least
enough to warrant all the labor and expense of
the sowers who scatter them broadcast.
The average man takes some stock in what he
sees in print. This inherited tendency lies behind
the whole idea of sending out campaign litera
ture. It is designed by the party managers to
instruct the ignorant, to convince the wavering,
to awaken those who lack interest, to arouse to
greater zeal those who are already at work.
The stump orator, the brass band, the waving
banners, the cheers, the personal canvass, must
be supplemented by something which reaches the
individual and is convincing. Ask the average
man for his authority for any one of the state
ments he makes on the way down town. He will
answer, "I read it in the paper."
He read it. He believes it. The value of the
campaign document is explained. Here is re
vealed why expert political managers spend so

54 MARK HANNA.
many thousands of dollars on the output of the
printing presses.
EARLY CAMPAIGN LITERATURE.
In the early days some of the campaign litera
ture was as dignified, as stately, and as substantial
as the founders of the republic themselves. Some
of their contributions have come down as classics
in the form of "The Madison Papers ;" and The
Federalist still illumines the history of the early
days of the republic.
A half century ago the speeches of Webster,
Clay, Choate, Calhoun, and their contemporaries
were read and cherished by the comparatively few
citizens who were so fortunate as to be on the
mailing list. But it has been since that time that
the preparation, publication, and distribution of
campaign literature has become systematized as
one of the arts of the political managers. And
this is logical and natural under the changed con
ditions. A great increase in this feature of campaign
work has come about since 1880, when it began
to assume wholesale proportions. Printing
presses had become more numerous ; white paper
was cheaper. The foreign element in the popu
lation had increased rapidly, and must needs be
educated on the political issues in its own Ian-

MARK HANNA. 55
guage. Moreover, the reconstruction period had
passed. New issues which the Civil War had
crowded to the rear were to divide the two great
parties, and a new generation must be instructed
in the intricacies of the tariff, the questions of la
bor and capital, and the financial problems which
had been battled over for three quarters of a cen
tury, and which were presented in an acute form,
involving the free coinage of silver at the rate
of sixteen to one^ in 1896.
The war sentiment which had made it so easy
to elect and reelect Grant in 1868 and 1872 was
glowing less faintly as the struggle receded into
history, and the close vote in 1876 gave a jar
to the Republicans which was something new in
the history of the party. It dawned on certain
leaders that they could no longer count on 'more
victories in the bloody shirt.' The Democrats
had been inspired to hope for success by their
nearness of access to power in the Tilden cam
paign. It may have been these facts that awoke
the parties to the need of new methods.
A VAST FLOOD OF DOCUMENTS.
Campaign literature took on a fresh impor
tance as an element of the work in 1880, and the
making and distributing of it assumed huge pro
portions. It has been increased, so far as infor-

56 MARK HANNA.
mation is to be had, ever since. Both parties
have devoted energy, brains, and money to it.
and in notable instances the quantities of docu
ments, pamphlets, large books; and leaflets is
sued and scattered throughout the country have
been stupendous when taken in the aggregate.
On the authority of one who helped send it-
out in the campaign of 1896, the. Republicans dis
tributed from the national committee headquar
ters, in round numbers, three hundred million
pieces. It has been estimated that these docu
ments weighed, all told, two thousand tons.
Printing presses, clerks, express companies, and
the post offices of New York and Chicago were
brought into use in the first handling of this
mass of printed matter. From Chicago two hun
dred million pieces were sent out ; from New York
one hundred million — four pieces for every man,
woman, and child in the United States.
HOW IT IS PREPARED.
No "copy" in any printing office, unless it be
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where;
government bonds and currency are printed, is
scrutinized more closely or edited with greater
care than copy intended for campaign literature.
Expert and experienced political managers give
their close attention to this detail. Men who are

MARK HANNA. 57
learned as regards the issues at stake, and who
have that requisite of the successful politician
which might be termed a knowledge of applied
psychology, hold the blue pencil. Paragraphs,
sentences, and words are weighed with reference
to their effect on the mind of the reader. What
will be of advantage in one part of the country
may be useless or positively harmful in other
parts. Documents which will appeal strongly to
voters of one nationality will be meaningless to
those of another. Facts which will appeal to bus
iness men in a metropolis are often like red rags
before a bull if thrust before the eye of the prairie
farmer, and all these elements are taken into the
account. The care with which special campaign docu
ments are edited and prepared is a tacit acknowl
edgment of the intelligence of the voters for whom
they are intended. Every statement is likely to
be read and weighed and discussed in the village
post office, the country store, the family circle,
the clubs, saloons, and other loafing places of the
cities. Moreover, campaign documents issued by
either party are destined to be closely scrutinized
by the enemy. The keenest brains of the other
party will read and study them, and statements
which may be twisted or distorted, sentences

58 MARK HANNA.
which contain injudicious references, will be ta
ken up and turned into boomerangs."
HIS CLEVELAND BUSINESS RELA
TIONS.
Mr. Hanna has been in business in Cleveland
for forty years, and during all that time he has
kept the esteem and respect of his business asso
ciates. If he has loomed up like a Colossus
in the political world during the last few years,
we must remember that he stands upon a large
pedestal of business success. This pedestal has
been builded by many years of earnest, strenuous
life. Cleveland's business men are proud of Mr.
Hanna. It is needless to say that Mr. Hanna is
proud of them and of the city which they have
helped to build. In a speech before the Cham
ber of Commerce, on the evening of May 13th,
'97, Mr. Hanna said:
"I see before me the men whose brain and tal
ent and industry have made the city what it is.
And in mentioning them I will not forget the
thousands of builders — the working classes of our
city; to them, as much as to ourselves, is due
our greatness.
"My recollections go back to the beginning of
my business career — ^to 1857. It was an impor-

MARK HANNA. 59
tant year in business circles in Cleveland, a very
important year, and, I might say, a good year for
a young man to cut his eye teeth in.
"Coming to Cleveland to make it my home in
1852, I found here a beautiful city, of about thir
ty thousand inhabitants, known as the 'Forest
City,' called so, I presume, because there were
more native forest trees than there were houses ;
and you didn't have to go very far from this hotel
(The Hollenden) to get into the forest.
"I have watched and studied the growth of
Cleveland from a business standpoint all these
years, and I am proud to be able to stand before
this audience tonight and say that no city has
the right to be more proud of its record and the
men that made it than the city of Cleveland.
Then, almost the only industry that might be so
called was shipbuilding. The old river bed was
lined with shipyards. The music of the saw and
axe was heard by day, and that of the frogs at
night." On the occasion of the fifty-first anniversary of
the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, held in its
new building, on the evening of June 6th, '99,
the President, Mr. Greenough,said,in introducing
Mr. Hanna as one of the after-dinner speakers :
"If there is any man here in this Chamber who
rejoices in the prosperity of this country, and

6c MARK HANNA.
believes that it is due to the policy of the Republi
can party of protection and honest money, he
must remember that there is no rnan in this coun
try to whom we owe the existing condition of
things more than we do to Mark Hanna."
In responding Mr. Hanna said: "It makes
me feel old when I remember that 43 years ago I
carried my little samples to the old Board of
Trade room in the old Exchange at the foot pf
Superior street. I did not have on a dress suit
or a white vest, but I had on blue over-alls. That
was my first connection with the Chamber of
Commerce, or, as it was called then, the Board of
Trade of the City of Cleveland. I was the young
est member, perhaps, and if two certain other
men are not here tonight, I might say I am the
oldest member.
"I have fully appreciated what can be and what
has been accomplished by such an amalgamation
of capital and industry as are found in the cham
bers of commerce and boards of trade through
out the country. I do not care, in tha few re
marks I have to make tonight, to say anything
upon politics or the political situation. But I
merely wish to say one word with reference
to the campaign of 1896, in which I took a part,
and I want to go on record among my friends
here tonight, and in confidence tell you that no

MARK HANNA. 6i
factor, no influence, no power in those results
was felt with greater force than the united action
of the business men of the whole country."
MR. HANNA'S IDEA OF POLITICAL
DUTY.
Later in his address Mr. Hanna expressed his
idea of what is the political duty of the busi-
. ness man ; and it is quoted here as throwing some
light upon the motives which have led Mr. Hanna
himself to take such an active part in the politi
cal affairs flrst, of the state of Ohio, and after
wards of the nation.
'"It is a misfortune," he said, "that business
men and men of affairs do not take greater inter
est in public affairs ; — call it politics if you will,
it is none the less their affair ; — and if things are
not as they should be, if our municipal, state and
national governments are not what they should
be, it is our fault.
"It is our fault because we never feel that it
is necessary to leave our homes at night, or neg
lect our business by day, to spend one minute or
one hour for our city, state or country, only when
a crisis comes, — and then we do it with the sud
den motive of self-preservation.
"When we complain of the laws which are
passed at our state capital, we should reflect that

62 MARK HANNA.
we are responsible for the agents that we send
there to enact those laws.
"If we find fault with the administration of our
city affairs, we must remember that we stayed at
home the night of the primaries, and took no part
in the selection of the officers to whom we en
trusted our city government."
THE BRAND OF THE BOSS.
Continuing, Mr. Hanna said : "If a man takes
a prominent part in public affairs, and becomes
conspicuous because of his isolated position,
whose fault is it? It is the fault of the men
who will not stand shoulder to shoulder with him
and help him do that work.
"If a man has the ambition to do right, and
do good by his fellow men, and is willing to neg
lect his business and devote his time to those in
terests, is it right because he is willing to lead
and none will follow, that that isolation shall
brand him as a boss?
"All men are more or less selfish; but I claim
that a man who has the nerve and the courage
to run the risk of being called a politician, who
will step out and devote time and energy and
what capabilities he is endowed with to benefit
his fellow men in city, state or nation, is entitled
to the support of his kind.

MARK HANNA. 63
"Otherwise, what follows? The men who
want to do politics for the trade, for what there
is in it, are immediately arrayed against him.
"I am glad to have had the opportunity, in
the interest of clean politics, in the interest of
good government, to urge you and to pray with
you from this hour to constitute yourselves a
committee of the whole to take hold of affairs
in this our beloved city, and stand by and with
the men who are for the right and for good
government, and see to it that their hands are
strengthened, their motives not questioned, their
efforts approved and sustained by every honest
man, high or low.
"Do not condemn them, do not call them politi
cians, do not belittle them, do not feel that they
are humiliated by taking a part in politics ; but ad
mit that they have motives as pure and as good
as yours, that there are men who will make sacri
fices for the public good."
If ever any man was maligned for the part he
has taken in politics, Mr. Hanna is that man. Is
it possible that he has deserved to be lampooned,
slandered, caricatured by the artists of the Demo
cratic press, hounded with accusations of selfish
motives, and otherwise libelled as he has been for
the past five years, merely because he has put into

64 MARK HANNA.
practice the theory of political duty announced in
the words above-quoted?
A CHILLING EXPERIENCE.
If Plutarch were writing this sketch of Mr.
Hanna he would have some tales of the supernat
ural to tell ; some instance of ghostly visitation, or
of interference by the gods. If the following
event had not been reported by the press, and
thus recorded as a mere coincidence, it might in
time have been narrated as an instance of super
natural interference in behalf of the Democratic
party. Mr. Hanna in his campaign speeches a
year ago had made several references to the ice
trust, in which prominent Democrats of New
York were interested.
One day (Oct. 4) while he was addressing a
large crowd in a tent at the corner of 65th and
Halsted streets, Chicago, a huge block of ice fell
or was thrown from a tall building nearby, and
came crashing through the tent. It grazed Mr.
Hanna's shoulder as it fell, and was shattered
into fragments at his feet. If it had struck him
on the head, it would certainly have killed him.
How easy, in a superstitious age, for this inci
dent to be interpreted as a supernatural inter
ference ! Olympian Apollo, discarding his clang
ing bow and arrows for a weapon more suitable

MARK HANNA. 65
to the occasion, aimed this block of ice at the head
of Achilles, leader of his people's enemies. This
knock-down argument, though by virtue of bad
marksmanship (unusual to Apollo, the far-dart
er) it did not kill his enemy, would certainly
have killed his cause, in the minds of a Homeric
people ! The ice trust would have received celes
tial sanction, and immunity from all anti-trust
legislation forevermore. Whether the enthusi
asm of the meeting was chilled by this unexpected
demonstration from above, the writer does not
know. Very likely Mr. Hanna's ready wit turned
it to good account. He certainly dealt in the sort
of arguments that would "cut ice." He knew
a few things about ice, and the trust that had
cornered it.
HANNA'S MILITARY RECORD.
Mr. Hanna is a veteran of the Civil War.
Whether his rheumatism is the result of his hard
drilling during the 100 days of his enlistment
the deponent saith not. At any rate, he has not
applied for a pension on that ground.
As to military honors, Mr. Hanna probably got
as many of them as the other boys in Company C
of the 150th Ohio. He was the first lieutenant of
the company. The regiment was mustered into
the U. S. volunteer service on May 5, 1864, to

66 MARK HANNA.
serve loo days. Companies A and H, inclusive,
were all from Cleveland, and were made up of the
flower of Cleveland's younger citizens.
The regiment left home for the front on Thurs
day, May 1 2th, marching to the old depot to the
inspiring music of Jack Leland's famous band,
which was a part of the organization.
The regiment was ordered to Washington, and
put on garrison duty in the forts which constitut
ed the Capitol's chain of defenses. It remained
there during the term of its enlistment, partici
pating in the fight with a part of Early's rebel
corps, July lo and ii.
While Mr. Hanna's service in the war did not
offer him an opportunity for winning special
laurels, it no doubt served to give him a deep sym
pathy with the sufferings and trials of those who
fought on bloody fields for their country's exist
ence as a nation.
The young lieutenant was popular with his
comrades, and was then, even more than now,
"a jolly good fellow."
William J. Gleason, in a historical sketch of the
150th Regiment, says: "The jolly, auburn-
haired, freckle-faced youth that served is first
lieutenant of Company C in 1864 is now univer
sally recognized as one of the most eminent
men of this nation ; a tireless, brainy, unequalled

MARK HANNA. 67
political leader, universally and favorably known.
I refer to Hon. Marcus A. Hanna, successful bus
iness man and senator from the great state of
Ohio." Senator Wolcott of Colorado was a member
of Company D ; Gov. Nash of Ohio was in Com
pany K; Nathan Perry Payne was in Hanna's
company; Allan T. Brinsmade was in Company
H ; Moses G. Watterson in Company F. In the
roster of Hanna's company, emblazoned on the
walls of the magnificent Soldiers and Sailors'
Monument in Cleveland's Public Square, are
names which are now among the most honored of
the city: Alvord, Brainard, Ford, Gaylord, Hoyt,
McMillan, Payne, and many others.
THAT OTIS BRIBERY CASE.
If this were a biography instead of an outline
sketch, it would need to deal in detail with the
charges of bribery in the Ohio legislature on the
occasion of Mr. Hanna's election to the United
States Senate. I forced my way through the
tangled jungle of reports and discussions in the
Congressional Record, Vol. 33, pp. 6585 to 6635.
I was too much exhausted to form any rational
conclusion. It is the old chorus of "Katy-did"
and "Katy-didn't."
One gets the impression that there was a vast

68 MARK HANNA.
deal of fussing for partisan purposes. Why were
these so-called patriots so anxious to convict a
politician of using money to gain a vote ?
Politicians of both parties are constantly doing
that. Let us not assume these airs of superior sanc
tity. We are all pots, and our bottoms are all
sooty. If some are more so than others, that is
no excuse for pointing at them with such a show
of holy scorn. I fancy that the "honorable men"
who were so zealous in denouncing this Caesar
had designs of their own, entirely apart from the
ends of justice. It is usually the scribes and
Pharisees who clamor for the sinner's blood.
When men who are without sin begin to throw
stones, it is time enough for the public to join
with them.
Mr. Hanna may have been guilty, or one of his
representatives may have been guilty; the Lord
only knows. Nobody can tell from the evidence.
"If there was any guilt of the sort," says one of
Mr. Hanna's friends, "it was a case of fighting
the devil with fire, and whipping him as he de
served. Any one who knows the treacherous
plot that was formed against Mr. Hanna will say
that much. There is honor even among thieves ;
but not always among politicians ; though thieves

