Bits of
Wisdom
WILLIAM
McKINLEY
H.M.CALDWELL CC
Bits of Wisdom,
of William McKinley
William McKinley











1








AC H30\
Entered according to Act of Congress
in the year 1901
By R. H. Woodward Co.
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at
Washington, D. C.
AII rights reserved


BITS OF WISDOM





PREFACE.
The compiler of this little book offers to
the public some of Mr. McKinley's most
noteworthy and epigrammatic sayings. They
have been selected with care from his
speeches and writings. Possibly no more
suitable preface could be furnished than an
extract from Ex-President Cleveland's ad-
dress, which was delivered at Princeton, New
Jersey, on the day of President McKinley's
burial. The Ex-President said, in part:
"The whole nation loved its late Presi-
dent. His kindly disposition and affection-
ate traits, his amiable consideration for all
around him, will long remain in the hearts
of h's countrymen. He loved them in re-
turn with such patriotism and unselfish-
ness }hat in this hour of their grief and
3


4
PREFACE.
humiliation he would say to them: 'It is
God's will; I am content. If there is a
lesson in my life or death, let it be taught to
those who shall live and have the destiny of
their country in their keeping.'
"Let us seek for the lessons and the ad-
monitions that may be suggested by the life
and death of this great man.
"First in my thoughts are the lessons to
be learned by the young men. These les-
sons are not obscure nor difficult. They
teach us the value of study and mental
training, but they teach us impressively that
the road to usefulness and to the only suc-
cess worth having will be missed or lost ex-
cept it is sought and kept by the light of
those qualities of the heart which it is some-
times supposed may safely be neglected.
"The man who is universally mourned
acquired the highest distinction which this
great country can confer on any man, and he
lived a useful life. He was not deficient in
education, but with all you will hear of his
grand career and his services to his country


PREFACE.
5
and his fellow-citizens you will never hear
that either the high place he reached or
what he accomplished was due entirely to
his education. You will, instead, constantly
hear, as accounting for his great success,
that he was obedient and affectionate as a
son, patient as a soldier, honest and upright
as a citizen, tender and devoted as a hus-
band, and truthful, generous, unselfish, moral
and clean in every relation of life. He
never thought any of these things too weak
for manliness.
"Make no mistake, he was a most dis-
tinguished man, a great man, a useful man,
who has been distinguished, great and useful
because he had and retained unimpaired
qualities of heart which I fear university
students sometimes feel like keeping in the
background or abandoning.
"What is there left behind for our people
by the President we mourn? He has left
us a priceless gift in his example of a useful
and pure life, of his fidelity to public trust,
and his demonstration of the kind of virtue


6
PREFACE.
that not only ennobles mankind, but leads to
success. It is for us to remain to enforce
this example and make it a saving influence
for good in all our progress as a nation, and
in every vicissitude that awaits our future.
* "We are in church to-day, and the churches
throughout the land are open to memorial
exercises. These services should be but
the beginning of strenuous exertions on the
part of our churches to arouse our people to
their obligations in the fulfilment of civic
duty and to the enforcement of the fact that
the laws of- God, if kept and obeyed, are
sufficient for all our needs and vicissitudes.
God still lives and reigns, but He will not
turn His face from us who have always been
objects of His kindness."


BITS OF WISDOM, McKINLEY.
January 1.
We leave the old century behind us,
holding on to its achievements and cher-
ishing its memories, and turn with hope
to the new, with its opportunities and
obligations.
January 2.
What you want is to get education, and
with it you want good character, and with
these you want unfaltering industry, and
if you have these three things you will
have success anywhere and everywhere.
January 3.
The thing to-day is to be practical.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. ■ 9
that the present and the future hold rich
reward for good scholarship, high charac-
ter and noble endeavor.
January 9.
We love peace better than war, and our
swords never should be drawn except in
a righteous cause, and then never until
every effort at peace and arbitration shall
be exhausted.
January 10.
Our growing power brings with it
temptations and peril requiring constant
vigilance to avoid. It must not be used
to invite conflicts nor for oppression.
January 1z.
Let us ever remember that our interest
is in concord, not conflict; and that our
real eminence rests in the victories of
peace, not those of war.


