McKinley Lives Pt. 1 (Revision)
MCKINLEY LIVES PT. 1
The McKinley Administration
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Sept. 5, 1901 (POD):
The Buffalo (NY) Police Department arrest transient worker Leon F. Czolgosz for public drunkenness the day before William McKinley’s planned appearance at the Pan-American Exposition. The President attends the Exposition and returns, without incident, to Washington, DC, a week before Czolgosz is released from prison. Czolgosz commits suicide nearly two months later.
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President McKinley quietly announced his intention to begin a federal crack-down on trusts. McKinley’s main target was the Northern Securities Company, a group of several railroad companies run as though they were one company in order to reduce competition and control prices. A year after his announcement, through his Attorney General, Philander C. Knox, McKinley sued Northern Securities for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
The lawsuit implied that the government would enforce the antitrust act more forcefully than it had in the past, but it also emphasized to the nation’s industrial and financial directors that their interests were subservient to national interests. However, dissolving the railroad trust was not followed by a wave of antitrust actions. It established a principle, rather than set a program in motion.
In the meantime, in May of 1902, at an anthracite coal mine in Pennsylvania, 150,000 miners went on strike, demanding recognition of their union (the United Mine Workers), a pay increase, and better hours. However, the mine owners refused to negotiate, dragging the strike out into a five-month ordeal. By November, the nation was facing coal shortages as the first blasts of snow began to sweep across the northern United States.
Finally, when the shortages became serious enough, President McKinley summoned the mine owners and their representatives to the White House. Encouraged by both his political handler and mentor, Mark Hanna, and financier J.P. Morgan, McKinley entered the negotiations with high hopes. However, it soon became apparent that the owners were unwilling to negotiate with the strikers.
When negotiations with industry officials failed, McKinley reluctantly allowed the owners to deal with the five-month coal strike by using Pinkerton agents. This (in)action by the McKinley government hurt his public image. His Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, who had privately advocated using US Army soldiers to run the coal mines if the owners were unwilling to waver, began to privately criticize the President’s performance.
In May of 1903, the US Senate ratified the Hay-Herran Treaty, which would have given the United States a renewable 99-year lease to a six-mile wide strip of the Panamanian isthmus in exchange for $10 million and an annual payment. However, the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty later that year. McKinley was left with a choice: accept the Colombian Senate’s rejection and move on (for the time being), or risk possible conflict with Colombia. McKinley, though, had had enough of war. For the time being, any deal to construct a Central American canal was dead. Once again, Vice President Roosevelt privately criticized the President’s leadership.
A major point of possible contention between the United States and the United Kingdom was the question of a proper boundary between lower Alaska and Canada. The question had been aggravated by the discovery of gold in the Canadian Klondike, as well as in Alaska. McKinley he decided to take part in a tribunal to arbitrate the dispute and appointed as United States representative Henry Cabot Lodge. Late in 1903, the tribunal backed the U.S. claims.
In 1904, the Ford Motor Company filed bankruptcy. Henry Ford’s third (and last) attempt at entering the automotive industry ended practically before it began. In the meantime, Henry Leland’s Cadillac Automobile Company, which had gathered over two thousand orders at the New York Automobile Show, prospered. Historians would later blame Ford’s disastrous failure to advertise while its competition (Cadillac) took orders by the thousand at the New York Auto Show as the cause of Ford’s failure.
At the Republican National Convention, the conservative Republican faction making up a majority of the party leadership declined to nominate Vice President Roosevelt to succeed William McKinley. Roosevelt had outraged most conservatives with his disparaging (albeit, private) comments about McKinley’s ability to lead the nation the past four years. Instead, conservatives turned to Secretary of War Elihu Root, nominating Root and Charles Fairbanks. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention, after nominating radical William Jennings Bryan two times in a row, was in a mood for a conservative candidate. They nominated Alton B. Parker and James R. Williams. In November, Root was swept into the White House in the wake of McKinley’s successful Presidency.
