CHAPTER XII 



THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARDS 



WHEN the Republicans met in convention at St. 

 Louis in the middle of June, 1896, the monetary 

 issue had already dwarfed all other political ques- 

 tions. It was indeed the rock on which the party 

 might have crashed in utter shipwreck but for the 

 precautions of one man who had charted the angry 

 waters and the dangerous shoals and who now had 

 a firm grasp on the helm. Marcus A. Hanna, or 

 " Uncle Mark," was the genial owner of more mines, 

 oil wells, street railways, aldermen, and legislators 

 than any other man in Ohio. Hanna was an al- 

 most perfect example of what the Populists de- 

 nounced as the capitalist in politics. Cynically 

 declaring that "no man in public life owes the pub- 

 lic anything, '" he had gone his unscrupulous way, 

 getting control of the political machine of Cleve- 

 land, acquiring influence in the state legislature, 

 and now even assuming dictatorship over the 



172 