IO BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
January 12.
Friendly rivalry exacts a study of the
wants, comforts, and even the whims of
the people, and recognizes the efficacy of
high quality and new prices to win their
favor.
January 13.
Money does not make work; work
makes money.
January 14.
Workingmen want steady work at good
wages. They are not satisfied with ir-
regular work at inadequate wages. They
want the American standard applied to
both. With steady work they want to
be paid in sound money.
January 15.
American wage-earners cannot earn if
they have no employment, and when they


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 13
low-citizens, that no matter what kind of
money we have we cannot get it unless
we have work.
January 23.
When the war closed there were two
great debts resting upon this government.
One was the debt due to the men who had
loaned the government money with which
to carry on its military operations; the
other debt was due to the men who had
willingly offered their lives for the preser-
vation of the American Union.
January 24.
Respect for womankind has become
with us a national characteristic, and what
a high and manly trait it is—none nobler
or holier. It stamps the true gentleman.
January 25.
The path of progress is seldom smooth.


14 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
January 26.
Distrust of the capacity, integrity and
high purposes of the American people
will not be an inspiring theme for future
political contests.
January 27.
Existing problems demand the thought
and quicken the conscience of the country,
and the responsibility for their presence
as well as for their righteous settlement
rests upon us all.
January 28.
Strong hearts and helpful hands are
needed, and, fortunately, we have them
in every part of our beloved country.
January 29.
The people will not tolerate repudia-
tion of public law or private dealings.


l6 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.

February I. $
Steady work and good wages are the
test of the nation's prosperity and the
happiness of its citizens.
February 2.
We propose to sustain public order and
public tranquillity and stand by the fed-
eral judiciary—that tribunal which is our
anchor of safety in every time of trouble.
« t
February 3.
We are a reunited country. We have
but one flag—the glorious Stars and
Stripes—which all of us love so well, and
that we mean to transmit in honor and
glory to our children, North and South.


18 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
February 8.
The greatest creditors of this country
to-day are the workingmen. Aside from
what is due them upon investments and
savings, their current wages make them
the largest creditor class in the United
States.
February 9.
The prophets of evil were not the
builders of the republic, nor in its crisis
since have they saved or served it.
February 10.
Are we not made better for effort and
sacrifice, and are not those we serve lifted
up and blessed?
February 11.
Loans are imperative in great emergen
cies to preserve the government or its
credit, but a failure to supply needed


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 19
revenue in time of peace for the mainte-
nance of either has no justification.
February 12.
When confidence is shaken misfortunes
come not singly, but in battalions, and
suffering falls on every community. No
part of our population is exempt. It may
come from one thing or it may come from
another.
February 13.
Parties are not as strong as business
ties and the good of the country is more
to be desired than the success of any
political party.
February 14.
We do not want in this country antag-
onism between capital and labor; they
ought to be close together all the time.


20 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
February 15.
The American people will teach the
•world that they will support the consti-
tuted authorities, created and sustained
by their own free will.
February 16.
We must have stability in values and
confidence in national and individual in-
tegrity before we can have real and perma-
nent prosperity.
February 17.
If there is any one thing which should
be free from speculation and fluctuation,
it is the money of a country.
February 18.
Good money never made times hard.
February 19.
No deserving applicant should ever


- BITS OF WISDOM, McKINLEY. 21
suffer because of a wrong perpetrated by
or for another.
February 20.
The war is long since over. "We are
not enemies, but friends," and as friends
we will faithfully and cordially co-operate
under the approving smile of Him who
has thus far so signally sustained and
guided us, to preserve inviolate our coun-
try's name and honor, of its peace and
good order, of its continued ascendency
among the greatest governments on
earth.
February 21.
We cannot, by law, make every man
honest, but we certainly will never make
a law encouraging them to be dishonest.
February 22.
Honesty, like patriotism, can neither
be bounded by State nor sectional lines.


22 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
February 23.
No nation can by the fiction of the
law absolve itself from any honorable
obligation.
February 24.
Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of
our wonderful industrial development
under the domestic policy now firmly
established.
February 25.
An open schoolhouse, free to all, evi-
dences the highest type of advanced civil-
ization.
February 26.
We will solve the problems which con-
front us untrammeled by the past and
wisely and courageously pursue a policy
of right and justice in all things, making
the future under God even more glorious
than the past. ^


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 2$
March 4.
What we produce beyond our domestic
consumption must have a vent abroad.
March 5.
Comparison of ideas is always educa-
tional, and as such instructs the brain
and hand of man.
March 6.
Without confidence money will be
hoarded and the wheels of industry
stopped, and then the farmer, the mer-
chant, the manufacturer, the laborer and
those of other useful occupations alike
will suffer.
March 7.
I doubt if there is any other name in
American history which more fully typifies
the possibility and triumphs of American
opportunity than that of Abraham Lin-
coln.