MARK HANNA. 69
and politicians sometimes have other things in
common ; stolen goods, for instance."
We must look broadly at these things, broth
ers. Whilst the masses of the people are so in
different, politics will be chiefly a game for spoils ;
and such a game is always a corrupt one. Where
so many of the political workers are rascals, a
saint could not succeed by saintliness. A good
man may have to be elected by questionable meth
ods ; but it is better to elect a good man by such
methods than a bad one.
I am not defending bribery and corruption. I
am only saying that when you are in Rome, you
may be forced to do as Romans do, however
much you may dislike it.
THE TRAFFIC IN VOTES.
Mr. Hanna's name has been used by his ene
mies almost as a synonym for bribery and cor
ruption in politics. It is presumed that a man
who has had the disposal of such immense sums
of money would be more than human if he never
used it for anything but paying the bills of print
ers and the traveling expenses of campaign speak
ers. It is a well-known fact that there are thou
sands of votes to be had for cash, in every great
election contest. Doubtless one party is as good

70 MARK HANNA.
as the other, so far as the purchasing of votes
is concerned. If one party can afford to buy
more votes than the other, that does not make
it the more guilty party. Where each is as dis
honest as it can afford to be, there is little choice
on moral grounds.
Whether the charges of dishonesty on the part
of both our great political parties are true or
false, just or exaggerated, the fact is that most of
us are swayed by personal interests in our politi
cal affiliations.
I know a man, and there are certainly many
others like him, who rejoices in every election
day as a sure source of revenue to himself. He
openly confesses to the sale of his suffrage. He
says, "His vote is all a poor man has these days,
and he must make the most of it."
Tariffs, theories of currency, are deep mysteries
to his simple mind. He is not able to grasp the
remote rewards which the politicians promise;
but the price of his vote he can grasp, and put
safely into his breeches' pocket. That is a con
crete benefit, indisputable, real. The others are
remote, uncertain, and matters of dispute. He
purposely omits to vote until late in the day ; for
then, he says, in the closing heat of the race, the
bidding is likely to be higher.
But do we not, most of us, sell our votes to the

MARK HANNA. 71
highest bidder, or to him whose offer seems to
our best advantage? Who votes otherwise than
for that which promises to put the most money
into his own pocket ? Is not this the chief cry of
the demagogue, — "Advantage, advantage, to thee
and thine, good voter ; do but cast thy vote for me,
and I will put money in thy purse. Larger wages,
more money, lower prices for what thou must buy
and higher for what thou wilt sell, — all these, and
more, shalt thou achieve for thyself if thou but
vote as I bid thee."
My neighbor raises lemons, not that his fellow
citizens in the east may have lemonade, but that
he himself may get dollars. When he votes, he
votes to protect his lemons by high tariffs laid on
fruit from the Mediterranean. Does not this
man sell his vote as truly as the man above-men
tioned? He is not thinking of the general ben
efit to the country of a judicious protective tariff.
He is not thinking of the larger wages he can
afford to pay his laborers because of his larger
profits on his lemons. He thinks of his own in
terests, and votes for them only.
Another man believes that the free coinage of
silver would somehow better his condition. If
more money were to be made, he would somehow
get his share of it. He does not think of the loss
to his creditors. He has agreed to pay his neigh-

72 MARK HANNA.
bor fifty gallons of good wine. He dilutes it with
twenty-five gallons of water, and expects his
neighbor to accept fifty gallons of this mixture in
payment of the obligation, which will leave to the
good man himself twenty-five gallons for the pay
ment of other debts. He does not think of the ef
fect of this sort of practice upon the wine indus
try, or trade in general. He thinks of his own in
terests, and foolishly believes that they will be
served by this sharp practice. It is selfishness,
and mistaken selfishness, which is always the
worst kind. But he sells his vote to the party
which promises him this foolish benefit, and
mourns if his cause is defeated by wiser heads.
Alas, that there is little but selling of votes in
this Republic! It is the old strife, which began
in the jungle, for self and self interests. That we
use ballots instead of claws or teeth or bullets
makes the strife none the less a battle to the
death. And yet, "He maketh the wrath of man to
praise Him." Out of strife cometh forth prog
ress. The march of civilization goes steadily
forward, even though its legions trample the
dead and wounded beneath their feet.
HIS LITERARY TASTES.
Mr. Hanna is fond of the drama, but cares little

MARK HANNA. 73
or nothing for poetry. Here is his nature again
revealed. He belongs to the phenomenal world.
So long as the poet's fancies remain in the world
of fancy, invisible, intangible, this man of flesh
will have none of them. Put them upon the stage,
embody them in figures that move and speak and
act, translate them into terms of human life, he
will appreciate and enjoy them. He loves Shake
speare, who above all other men, could
"Give to airy nothings
A local habitation and a name."
In fiction, he loves writers like Dickens and
Hugo, whose magic seizes upon all the elements
of the world and out of them constructs new
worlds to fascinate and delight the reader.
It is needless to say that Mr. Hanna does not
read Kant and Schopenhaur. Their world is not
his world. He is rock, granite, iron, copper. They
are sun-beams, star-rays, — perhaps Mr. Hanna
would say, moonshine !
But possibly Mr. Hanna appreciates men of the
philosophical order quite as well as many of them
appreciate men of his practical kind. Men of ideas
and men of affairs are quite likely to misunder
stand and underestimate each other.
The transcendentalist sees only ideas. To him
the world is a fleeting phenomenon. It is related

74 MARK HANNA.
that one day when Theodore Parker and R. W.
Emerson were walking together on a Boston
street a Millerite rushed up and predicted the
speedy ending of the world. Mr. Emerson re
plied calmly that he thought he might get on very
well without it !
Men like Mr. Hanna cannot get on without a
material world. They must have downright phys
ical elements to work in. They must delve for
coal, oil, copper ; they must clear away forests, and
in the place of them construct cities and railways ;
they are hungry for things, and do not pine for
poems and systems of speculative philosophy.
And yet, in a very real sense, Mr. Hanna is an
educated man. This word education has not com
monly the broad meaning which it ought to have.
It stands yet too exclusively for that culture and
knowledge derived from books, or from oral in
struction. It ought to include that knowledge of
practical affairs which comes as a result of expe
rience in the world of things.
Many a so-called educated man knows little or
nothing of the things which touch him most
closely in his every-day life. He knows about the
chariots of the Greeks and Romans, but cannot
harness a horse to a modern buggy. He knows the
chemistry of foods, but cannot raise a hill of corn
or potatoes. He can talk learnedly of the dwell-

MARK HANNA. 75
ings of primitive man, and has at his tongue's
end the various styles of architecture developed
in the world ; but he does not know how his own
house is built ; how bricks and shingles are made ;
how lumber is sawn and dressed
He can tell you of the mural paintings of Pom
peii, and the hieroglyphs of Egyptian tombs and
pyramids ; but he cannot mix a pot of paint for his
own door posts, nor glaze a sash in his own win
dow. He is versed in the costumes of the an
cients, and knows the construction of the sandal,
the chiton, the tunic, the toga ; but he cannot cob
ble his own shoes, nor mend a rent in his own
trousers. He knows of the tools and weapons of the As
syrians and Babylonians, the Greeks and Ro
mans, the Egyptians and Hindoos ; but he cuts his
fingers with his own jacknife, and digs his foot
with his own garden hoe ; and as for the mys
teries of the bit and augur, the jack plane and
hand saw, he wots not of them ; he has not proved
them. The inefficiency and ignorance of the "edu
cated" man, in the domain of common things, has
long served to point a joke and adorn a paragraph.
And yet, his knowledge of books gains him the
reverence and respect of the laboring man, whose
attainments and skill in practical things the schol-

76 MARK HANNA.
ar too often disregards. It is time that this over-
exaltation of "book-learning" should cease, and
the attainments of the laborer and artisan and
business manager be included in the term educa
tion. It is time that the young mechanic should
mitigate his envy of the student, and perceive
that he himself may be an educated man, through
strict attention to his tasks.
MR. HANNA AND THE COLLEGE MAN.
Mr. Hanna attended the exercises on the occa
sion of the seventy-fifth anniversary at East
Cleveland. The exercises were held in a huge
tent on the campus. The Professors and the
several classes had filed solemnly in, and taken
their seats ; the seniors, in caps and gowns, mov
ing with becoming dignity. The platform was
filled with notables. It was an impressive scene.
There was a slight comhiotion at one end of the
platform. A large, broad-faced, genial-looking
man was seen making his way to a chair reserved
for him. He walked with a cane, and limped per
ceptibly. "There's Mark Hanna!" was the whisper that
went round; and many eyes were turned upon
him. He took his seat, with a ponderous but quiet
dignity, and wiped his face with his handkerchief.

MARK HANNA. ^7
It was a warm day, and the tent was packed like
a political convention.
The exercises proceeded. A choir of young
men rendered several fine selections ; one of them
being the "Pilgerchor," from Wagner's Tann-
hauser. Dr. Josiah Strong, of New York, gave
the address of the day. It was a broad, compre
hensive treatment of the industrial situation.
Mr. Hanna was listening. If it had been a dis
course on Dr. Schliemann's excavations at the site
of ancient Troy, he might have been bored. He
is not interested in antiquities. Men of his stamp
are interested in the excavation of coal and iron.
The address was long, and, as I have said, the
day was very warm. But Mr. Hanna listened,
with perhaps more interest than many of the au
dience. Here was a man who was showing some
appreciation of the sort of work Mr. Hanna and
his class have done and are still doing, in building
the foundations of our wonderful civilization.
There was occasional applause, in which Mr.
Hanna joined. As Dr. Strong concluded, with a
fine peroration, even Jupiter applauded, with sev
eral peals of thunder.
There were some concluding formalities, in
which Mr. Hanna did not seem to be so much in
terested. The seniors received their diplomas,
with becoming modesty and blushes. Mr. Hanna

78 MARK HANNA.
was getting a bit weary, and shifted restlessly in
his chair. Diplomas do not mean very much to
him. They do not mean very much to the gradu
ate himself, after he has been out of college for
twenty years or so.
"The mice nibbled holes in mine, several years
ago," whispered a business man at my side, who
had been one of my college chums twenty years
ago. The assembly was dismissed. Mr. Hanna was
lost in the crowd. But he appeared again, some
time afterward, in the huge tent where the ban
quet was to be held.
Long tables groaned with eatables. There was
a buzz and roar of conversation from over a thou
sand alumni ; there were greetings and handshak
ings, reminiscences and laughter.
When all the good things had disappeared down
throats that seemed to have recovered their
former capacity for both swallowing and yelling,
the President, Mr. Thwing, began to introduce
the speakers of the day. When he came to Mr.
Hanna, every ear was alert.
I have referred, in the opening of this sketch,
to President Thwing's remarks. Mr. Hanna's
words may be of interest to the reader.
"It was with great reluctance," he said, after
the vociferous greeting had subsided, "that I was

MARK HANNA. 79
prevailed upon to come out here and make a
speech before all you college men. Your Presi
dent's introduction has placed me under great em
barrassment. It has added to the humidity of the
atmosphere," continued Mr. Hanna, wiping the
trickling perspiration from his broad face.
"Yes, I was once a student in this institution.
The question came up, in our family councils,
whether I should go to work, or go to college.
I wanted to go to work. My mother said I should
go to college. So I went. I was taking a course
in science. There were three of us in the class.
The other two left, and then I was alone.
"I was young, innocent, confiding. One day
some of the sophomores induced me to help dis
tribute copies of a burlesque program of the exer
cises of the junior class. I stood on the steps,
handing them to the audience as they passed in.
The President of the college came along. He
grasped me by the shoulder and asked, 'Young
man, what are you doing?' I replied that I was
distributing literature, in the interests of educa
tion and morality.
"I quit college soon after that. The faculty
seemed to be resigned to my absence. One day
the President met me on the street. I had on blue
overalls, and was hard at work. He looked at
me with an expression which seemed to say. Well,

8o MARK HANNA.
I guess you have found your right place ! And I
thought so, too. I liked work better than study.
I have been hard at work ever since. Boys, don't
be ashamed of work or overalls."
It has been several years since Mr. Hanna has
worn overalls, tut he has kept steadily at work.
He has probably never missed the diploma which
he failed to get. But he now wears the title Doc
tor of Laws, bestowed upon him by Kenyon Col
lege. His friends think he need not be ashamed
of it. They say that he has earned it. But, after
all, it is only a ribbon on the lion's neck.
CLEVELAND ITEMS.
While Mr. Hanna is a patriotic American with
the welfare of the whole country at heart, he is
most loyal to the City of Cleveland and its inter
ests. He has a charming home on the West Side,
in a section which in many respects is the most de
sirable of any in Cleveland for residence purposes.
Mr. Hanna was a pioneer in opening up this sec
tion, and has been active in promoting general im
provements. Here he spends that portion of the
year not occupied with his duties as Senator at
Washington. Mr. Hanna's business interests all center in
Cleveland. He is president of the Union National
Bank, president of the Cleveland City Railway

MARK HANNA. 8i
Company, operating eighty-five miles of track ; is
prominently identified with the lake-carrying
trade, owning many vessels, one of which bears
his name; is connected with large coal and iron
interests and various other enterprises ; and is re
puted to be worth in the aggregate several mil
lions of dollars.
Mr. Hanna has just cause to be proud of Cleve
land and her industries. Cleveland is the largest
city in Ohio, and the seventh in size in the United
States. She has 46 banks, not including those or
ganized under the building laws, of which there
are 27. More than 150 railroad trains daily are
required, besides the vessels, to handle her enor
mous traffic. She is well provided with schools
and churches, and is the home of Western Reserve
University and the Case School of Applied Sci
ence. Her iron and steel industries give employ
ment to thousands of laborers. She has the largest
carbon works in the world, the largest salt works,
largest chewing gum factory, largest malleable
iron works in the United States, the largest ar
cade building, and the finest soldiers' monument
west of New York, costing $300,000.
She has the greatest political manager in the
world, but Mr. Hanna does not mention that.
Cleveland has over 90 million dollars invested

82 MARK HANNA.
in manufactures, and her annual output is about
125 millions.
She has magnificent parks and boulevards, and
her Euclid avenue has long been famous as the
finest street in America.
One of Cleveland's most notable structures is
the viaduct connecting the east and west sections
of the city. It was completed in 1878, and cost
$1,600,000. The Garfield Memorial is a handsome monu
ment to the memory of our martyred President,
on a commanding site in East Cleveland, not far
from the buildings of Western Reserve Uni
versity. The greatest telescope in the world, the Yerkes,
belonging to the University of Chicago, was con
structed in Cleveland, only the glass for the lenses
coming from abroad. It cost over half a million
dollars. Cleveland is the largest iron ore market in the
world. The enormous iron ore industry of Lake
Superior, and its distribution to the world, center
in Cleveland. It represents an investment of
nearly 200 millions of dollars. Next to Clyde,
England, Cleveland is the largest shipbuilding
center in the world. The tonnage entering the
port has in a single year equalled that of Liver
pool. If the recent experiment of an ocean-going

MARK HANNA. 83
line of steamers from Chicago shall prove success
ful, there is no saying what greatness Cleveland
may develop in shipping.
MR. HANNA'S SHIPPING INTERESTS.
When Mr. Hanna became interested in the ves
sel business on the Great Lakes, thirty years ago,
that business was in its infancy. The largest ves
sel in the ore trade at that time carried only 600
tons. Now there are steel steamers plying be
tween the mines of Lake Superior and the Lake
Erie ports which carry 6,000 tons. The river
above and below Detroit, through which passes
all this traffic, has become a busy thoroughfare.
Puffing steam tugs, the little leviathans of our
modern waters, ply back and forth between Lake
Erie and Lake Huron, each one towing one or
more sailing vessels. Freight and passenger
steamers alternate with these. It is a procession
of the world's industry. The vessels reported as
passing Detroit in one day, in the height of the
season, number above one hundred.
Think of it ! Here is lumber from the sawmills
of Michigan ; iron and copper ore from the mines
of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior; coal for
Chicago and Duluth, from the mines of Ohio and
Pennsylvania ; stone from Lake Erie quarries, to
be used in the great buildings of Detroit, Chicago

84 MARK HANNA.
and other western cities ; structural steel from the
mills of Ohio and Pennsylvania, for bridges, ship
building and the business blocks of great cities;
provisions, oil, merchandise of every sort; rep
resenting almost every department of human in
dustry. In all this vast movement of commerce Mr.
Hanna has played and still plays a prominent
part. The interests of M. A. Hanna & Co. are
among the largest on the Lakes.
The immense growth of the shipping business
on the Lakes has been due in no small degree to
Government aid and encouragement. At the ex
pense of Government, harbors have been im
proved, channels deepened, lighthouses estab
lished, canals and locks constructed ; and through
legislation protecting American shipping from
competition with Canadian vessels, the American
vessel owners of the Lakes have been encour
aged and supported until now the building and
managing of the Lake vessels gives employment
to thousands of men, and brings prosperity to
thousands of American homes.
THE SHIP SUBSIDY BILL.
It was but natural that Mr. Hanna, seeing the
growth of the shipping interests on the Great
Lakes, through the encouragement of Govern-

MARK HANNA. 85
ment, should have become interested in strength
ening the shipping interests of the coast. Mr.
Hanna is a most patriotic American. He does
not write poems of patriotism, in fact, he does not
read them. If he did, he would admire the pa
triotism, not the poetry.
But Mr. Hanna does what poets cannot do. He
inaugurates and manages vast industrial and com
mercial enterprises, which shall make our coun
try prosperous and happy, and worthy to be writ
ten about by poets and other dreamers of dreams.
Mr. Hanna is not content to have American
flags on the flag-poles of our public parks, and on
the schoolhouses of the land. He wants to see
them waving from the masts of vessels all along
the Atlantic coast. He wants to see them waving
in the blue sky over the Great Lakes, from Michi
gan to New York State ; fluttering above the roll
ing waves of the Atlantic and Pacific, carrying
the story of a great nation's prosperity to foreign
lands. He wants to see the earth girdled with
American flags, floating from the masts of Amer
ican ships; so that wherever the Sun-god Phoe
bus drives in his golden car he shall be saluted
by this fluttering emblem.
The Ship Subsidy Bill represented Mr. Han
na's plan for realizing this consummation so de
voutly to be wished. Undoubtedly Mr. Hanr.i.

