There had been a general disposition to grant to the business interests what they wanted, because American public opinion was substantially agreed upon the desirability in the public benefit of the utmost possible stimulation of business activity. The result had been to make business vulnerable at a hundred different points to dangerous political attacks, and thus to make business prosperity immediately dependent upon political conditions.

The first serious attack upon the traditional system made by a national party was President Cleveland's antiprotectionist campaign. The protected industries defended themselves with their natural weapons. They subscribed more liberally than ever before to the Republican electoral expenses. In 1888 more money was raised than in any previous national campaign, and it was raised more largely from business men. Its ability to obtain increased supplies from such sources was a Godsend to the machine, because the spread of the movement towards Civil Service Reform had diminished its collection from office-holders, while at the same time the constant increase of political professionalism was making electoral campaigns more than ever expensive. Large expenditures for political purposes thereafter became the rule; and the needs of professional politicians, like other parasites, soon increased up to the level of their means of subsistence.

Mark Hanna, as a representative in politics of the business interest, was necessarily connected with this increased raising and expenditure of money for political objects. The one way at that time in which he could fight the political battles of the business interests was to provide the men on the firing-line with ammunition and food; and that way he took. He became one of an auxiliary committee to the Republican National Committee whose specific duty it was to solicit campaign contributions.

Mr. Hanna was entitled to ask other Republicans for contributions because he himself set them a good example. He himself had always been a liberal contributor to the funds of his party. His own experience had taught him how far the successful conduct of a campaign under American political conditions depends upon a free expenditure of money. He knew that

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the expenses of speakers had to be paid, halls rented, literature distributed, impecunious candidates helped, the registration and the vote pulled out and the polls watched. He knew that much of this work had to be done by men who were accustomed to be rewarded, and that they could not all be rewarded at the public expense with offices. Some of them had to be employed. He knew that the campaign committees were always short of funds, and he knew that he could not show a more effective practical interest in politics than by helping to pay expenses. Whenever he did anything, he did it thoroughly. Probably no man in the country contributed more liberally, considering his means, to the war-chest of his party than did Mr. Hanna.

A political associate describes him as a "cheerful giver." This gentleman, who was a member of the Republican committee of Cuyahoga County for twenty-five years, states that Mr. Hanna was the only Republican in the city of Cleveland who would voluntarily draw his check for campaign purposes. Many of his business associates could be induced by personal solicitation to make contributions, but Mr. Hanna never needed to be dunned. He would say to the committee as he handed to them his first contribution: "Boys, I suppose you'll need some money. If you run short, you know where my office is." During the Garfield campaign he sent four different checks for $1000 each to the State Committee in Columbus; and this was merely one incident among a hundred. In the fall of 1887, for instance, the local campaign committee of Cuyahoga County found itself after election with a debt of $1260 on its hands. An attempt was made to collect the money from prominent Republicans, but with no success. One morning several of the committee were in their room, talking over the futile efforts. Mr. Hanna came in, and noticing the air of gloom, said: "It looks pretty blue here! What's the matter?" They told him, and much to their surprise and joy he sat down at the table and drew his own check for the whole amount. "There," he said, "pay your debts and look cheerful."

He gave as freely to individual political associates as to committees. Almost all his political friends were at one time or another in debt to him. We have already seen that he rendered to Mr. Foraker some assistance at a moment when the

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

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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

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