26 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
March 8.
We should no longer contribute, directly
or indirectly, to the maintenance of the
colossal marine of foreign countries, but
provide an efficient and complete marine
of our own.
March 9.
Government by law must first be as-
sured ; everything else can wait.
March 10.
Let us hold fast to that which we know
is good.
March 11.
Money ought never to be the subject
of mere partisan contention.
March 12.
We must get over the idea, my fellow


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 2J
citizens, if we ever had it, that there is
any legerdemain in finances.
March 13.
I believe in the common brotherhood
of man. I believe that labor gets on best
when capital gets on best, and that capital
gets on best when labor is paid the most.
March 14.
Men will no longer follow party when it
leads away from business success and pros-
perity; when its policies cripple our in-
dustries and the earning power of labor.
March 15.
Doubt in the business world is death to
business.
March 16.
The best way for the government to
maintain its credit is to pay as it goes—


28 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
not by resorting to loans, but by keepfng
out of debt—through an adequate income
secured by a system of taxation, external
or internal, or both.
March 17.
We will be consoled with the fact that
opposition has confronted every onward
movement of the republic from its open-
ing hour until now, but without success.
March 18.
Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings
are worse than useless. These only be-
cloud, they do not help to point, the way
of safety and honor. "Hope maketh not
ashamed."
March 19.
There is one thing which I think ware
sometimes too apt to forget—we are too


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 29
apt to forget what is behind us and too
apt to be heedless of our own experience.
March 20.
The people have no patience with those
who would violate the plighted faith of
the nation, and stamp its obligations with
dishonor.
March 21.
The missionary, of whatever church or
ecclesiastical body, who devotes his life to
the service of the Master and of men,
carrying the torch of truth and enlighten-
ment, deserves the gratitude, the support,
and the homage of mankind.
March 22.
We should not permit our great pros-
perity to lead us to reckless ventures in
business or profligacy in public expend-
itures.


30 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
March 23.
The preservation of public order, the
right of discussion, the integrity of courts,
and the orderly administration of justice
must continue forever the rock of safety
upon which our government securely
rests.
March 24.
We propose in this country to maintain
a government by law and a government
under law.
March 25.
It is a matchless civilization in which
we live, a civilization that recognizes the
common and universal brotherhood of
man.
March 26.
Our revenues should always be large
enough to make proper and liberal pro-


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 31
vision for that most deserving body of
public creditors, the soldiers and sailors,
and the widows and orphans who are the
pensioners of the United States.
March 27.
So long as the American home continues
to be the foundation of purity and virtue,
so long as the American school is sup-
ported by the American people, we will
have good citizenship and in turn good
government.
March 28.
I am for America because America is
for the common people.
March 29.
Recognizing the manifold achievements
of others, our land invites the friendly
rivalry of all the Powers in the peaceful
pursuits of trade and commerce, and will


32 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
co-operate with all in advancing the high-
est and best interests of humanity.
March 30.
We are opposed to any policy which in-
creases the number of unemployed in the
United States, even if it does give us
cheaper foreign goods, and we are opposed
to any policy which degrades American
manhood that we may have cheaper prod-
ucts, made either at home or abroad.
March 31.
It is a gratifying thought that those
who served their country best in war have
always been among our best and truest
citizens in peace.


BITS OF WISDOM. MCKINLEY. 33
April 1.
No portion of our population is more
devoted to the institutions of free govern-
ment, nor more loyal in their support,
of them, than the toilers of the country.
April 2.
We must not be unmindful of the need
of improvement among our own citizens,
but with the zeal of our forefathers en-
courage the spread of knowledge and free
education.
April 3.
The American Constitution recognizes
neither creed, nor color, nor race, nor na-
tionality, nor caste, nor classes, but pro-
3


34 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
tects and defends all alike and accords to
each civil and religious liberty.
April 4.
The government gets its money just as
the citizen gets his money—by giving
something for it.
April 5.
The great essential to our happiness and
prosperity is> that we adhere to the prin-
ciples upon which the government was
established and insist upon their faithful
observance.
April 6. .
Our finances must cease to be the sub-
ject of mere partisan contention.
April 7.
Missionaries are placing in the hands of
their brothers less fortunate than them-
selves the keys which unlock the treasur-


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 35
ies of knowledge and open the mind to
noble aspirations for better conditions.
April 8.
If we are not our brothers' keepers we
can be our brothers' helpers.
April 9.
Good character is as essential as good
education; good morals are more indis-
pensable than learning. Both should go
together.
April 10.
I love to have the young men about
me. I can do no better than to say to
them that there is nothing in the world
that will serve you so well as good char-
acter and clean morals.
April 11.
In calamity and in distress woman has
ever been helpful and heroic.