86 MARK HANNA.
was sincere and unselfish in his advocacy of this
measure. Certainly he had no axe of his own to
grind. Whatever faults the bill rrtay have had, its
avowed and unmistakable object was to build up
American commercial interests, on lines which
had long been followed in other enterprises as
well as by other nations.
"The tonnage under the American flag in the
foreign trade, in 1861, was more than three
times larger than in 1900," said Mr. Hanna in his
Senate speech: "yet, our foreign commerce is
fully four times larger now than then."
Here is a fact, — surely a deplorable fact. This
is not a theory, it is a condition. Facing this con
dition, Mr. Hanna proposed that something ought
to be done. We can all agree with him on that
point; and as to what ought to be done, we can
trust the assembled wisdom and experience of
Congress to determine that. Partisan politics are
out of place, in the discussion of this question. It
is one which concerns the interests of all citizens
alike. Government encouragement and aid do not nec
essarily mean monopoly and robbery on the part
of the interests involved. In the Lake Trade,
rates of transportation have declined in proportion
as the industry has grown. Thirty years ago, the
rate on ore from Lake Superior was three to three

MARK HANNA. 87
and a half dollars a gross ton. The rate today is
from sixty cents to one dollar. And yet, sailors and
dock men are receiving larger wages than they
did thirty years ago. All products in which these
ores are used are cheaper now than then. The
American people are richer because of this growth
of the Lake vessel interests. These are facts, and
they ought not to be lost sight of, in any discus
sion of this subject.
THE GREAT AMERICAN EMPIRE.
Mr. Hanna has been -accused of representing
Imperialism in America..^ So far as an Impe
rialism like that of ancient Rome or some modem
European countries is concerned, the charge is
absurd and groundless. But there is another sort
of Imperialism which Mr. Hanna, or any other
man, ought not to be ashamed of representing;
that is, the growing commercial supremacy of
what Chief Justice Marshall once called the
American Empire.
The United States is steadily gaining the lead
in manufactures of all kinds. The wide world is
her market. Gov. Shaw, of Iowa, states that the
cost of railway transportation in this country is
one-third less than that of Europe, and quotes
statistics from England and Germany. This
means advantage to our manufacturers. Amer-

88 MARK HANNA.
ican enterprise is opening markets for American
goods wherever ships can carry them. Anything
that will increase our merchant marine will cer
tainly be an advantage to the entire country.
It is a picture to inspire one with poetry and
eloquence, — ^this Great American Empire rising -
like a dream out of the wilderness of this west-;
ern continent in so brief a period. The dawn
ing of the twentieth century sees this new na
tion leading the nations of the world. It is the
Empire of the People.
In the dark ages of the past. Imperialism meant
the rule of one, and that one oftener bad than
good. The Imperialism that is growing and
shaping itself in this our great American Com
monwealth is the rule of a great and dominant
People. To this superior race, half savage races raust
be as children, submitting to its beneficent do
minion. Shall we fear the outcome? Shall we
accuse this People of tyranny and despotism?
The march of destiny cannot be stayed. Fate
hath pronounced her Word. Here in this neW;
world a new Empire shall arise and flourish; the
Empire of the People.
Its flag shall float above the islands of the
farthest seas. Dusky tribes shall sit beneath the
shadow of its Eagle's wings. Its arms of steel

MARK HANNA. 89
shall clash for human brotherhood. Not slaves,
not victims, shall its vanquished foes become ; but
children, younger brethren, in a vast eternal fam-
ily. The People's Empire! Let it grow and
strengthen ! No chance or accident of birth shall
open gates to power or honor. Natural power,
talent, wisdom, skill, shall rule.
THE CORPORATION AND ITS MEN.
One of the most common charges brought
against Mr. Hanna is that he is the friend and
patron of trusts and corporations. Those who
know Mr. Hanna have learned that he is no
more the friend of corporations than, he is the
friend of the workingmen employed by corpora
tions. There is a certain class of demagogues
who either do not see this fact, or who» dishon
estly ignore it and conceal it.
The fact is, industrial organization is the
friend and helper of the working man.
It is not the friend of the lazy and the vicious,
the blatant talker and the loud reformer; but it
serves the workers who are organized under its
banner, and leads them to victory in the battle
of industry.
These officers, these generals and captains of

90 MARK HANNA.
industry, are the leaders of the rank and file, who
could not fight without them.
The day of military conquest has gone by. In
this age we have occasional skirmishes to settle
some petty quarrel. But the day of the Caesars,
Alexanders, Napoleons, has gone, never to re
turn. The battle of today is the battle of Industry,
the warfare of man against want, famine, and the
elements of nature. Your workmen are the le
gions who march and fight. They cannot fight
without officers and leaders. A leaderless army
is a mob.
In the old order of competition, these regi
ments were pitted against each other. The shoe
makers of one regiment, for instance, were wag
ing battle against the shoe-makers of another.
This order of things is now rapidly giving place
to a more rational mode of waj-fare.
These regiments of industrial soldiers are
uniting under one common standard, one com
mon leader. They are presenting a united front
to the enemy. Before their solid ranks the de
mon-legions of hunger and want are fast retreat
ing. Shall we -denounce this coalition, discharge
and execute our officers, and as a blind and lead
erless mob set out to fight our battles?

MARK HANNA. 91
These Captains of Industry have good pay, as
is their right. Your privates must not demand
the pay of generals and colonels. They cannot
obtain it, even by discharging these generals and
colonels. Armies that mutiny and rebel usually
end in dissolution and destruction.
If any one supposes that I expect to convert
all Socialists to these views, he is very much mis
taken. Too many Socialists are so not from rea
son, but rather from lack of reason. They are
swayed by sentiment, if nothing worse. Many
of them are bigoted and intolerant, full of carp
ing and denunciation, and no statement of rea
son appeals to them. Such^ when they have ex
hausted their every argument, will still point to
their own poverty, and shriek, "Here is an in
dubitable and indisputable fact. I am poor,
Jones is rich. Why should this be so?"
That there are good and benevolent people,
even people of substantial means, who are Social
ists, I do not deny. That there are sane things
in the doctrine of Socialism, I do not deny. But
that Socialism is sound as a philosophical system
I cannot believe. Its alleged benefits would be
offset by so many positive evils, that it could not
improve the general condition of society. Her
bert Spencer has clearly stated most of these evils
in his "Plea for Liberty."

92 MARK HANNA.
Socialism is despotism. In it, the individual
would have no freedom. If unbridled individ
ualism may lead to tyranny and oppression, what
might not Socialism lead to, with its ponderous
machinery of government, its endless bureaus,
the spoil of political knaves, its domination of
the individual on every hand by the armed forces
of the state? Surely, the larger freedom which
we all long for does not lie in that direction.
A PEN-PICTURE BY MR. WHITE.
A sketch of Mr. Hanna by William Allen
White, printed in McClure's Magazine for No
vember, 1900, is so brilliant and interesting that
generous selections from it are given here, with
the permission of the S. S. McClure Co., N. Y. :
"Mr. Herbert Spencer holds that life is a se
ries of relations, and that man and the other crea
tures of the earth are the reflections of their en
vironment. Assuming the truth of Spencer's con
tention, it may be instructive to know something
of Marcus Alonzo Hanna's habitat. Cleveland,
Ohio, like Falmouth, 'is a fine town, with ships in
the bay.' The smoke of a thousand furnaces
stains the sky, and the clang of iron with the tin
kle of gongs forms the din of a restless com
merce. It is a town of workers. Men talk busi
ness at the clubs and talk shop in the saloons;

MARK HANNA. 93
they take their business to bed with them o' nights.
There are beautiful homes on broad avenues, that
lead away from the lowlands where forges glow.
There are decent public buildings scattered along
the streets where the tall, well-designed business
houses do most congregate ; and there are pretty
parks and respectable statues* and appropriate
monuments in the wide public squares. The
homes, the public buildings, the commercial
strongholds, the parks and their adornments, are
preeminently up to date. They are clearly pos
sessed of 'every modern convenience.' They
would rent well. Down toward the mouth of one
of the city caverns, before it spills its human
stream into the industrial cauldron that swirls be
low the hills, stands a square, red-stone build
ing. In the sixth floor of this building is a suite
of rooms. On the door entering this suite is the
legend :
M. A. HANNA & CO.,
Coal, Iron Ore,
AND
Pig Iron.
The inner room of this suite is a large room.
On the walls of the room, which is finished in
mahogany, are a number of photographs of Han
na's home under the elm trees, surrounded by
grass and flowers ; also photographs of the mem-

94 MARK HANNA.
bers of the Republican National Committee, and
a photograph of the interior of a power-house,
where four huge engines — all trim and solid and
mechanically eloquent of power — stand waiting
the touch of the master to release their energy.
The photographs look down on a heavy mahog
any director's table with massive round legs. On
the table is a litter of blue prints — engines and
architects' designs — embryo boats and power
houses, and smoke-stacks, and many strange
cross-sections and ground views, and perspectives
of industrial edifices. Solid chairs of nondescript
design sit near the edge of a crimson rug. In a
corner near the broad, deep window stands a mas
sive desk. At the desk, leaning heavily on a clut
ter of letters and documents, is a stocky, long-
bodied man, with his small feet hooked desper
ately to the supports of a pivoting chair. He
whirls about nervously, and his quizzical, humor
ous smile animates the place and humanizes it.
Hanna's personality exudes from everything. The
photographs of the great engines become vitally
a part of him. The blue prints seem to crystallize
themselves into him. The politicians' faces, the
chairs, the table with the shapeless legs, all in an
instant become Hving, component parts of this
man's existence. The room, the building, the
town on the inland sea — they are parts of him and

MARK HANNA. 95
products of him, and he is a part and product of
them. Hanna is an American type. Five years ago he
was engrossed in business. A crisis occurred in
the country's history — partly of his own making.
He sloughed off business. He became a political
leader, and — as patriots go — a patriot. By sheer
mechanical force, using money, the one lever
which God gave him mastery of, Hanna set mil
lions of flags to waving, and manufactured and
distributed, securely wrapped in packages of as
sorted sizes ready for immediate consumption,
more lofty ideals of civic integrity than the coun
try had consumed before in a score of years. A
weaker man than Hanna, with more emotion in
his make-up, might have felt more deeply and
perhaps more intelligently, but only a man like
Hanna could have acted in the time of stress so
wisely. With the cold, practical energy of a trip
hammer, Hanna converted dollars into patriot
ism, and saved the nation from calamity. While
he was at his work men reviled him, bullied him,
abused him — just as they do today.
"Which knowledge vexes him a space ;
But while reproof around him rings.
He turns a keen, untroubled face
Home to the instant need of things."

96 MARK HANNA.
The story of his life epitomizes the biographies
of thousands -of other successful Americans. It
is the dramatization of energy — the romance of
industrial achievement. In another one hundred
years, perhaps, such romances will seem as re
mote from the life then living as stories of our
Western border, bloody with Indian wars, ap
pear today. Opportunity may not always stand
knocking on the gate for American youths. But
at any rate, the story of Hanna's rise is a brave
tale, and one well worth the telling.
HANNA'S EARLY BUSINESS EXPE
RIENCE.
Hanna was born in Ohio sixty-three years ago.
Of his ancestry it is sufficient to say that he is a
member of the Scotch-Irish society of Philadel
phia, in full communion and good standing. His
grandfather was bound out to a Quaker, and for
the one hundred years last past the Hannas have
been Quakers. In 1852 Hanna's father moved to
Cleveland, and brought his seven children along.
The elder Hanna started a grocery store, trading
more or less in a wholesale way, on the lakes, par
ticularly in the Lake Superior country. Young
Mark plodded through the public schools and got
enough education to admit him to the Western
Reserve University. But in 1857, after a year in

MARK HANNA. 97
college, he returned to Clevelajid to learn the
grocery business, which was growing, and had
become exclusively a wholesale concern, with cus
tomers all over the lake region. A year or so
later the elder Hanna sickened, and the manage
ment of the store fell on the boy, Mark. It was a
heavy load to carry for a young man, barely past
his majority, but the responsibility put iron into
him, and gave him the luck stone of his life — ^the
habit of industry. It schooled him, as no uni
versity can, in the use of grit and self-reliance and
courage. It made a man of him at the time of life
when other youths are addicted to the picnic habit.
In 1862 the father died, and the young man took
charge of the business for the estate. When he
closed up the store successfully five years later,
he knew all about the grocery business, and his
energy was proverbial in the town of Cleveland.
He was thirty years old when he married, and
went into business with his father-in-law, Daniel
P. Rhodes. The firm, Rhodes & Co., dealt in coal,
iron ore, and pig iron. That was a generation
ago. Young Hanna threw himself into that busi
ness with passionate enthusiasm. He learned the
iron trade from the bottom, omitting no circum
stance. He was insatiably curious. He had an
artist's thirst to know the how of things. He
learned about coal mines and bought coal lands,

98 MARK HANNA.
learned about ore and bought mines, learned about
boats and bought boats. Then he took his iron
and his coal, and he built the first steel boats that
ever plowed the lakes. He established foundries
and forges and smelters. Men worked for him
from Western Pennsylvania to the base of the
Rockies. He knew his men and he knew the
work they did. He knew the value of a day's
work, and he got it — he also paid for it. Where
there was labor trouble, the contest was short and
decisive. Hanna met the men himself. Either
things were right or they were wrong. If he
thought they were wrong, he fixed them on the
spot. If he believed they were right, the work
went on. In the early seventies the miners in the
Rhodes & Co.'s mines formed a union. Hanna
studied the union as he studied mines and ores
and ships. He mastered its details, got the hang
of it, and got up another union — a union of em
ployers. Then when the men at a mine had trou
bles, they conferred not with the mine operator,
but with the mine operators' union. The two
unions got along without friction, until the walk
ing delegate found himself deposed, after which
Hanna's union dissolved. But the mining oper
ators' union gave the first public recognition to
organize labor which it had received at that time,
and the invention was Hanna's. It was a practi-

MARK HANNA. 99
cal thing. After the dissolution of the mine op
erators' union there was trouble. A number of
arrests followed some shaft burning. Hanna went
down to Western Ohio to prosecute the men un
der arrest. They were defended by a young man
named McKinley — William McKinley — and he
did his work so well that most of the miners went
scot-free, and those convicted got short terms.
Hanna took a liking to the young lawyer whose
tactics had won the legal battle which Hanna had
lost. A friendship began which is now famous
in contemporaneous history, Hanna had won his
point in the strike. Perhaps he was in a mellow
expansive mood which may have tempered his ad
miration for the attorney for the strikers.
HANNA BRANCHES OUT.
The regularity with which Hanna won in his
labor contests gave him business prestige. He
says that he never let the men deal fairer with
him than he dealt with them. His office door
swings inward as easily on its hinges for the dol-
lar-a-day man as for the superintendent. But
they say in Cleveland that there is an automatic
spring on it for the chronic grumbler, for the
shirker, and for the walking delegate. The door
swings out upon these men with force and em
phasis.