MCKINLEY LIVES PT. 1
The McKinley Administration
---
Sept. 5, 1901 (POD):
The Buffalo (NY) Police Department arrest transient worker Leon F. Czolgosz for public drunkenness the day before William McKinley’s planned appearance at the Pan-American Exposition. The President attends the Exposition and returns, without incident, to Washington, DC, a week before Czolgosz is released from prison. Czolgosz commits suicide nearly two months later.
---
President McKinley quietly announced his intention to begin a federal crack-down on trusts. McKinley’s main target was the Northern Securities Company, a group of several railroad companies run as though they were one company in order to reduce competition and control prices. A year after his announcement, through his Attorney General, Philander C. Knox, McKinley sued Northern Securities for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
The lawsuit implied that the government would enforce the antitrust act more forcefully than it had in the past, but it also emphasized to the nation’s industrial and financial directors that their interests were subservient to national interests. However, dissolving the railroad trust was not followed by a wave of antitrust actions. It established a principle, rather than set a program in motion.
In the meantime, in May of 1902, at an anthracite coal mine in Pennsylvania, 150,000 miners went on strike, demanding recognition of their union (the United Mine Workers), a pay increase, and better hours. However, the mine owners refused to negotiate, dragging the strike out into a five-month ordeal. By November, the nation was facing coal shortages as the first blasts of snow began to sweep across the northern United States.
Finally, when the shortages became serious enough, President McKinley summoned the mine owners and their representatives to the White House. Encouraged by both his political handler and mentor, Mark Hanna, and financier J.P. Morgan, McKinley entered the negotiations with high hopes. However, it soon became apparent that the owners were unwilling to negotiate with the strikers.
When negotiations with industry officials failed, McKinley reluctantly allowed the owners to deal with the five-month coal strike by using Pinkerton agents. This (in)action by the McKinley government hurt his public image. His Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, who had privately advocated using US Army soldiers to run the coal mines if the owners were unwilling to waver, began to privately criticize the President’s performance.
In May of 1903, the US Senate ratified the Hay-Herran Treaty, which would have given the United States a renewable 99-year lease to a six-mile wide strip of the Panamanian isthmus in exchange for $10 million and an annual payment. However, the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty later that year. McKinley was left with a choice: accept the Colombian Senate’s rejection and move on (for the time being), or risk possible conflict with Colombia. McKinley, though, had had enough of war. For the time being, any deal to construct a Central American canal was dead. Once again, Vice President Roosevelt privately criticized the President’s leadership.
A major point of possible contention between the United States and the United Kingdom was the question of a proper boundary between lower Alaska and Canada. The question had been aggravated by the discovery of gold in the Canadian Klondike, as well as in Alaska. McKinley he decided to take part in a tribunal to arbitrate the dispute and appointed as United States representative Henry Cabot Lodge. Late in 1903, the tribunal backed the U.S. claims.
In 1904, the Ford Motor Company filed bankruptcy. Henry Ford’s third (and last) attempt at entering the automotive industry ended practically before it began. In the meantime, Henry Leland’s Cadillac Automobile Company, which had gathered over two thousand orders at the New York Automobile Show, prospered. Historians would later blame Ford’s disastrous failure to advertise while its competition (Cadillac) took orders by the thousand at the New York Auto Show as the cause of Ford’s failure.
At the Republican National Convention, the conservative Republican faction making up a majority of the party leadership declined to nominate Vice President Roosevelt to succeed William McKinley. Roosevelt had outraged most conservatives with his disparaging (albeit, private) comments about McKinley’s ability to lead the nation the past four years. Instead, conservatives turned to Secretary of War Elihu Root, nominating Root and Charles Fairbanks. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention, after nominating radical William Jennings Bryan two times in a row, was in a mood for a conservative candidate. They nominated Alton B. Parker and James R. Williams. In November, Root was swept into the White House in the wake of McKinley’s successful Presidency.