38 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
April 18.
As heretofore, so hereafter, will the na-
tion demonstrate its fitness to administer
any new estate which events devolve upon
it, and in the fear of God will " take occa-
sion by the hand and make the bounds of
freedom wider yet."
April 19.
The republic has marched on and on,
and its every step has exalted freedom
and humanity.
April 20.
The opportunities for women are greater
now than ever before. This is singularly
true here, where practically every avenue
of human endeavor is open to her.
April 21.
The home over which the trusted wife


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 39
presides is the citadel of our strength, the
best guaranty of good citizenship and
sound morals in government. It is at the
foundation—upon it all else is constructed.
April 22.
You might just as well understand now
that you cannot add value to anything by
diminishing the measure of the value with
which the thing is sold or exchanged.
April 23.
Whether it is poor money or whether
it is good money, whether it is gold or
whether it is silver, we cannot get one
dollar of it unless we have employment
for our hands and heads.
April 24.
The American people will never take so
rash and wicked a step as to invalidate or


40 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
impair the value of their own government
obligations.
April 25.
While capital waits outside the factory,
the machinery within is silent, labor is
unemployed and poverty prevails about
the firesides of the men who toil.
April 26.
We must not be misled by phrases nor
deluded by false theories.
April 27.
We are not a nation of classes, but of
sturdy, free, independent and honorable
people, despising the demagogue and
never capitulating to dishonor.
April 28.
We should permit none to participate


BITS OF WISDOM; MCKINLEY. 41
in the advantages of our civilization who
do not sympathize with our aims and form
of government.
April 29.
After the lapse of a century since its
utterance, let us, at length and forever
hereafter, heed the admonition of Wash-
ington: "There should be no North, no
South, no East, no West, but a common
country."
April 30.
We want to stand by the great incor-
ruptible judiciary of the country, which
is our bulwark of safety in every hour of
trouble and peril.


42 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
May i.
Our revenues should always be large
enough to meet with ease and promptness
our current needs and the principal and
interest of the public debt.
May 2.
I am glad of the opportunity to offer
without stint my tribute of praise and
respect to the missionary effort which has
wrought such wonderful triumphs for civ-
ilization.
May 3.
If, by mere fiat, whether it be fiat to
the extent of fifty cents or to the extent
of a hundred cents—if the government by


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 43
a mere act of Congress can make money
—then all the work of Washington and
Jefferson, Hamilton and Clay, and all of
the financiers and statesmen of this coun-
try was mere idleness and folly.
May 4.
I do not care what you may choose as
your occupations, there is nothing that
will count so much, or mean so much, or
wear so well as good habits and a spotless
name.
May 5.
It is in the quiet and peaceful walks of
life where woman's power is greatest and
most beneficial.
May 6.
Our national development will be one-
sided and unsatisfactory so long as the re-
markable growth of our inland industries
remains unaccompanied by progress on
the seas.


44 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
May 7.
The guaranties of life, liberty, and of
civil rights should be faithfully upheld;
the right of trial by jury respected and
defended.
May 8.
Our growing power must not be used
to invite conflicts nor for oppression, but
for the more effective maintenance of those
principles of equality and justice, upon
which our institutions and happiness
depend.
May 9.
Honesty, capacity and industry are no-
where more indispensable than in public
employment.
May 10.
A depreciated currency would work
disaster to the interests of the people, and


BITS OF WISDOM, McKINLEY. 45
to none more than those of the working-
men and producers.
May II.
Let us settle once for all that this gov-
ernment is one of honor and of law, and
that neither the seeds of repudiation nor
lawlessness can find root in our soil or live
beneath our flag.
May 12.
There is no menace to labor like that
of a depreciated and debased currency.
May 13.
There are some national questions in
the solution of which patriotism should
exclude partisanship. Magnifying their
difficulties will not take them off our
hands nor facilitate their adjustment.
May 14.
If there are those among us who would


46 BITS OF WISDOM, McKINLEY.
make our way more difficult we must not
be disheartened, but the more earnestly
dedicate ourselves to the task upon which
we have rightly entered.
May 15.
We want no wars of conquest: we must
avoid the temptation of territorial aggres-
sion.
May 16.
Illiteracy must be banished from the
land if we shall attain that high destiny
as the foremost of the enlightened nations
of the world, which, under Providence, we
ought to achieve.
May 17.
Diversify the products of agriculture,
and thus you will have additional employ'
ment for your land. (