100 MARK HANNA.
For Hanna is a hard worker. He asks none
of his employees to work as hard as he does. He
has the intelligence which makes work easy and
increases the capacity to do work. Genius is
something of that sort. Hanna's secret is system.
After he had reduced mining to a system, he add
ed shipping, then he reduced that to a system and
took on shipbuilding; Reducing that to its low
est terms, where the machinery works smoothly,
Hanna built a street railway — made the cars of
his coal and iron, and the rails of his steel. When
he came to man that railway — the Cleveland City
Street Railway — he had reduced the labor prob
lem to such an exact science that there has- never
been a strike on that system, although the cars
of other lines in Cleveland are tied up frequently.
About this time he took a fancy to the theatrical
business. He bought the town opera house and
began studying the gentle art of making friends
with the theatrical stars of the world. He learned
the business of friendship thus as thoroughly as
he learned the iron and coal and steel and ship and
railway business. He omitted no detail ; he went
the whole length — put on a play by Mr. Howells,
and invited the author out to see the job done
properly. Today Hanna has the friendship of
men like Jefferson, Irving, Francis Wilson, Rob-
son, Crane — all of them, and the best of the play-

MARK HANNA. loi
wrights. They know the appreciative eyes that
laugh so easily, and he knows all the actors'
stories and can find the paths that lead to their
hearts. In the early eighties — apparently by way
of diversion or because Satan finds some evil work
for idle hands to do — when the coal, iron ore, pig
iron, steel, shipping, railway, and theatrical busi
ness became nerve-wracking monotony, Hanna
started a bank. He took the presidency of it, and
devoured the minutiae of the new business raven
ously. When he was watching the wheels go
around, looking at the levers and cogs, and mak
ing the bank part of his life, Hanna began to no
tice remarkable movements in the works. Some
years the fly-wheel would not revolve. At other
times it whirled too rapidly. He went through
the machinery with hammer and screws, but he
found that the trouble lay outside the bank. He
traced it to iron ore, through that to coal, and
still it eluded him. The trouble was outside the
things, he knew. It was in the lodestone of poli
tics. GOES INTO POLITICS.
So Hanna went into politics. In 1880 he organ
ized the Cleveland Business Men's Marching
Club. The idea was a new one. and it took all
over the country. That was the year when the

102 MARK HANNA.
tariff began to assume proportions as a national
issue, and being a dealer in coal and iron and steel
ships, Hanna made a discovery. Heretofore busi
ness had been business, and politics politics ; the
hypothesis that business and politics were allied
was a theory in the nebular state, floating around
in class-rooms and debating societies. Hanna con
gealed the theory into fact. The business man in
politics was Hanna's invention twenty years ago.
During the eighties he carried a torch in many
parades ; but the oil that leaked from the can lu
bricated his mind, for he ground up the facts of
politics rapidly. He began at the ward caucus,
and for ten years was a factor in his ward and in
his county and in his State. He took up politics
as a branch of his business. It was a side issue —
but shipbuilding was, for that matter, and street
railways. Hanna has a dozen sides. In 1888
Hanna had learned the business of politics well
enough to go into the National market with a
product. In the National Convention which nomi
nated Benjamin Harrison for his first term,
Hanna appeared as John Sherman's political man
ager. He was to Sherman then what he was to
McKinley in 1896. When Sherman lost, Hanna
went on the Advisory Council of the National
Committee. He learned how the machinery of
National politics runs; what its fly-wheels do;

MARK HANNA. 103
what its pulleys movq ; where to oil it ; and where
the power is generated. His insatiable curiosity,
that made him master of other great trades, made
him adept in what is known as practical politics.
During the eight years that followed Hanna's
entrance into National politics, he absorbed cer
tain facts about the relations of business and pol
itics. Without knowing where his greed for facts
was leading him, Hanna became an amateur po
Htical scientist. He knew none of the rules of the
game as the books laid them down ; the theories of
scholars were unfathomed in his reckonings. But,
as the Yankees say, he "sensed a scheme" of the
relations of things in the worlds of business and
politics, and unconsciously this scheme took pos
session of him.
Now, a man whose business leads him to the
daily contemplation of men working in their un
dershirts is not going to sit down and dream up
an economic system for a world full of men in
Nile-green neckties and lavender trousers. The
spectacle of human perspiration is not so entirely
shocking to a man of Hanna's habits and antece
dents that any scheme of his would eliminate it
from human existence. So the idea that got in
Hanna's head was not particularly Utopian. It
was simply a scheme to provide for more work,
more sweat, more business, and more dividends —

104 MARK HANNA.
and that wasn't the least of Hanna's considera
tion — ^by adjusting the tariff on coal, iron, pig
iron, and a few thousand other articles too nu
merous to mention; also the establishment of a
government subsidy for American shipbuilders.
Incidentally Hanna saw that the currency shaft of
the National works was crooked and wobbly, and
needed straightening. Now this was not an ec
static dream. But it had a vital advantage over
the vision of Mr. Bellamy and the Utopians.
Hanna's plan would work.
In the industrial depression from 1893 to 1895,
when the mines and the furnaces and the ships
were idle, Hanna had time for meditation. But
the desire to make his scheme of political science
a fact was afire in him ; and instead of going into
a rhapsody at the beauty of his dream, Hanna
spent his hours of meditation forging his dream
into reality in an eminently practical way.
HANNA AND McKINLEY.
/ In the meantime, for twenty years, his friend
ship for the young lawyer who defended the
miners had been growing. He grappled it to him
as he grappled his business ambition — with all his
heart and mind. It became as much a part of him
as the mines and the ships and the steel things that
he loved. McKinley satisfied something in Hanna.

MARK HANNA. 105
The Canton lawyer was industrious. He was
clean. He was reliable. He was ambitious. Han
na's friendship displayed these virtues in the
market of public esteem, and held them at their
par value. In 1896 Hanna's energy incorporated
McKinley, and every business house in the United
States, from Wall Street to the carpenter's shop
on the alley, took stock. Hanna promoted the
candidacy of McKinley before the St. Louis Con
vention. He put in that campaign, which ended
in the St. Louis Convention, every trained faculty
which had made him a successful captain of trade.
The outcome was interesting. And American
politicians — generally a slipshod lot — who depend
much on brass bands and claqueing and flag wav
ing and oratory and beating of tom-toms to swarm
their bees, were astounded to see a campaigner use
the calculating, exact, business-like methods of a
general manager of a railroad. Every Republi
can Presidential candidate sent out letters by the
bushel. Hanna sent McKinley's letters out by
the peck. But he picked his correspondents with
the care that he picked the officers for his lake
ships. It was Hanna's purpose to give the pre
ferred stock in the McKinley syndicate only to
men of commercial honor and business standing
and poHtical capacity. The whisperer, the Janus-
face, the blow-hard, and the promiser were per-

io6 MARK HANNA.
mitted to speculate if they chose, but only upon
the general prosperity series. The St. Louis
Convention was a meeting of a large board of di
rectors in a business concern. All emotionalism
was as remote from the constitution of that body
as a sky-rocket from a table of statistics. Hanna
had planned the syndicate, he had promoted it,
he had made it go. He didn't know who would
make the motions, nor who would write up the
minutes, nor what phrasing would be used in the
prospectus. But he knew the men in the major
ity, and he knew that they were there to vote for
McKinley, and he knew that they were men
who accomplish their ends. It was an old
story to Hanna — the picking and handling of
men. There are 8,000 men on his pay-roll at
Cleveland — on the docks, and in the mines, and
at furnaces, and at desks, and on grip cars.
There were one-tenth as many delegates at St.
Louis ; and besides, the St. Louis Convention
was a cooperative corporation. So Hanna didn't
worry. Yet certain things puzzled him. Despite
the fact that reporters and editors of what might
have been called, with professional courtesy, the
loathed but esteemed contemporaries, said un
pleasant things in double-leads and short para
graphs, and claimed that the convention was
sewed up in a sack; and more, that it was

MARK HANNA. 107
branded, gagged, and delivered ; and, still fur
ther, that it was the personal property, chattel,
and common appurtenant of Mark Hanna and of
his heirs and assigns forever ; affairs took a turn
that would have astounded Hanna if he had
claimed property right in the delegates. For
Hanna went into the battle for McKinley's nom
ination with a seven-devil lust for tariffs. The 1
currency question was one of those things |
dreamed of in Hanna's philosophy, along withf,'
the civil service and the Alaskan boundary and
Cuban independence. Hanna did not oppose the
gold standard ; but while he was struggling for
the nomination of McKinley, Hanna seems to
have believed that by taking thought of the cur
rency question he could not add one cubit to Mc
Kinley's stature. So he sat in his office in Cleve
land and listened to the saurian snort of his barge
whistles, and fixed his faith in ad valorems and
tariffs and other impedimenta of his campaign.
THE GOLD STANDARD.
As the spring of 1896 opened, the earnestness
of the New England Republicans for a gold-
standard declaration amazed Hanna. He went
to the St. Louis Convention with his amazement
unabated ; he was not angry. But it was as
though all the men on the Cleveland City Rail-

io8 MARK HANNA.
way had decided to paint their left ear green,
something which they have a perfect right to
do, but which does not add to the speed of the
cars nor the service of the line. He did not fear
the outcome — so far as McKinley was concerned
— but it did not occur to Hanna, when he went
to St. Louis, that the adoption of the gold-stand-,
ard declaration in the Republican platform
would relegate the tariff question to a place in
the campaign beside pensions and the interstate
commerce. And so because the men he trusted^
and needed — favored a declaration for gold,
Hanna accepted it ; and because he does nothing
by halves, thereafter he fought for the gold-
standard plank; its ways were his ways, its peo
ple were his people, and its enemies provoked his
wrath. When the party's platform had been reported
by the Committee on Resolutions, and the clause
endorsing the gold standard had been read. Sen
ator Teller of Colorado made a speech favoring
the adoption of a minority report of the Reso
lutions Committee, which report eliminated the
gold-standard declaration. While Teller spoke,
a pudgy man — broad-shouldered and of robust
girth — sat fidgeting in his chair, but one row re
moved from the aisle, among the Ohio delegates.
It was Hanna. The loose skin around his mouth

MARK HANNA. 109
twitched irritably as Teller's swan-song rose and
fell. Occasionally he lifted a broad hand to a
large, bumpy cranium, as if to scratch. Instead,
he rubbed the rich, healthy, terra-cotta hide on
his full, firm neck. His bright brown eyes took
the orator's mental and moral measure with mer
ciless precision. When Teller sat down, Hanna
grunted his relief. Others spoke in favor of the
Teller resolution — perhaps an Idaho man, maybe
a Montanan, from a chair behind the Ohio delega
tion. A dapper little chap, with a boutonniere
on his perfectly fitting frock coat, came chas-
sezing festively down the rostrum, and received
Chairman Thurston's recognition. "Who's that?"
asked Hanna of Grosvenor.
"Cannon." "Who's Cannon?"
Mind you, it was Hanna who was asking
these questions — Hanna, who was popularly sup
posed to be omniscient and omnipotent at St.
Louis that day. Yet here was a senator whom
Hanna did not know, and whose presence on
the speaker's list surprised the man who held
the convention in the hollow of his hand.
"Senator — Utah," replied Grosvenor.
The festive man opened his mouth to read his
address. "Well, for heaven's sake, goin' to read it!

no MARK HANNA.
Lookee there — " And Hanna's broad, fat hand
waved towards the orator. "Perty,, ain't he?"
"Looks like a cigar drummer!"
The man on the rostrum continued. He made
an acrid reference to the gold standard.
"Well, d — n him — how did he get in here?"
snapped Hanna, and no one could answer.
A small-boned, fat leg flopped across its mate,
and Hanna changed his weight from one hunker
to the other.
Cannon's remarks were growing more and
more luminous. Hanna's brown eyes began to
glow in heat lightning as the oration proceeded.
His twitching mouth spilled its rage in grunts.
The rhetoric of the Utah man was telling. He
began to threaten to leave the party. Finally
he put the threat into a flamboyant period. Then
Hanna's harsh voice blurted:
"Go, go!"
There was a tragic half-second's silence. Ten
thousand eyes turned toward Hanna. Evidently
he could feel their glances hailing on his back,
for his flinty auburn head bobbed down like a
cork, and an instant later, when the whole con
vention was firing "go's" at the rostrum, Hanna
rose proudly from the small of his back, and got
on the firing line. After that the Utah man was
in the hands of a mob. Hanna devoted himself

MARK HANNA. in
to the pleasurable excitement of the chase. He
stormed and roared with the mob ~ he guyed and
he cheered with the mob. He was of it, led by it,
whooping it up. Then, when it was all over,
when the gold-standard platform had been adopt
ed, Hanna climbed into his chair, clasped his
hands composedly behind him, threw back
his head, let out his voice, and sang "America"
with the throng. When he forgot the words,
his dah-dah-de-dah-de-dums rang out with patri
otic felicity, and his smile of seraphic satisfac
tion was a good sight for sore eyes. For
Mark Hanna was giving an excellent representa
tion of a joyous American citizen, with his wa
gon hitched to a bucking star, jogging peace
fully down the milky way of victory.
HANNA IS HUMAN.
By this token may the gentle reader know that
Hanna is intensely human. There is nothing
god-like, nothing demoniac, nothing cherubic,
nothing serpentine about him. He is a plain man,
who stands in the last ditch with his friends, and
fights his enemies to the death. He enjoys a
good joke, a good fellow, or a good dinner ; and,
if possible, likes all three served at the same
table. Often he wins brilliantly, sometimes loses
conspicuously, makes a fool of himself occasion-

112 MARK HANNA.
ally, laughs at it good-naturedly, and does it
over again, "even as you and I." He has on his
bones the clay of the unexplainable old Adam —
rich in weakness and strength, graces and foibles,
and withal he has the philosophy which sustained
the shepherd of Arden. So his strength is more
than his weakness, for he has the virility of com
mon sense. He is not happy crocheting tidies
and adopting ringing resolutions. He is a man
of deeds rather than of explanations.
Hanna is not a man of exalted ideals. Between
his purpose and its execution the path lies in a
straight line. If gentlemen in spectacles come
along the path, stretching across strings of eth
ical obstacles, and planting in it the potsherds of
transcendental philosophic scruples, Hanna push
es forward to his end, kicking away the strings
and crushing the pottery under his feet.
Later, if he has time, he devotes a few lurid
minutes to the spectacled gentry before he closes
the incident with a bang and goes about his busi
ness. Hanna is perfectly willing to admit that
beyond the Alps lies Italy and that the hills are
green afar off; but he insists on his American
privilege of voting for the majority report. In
politics Hanna is a partisan. With him the long-
nosed, short-chinned mugwump is entitled to the
same consideration due to the guerilla in time of

MARK HANNA. 113
war. Hanna would endorse a political proposi
tion not authorized by his party caucus and his
party platform about as readily as a general
would take orders from a newspaper. In his
party Hanna has disputes, differences, and con
tentions. But he knows when he is whipped, and
respects a similar knowledge in his adversary.
When a fight is over, it is over with Hanna. He
bears no malice, carries no knife from the con
flict to use another day, and he has a scorching
contempt for the contentious — and to Hanna im
possible — persons who insist that a question is
never settled until it is settled right. From Han
na's point of view the ways of the reformer and
of "the serpent on the rock" are beyond under
standing.
HANNA NOT A DEMAGOGUE.
For Hanna's solicitude for the people is as ten
der as that of the late William H. Vanderbilt.
Hanna believes in every man for himself and the
devil take the hindermost. He does not fawn
upon the failures of life, nor mince matters in
locating the blame for their condition. Every
good cause has produced its demagogues, who
are as dangerous to progress as the opponents
of the cause. And although Hanna has been
grilled in cartoons as a money devil with dollar

114 MARK HANNA.
marks for scales ; has been sizzled in public scorn
as a conscienceless boss ; has been called a crusher
of labor, an industrial octopus, a commercial Mo
loch, and every manner of bird or beast on earth,
in the air above, or in the waters beneath, his bit
terest enemies in their most interesting flights of
vituperation have not added to the gayety of na
tions by calling Mark Hanna a demagogue. Such
an appellation would be as grotesque as to call
Jay Gould a protagonist or "Mr. Toots" an icon
oclast. If a large, jagged, brown damn is needed in
a diplomatic situation, Hanna furnishes it. If a
laugh is needed, Hanna has it and is not afraid
to use it. If an open fight is required, Hanna
makes it. He is a man of simple instincts and
single purposes. His relations with certain of
his senatorial colleagues were arranged in their
biological development millions of years ago.
For instance, the velvet-pawed feline tactics of
former Senator Quay set Hanna to baying deep-
mouthed imprecations and kicking out behind
him the loam of recent alluvial reminiscence. It
is not that Hanna is so entirely displeased with
what Quay does as with the way it is done, for
Hanna is no prude. He has a conscience — ^the
conventional conscience of commerce. To him
wrong is wrong, and right is right. Everything

