Governor, at that time a poor man, was really in grave distress. He constantly helped McKinley by loans, by taking care of notes and by the financing of his friend's campaigns. General Charles Grosvenor was another local politician who was very much beholden to Mr. Hanna for financial assistance. A friend or associate who had any claim at all could depend on him for effective help; and sometimes the need of help would be anticipated and the help rendered without solicitation.

One salient instance may be specified. The David H. Kimberley whom Mr. Hanna had permitted in 1884 to work for Mr. Edwin Cowles rather than himself was nominated shortly afterwards for County Treasurer. He was poor, and his association with Mr. Hanna in politics had not been intimate. Shortly after his nomination a young man came to his store and left a package containing $500 for campaign expenses, but refused to divulge the name of the contributor. In a few weeks another $500 arrived from the same source, and just before the day of election an additional $200. The last instalment was accompanied by a note, stating that the $1200 could be returned after election, in case Mr. Kimberley were successful, but that if he were beaten he would never be told of the name of the donor. He learned afterwards indirectly that the contributions were made by Mark Hanna. Mr. Kimberley was elected. When he was about to assume office, he found he had to supply a heavy bond and he did not know where to turn for his security. He was just coming from the court-house where he had been copying the bond with his own hands, when he met Mr. Hanna on the street. "What's the matter, Dave?" the latter asked. "You look pretty serious this morning." "I am thinking," Mr. Kimberley said, "about my bond as County Treasurer." Mr. Hanna asked for the bond and looked it over. "My gracious! a million dollars," he exclaimed; "are they ever going to stop hammering you?" Mr. Kimberley assured him that it was an exact copy of the bond of the existing Treasurer. Mr. Hanna took it, signed it himself, and persuaded five or six of his well-to-do friends also to sign it.

I have cited the case of Mr. Kimberley at some length because in this particular instance more than one motive may have prompted Mr. Hanna. Mr. Kimberley was running for

the office of County Treasurer, and Mr. Hanna was building up the business of a recently organized bank. The PlainDealer asserted at the time that there might be some connection between Mr. Hanna's interest in Mr. Kimberley and his interest in his bank. If so, no action hurtful to the interests of the county resulted. Mr. Kimberley was reëlected and no irregularities were discovered, although his opponents were ready to pounce upon evidence thereof. But assuming that the help rendered by Mr. Hanna to Mr. Kimberley may have been prompted by a desire for county deposits, such a motive does not explain the way in which the loan was made. In case Mr. Kimberley had been defeated, Mr. Hanna did not want him to feel any personal obligation in the matter - an obligation which would have been onerous to a poor man. Mr. Kimberley himself attributed the loan to Mr. Hanna's wish to do a kindness to a fellow-Republican whose means were not equal to the expenses of his canvass.

However we are to regard such an incident, and however little we may like the fact that Mr. Hanna and his street railway company contributed to the expenses of electing councilmen, it is easy to over-estimate the importance of such incidents. On the whole and in the long run Mr. Hanna did not make his political gifts with any intention of buying specific services. His political gifts, both to organizations and associates, must be considered as prompted partly by the same motives as his charitable gifts, both for the encouragement of worthy causes and the success of needy persons. As I shall describe in another connection Mr. Hanna was an extraordinarily and even a somewhat indiscriminately generous man. He gave freely and without close inquiry to anybody or purpose which could fairly claim assistance. To give and to give without calculation was one of the dominant impulses of his nature. In a business transaction he was as keen as another man about getting five dollars' worth for the expenditure of five dollars; but any cause or any person which aroused his sympathies or interest would unloosen his purse strings and disarm his business scruples. His interest in political causes and friends was just as much an expression of his better nature as his interest in charitable causes and needy individuals. He spent his money liberally and inno

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cently in every way which seemed to him worth while; and, of course, politics, and in particular Republican party politics, were from his point of view extremely well worth while.

Mr. Hanna's personal liberality and his prominence both as a business man and politician tended, however, to make the local Republican committees depend on him for a large part of their supplies. From being a generous contributor he passed by easy gradations into the position of being an able collector of campaign funds from his business associates. He had the reputation of being a man who could do really effective work in eliciting contributions from his fellow Republicans, and this reputation was responsible for his selection as financial auxiliary to the Republican National Committee of 1888. The political managers saw that the tariff issue afforded them an extraordinarily good opportunity of persuading the manufacturers to "give up." Systematic efforts were made to turn the opportunity to good account. Mr. Hanna's district was northern Ohio. He raised money in Cleveland, in Toledo, in the Mahoning Valley and in adjacent territory. His collections are said to have reached $100,000, all of which went to the National Committee. His own personal contribution to the same committee was $5000, and he also went to the assistance of the county and state committees.

Although Mr. Hanna's connection with the campaign of 1888 was confined to the work of securing contributions, it was necessary to describe at this point the complexion which the general political situation was assuming, and Mr. Hanna's own personal relation thereto. During the Convention and campaign of 1888 the political forces and tendencies which culminated in the campaign of 1896 and which gave opportunity and meaning to Mr. Hanna's subsequent career are for the first time plainly to be distinguished. The idea of nominating McKinley was born contemporaneously with the appearance of the conditions which finally resulted in his nomination, and the man who cherished the personal project became himself the political representative of a certain relation between business and politics, implied by these conditions.

The campaign resulted in the election of Benjamin Harrison, but not by any large majority. Mr. Cleveland had a plurality

on the popular vote, and the change of a few thousand ballots cast in New York and Indiana would have beaten the Republicans. They succeeded none the less in keeping their majority in the Senate and in winning a small majority in the House of Representatives, which was subsequently increased by unseating Democrats wherever their elections could be plausibly contested. In the winter of 1889 and 1890, when the new Congress assembled, the Republicans for the first time in many years were in complete control of both departments of the General Government, and they were committed to the passage of some legislation looking towards the reduction of the surplus without doing any injury to the protective system.

In November, 1889, about a week before the meeting of the new Congress, Mark Hanna went to Washington. His object in making the trip was to help Mr. McKinley in his fight for the Speakership of the House, and it is significant that he took the first opportunity which offered after the Convention of 1888 to work on Mr. McKinley's behalf. He put up at the Ebbit House and took an active part in the canvass. Mr. William H. Merriam states that his part was effective as well as active, for he actually converted to Mr. McKinley some votes from Minnesota. But his efforts were unavailing. Mr. McKinley's competitor for the place, Mr. Thomas B. Reed, was selected by the caucus by a majority of one vote.

Mr. McKinley's defeat was probably beneficial rather than the reverse to his subsequent career. The Speaker appointed him to the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, and as chairman he became nominally responsible for the new Republican tariff policy. The bill in which it was embodied had his name attached to it, which made him in the eyes of the country more than ever the most conspicuous exponent of the theory and practice of high protection.

Inasmuch as their victory had been won by a narrow margin, the Republicans would have done well to use it with discretion. By a few reductions in the existing schedules, they might have quieted antitariff agitation for long time without doing any injury to the protectionist system. But the beneficiaries of the tariff were in the saddle, and they pursued the opposite course. Rates were raised all along the line. The surplus was