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 47
May 18.
To be a really capable and worthy
journalist, wise, honorable and efficient, is
to attain the highest plan of human op-
portunity and usefulness.
May 19.
There are some people who seem to
think that the best way to get on in this
world is to be against one another, and
that there is natural antagonism between
those who employ labor and those who
are employed.
May 20.
The American people will show their
reverence for the courts of justice, their
devotion to the constitutional doctrines
of free government and their love of home
and family, education and morality.
May 21.
It is not more money we want. What


48 BITS OF WISDOM, McKINLEY.
we want is to put the money we already
have at work.
May 22.
Here, as elsewhere, the poor and not the
rich are always the greatest sufferers from
every attempt to debase our money.
May 23.
We cannot restore public confidence by
an act which would revolutionize all values,
or an act which entails a deficiency in the
public revenues.
May 24.
The era of reconciliation, so long and
earnestly desired by General Grant and
many other great leaders, North and
South, has happily come, and the feeling
of distrust and hostility between the sec-
tions is everywhere vanishing, let us hope
never to return.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 49
May 25.
What we want in this country is, first,
confidence, confidence in each other, con-
fidence in the credit of the country, con-
fidence in the future, confidence in our
money, confidence that if we invest our
money to-day we will get something out
of it at the end of the year.
May 26.
Workingmen do not want to lose any
part of their hard earnings through poor
dollars.
May 27.
It is work that puts money into circula-
tion. Money does not want to be idle
any more than labor wants to be idle.
May 28.
The most un-American of all appeals
4


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 51
June I.
Education is one of the indispensable
steps of mission enterprise and in some
forms must precede all successful work.
June 2.
If you can make money out of nothing
by the mere breath of Congress, then it is
idle to impose taxes upon the people to
bear the burden and expense of conduct-
ing the government.
June 3.
The young men are always an inspira-
tion to me. They are the hope of the
community, the State and the nation.


52 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
June 4.
Patriotism is not bound by State or
class or sectional lines.
June 5.
Not only have some of the brightest
pages of our national history been illu-
mined by splendid example and noble
efforts for public good, but her influences
in the home, the church, the school and
the community in molding character for
every profession and duty to which our
race is called has been potential and
sublime.
June 6.
Our growing power brings with it temp-
tations and perils, requiring constant vigi-
lance to avoid.
June 7.
What is in the hearts and consciences
of the people touching any public question


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 53
is not effective until it is written in public
statute, and this can only be done through
the exercise of the elective franchise in the
choice of a Congress of the United States
which makes our public laws.
June 8.
No flag ever triumphed over the Amer-
ican flag. It was never degraded or de-
feated, and will not now be when more
patriotic men are guarding it than ever
before in our history.
June 9.
Party lines are not strong enough to
hold any patriot within them who believes
that his party has ceased to represent the
highest and best interests of our glorious
republic.
June 10.
Our diplomacy should seek nothing


54 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
more and accept nothing less than is due
us.
June u.
Reforms in the civil service must go on;
but the changes should be real and gen-
uine, not perfunctory or prompted by
a zeal in behalf of any party, simply be-
cause it happens to be in power.
June 12.
From the plain American home, where
virtue dwells and truth abides, go forth
the men and women who make the great
States and cities which adorn our republic
June 13.
The home market is the best friend of
the farmer. It is his best market. It is
his only reliable market. It is his own
natural market.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 55
June 14.
Capital and labor cannot get on without
the other, and instead of their being en-
emies they ought always to be friends.
June 15.
The American people will never brook
the thought of not looking the whole world
in the face and challenging any nation to
point to a more honorable or creditable
record than ours.
June 16.
Business of every character is so inter-
woven, dependent and interdependent
upon every other business, that hurt to
one is hurt to the other.
June 17.
Until international agreement is had, it
is the plain duty of the United States to
maintain the gold standard.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 57
and affection which, in our early history,
characterized all the people of all the
States.
June 21.
We want a dollar that is as good as
gold, and just as good in the hands of the
poor as in the hands of the rich.
June 22.
Each new engagement of the war
brought its own new trials and perils to
face and bravely overcome. The devotion
to discipline and duty which distinguished
them then has kept the old soldiers true
and steady ever since.
June 23.
Our farmers are naturally conservative,
and their unerring common-sense and com-
mon honesty will lead them quickly to de-
tect fallacies.