MARK HANNA. 115
is either black or white ; he is color-blind to the
pea greens and heliotropes and electric blues of
conduct. If a man lies, he lies ; if he steals, he is
a thief ; if he cheats, he is a liar and a thief ; and
that's the end of him with Hanna. He likes a
man with good red blood and a strenuous spirit
and common sense; as for the other sort, they
are aH one to him — the sort that "might be made
after supper of a cheese paring," and he will have
none of the breed.
Yet in national politics Hanna is a strong man,
exceptionally so. He is efficient. He is domi
nant in his party. Yet in his domination he does
not domineer. He accomplishes his end ; but not
by diplomacy, not by playing man upon man, not
like Pontius Pilate, but like Herod. Hanna is a
force, not an intrigue. Politics is not his trade; I
he is a business man first and a politician after
wards ; yet he is not a dilettante politician. When
he gets in tight places, as in the senatorial elec
tion of '97, he does not fight with the foils, but
rough and tumble, hand to hand, and with such
clubs, dornicks, and other loose furniture of the
environment as the devil may have put in his
reach. So much for what may be called the dramatis
personae of Hanna. Now to return to the plot.
After the St. Louis Convention, . Hanna played

ii6 MARK HANNA.
with the party machine, running it at full speed
and high pressure from June till November. Then
he slipped the belt from his engines and let the
wheels of the machine run down. His great in
dustrial and financial concerns on the lake were
grinding away smoothly and needed but half his
power. His piston-rods were thumping in his
head with nothing to hold them. The throbbing
and jolting of his wild engines must have strained
his nerves, for before the world knew what had
happened Hanna had flipped a belt into the
United States Senate. But speed in that mill is
slow and the grist is light, wherefore there is a
loss of power and a wearing jar.
SIGNS OF AGE.
Hanna seems to be ten years older than he
was four years ago. The ruddy terra-cotta skin
that glowed with health in 1896 has faded to an
ashen pink. The mobile smile that was a conver
sation without words is hardening a little — ^but
only a little. The lower parts of his legs are
slightly uncertain, and his feet almost shuffle.
The large, firm hand grips his cane with some
thing like nervousness. The thin hair hangs
more listlessly to the head than it used to hang;
but the jaws are wired with steel, and the brown
eyes — and these are Hanna's harbor lights —

MARK HANNA. 117
twinkle with the fervor of a schoolboy's. They
show forth an unconquered soul and a merry
heart, which maketh a glad countenance. Han
na's life at Washington has not taken the edge
from his humanity. Indeed, so far as he bears
any relation to the present National administra
tion, Hanna is the human touch.
The relations existing between Hanna and his
friend William McKinley, President of the
United States, are particularly interesting. The
popular notion of these relations is derived from
newspaper cartoons. Probably at least 5,000,000
of the 15,000,000 citizens who will vote at the
coming election imagine that Hanna tramps noi
sily into the White House every morning, gruffly
gives his orders for the day's administration to
the shivering President, and then walks out and
continues to grind the faces off the poor ; but the
real relations existing between Hanna and Mc
Kinley are stranger than fiction. It is McKin
ley, not Hanna, that controls. The masterful,
self-willed, nimble-witted, impetuous, virile Han
na in the presence of the placid, colorless, im
perturbable, emotionless, diplomatic, stolid Mc
Kinley becomes superficially deferential and con
siderate of the Presidential dignity, almost to an
unnecessary degree. It is known to all men at all
familiar with McKinley's administration, that in

ii8 MARK HANNA.
the differences which have come up in the dis
cussion of administrative affairs, when Hanna
has been consulted at all, he has almost invariably
yielded his opinion to McKinley's. The friend
ship — one might call it almost the infatuation
of Hanna for McKinley — is inexplicable on any
other theory save that of the affinity of opposites.
History has often paralleled this affair, but has
never fully explained her parallels."
MURAT HALSTEAD'S SKETCH.
The following selections are from an article on
Marcus A. Hanna, by Murat Halstead, in the Re
view of Reviews :
"There is a new man in our politics, a recog
nized power, well known in spite of his novelty;
not a professional statesman, but a man of
affairs ; a business man one of the most famous
politicians; a quiet man, but making a noise in
the world; a national personage with interna
tional reputation; a man of simple manners and
broad shoulders, who has tested his strength in
matters material and bears golden sheaves from
harvest fields. He is a laborer on large lines, and
he conducts a presidential candidacy as he has
conducted fleets and managed mines, on the great
lakes, developing resources and applying them

MARK HANNA. 119
with courage and capacity and with honorable
distinction and affluent success..
"There is no name in all the land more famil
iar, and he accepts conspicuity with complacency,
because it is unavoidable in the business; but he
avoids ostentation, and when weighty cares per
mit the indulgence of his preferred enjoyments,
they are in the retirement of his beautiful home.
He has not sought to draw the public gaze and
he does not shrink from it. He is without the
perturbation of vanity or the affectation of indif
ference. "Marcus Alonzo Hanna was born in New Lis
bon, Columbiana County, Ohio, September 24,
1837. Columbiana County, Ohio, borders on the
eastern Hne of the state, and on the west adjoins
the County of Stark, the home of McKinley, and
on the east is bounded by Beaver County, Penn
sylvania, the home of Senator Quay. His blood
is that of Virginia Friends and Vermont Presby
terians, and there are in it eminently the quali
ties that yield vigor and tenacity, and a solemn,
sombre, fiery perseverance. One of his gifts is
that of , continuance. There is no better blood,
and when brains are born with it the combina
tion is excellence — and Hanna inherited ability
and was educated in business.
"Next to the efficacy of good brains and blood

120 MARK HANNA.
in making up a man comes his environment — ^the
circumstances surrounding the boy and the man
— ^the conditions upon which are opened in his
neighborhood the golden gates of opportunity.
We have said Mr. Hanna was educated in busi
ness, but we must not neglect to say that he had;
a high school education, and a year in one of the;
Ohio colleges.
"Mr. Hanna was born, as Major McKinley
was, in the heart of the region richest in natural
resources of any in the country — and unsur
passed in the world — western Pennsylvania and
eastern Ohio. The coal beds are there deep
and rich. There oil was struck in unparalleled
rivers of wealth, and natural gas was at length
revealed. The manufacturing towns of Ohio
west and north of Columbiana and Stark coun
ties are among the finest examples on the conti
nent of the enterprise, the hardihood, the skill,
the inventive and mechanical ingenuity, the gen
ius for organization, the cunning hands, the com
petent heads of the American people. This was;
the environment of McKinley and Hanna, in:
their most impressionable days, and their asso
ciation in after times may be traced to the sympa
thies of their earliest contemplative years.
"It was but natural that while one became a
lawyer and statesman and the other a business

MARK HANNA. 121
man who plowed the unsalted seas, and delved in
the unsalted mines of the majestic northwest, they
should come together in a common cause regard
ing which the sentiments of their boyhood be
came the convictions of their manhood. It is a
silly sort of slander that attributes to such men
only sordid motives. Such selfishness as they
have is enlightened, and their first lessons taught
them that the enactment into national law of the
principle of protection was the indispensable
foundation of the higher prosperity of the people
of their native land.
"Mr. Hanna is a man of large estate, but he has
no idle hours or dollars. He is active in capital
and labor, and an example that head and hands
may work together with profit and show each
other fair play. He holds the respect of work
ingmen because he treats them with respect, and
he gains their good will because he is fair, and in
nothing does he show them greater consideration
than in never trying the blandishments of dema
gogues with them.
"Mr. Hanna's father, on removing to Cleve
land, became a wholesale grocer and provision
merchant, and the son at twenty years of age was
a clerk in the store, and in 1861 his father died
and he succeeded to the business. Young Han
na had traveled extensively and formed a valuable

122 MARK HANNA.
acquaintance. In 1864 he married Miss Augusta
Rhodes, the daughter of his senior partner, D. P.
Rhodes, who retired a few years later, when the
existing firm of M. A. Hanna & Co. was organ
ized. The business of the firm required a great
deal of transportation on the lake. Hanna, after
being interested in several vessels, became the
proprietor of one named for his father, Leonard
Hanna, and he is now a large owner of ships on
the lakes and the head of the Globe Iron Works
Company of shipbuilders. The course of his busi
ness is plainly marked as a system of progression.
First a grocer, then a shipowner, — the ships
growing out of and sailing in the requirements of
trade ; then, as he wanted ships, he became a ship
builder, and as he consumed iron he developed
ores. "His handsome residence is famous for hos
pitality, and it is administered with a geniality
and liberality that gain and give pleasure. He
values too highly the blessing of health to neglect
it, and takes exercise regularly. His good humor
and courtesy disarm even hostile reporters, and
they are soon convinced of the cleverness of
friendliness, and commune with him in the man
ner of confidential affection; but he never by
chance tells them anything he does not intend
they should find out. The artists who have ex-

MARK HANNA. 123
erted their capacities for caricature, and who do
not hesitate to portray him as a monster, find it
aids their art with a touch of nature to draw him
with a smiling face. Whatever they do they do
that, and they are at a loss to know how their
arrows, that they have tipped with rancor, fail to
inflict a wound or a sting.
"In the same corner of the state of Ohio where
Hanna was born and has always lived are the
homes of John Sherman, James A. Garfield and
William McKinley. Sherman was born in an
other part of the state, but through all his profes
sional and public Hfe he lived at Mansfield,
which is within an hour's ride of Canton. Gar
field lived closer to Cleveland than the others,
and in behalf of these three neighbors of his
Mark Hanna, the business man, became Hanna
the politician; not that he cared for the excite
ment or was fond of display, or thought that
there was anything but hard work and the gen
eral good in it for him. He was in agreement
with Sherman, Garfield and McKinley in princi
ple, and has believed of each of them that his
election to the presidency would be the elevation
of the standard of dignity, honor and prosperity
of the country. He was Garfield's friend, but had
little to do with the nomination of the second
martyr President, and took a serious but not ex-

124 MARK HANNA.
travagant or absorbing interest in his election. It
was Mr. Hanna's judgment, and it was justified,
that John Sherman's services to the country in
his financial policy, through which was achieved
the resumption of specie payments, were not rec
ognized as they should be, and he is still of that
opinion. "The proceedings preliminary to the convention
of 1888 brought McKinley and Hanna often to
gether. They were in consultation many times
and it was a labor of zeal for them to canvass the
country for Sherman and muster his forces.
The keen eyes of Hanna were upon McKinley
and found his nature that of the simplicity and
nobility of manly sincerity. The X rays are not
more penetrating than Hanna's glance, and his
hearty respect for his friend was converted to
warm regard and admiration. With McKinley's
frankness and clearness, his transparency re
vealed his probity; and in his turn he rejoiced in
the strength of the strong man by his side.
There was no compact between them, they were
of the same mind.
"Their friendship was welded during this con
vention. They formed the liking of the unlike,
that is an attachment greater than is given to
those cast of like metal in the same mold. It
would have been shirking an obligation, the out-

MARK HANNA. 125
growth of sympathy, association and common
principles, and an attempt to evade destiny, if
Mark Hanna had not consented to manage the
presidential campaign of McKinley.
"It is a blunder on the part of those who assail
Mr. Hanna to hold that he is exclusively or ex
ceptionally a man of dollars. He has had enough
of them long enough to know the weakness as
well as the power of money, and his primary ad
vantage in his political activities is his responsi
bility — not in the collection of contributions or
application of funds, but in the potentiality with
which he can refuse the demands that are unrea
sonable and reason to conclusions. There is
economy in his ability — and the accusation that
he is a professional purchaser of men is an exag
geration of an imagination.
"Mr. Hanna is the new man in politics, the man
of affairs of his own, finding time for unofficial
business. This is not of evil ; there is not a bet
ter sign of better things. The element of which
Mr. Hanna is a type is needed to stand firmly for
the balances of power with which the fathers con
served the Republic — and this representation of
the ancient civic and national pride in our gov
ernment under the Constitution as it is, has not
come to us without cause, or appeared too soon.
Mr. Hanna will deserve well of his country that

126

MARK HANNA.

he is serving for the sake of principle with mo
tives and for considerations that contemplate
only his fair share, as a laborious and faithful cit
izen, of the general welfare."

OTHER ESSAYS.

PLUTOPHOBIA.
(From Social Laws.)
There is an incredibly large element of the
American people to whom the sight or thought
of a rich man is as a red rag to an angry bull. At
once there is furious snorting and bellowing, and
pawing of the earth ; and if the red rag could be
got at, it would be torn to shreds. No one can
realize the extent of this disease, which I ven
ture to name plutophobia, unless he has mingled
much with the working classes, or read the pa
pers which are published ostensibly in their in
terests. Speak of Carnegie, for instance, and at
once he is denounced for a plutocrat and a robber.
But, you say, consider his benevolence! Has
he not given his millions to the public welfare?
"He has robbed his workmen of this wealth.
He deserves no credit for his seeming benevo
lence. Let him do justice to his workmen, and
he will not have these millions to give away !"
It is vain to say that, having got these millions,
he might have kept them all if he had chosen to

128 OTHER ESSAYS.
do so. You will get no word of kindness for him.
He is rich. That is his crime. And has it in
deed come to this, that success in America shall
make a man hated and despised by large numbers
of his fellow-citizens ?
"MARK HANNA."
A common illustration of this trait in our work
ing people may be found in the contempt ex
pressed by so many of them and their political
representatives \for the figure of M. A. Hanna,
the poHtical manager of the Republican party
during the last two presidential campaigns. The
papers of the opposition, from the respectable
democratic organ to the vituperative and despica
ble socialistic handbill, teem with coarse and
brutal caricature of a man whose only known
offense is that he has represented the cause of
Success and Prosperity, rather than that of pau
perism and failure. This Napoleon of politics,
who marshalled the Republican armies and led
them to victory, against all the allied forces of
Democracy, is the bete noire of all pauperdom.
They picture him as a fat Nero, fiddling and
laughing over burning Rome. A Democratic
newspaper relates with evident relish that a poor
Russian immigrant, applying for naturalization
papers, replied to a question as to our form of

OTHER ESSAYS. 129
government that "Mark Hanna is King!" As
to our method of making laws, he thought that
Mark Hanna made them, conferring sometimes
with Mr. McKinley ! Such were the conceptions
he had formed evidently upon the statements of
his associates.
HANNA COMPARED WITH WASHING
TON.
It is needless to say that the moral character
of a great leader in war or politics is not to be
estimated by Sunday-school criterions. Men who
practise the Golden Rule, and keep all the Com
mandments, do not gain laurels in these fields of
action. A Sunday-school teacher; having told
her class how Washington, when leader of the
colonial forces, wrote a false letter of instruc
tions to his officers, for the purpose of letting the
enemy capture it to their own discomfiture, fin
ished by asking whether this were not a kind of
lie. The pupils agreed that it was.
"But," asked the teacher, "was he not the
George Washington who could not tell a lie about
the cherry tree?"
This puzzled the class, until one bright little
fellow exclaimed, "Oh, but that was when he was
a little boy !"
The idea that maturity of judgment brings

I30 OTHER ESSAYS.
certain privileges and immunities in ethical mat
ters may have occurred also to Mr. Hanna. Hav
ing to fight the devil of bribery and deceit, he
may have been compelled to sanction the use of
fire.
MR. HANNA'S WEALTH.
But Mr. Hanna has not been so hated merely
because he has employed in politics the methods
in common use even by the best of his opponents.
He has been hated because he is rich, and has
represented the cause of the prosperous. His
caricaturists represent him in clothing covered
with $ marks. One cartoonist used this mark
ingeniously as the motif for all the decorations
of the room in which he pictured his subject. It
seemed as though the valiant knights of the
brush could never tire of repeating this symbol
ism. Rich? How got he his riches? By zeal, in
dustry, ability. When we stop men from get
ting riches in this way, it will be a doomsday for
the nation! Mr. Hanna has been notably active
in settling several labor disputes that had led to
strikes. Workingmen too soon forget such ben
efits and remember only the $ marks !
During the recent campaign I admired Mr.
Hanna's frank and bold utterances on the subject

OTHER ESSAYS. 131
of industrial organizations. When most of the
Republican orators were shouting themselves
hoarse, in their denunciations of "the Trust,"
trying to out-clamor the Democrats and Popu
lists who were behowling that much-abused in
stitution, Mr. Hanna refused to join the chorus
for mere political effect. He stood up sturdily,
and, in plain, blunt, Mark Antony fashion, de
clared that the Trust is not a political question ;
which is undeniably true, as the people must
sometime learn. It is no more a question for
politics than is the partnership of a firm of gro
cers. "There is just as much Democratic as Re
publican money in the Trusts," he declares; and
he is in a position to know, if his opponents may
be believed !
The head of the Sugar Trust was asked a few
years ago, by a Senate Committee, "Do you con
tribute to campaign expenses?"
"We do."
"To which party do you contribute?"
"Depends upon circumstances."
"To which fund do you contribute in Massa
chusetts ?"
"The Republican."
"To which in New York?"
"The Democratic."
"To which in New Jersey?"