58 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
June 24.
By sensible trade arrangements which
will not interrupt our home production,
we shall extend the outlets for our in-
creasing surplus.
June 25.
Courts, not mobs, must execute the
penalties of the law.
June 26.
The schoolhouse is the university out
of which comes good citizens, and it is on
good citizenship we must rely, not only
for the present but for the future, for the
glory of the republic.
June 27.
We know no imperialism in the United
States except the imperialism of a sover-
eign people.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 59
June 28.
It is inspiring, too, to remember that
no great emergency in the one hundred
and eight years of our eventful national
life has ever arisen that has not been met
with wisdom and courage by the American
people.
June 29.
None bear more cheerfully or fully their
proper share in the maintenance of the
government or are better entitled to its
wise and liberal care and protection than
the great body of toilers of the country.
June 30.
Most of our financial laws are the out-
growth of experience and trial and should
not be amended without investigation and
demonstration of the wisdom of the pro-
posed changes.


BITS OF WISDOM, McKINLEY. 6l
July 5-
Many men there are from whom frank-
ness would not withhold but command
like expression of obligation to woman,
wife, mother, sister, friend.
July 6.
The love of law and the sense of obe-
dience and submission to the lawfully con-
stituted judicial tribunals are imbedded
in the hearts of our people, and any viola-
tion of these sentiments and disregard of
their obligations justly arouse public con-
demnation.
July 7-
It is universally conceded that combina-
tions which engross or control the mar-
ket of any particular kind of merchandise
or commodity necessary to the general
community, by suppressing natural and
ordinary competition, whereby prices are


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 63
greatest encouragement to their skill and
their labor.
July 11.
The people will not countenance the
clipping of the coins of the country, and
will never consent to clipping the cur-
rency in any form which may be pro-
posed.
July 12.
Between more loans and more revenue •
there ought to be but one opinion. We
should have more revenue.
July 13.
If the nominal price of grain were to
rise through an inflation of the currency,
the price of everything else would rise
also, and the farmer would be relatively
no better off than he was before.


64 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
July 14.
Some people are disturbed whenever
they discover that the employer of labor
and labor itself are on good terms, and
whenever that occurs they commence
crying coercion. It is not coercion; it is
co-operation, the one working with the
other for the public good and for their
advantages, severally.
July 15.
No nation can by the wrongful exer-
cise of power contravene the eternal
principles of truth and justice and not
escape deserved and fearful retribution.
July 16.
Good credit and good currency are as
indispensable to labor as to capital, and
he who teaches any other doctrine is an
enemy of our country's prosperity.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 65'
July 17.
These appeals to passion and prejudice
are beneath the spirit and intelligence of
a free people and should be met with
stern rebuke by those they are sought to
influence, and I believe they will be.
July 18.
When those who have money lack con-
fidence in the stability of values and in-
vestments, they will not part with their
money. Business is stagnated—the life-
blood of trade is checked and congested.
July 19.
Every attack upon the public faith and
every suggestion of the repudiation of
debts, public or private, must be rebuked
by all men who believe that honesty is
the best policy or who love their country
and would preserve unsullied its national
honor.
5


68 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
gether under one flag in a never-to-be-
broken union.
July 27.
Men who think for themselves will al-
ways have convictions upon public ques-
tions, and those convictions cannot always
be the ame.
July 28.
Our naturalization and immigration
laws should be further improved to the
constant promotion of a safer, a better
and a higher citizenship.
July 29.
Economy is demanded in every branch
of the government at all times.
July 30.
Legislation helpful to producers is
beneficial to all.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 69
July 31.
We must be both " sure we are right"
and " make haste slowly."


JO BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
August I.
Our past has gone into history. No
brighter one adorns the annals of man-
kind. Our task is for the future.
August 2.
The labor of the country constitutes its
strength and its wealth.
August 3.
Our institutions will not deteriorate by
extension, and our sense of justice will
not abate under tropic suns in distant
seas.
August 4.
Equality of rights must prevail and our


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 71
laws be always and everywhere respected
and obeyed.
August 5.
Lynchings must not be tolerated in a
great and civilized country like the United
States. Courts, not mobs, must execute
the penalties of the law.
August 6.
Our money should not be subject to
easy attack, nor its stability to doubt or
dispute.
August 7.
We are a nation of political equals.
The voice of one citizen is as potent as
the voice of another, and the united voice
when constitutionally expressed is the law
of the land.