132 OTHER ESSAYS.
"I will have to look at the books. That is a
doubtful State."
ETHICS FOR THE STATE.
How shall the State rear up good citizens?
What shall be its theory of ethics? What in
fluences shall it bring to bear upon the crim
inal? These are vital questions, which our wise
men must answer wisely, if the State is to per
sist. There are doubts and questionings in the air.
The Ten Commandments are no longer blindly
obeyed merely because they are ancient and ven
erable. Men are growing bold, and daring to
examine all things, even the Sacred Law of old.
"Thou shalt not steal." Who is this Moses,
who comes to us with his "Thus saith the Lord" ?
"Ah, but the jail, the scaffold ; we must respect
these, even though we repudiate Moses and his
God, with the Tables of the Law."
So? and is this at last the safe-guard of the
State, the foundation of our ethics? Shall Fear
be the only god in our pantheon whom we must
at last respect? Then indeed let us arise and
gird on our armor, for no man's life or estate is
safe. The State knows no ethics. It knows only
expediency, safety. Its argument is a club, a

OTHER ESSAYS. 133
bullet, a jail, a scaffold. It says, "Let a man
hold what theory he will. We are concerned
only with his acts. Let him worship God, or
fellowship with Satan ; hold with Moses and Je
sus, or break all the sacred tablets ; let him be
Christian, pagan, scoffer, philosopher, what he
will; we ask only that he shall abide by our or
dinances of public safety. If he steal, and be
found out, we have our penalty ; but with his re
lations to God and his own soul we have no
business." This is a shallow policy, fit only for slaves and
idiots. Shall not the State deal with man as with
a living soul? Is man a beast, to be chained,
caged, beaten into brute submission? Our jails
are not strong enough to hold this wild beast,
Man. Our chains snap asunder. Our weapons
glance and do not kill his wickedness.
I rejoice that the spirit of man cannot be thus
tamed and subjugated. I rejoice that there are
men who break all chains and bars, beat down
all opposers, and escape to Liberty. The State
wants citizens, not slaves. Let us have Men,
not beasts muzzled.
When you have tamed and broken your wild
man by these brute methods, what is he? No
more a man, but a poor craven beast, fit only to
come and go at some hard master's bidding.

134 OTHER ESSAYS.
Your institutions are weakest where you think
them strongest. Your bad man is caught, your
worst man remains at large. Your jail holds
only the weaklings of Satan. His lords and
barons laugh at your bolts and bars.
Is there no higher law than these which you
have written on your statute books? If not,
alas for the State !
What is my remedy? Education, instruction,
exkortation. The day is past when men can be
governed by superstition or brute force. The
Church, the State, were once clothed with ma
jesty and power. Men fell down and worshipped
the one, or stood with bowed head to receive the
admonition of the other. But for thousands of
men today priest and king have played their part
and made their exit from the stage of life. They
are tolerated, respected, but not feared or
obeyed. The radical citizen demands freedom, in
thought, speech, action. If he is restricted, he is
chafed. He will be free, though the State dis
solve and the heavens fall. He will respect his
neighbor's rights, but will assert his own. If the
Church or the State prohibit him, he demands
reasons. Failing to receive them, he follows his
inclinations, but secretly, and with circumspec
tion.

OTHER ESSAYS. 135
The ideal State is that in which all restraint is
voluntary self-restraint. All government which
subjugates is, so far, bad. Its restrictive and pu
nitive institutions are a confession of weakness
and failure. They are evil, even though justi
fiable from the standpoint of expediency.
We must aim higher. We cannot control men
by physical means alone. Man is a spirit, not a
body merely. The spirit in men laughs at chains,
jails, scaffolds. Even the criminal may be a
transcendentalist, and stand unmoved before
juries and their verdicts, judges and their de
crees. He may break your statute law, and yet
be a martyr to the law of Freedom. Better a free
criminal than a caged and fettered saint.
How to organize these sentiments into a sys
tem, how to apply them in the treatment of our
ignorant and criminal classes, is the duty of the
statesman. Let us for a time neglect tariffs and
finances, if we must, and give some attention to
this vital subject.
The State must not join hands with an institu
tional Church to accomplish this needed work.
Science and superstition cannot work together.
But there may be a secular ethics, as there is a
secular physiology and psychology. Ethics must
be rooted in the Cosmos, not merely in tradi
tional religion.

136 OTHER ESSAYS.
If the Laws of the Universe protect and up
hold crime, it is futile for either Church or State
to attempt its eradication. But if there are Laws
of Right and Wrong in nature, they may be dis
covered and taught by the State, as the laws of
gravity are.
The State instructs the farmer how to raise
wheat and corn. Shall it not instruct us how to
raise Men? It teaches the farmer how to eradi
cate weeds and parasites. Shall it not instruct
us how to eradicate vice and evil ? Are not Men
the most important crop which can be produced
in any nation? Let us have a Bureau of An
thropology, with daily bulletins.
THE TYRANNY OF THE TRUST.
While we are talking about the tyranny of the
trust, let us not forget that there are many kinds
of trusts and many kinds of tyranny.
The workingman, too, has his trust ; namely,
the labor union; organized and maintained for
the benefit of its members, conducted on princi
ples no less selfish, no less oppressive to the rest
of society, than are the principles on which the
trust of the capitalist is organized.
Do you not conspire, my good workingmen, do
you not verily plot together how you may extort
higher wages from your employer?

OTHER ESSAYS. 137
Do you not seek by all means, fair or unfair, to
get and keep a monopoly of your particular kind
of labor, to be sold only for such prices as you
may fix, be the needs of your employer and the
public what they may ?
Your trust, my good workingman, adopts
methods which no capitalistic trust has yet dared
to employ. What capitalistic trust or corpora
tion has yet dared to say to the public : "Buy our
goods willingly, at our price, or we will force
you? If you dare to buy elsewhere, or adopt a
substitute, we will stone you, shoot you, dyna
mite your homes, burn and destroy the property
of those whom you would patronize instead of
us!" And yet, this is often the policy of working-
men incited by mistaken leaders.
You have a right to demand higher wages, my
friends, and so has the capitalist a right to de
mand higher prices for his goods ; but neither has
a right to coerce the public market.
So great is the sympathy of the public for
workingmen, that the tyranny of the labor union
is tolerated with little criticism, while the capi
talistic trust is made the object of universal
reprobation. Let us have fair play, brother. It is a selfish

138 OTHER ESSAYS.
struggle on both sides. Let not pot call kettle
black. Out of all this strife, order and justice will
emerge, if we let the Natural Laws have their
course. Let your trust fix its prices ; let your
labor union fix its scale of wages. The public
will determine whether it will pay these prices.
Selfishness forever overreaches its own ends.
When we forget or ignore the Great Laws, and
seek to rob our brother by injustice, then falls
our clever scheme, and we are balked.
So long as the labor union does not try to pre
vent the employer from hiring cheaper men, so
long as the trust does not try to force the public
to buy certain goods at certain prices, these or
ganizations can do no great harm. They may
make certain demands ; but conditions which they
cannot control will determine whether these de
mands will be met.
The price of a thing at last is determined by
the needs of the purchaser. How much will you
pay, rather than do without this thing, or use
something else instead of it?
Some will pay more than you. Some not so
much. The mean is the maximum price. Above
this, no trust can force its prices, though it had
omnipotent power, and all monopoly, and could
command armies and Senates to aid its purpose.

OTHER ESSAYS. 139
How much will you pay for certain labor?
How much can you pay, considering the state
of the market for your goods ?
This is the maximum wage. No labor union,
no striking or rioting, can force wages above this
figure, though legions of angels were to help the
cause of the strikers.
There are certain Laws, my brother, which
neither you nor I, nor any workingman nor capi-
taHst, ever made or modified, or ever can.
Let us get sight of These, and learn to trust
in Them. They are the Supreme Laws. Be
yond Them is no appeal. No man, no deity, can
set Them aside. When your Labor Union and
your Trust perceive these Laws and their Ma
jesty, there will be less folly to make the angels
weep.
OUR BEST DEFENSES.
The best safeguard of any nation is not its
army and navy, its police and militia, but its well-
diffused Productions.
Our best defenses are not muskets and can
non, forts and battleships ; but steam engines,
looms, reapers and threshers, lumber mills, and
other agencies for the creation of wealth.
Famine cannot conquer a people who are

I40 OTHER ESSAYS.
armed with these weapons ; but cannon and mus
kets are powerless against such a foe.
When men are prosperous they are slow to
mutiny. It is your hungry mobs who overturn
thrones and senates. When corn is scarce, com
plaints are plentiful. These are a crop that
yields best in years of famine.
Democracy, or any measure thereof, is safe only
whilst the people are prosperous and satisfied.
Let famine appear, and wave his gaunt arms in
the land, and lo, thousands rally and follow him
to political folly or fields of riot and bloodshed.
Those who have bread, however justly they got
it, shall now surrender it to hungry mobs. Those
who have plate, silken garments, elegant furnish
ings, are somehow conceived to be the authors of
the people's misery, and on them the wrath-
storms of the mob do break.
I do not say that rich men never oppress poor
men. I do not say that the madness of mobs is
never justifiable. But I do affirm, and history
bears me out, that when the common people suf
fer, the rich are not the only cause of it. They,
too, have their privations, in times of panic ; and
though they have bread to eat, and coal to warm
them, they do often suffer quite as keenly as the
poor. The poor man, at his humble board, where

OTHER ESSAYS. 141
bread and water may be the family fare, does not
realize what hardships the rich man suffers in
times of financial depression. He carries bur
dens the poor man knows not of. His days are
feverish with care, and his nights without re
freshing sleep. He must think not only of his
family but of the families of many others who
depend upon his business for their bread. If he
fail, scores, perhaps hundreds, fail with him.
Yet, in the midst of all his trials, when his
heart and his head ache with the burdens he car
ries, the poor man envies him, and sometimes
plots against his very life. Think of this, broth
ers, when you assemble in mad council to de
nounce the rich man. Think of this, when you
are plotting to explode dynamite under his resi
dence or factory.
THE CURE FOR RIOTING.
There is certainly no excuse for violence in this
land, in the interests of poor men's rights. If
men cannot content themselves to get their de
sired ends by ballots, shall they be allowed to get
them by bullets ?
Ballots are bad enough, in the hands of mad
men. What shall we do when they resort to
muskets and dynamite?
In desperate cases, desperate measures are

142 OTHER ESSAYS.
justified, to preserve the peace. If men will not
be quiet, we must make them so. "He that taketh
the sword shall die by the sword." When your
workingmen, or (most likely), your idle men,
seize armSj to intimidate their employers or other
workingmen (or men who wish to work), it is
time that the State should rouse from its torpor,
and stretch out its arm to protect its loyal sub
jects. If there must be bloodshed, let there be blood
shed. This fever of riot will abate, when suf
ficient blood has been let.
Let the State beware of hasty anger. Let it
beware of partisanship. But let it not hesitate
to shed blood in the interests of law and justice.
We often hear the assertion that the militia is
never called out in the interests of the working-
men, but only to protect the property of the rich.
If this be so, why is it?
Surely, because only the property of the rich
is threatened with destruction !
Your mad mobs do not attack and destroy the
homes of workingmen. If they threaten the lives
of workingmen it is to prevent them from work
ing, when certain other workingmen have struck !
In such a case, the State should call its militia,
to protect the workingmen who wish to work.
Demagogues call this protecting the employer.

OTHER ESSAYS. 143
and intimidating the employees ! So distorted is
the vision of him who has resolved to look only
for his own selfish interests !
In this Republic, we have agreed to refer all
questions of politics to the ballot. Since we have
so compacted, let us abide by our agreement, and
put down all appeals to violence.
If we must use artillery in the interests of
peace, let it be used in time. Let us blow some
of these wild ruffians into the air, before they
succeed in blowing other and better citizens
there !
Are these harsh methods, which I propose?
Then is the knife of the surgeon harsh when
used to cut out a cancerous or gangrened spot
which threatens the body's health.
Our tenderness toward the ruffian may be
harshest cruelty toward the State. We need
brave men in executive offices, who will neither
fear nor flatter the mob. When our public of
fices hang upon the favor of mobs, chaos is come.
Justice flees from the land where her ministers
dare not defend her. Public peace is not to be
purchased by timidity or fear. Only the brave
deserve the boon of peace. Cowards will not
long enjoy it.

144 OTHER ESSAYS.
PRACTICAL WISDOM.
The value of any man's writing or speaking
lies in his interpretation of his own experience.
So far as I can apply wisdom to my own affairs,
they become of interest and value to other peo
ple. If I am overcome and defeated by my af
fairs ; if I am utterly routed and driven from the
field, why should I tell other people how to fight ?
Here is my kitchen, with its multitude of
problems. Shall I run away from it, and leave
some poor Bridget to fight the battle? If I do,
what right have I to complain when victory
leaves my domestic banners? Why should I de
sert my post, and yet expect a barbarian lieuten
ant to hold the fort against the enemy?
Your wisdom, my good philosopher, is halt
and blind, if it limp and stumble in the kitchen,
the dining room, the parlor. Let it not go
abroad, to stalk bravely in public highways, until
it have learned to use its eyes and legs at home.
Will you shout in the Senate, good man, and tell
the Nation how to bake its bread, when you have
miserably run away from your own kitchen?
Stand by, stand by, and see that your own house
' is in order, before you essay to keep house for
the Nation.
Good preacher, does your chimney draw? Is

OTHER ESSAYS. 145
your cellar sweet and clean? Does your roof
leak? Look to these things, and then come and
preach to your people. Do not defer perfection
even in little things until you get to heaven. Do
you know how your pie is made? Do you know
the constitutent elements thereof? Do not ask
a blessing on your dinner until you have exam
ined its credentials. Taste and see that the lard
is good. Eat no stale meats for conscience' sake.
The Lord's supper is not more worthy of your
attention than is the supper served daily at your
own table. Look to the elements thereof. Do
not attack original sin while there is anything
in your pantry which ought to be reformed. Cast
out the devils from your own house, and then you
shall have power to cast them out of other
houses also.
THE RICHES OF THE POOR.
It seems to me that the education of any man
is incomplete, and he is unable to properly appre
ciate the blessings of our wondrous civilization,
who has never lived for a time in a condition of
semibarbarism. We are born into this heritage
of the ages, this structure which we call civiliza
tion, the accumulated labors of so many cen
turies, and we do not properly appreciate it for
lack of contrast. We think we are poor, and we

146 OTHER ESSAYS.
talk of poverty that accompanies progress, and
many of us bewail our lot, envying our neigh
bors their greater possessions. But we do not
know that the poorest of us is rich, compared
with the average condition of life a few cen
turies ago. It is a characteristic of human na
ture that we soon become indifferent to our pos
sessions, and however much we have, we cry for
more. So nimble is the fancy and so insatiable
are the desires of man, that no condition is so
good but that we can imagine a better, and no
wealth so great but that we wish it greater.
The education of any individual is incomplete,
then, unless it includes at least a brief experience
in that primitive life which was the best that
princes had a few centuries ago. Let a man go
into the wilderness and pitch his lodge there,
building with what materials he finds at hand,
adapting his desires to his facilities, and deter
mining within himself to be content with what
he has, and he will learn lessons that no school
or college ever taught its pupils. With a little
canvas, costing perhaps three or four dollars,
some boards picked up where wind or tide has
left them, some rusty nails drawn from these
same boards, and with none of the tools of civil
ization save an axe, a saw, and a hammer, let
him build a habitation for himself. Let him for

OTHER ESSAYS. 147
dishes use sea shells, tin cans, or whatever he
may find in the back yard of civilization ; let him
sleep on a bedstead of boards, with perhaps a
mattress of dried grass ; for chairs, use boxes ;
for a table, a shelf of boards ; let him, I say, try
an experiment of this kind, and he will very soon
reaHze his immense debt to civilization ; the im
mense debt of even the poorest man to the past
ages. And I think that if he has ever complained
of poverty, he will never do so again, however
seeming hard his portion in society may be.
We use our blessings thoughtlessly, carelessly,
with no proper appreciation of their worth. The
commonest things in the poorest household rep
resent the thought and labor of centuries. From
the tallow dip to the kerosene lamp is a longer
way than people who use lamps are commonly
aware. Give me a list of the things used in the
poorest household, and I will convince the own
ers that they are richer than Julius Csesar was.
Our young men envy the fame of ancient
worthies, but lament their own poverty in the
midst of a wealth such as these same ancients
never saw. How poor was Homer, Virgil, Cic
ero, Demosthenes, Plutarch, not to mention Dio
genes, Socrates, Epictetus, compared with the
poorest schoolboy of today.
I look over the scanty array of goods in my

148 OTHER ESSAYS.
camp, an outfit which would surely entitle me to
the reputation of poverty in any village or city,
and I wonder as I look at each article whether
the civilization of Greece or Rome could have
furnished anything to be compared with it. First,
here is this pen with which I am writing, and
the ink into which I dip it. Instead of steel pens,
at a penny apiece, the ancient used a stylus, or a
quill, or a sharpened reed. Instead of a fine
linen paper, of marvelous texture, he used the
bark of trees, or the skins of beasts. I thought it
fine, last summer, in the Adirondacks, to write
some letters to my distant friends upon white
birch bark, freshly peeled from the tree. There
was a poetry in the act, and my words gained
somewhat, I doubt not, from the fragrance of
the bark and the atmosphere of the forest which
it conveyed ; but suppose I were compelled al
ways to use that bark? suppose it were the only
available material for books and papers ? I think
I appreciate my linen paper better after using
birch bark for a few times.
Before me Hes a box of parlor matches. They
cost but a penny a box, but what a convenience !
Think of the flint and steel, my young friend,
every time you strike a match, and try to realize
your advantage over Caesar and Cicero in this
one respect. On the table lies my watch, ticking

OTHER ESSAYS. 149
away the seconds of time. Compare this won
drous mechanism with the sundial, the water-
clock, or the hourglass of the ancients There is
no home so poor but that the clock is found in it ;
and yet the home of Virgil, or Caesar, or Cicero
did not contain that common article.
On my table are a few books, — only a few, for
I came out from civilization to get away from
books and all the cares and anxieties connected
with them. Think of what is meant by a book,
even the cheapest, a five-cent pamphlet. It brings
to mind a whole train of activities which were
unknown to the ancient world. The typesetter,
the pressman, the binder, are but three in a thou
sand occupations involved in the production and
deHvery of this book. The paper of which it is
made represents a vast industry, which takes you
into the cotton fields or the woods for the stock ;
into the alleys of cities with the rag-picker ; into
the paper mill, the wholesale house, the freight
car, the express wagon, the printing office ; and
at last into one of Uncle Sam's mail pouches,
where the little pamphlet rode safely and swiftly
to your distant home.
Think of the train of industries which are in
volved in the manufacture of a common pam
phlet, I say, and then try to appreciate the art
which gives you the company of the greatest

150 OTHER ESSAYS.
souls in the world's past history. Think of what
a book meant in ancient times, when all books
were slowly and toilsomely copied by slaves, and
often the cost of a single volume would buy a
modern library. Think of this, I say, when you
pick up the cheapest pamphlet, and treat it with
as much reverence as its contents will permit. A
mere book, without reference to its contents, is a
thing to be wondered at ; how priceless, then, is
a good book, which brings to me the thought of
a great soul. He was himself, perhaps, isolated,
unsocial, in his own day ; and but for this book,
even his associates would not have known him
truly; how great is its value, then, to me, who
would not even have heard of him, much less
communed with his immortal thought, were it
not for this book.
And so I look over the few articles on my rude
table, articles which are found in the poorest
homes in the land, and I find that they connect
me with a world such as Caesar and Cicero never
dreamed of, in the splendor of old Roman days.
I perceive that poverty in the nineteenth century
is better than was the wealth of the olden times ;
and as fraternal love increases among men, and
the benefits of this wondrous civilization are
more and more diffused among the people, the
estate of the humblest shall be better than that
of lords and princes in the ancient world.

OTHER ESSAYS. 151
SOCIALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM.
Our "advanced thinkers" who are crying for
Socialism should stop and consider the relation
of majority rule to individual freedom. Social
ism, like all other forms of Government control,
means the domination of the minority by the ma
jority. The freedom of the minority is something
which the average Socialist does not consider;
but it must be considered, and largely realized, by
any system worthy the name of philosophy.
A church establishment, supported by the
State, is one of the most offensive features of this
sort of "Government." People who want such
an establishment should be free to have it, but
they should also be free to pay for it. Why
should they tax for its support those who have
no use for it? In America, we have no State
church, but we exempt church property from
taxation, which is another way of compelling
those who do not want the services of the church
to help support the institution. The assumption
is, that all people need the church, and are di
rectly or indirectly benefited by its ministrations ;
and herein is the danger of all such paternalism
in Government. When one body of people as
sume to say what is best for another body of peo-

152 OTHER ESSAYS.
pie, they are quite likely to make mistakes ; and
if they insist upon carrying out their ideas, they
are quite likely to become tyrannical and op
pressive. Individual freedom is yet a long way off in
America, notwithstanding our noisy celebrations
of Independence. Our Eagle screams vocifer
ously, and spreads his broad wings in exultation
over the Freedom we have achieved ; but those
who look closest find that our Freedom is yet
largely an empty name. The fact is, the develop
ment of the principle of Freedom among us is
scarcely yet begun; and the efforts of socialists
to make "Government" the owner and manager
of all things is not in the direction of greater lib
erty. It is not necessary, even if it were advisable,
to institute an elaborate socialism, in order that
"the people" may own and manage the industrial
resources of the country. The only way for "the
people" to own and manage industries is to buy
them, with legitimate money. Let those who
have money, and who wish to participate in these
enterprises, acquire stock in them, in a business
like manner. Why should I be unwillingly taxed
to buy stock in a particular industry, any more
than to buy an interest in a church ?
If we do not like the prices which a certain

OTHER ESSAYS. 153
corporation charges us for its products, we have
a perfect right to go into business for ourselves,
or agree to patronize some other corporation.
We have no right to drive the offending corpora
tion out of business by the force of legislation, or
by condemning and confiscating its property. If
we must fight the Devil, let us fight him with fire,
not with holy water. Let us meet him upon his
own ground, with his own weapons, not appeal
to mere force of numbers, which is at last an ap
peal to arms.
Ballots at last rest upon bullets. We enact a
law that the corporation shall sell us its business
at a certain figure. This means that we will come
with guns and take this business at this figure,
if said corporation dare to object to our legisla
tion. Is this Justice? Is this Liberty?
WORLD-CONQUERERS OF TODAY.
Is it not possible that our traditions of culture
are somewhat musty and antiquated? For cen
turies it has been the habit to cast some reproach
upon business. Literature, law, medicine, sci
ence, philosophy, have been deemed worthy ob
jects for intellectual energy ; but manufacture and
trade have not been quite respectable.
Our twentieth century will see a change in

154 OTHER ESSAYS.
these traditions. Under the new and complex
conditions of modern industrial life, business suc
cess depends upon intellectual gifts of as high an
order as were ever required for success in the so-
called professions.
The successful merchant or manufacturer of
today is no village magnate, but a world-con
queror, like Alexander or Caesar of old. Vast
schemes of conquest are planned and carried out
under his direction. Fleets of ships obey his or
ders. Vast systems of railways and telegraphs
serve his aims. Armies of men await his pleaure.
Can any common brain command such vast re
sources, plan and fitly execute such vast designs ?
Let me sing thy praises, O man of affairs, im
mersed in these wide-throbbing energies. Let
Virgil sing of arms and the man who wielded
them; let me be the bard of the conquerors of
trade. These are the agencies that are redeeming this
world from savagery and darkness. 'Tis here
upon this earth that man must find his heaven.
Withdraw thy gaze, O yearning poet, from the
cloud-realms of the great beyond. Look here;
— and in the conquests of science and invention
thou shalt see the redemption of the race.
Come forth from thy dim speculations, O mys
tic soul, thy search after Spirit and its native

OTHER ESSAYS. 155
realm; and see that here upon this time-scarred
earth are all the forces of the Creative Spirit man
ifest. In flower and tree, in bird and beast, in
all the beauty that doth clothe the earth, thou
shalt behold the revelations of that Spirit which
thou art seeking in the dim beyond.
Here, on. this earth, is man's divinest home.
Around him burst on every side the revelations
of Creative Life.
Let us be bold and free, O brothers all; and
wait no more for visions from beyond, but turn
our eyes to see the glories here and now in this
our living world ! Here is our heaven, here our
true abode. Here, in the pulsing energies of
this great world, we shall outwork our highest
aims. Go forth and conquer, O aspiring soul. Sit
not at home in idle dreaming. No world is fairer
than this earth of ours. It calls us from the si
lence and the dream, and bids us Act and Con
quer. Not in the airy nothings of the poet's dream
world shall our valor find its free expression ;
but in this our actual world; this world of dust
and smoke, this world of rocks and soil. ^
Here is our field of battle. Let us go forth to
win. We shall not find a worthier field. To
grasp the plow, to wield the sounding hammer.

156 OTHER ESSAYS.
to guide the cunning engine in the mill; to dig
and carve and delve ; to plow and execute the
vast designs of trade ; — these are thy victories, O
valiant soul, in this our throbbing world.
MY PHILOSOPHY.
I am living in this world, and am saturated
with its Realities. Spectral Other-worlds exist
not for mfe, whilst I dwell in this. I eat, drink,
sleep, breathe, as performing a Divine Ritual.
These acts to me are highest worship, for
through them only are all other acts performed.
The earth, the sea, the sky, are divine. Life
is a continual miracle.
I recognize the difference between Noumenon
and Phenomenon, and know that Diversity is but
the mask of Unity; but whilst I am myself a
Phenomenon, I will live true to Phenomena. I
will not mourn that I cannot adjust the facts of
the material world to the Laws of the Spiritual.
I am content to know that each at last consists
with the other, and that both are one in the Uni
versal Order.
I recognize Appetite, Passion, Desire, Action,
as attributes of Man in Time, which are not to
be denied, but guided by Reason. Whilst I am
here, in the realm of Phenomena, I will live true
to them, and not accuse my life with continual

OTHER ESSAYS. 157
negations and suppressions. I am here to Live,
not to Die: and Life is Action, not Repression.
When man has discovered the prime Secret of
life, namely, that his nature is Spiritual and Uni
versal, then first can he rightly live in the Phe
nomenal. If he abuse this Secret, by making of
it a Doctrine, by dwelling in it abstractly, as some
of the Hindus did, he forfeits his Power, and be
comes a Nonentity. His life then is the chief il
lusion among all Illusions.
Air is the life of the body ; but shall we stop
breathing to contemplate that fact? Life for us
exists only as we appropriate it through Action.
When we cease to Act, we cease to exist.
This, then, is my World-philosophy, which I
propose to live by, and to die by if that be neces
sary. DIVINE LIFE.
I am sure that no son of God ever wrought in
more divine elements than these by which we are
surrounded here. I am sure that the miracles of
Christ were no greater ones than these that we
common mortals perform in our every-day tasks.
The forces that ally themselves with the work
of the laborer today are the same that Christ com
manded, the same that Moses wrought upon in
his Egyptian marvels; and though the ends be

158 OTHER ESSAYS.
different, the power that uses them is ever the
same. Do not, O zealous preacher, separate these acts
of common humanity from the realm of miracle !
Do not say, Christ wrought miracles, but all
other men perform common acts. All the acts
of man are miracles.
Who can explain the simplest act of any man?
A shovel full of dirt is composed of most won
drous potencies. These atoms vibrate to unseen
and unknown forces. The forces of the stars
play upon them; gravity, saturating all the infi
nite spaces, saturates this dirt also, and binds it
to the distant stars; love and hate play among
these atoms ; attraction and repulsion ; they are
Alive and Conscious ; they know their place, and
keep it ; they obey the word of Creative Life, and
rise to clothe the Thoughts of God in beauty.
They play at transformation constantly, and take
now one form, now another; and they form in
the course of the circling ages the countless
masks worn by the ever-changing Spirit of Life.
One endless flux, one never-ceasing round of
change, engages them. Who shall say that they
are common and cheap? Who shall scorn them,
in their humblest form? They are Divine. Let
us handle them with reverence.
It is our blindness that makes the world com-

OTHER ESSAYS. 159
mon, and our life cheap and uninteresting. It is
our ignorance that leads us to place divinity else
where, to think of God as afar off, in some other
world, any other than this in which we now dwell.
God (that is but one name for it) is the Spirit
that is in all things, in every place ; and it is re
vealed only by this spiritual perception. The
perception of the ancient seer can not reveal God
to us of today. We may or may not believe their
report ; the fact remains that we must see God
with our own eyes before we can know that He
exists. Books do not reveal God. They only record
the revelations which other men enjoyed,
through their vision ; and if we would know that
God Is, we must see Him as these other il
lumined men saw Him.
What we commonly call belief in God is only
belief in a tradition. We hear that Moses saw
God, that Jesus knew Him, and we accept these
reports, in the faith of our simple hearts. But
we do not thus believe in God.
The true aim of religion is not to teach men
that God revealed Himself to Moses, or some
other man of old ; but to show how they may see
Him for themselves today. When we ourselves
have seen God, we can very well spare the vision
of Moses. We are not then deeply concerned to

i6o OTHER ESSAYS.
know whether Moses really saw Him. We do
not care whether Moses was a man or a tradition ;
whether Christ Jesus was a person or an ideal ;
for we have now gained through our own facul
ties what these men are supposed to reveal
unto us.
Thus the true Bible is life itself, — the sincere,
earnest, illumined life, in which man dwells con
stantly with the Divine Spirit, and reads the reve
lations of Its presence in all the forms of nature.
There are other worlds in this universe, other
lives for man; but there is no world in which
God dwells more truly than in this one, and no
life in which the soul can know God by methods
different from those by which He is known here
¦and now. We think, or are told, that when we
go to heaven, we shall see God. But if we see
Him anywhere in this universe, it will be through
that spiritual perception which is ours to use
here and now.
When we truly see and know God, science can
never take our knowledge from us. Then, the
more we know of nature, the more we shall see
of God. Every truth of science then becomes a
revelation. Science may well deny the doctrines
of God which the church too often teaches; but
the work of true science is a never-ending un-

OTHER ESSAYS. i6i
veiling of God ; ? a ceaseless revealing of His
Presence in the world.
Science does not speak of God in the language
of the Church, and so the Church does not under
stand her; but the Church must learn the lan
guage of science. Then she will understand the
gospel of Nature, and find a tongue in every tree,
a book in every running brook, telling of the God
whose Spirit is the Life in all living things.
What we need to save us from atheism is not
a better theology, but a better perception ; a per
ception to which God is as patent as the light of
day ; by which we live in the Divine Presence,
and feel that Holy Spirit which has inspired all
true Scriptures in the past. We ask the Church
for God, and she points to the past. She should
point to the present.
MIRACLES OF MAN.
Yesterday I saw the huge engines at the city
water works. Here is the mighty heart which
sends the blood of the great city pulsing through
its arteries. Like the revolution of a planet is the
mighty wheel in its ceaseless motion. Here are
Miracles! Men prate of ancient miracles, and
think this age profane. Never before were such
Miracles !
Here is a Church. Here is Holy Water, to

i62 OTHER ESSAYS.
bless the people. Yon sooty engineer is the High
Priest in this temple of Man. Look, ye wor
shippers of musty traditions, ye backward-look
ers toward tombs and sepulchres, here is a Liv
ing Deity! The Fire-gods are here, roaring in
yonder furnaces. The Water-gods are here,
sporting in their native element. Here are occult
powers, gods and demons of old Chaos, bound
Sampson-like to turn the mills of men.
Who would see Miracles ? Let him enter here
and look. The "Son of God" could not work
such Miracles ! The world needed these Mira
cles. The Silence spoke not. Jesus tame, suf
fered, disappeared; but squalor and want re
mained. Jesus spoke words. These men have
done great deeds.
In this Church there is no creed, no liturgy;
but Works. The world has had faith, but faith
without Works is dead. By such Works shall
Man be saved, not by faith alone. Yet still the
masses worship the musty miracles of old.
Look at these wondrous engines, ye foolish
worshippers ! Did your "saviour" make such
things ? You say he could turn water into wine.
Here is your Water-Miracle! This gives
drink to a City. And did not God make these
wondrous engines? Yea, verily. God made
them ; for what God is there but this that works