72 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
August 8.
Women have been everywhere appre-
ciated and recognized, though God alone
could place their service at its true value.
Their work has been a power in every
emergency and always for good.
August 9.
To invention we must turn as one of
the most powerful aids to the accomplish-
ment of our future progress and pros-
perity.
August 10.
The chosen representatives of the peo-
ple will, I doubt not, furnish an example
in their legislation of that wise economy
which in a season of plenty husbands for
the future.
August 11.
Missionaries have inculcated industry


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 73
and taught the various trades. They have
promoted concord and amity, and brought
nations and races closer together. They
have made men better.
August 12.
That which we call money, my fellow-
citizens, and with which values are meas-
ured and settlements made, must be as
true as the bushel which measures the grain
of the farmer and as honest as the hours
of labor which the man who toils is re-
quired to give.
August 13.
The only way the farmers can be bene-
fited is through a larger consuming class.
August 14.
We are reunited. Sectionalism has dis-
appeared. Division on public questions
can no longer be traced by the war maps


74 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
of 1861. These old differences less and
less disturb the judgment.
August 15.
They are obstructionists who despair
and who would destroy confidence in the
ability of our people to solve wisely and
for civilization the mighty problem rest-
ing upon them.
August 16.
The North and South no longer divide
on the old lines, but upon principles and
policies, and in this fact surely every lover
of the country can find cause for true
felicitation.
August 17.
The man who loves wife and mother
and home will respect and reverence all
womankind. He is always the better
citizen for such gentle breeding.


76 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
ahead, and is unable to count with cer-
tainty upon either the safety of its prin-
cipal or the return of profits.
August 22.
The character of the money which shall
measure our values and exchanges, and
settle our balances with one another and
with the nations of the world, is of such
primary importance, and so far reaching
in its consequences, as to call for the most
painstaking investigation.
August 23.
No one suffers so much from cheap
money as the farmers and laborers. They
are the first to feel its bad effects, and the
last to recover from them.
August 24.
While we welcome to our shores the


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 77
well-disposed and industrious immigrant
who contributes by his energy and in-
telligence to the cause of free government,
we want no immigrants who do not seek
our shores to become citizens.
August 25.
I shall count it a privilege to aid, even
in the slightest degree, in the promotion
of the spirit of fraternal regard which
should animate and govern the citizens of
every section, State or part of the re-
public.
August 26.
What we want to do, not as partisans,
but as patriots, is to stand for that policy
that is best for ourselves, our homes, our
wives and our children, as well as our
State and our country; and then we want
to teach a reverence for public law and to
stand firmly for tranquillity as against vio-
lence.


78 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
August 27.
We are proud of our army and our
navy, and yet they are not our chief pride.
Our chief pride is not in the arts of war,
but in the peace of useful pursuits of civil
life.
August 28.
A religious spirit helps every man.
August 29.
This portion of the earth has no cause
for humiliation for the part it has per-
formed in the march of civilization. It
has not accomplished everything; far
from it. It has simply done its best, and
without vanity or boastfulness.
August 30.
To have been a faithful soldier of the
Union is no less a source of joy in your


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 79
advancing years and infirmities than a
precious legacy for family and friends.
August 31.
We want in the United States neither
cheap money nor cheap labor.


80 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
September 1.
The success of art, science, industry
and invention is an international asset and
a common glory.
September 2.
One of the needs of the times is direct
commercial lines from our vast fields of
production to the fields of consumption
that we have but barely touched.
September 3.
Commercial wars are unprofitable. A
policy of good-will and friendly trade re-
lations will prevent reprisals.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 8l
September 4.
Reciprocity treaties are in harmony
with the spirit of the times; measures of
retaliation are not.
September 5.
Expositions are the time-keepers of
progress. They record the world's ad-
vancement.
September 6.
"Thy kingdom come; Thy will be
done."—President McKinley'swordsas he
was sinking into unconsciousness just be-
fore the surgical operation.
September 7.
President McKinley crowned a life of
largest love for his fellow-men, of most ear-
nest endeavor for their welfare, by a death
6


32 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
of Christian fortitude; and both the way
in which he lived his life and the way in
which, in the supreme hour of trial, he
met his death, will remain forever a pre-
cious heritage of our people.
President Roosevelt.
September 8.
He was obedient and affectionate as a
son, patient as a soldier, honest and up-
right as a citizen, tender and devoted as a
husband, and truthful, generous, unselfish,
moral and clean in every relation of life.
He never thought any of these things too
weak for manliness.
Grover Cleveland.
September 9.
His life was remarkable, and his per-
sonal character above reproach. His per-


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 83
sonal qualities were such that he had no
enemies.
William Jennings Bryan.
September 10.
Most truly do I sympathize with the
whole American nation at the loss of their
distinguished and ever-to-be-regretted
President.
Edward VII., King of England.
September 11.
Germany mourns with America for her
noble son.
William, Emperor of Germany.
September 12.
He was a popular ruler, a good friend
of the people, a genuine democrat in the
best sense of the word.
President Diaz, of Mexico.