O T H E R E S S A Y S. 163
and speaks in Man? This is the God that made
and maketh all things ; worlds, trees, beasts, men,
and the works of men.
I speak not in parables, to astonish and con
fuse. I speak plain words, to enlighten men.
This wondrous engine is part of the moving
Universe. It is one with the Machinery of the
Stars. The same Intelligence produced this
which produced sun and moon. I will not wor
ship your god, my zealous brother, for he is a
poor, impotent thing sitting in abject idleness on
a distant throne. My God is Alive in all things
that live and act. I cannot go from His Pres
ence, nor escape the sound of His Voice. I hear
it in the hum of wheels, in the puffing of
great engines, in the sound of winds and waters,
in the notes of birds, in the voice of man. Your
god has been silent these hundreds of years. If
he is alive, let him speak. If he is not impotent,
let him do something to help his children. Keep
silence, brother ; if god is alive, he can make him
self known. He does not need your apologies.
Do you not see that you are merely drawing
the people's attention to yourself ? The god you
speak of is a myth to them. You cannot prove
his existence by words. Point to his works.
What are these? Are they some ancient mira
cles? Who, or what, then, is working these

i64 OTHER ESSAYS.
Miracles of today ? What makes the grass grow,
the flowers blossom? What makes the egg
hatch, and the mother bring forth her young?
What makes the seed germinate, and the corn
grow? Ah, my brother, you do not know? Then
cease your chatter about "god." Pore no more
over musty books, seeking a record of what some
other has seen and known of God. Look around
you, and you shall see God for yourself. Then
you can speak as one having authority, and not
merely as the scribes.
This is the Gospel not of prayers, not of psalm-
tunes and muttered words merely, but of Work.
He who works, shall preach this Gospel. He
who invents, creates, controls, shall be an apostle
of this Gospel. His intimate relation to this
God, the indwelling of this God in him, shall be
shown by the works he does. The miracles of
old Gospels shall be but vain and startling magic-
shows, compared with the miracles of these mod
ern Sons of God. These are your real miracles,
— these wondrous engines, machines, inventions.
Watt, Stephenson, Morse, Edison, Bell, — these,
and their like, are your true workers of miracles.
Their miracles are permanent. Their gift in
deed descends to their disciples, and to all pos
terity.

OTHER ESSAYS. 165
THE VOICE OF LOVE.
What husband has forgotten the soft tones
with which he wooed and won his maiden love?
He would no sooner have wounded her tender
heart with cold and cruel words than he would
have smitten her blushing cheek with his
clenched hand.
The warbling of robins and blue birds, the soft
cooing of doves, are harsh beside the thrilling
tones of the lover's voice, uttering the affections
of his heart. Why should the voice ever lose
those musical tones, and acquire the harsh growl
of the tiger?
The red bow of the lips should never shoot
the fire-tipped arrows of hate and wrath, but
only the rose-wreathed darts of love.
Listen to the young mother singing her lullaby
over the cradle of her first-born. Like ripples of
joy upon a sea of peace the notes of her song
float out upon the air, and the spirit of the babe
is lulled into happy rest. No song of angels be
fore the dread Jehovah's throne was ever half
so beautiful and sweet as the song of a mother
singing to her child. The golden harps of
heaven might well be used to sound an accom
paniment to such a song.
But why should this divine, angelic music ever

i66 OTHER ESSAYS.
die out of the mother's voice? Why should it
not sound forever new and sweet in the ears of
the child, the youth, the growing man?
Why should the harsh hand of passion ever
smite the golden chords of the heart, and change
the harmonies of love into the discordant notes
of anger? Is this high music of love too fine
for earth, that it should so soon die out of hu
man souls? Must we wait for heaven to fill our
souls with that sweet music? Why may we not
fill the earth with this divine melody, so that hu
man life everywhere shall harmonize with the
soft notes of birds, the rustle of winds through
leafy boughs, and the chiming music of waves
upon the beach?
The lark and the mocking bird daily set the
pitch for us, to which our voices should be tuned ;
but alas! we heed them not.
The stars look down on us to admonish us that
there is music among the spheres, tho' earth's air
be filled with discords. The stellar spaces are
full of music, tho' our souls be empty of it.
Among the glad harmonies of Creation, that
have rolled thro' time and eternity, the song of
the human soul should be the gladdest and sweet
est of all. Man should be a pipe for the spirit
of the Most High to breath its melodies on and
through. Let us often affirm this truth, and lis-

OTHER ESSAYS. 167
ten for the earthly echoes of that celestial music,
and the air of earth shall be laden with harmony.
Divine voices shall speak and sing to us, and we
shall know that Life is one with Joy.

FROM "SOCIAL LAWS."
The following paragraphs are selected, almost
at random, from SOCIAL LAWS, a new and
timely book by Solon Lauer, author of "Mark
Hanna, a Sketch From Life ; and other Essays ;"
"Life and Light from Above;" etc., etc. Nike
Publishing House, Cleveland, O.
THE SPIRIT OF ANARCHY.
Though there are comparatively few persons
in the United States who are painfully poor, there
are probably several millions who think them
selves so. They compare their possessions with
the possessions of the wealthy, and their envy
is aroused. They forget that wealth is not the
only thing unequally distributed in this world;
that power, health, wisdom, talent, virtue are also
distributed with most emphatic partiality. They
see this inequality of wealth, and, inflamed by the
incendiary appeals of "reformers," they begin to
complain, and to covet the wealth of their more
fortunate neighbors.
"This belongs to us ! It has been stolen from
us by these robbers ! It is right for us to seize
it, to reclaim it !"
The conservative socialist advises to reclaim it
by legislation ; the anarchist, by force.

"Voting is an illusion," says the anarchist ; and
at last the people are convinced. Then torch and
musket, bomb and cannon, perform what ballots
could not do; and the hell of revolution is at
hand.
BANISH VIOLENCE.
The guarantee of better times for you, my
friends, is in no manner of legislating, no sort of
instituted socialism; but in the eternal Laws,
which rule all things. These Laws will befriend
you, if you get yourselves upon their side. Put
away torches, muskets, bombs; burn your in
flammatory papers, which do but bring the tires
of hell into your hearts and homes; send your
loud-mouthed orators to Africa, where, amid des
ert sands, they may harangue and mutually de
vour one another, to your relief and eternal
salvation; and then do you begin to practice in
dustry, economy, temperance, virtue, patience.
Before you know it, the Kingdom has arrived.
I love you all, my brothers, but I will not flatter
you. I will not join in your savage outcry against
capital. I know your sorrows, for I have suf
fered most of them. I know the pinching grasp
of poverty. I know what it is to labor and to
wait. I know there are unworthy rich, — fools,
sensualists, — clad in gay apparel, and dwelling
in fine houses, feeding on the very essence of the

world's products, but rendering to mankind noth
ing in return ; slothful and vicious persons, living
upon their patrimony, while you must earn your
daily bread by the distillation of your very blood.
I know that hunger and disease, poverty and
squalor, stalk abroad in this great land of ours,
and flaunt their rags in the very faces of these
luxurious fops. But shall we, because of these
things, shriek at Fate, curse Government, impre
cate Capitalists, cry "Burn! kill! destroy?"
THE GOOD DESTINY.
Slowly the methods of industry are perfecting,
not through mad shouting of orators or fierce
scribbling of editors ; but through the experience
of business men themselves. Not these loud brawl
ers, not these wild-eyed scribblers, not these in
cendiary and bomb-armed anarchists shall bring
about the consummation devoutly to be wished;
but these very Capitalists, these Ogres, these De
mons, these Cut-throat Robbers, these Carcasses
whom you revile, they are to be your saviours.
Crucify them not. Ye know not what ye would
do! They are not gods, they are not saints; we
will grant, if you please, that many of them are
selfish, cruel, hard, Egyptian task-masters; yet
through such means doth the Destiny that rules
the world work out its intended Good to all.

THE MONOPOLY OF GENIUS.
The gifts of genius can never be distributed by
laws. Anarchy may destroy, but can never dis
tribute them. Who gave Shakespeare his dra
matic genius? Imagine a company of his con
temporaries rising up, and with endless discord
ant clamor demanding an equal distribution of
his gifts !
"Down with Shakespeare! He has absorbed
the wit and fancy of a whole generation into his
ponderous brain! We are poor. Our wits are
lean. With all our scratching, of heads and
pens, we write no Hamlet, no Macbeth. All
laurels are laid at his feet. We get none at all.
He is a Monopolist ; a tyrant of the empire of In
tellect. Let us abolish him, that we may all be
Shakespeares !"
"You caricature our arguments," protests the
socialist; "this is manifest absurdity and mad
ness !"
Ah! The reductio ad absurdum! Not more
absurd is this demand, that the gifts of literary
and musical genius should be equally distributed,
than the demand which socialism makes, that the
gifts of commercial genius shall be made common
to all men.
To be sure, we do not hear these Higher
Things so clamored for ! The wisdom of a Soc
rates, the virtue of a Jesus, the genius of a Bee-

thoven, a Raphael, a Shakespeare, we do not
cry out for, and demand the distribution of!
Well for us were it if these things might become
common ! The race sadly needs these things ; but
it cries out only for lower things !
All genius is one. The power to organize and
conduct vast industries is as much a gift of na
ture as is the power to write great dramas, or
compose sublime symphonies. Though it wreak
itself upon things rather than thoughts, it is yet
Genius; incommunicable, undistributable, above
legislation, above mobs. Envy may reach at it,
but can never grasp it. Hate may destroy it,
but can never share it. Because it is Power, it
will forever rule, in selfishness or love.
THE POOR MAN'S AGE.
All the institutions of the state and modern city
exist to the advantage of the poor man, but are
supported chiefly by the middle and upper classes.
The man who owns no foot of land walks over the
city's well-paved streets, enjoys its parks, its pub
lic libraries, its free lectures, and other benefi
cent institutions, though he pays no dollar to sup
port them. It is the poor man's age. Never be
fore was the poor man so rich a man; never he-
fore did he enjoy so many benefits for which he
does not pay; never before could he buy so many
useful and beautiful things for his dollar; and yet,

on every hand rises the cry, "The poor man is
oppressed, is robbed, is enslaved to cruel mas
ters!" On every side rise up blatant "reform
ers," inciting these "poor men" to riot, revenge,
and robbery.
WAGES FOR BRAIN WORKERS.
Shall business managers, in that socialistic
golden age, manage business for fun?
"They shall have a salary."
Are not wages, my brother, for boss and work
man alike, regulated by the law of supply and
(Jemand ? When you can get these business man
agers on better terms, by all means get them.
What hinders that you get them now? Ah!
They are scarce, and come high ! There are a
million moulders or pork-packers to one Carnegie
or Armour. These latter, then, must have good
pay. Are they not worth their price? They do
not compel us to pay them these high wages.
We pay because their services are cheap at the
price. A Paderezvski is not protected by laws or
trusts; he enters into no conspiracy with other
musicians to force up the price of tickets. Yet
he grows rich on the voluntary tributes of the
people who go to his recitals. Genius of any sort
is at last zvorth the highest price the world will
pay for its services. Shall Paderewski hire him
self to a socialistic community of music-lovers, to

play to them on a small salary ? Until Paderew-
skis are more common can any socialism bring
down their wages to the price of a street-organ
grinder ?
THE DUCK WITH ONE DUCKLING.
There is in these days of quacks one species
of quacking which is especially loud and clamor
ous ; namely, the quacking of the Duck with the
single Duckling. "Quack, quack; quick, quick;
see my duckling ; see my fine duckling ! Here is
your saviour, all ye ducks that have no duck-
pond; all ye ducks that have not corn enough;
quack, quack; quick, quick!"
And at the sound of this quacking all bereaved
and complaining ducks waddle quickly to see this
young messiah, who is to restore all duck-ponds
to their original owners, the Ducks ! With great
clamor and flapping of wings, with much stretch
ing of necks and gaping of bills, these pondless
ducks gather round the proud mother-duck, who
straightway, with such oracular gabblings as
have never before been heard in all Duckdom,
proceeds to show how this her young offspring,
hatched from an egg of her own laying, shall
lead all ducks to water, which shall be thence
forth theirs, theirs, to paddle in forevermore! If
any unfeathered biped shall thenceforth want this
water, to sail his ships on, or to turn his turbine

wheels, he shall pay huge tribute to these Ducks,
whose occupancy gives this water all its worth!
AH expense of Duckdom — coops, corn, repairs
of pond — shall be paid out of this tribute money.
Thus shall all Ducks be happy and prosperous,
and enabled, with protruding crops and well-
brushed, wiggling tail-feathers, to waddle about
quacking-out their contentment as Ducks were
ordained to do by the Creator of all Ducks !
LAND WINNERS AND LAND OWNERS.
"The land belongs to the people !" exclaim all
socialists, whether they swear "by George" or
"by Jove."
And who are the people? we must ask again.
The people! Is this some fanciful, airy race,
floating over our real and actual race, Hke the
gods of old Greece? Now it appears, now it is
gone ! Brother, it is a word used to juggle with !
There is no such "people !" There are individuals,
— men — strong, hairy, laboring and thinking men
— with hearts of flesh, and hot red blood in their
veins; with brains, more or less, in their round,
bony skulls ; but this "people" is a myth. Who
chop the trees, grub the brush, burn off the na
tive growth and plough up the wild land? Is it
the "people?" No, brother, this work is done
by certain men, of strong, brawny frame, of
brave, stout-beating heart. They do indeed own

this land; they win it, not from mere wild In
dians, but from wild Nature herself, by a valor
greater than that of armed soldiers. Shall they
not hold this land as theirs, bequeath it to their
children, sell it to other men, or do with it as
we all do with our own?
While lands and lords exist there will be land
lords. See how your magic works its own defeat.
You tax John Smith, landlord. Does John Smith
pay this tax? Not a penny of it, not a penny
of it, my man. The merchant who has his store
on this lot, does he pay this tax ? Not a penny of
it. To be sure. Smith the landlord hands this
money to the tax-collector ; Brown the merchant
hands the like amount to Smith ; but where does
Brown get it? From the added prices of his
goods. Who then pays this tax? Not Smith
nor Brown, but the dear people! Verily, the
dear people, my man!
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION.
Every new machine has been met with mingled
blessings and curses. There are those today
who denounce machinery; who would destroy it
all, in the supposed interests of manual workers,
and send the human race back to semi-barba
rism. Not so is the hand of progress moved for
ward upon the dial of human life. The principle
of economy of production is a safe and good prin-

ciple, wherever it is applied; whether through
machinery or through industrial organization.
It means at last, if not at first, better and cheaper
products for all the sons of men.
If laborers are free to combine, in the interests
of higher wages, why may not capitalists unite,
even in the interests of higher prices? If we are
to prohibit the latter by law, why not the former?
NATURAL ARISTOCRACY.
We want no mere mob rule in America. Let
Kings rule, as is their natural right. The value
of our Institutions consists in this, that they per
mit the true King, the natural ruler, to reach and
ascend his rightful throne.
We must not flatter the mob, more than the
monopolist. Let our speech be such as can be
heard by both, even though acceptable to neither.
It is not popular to defend the Capitalist. I do
not say he should always be defended ; but he
should have justice done him — he should have his
case fairly stated.
These men exist from Nature, not from our
industrial institutions. They rule because they
are born to do so. Sceptres belong to those who
can wield them, not to those whose palms itch
for them. Though these men were all killed. Na
ture would send more such to rule the masses.
These frogs need a king, though not one that

shall eat them up. No frog can rule the frogs,
though he puff himself never so big. Under
whatever disguise, we find that Power rules.
SATAN'S WILES.
Poor man, I know that often the tears of sor
row dim thine eyes ; that often the dust and smoke
of the factory dim them, so thou canst not see the
truth. Thou canst not see and understand these
Laws that rule thee over thy head. Thou art
engaged in tasks. Thou hearest the cry of thy
desires, and the desires of thy loved ones. Thou
seest rich men eating and drinking what thy
poverty has denied to thee. Thou seest them in
fine houses, rich apparel, which thou canst not at
tain. Is it to be wondered at that thou Hstenest
to the voice of the tempter, the cry of the "re
former," who promises thee all these fine king
doms of the earth if thou wilt but worship him?
I say unto thee, my friend, bid him sternly get
behind thee.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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