84 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
September 13.
"I sympathize with you with all my
heart in the calamity which thus strikes
at your dearest affections and which be-
reaves the great American Nation of a
President so justly respected and loved."
From telegram sent by President
Loubet, of France, to Mrs. McKinley.
September 14.
"Good-by, all; good-by. It is God's
way. His will be done, not ours."
September 15.
A man of immaculate purity. No stain
was upon his escutcheon ; no syllable of
suspicion was whispered against his char-
acter. He walked in perfect and noble
self-control.
Bishop Andrews.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 85
September 16.
As President he was thoroughly con-
versant with the duties of his office, and
could enter into its most minute datails.
His characteristic virtues were courtesy
and politeness, patience and forbearance,
and masterly self-control under very try-
ing circumstances.
Cardinal Gibbons.
September 17.
In the face of this great loss no one
can say that he was not a great man ; that
his was not a blameless, gracious life;
that his was not a beautiful and spotless
character; that his aims were not noble.
Few countries have ever known a ruler
whose conduct and life have been more
exalted and have deserved greater praise.
Bishop Potter.


86 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
September 18.
It is with unspeakable sorrow and con-
sternation that her Majesty and ourself
have heard the distressing news. The
late President always gave manifestations
of sincere friendship, and during the
events of the past year he pursued a pol-
icy marked by a high sense of justice.
Imperial Chinese Edict.
September 1r.
"The loss of so great a ruler is a cala-
mity to the whole world.
Archbishop of Canterbury.
September 20.
No man ever believed more firmly the
truth that God reigns than William Mc-
Kinley, and no silly jest of scoffing un<


92 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
nothing, and the man or party that teaches
that doctrine teaches a false doctrine.
October 4.
In the distant period of its settle-
ment, in the days of the Revolution, in the
trials of Western pioneer life, during the
more recent but dread days of our civil
war, and, indeed, in every step of our prog-
ress as a nation, the devotion and sacri-
fices of woman were constantly apparent
and often conspicuous.
October 5.
Our flag has never waved over any com-
munity but in blessing.
October 6.
In this era of great business activity
and opportunity caution is not untimely.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 95
October 13.
Woman's impress is felt in art, science,
literature, song, and in government. Our
churches, our schools, our charities, our
professions, and our general business inter-
ests are more than ever each year directed
by her.
October 14.
The great debt of this government
now is to the surviving soldiers of the
republic.
October 15.
The American people demand the con-
tinuance of our glorious institutions, un-
impaired and unthreatened, which for
more than a century past have made this
the most highly honored, as well as pros-
perous, nation of the world.


96 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
October 16.
Uncertainty makes every business man
pause, makes every business enterprise
halt, and while they pause and halt the
home of every workingman is filled with
despair.
October 17.
We must not now prove false to our
own high standards in government nor un-
mindful of the noble example and wise
precepts of the fathers, or of the confi-
dence and trust which our conduct in the
past has always inspired.
October 18.
Debasement of the currency means de-
struction of values.
October 19.
We cannot inspire confidence by advo-


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 97
eating repudiation or practising dishon-
esty.
October 20.
I believe that there is more love for our
country and that more people love the
flag than ever before.
October 21.
The North and the South no longer
divide on old lines, but upon principles
and policies.
October 22.
If the party is wrong, make it better;
that's the business of the true partisan
and good citizen.
October 23.
The American people, intrenched in
7


98 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
freedom at home, take their love for it
with them wherever they go.
October 24.
Intelligence and industry are the best
possessions which any man can have, and
every man can have them.
October 25.
Prices are fixed with mathematical
precision by supply and demand.
October 26.
Isolation is no longer possible or de-
sirable.
October 27
Expositions stimulate the energy, en-
terprise and intellect of the people and


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 99
quicken human genius. They go into
the home. They broaden and brighten
the daily life of the people. They open
mighty storehouses of information to the
student.
October 28.
God and man have linked the nations
together. No nation can longer be indif-
ferent to any other.
October 29.
Next in advantage to having the thing
to sell is to have the convenience to carry
it to the buyer.
October 30.
As we are brought more and more in
touch with each other, the less occasion
is there for misunderstandings, and the
stronger the disposition, when we have
differences, to adjust them in the court of


IOO BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
arbitration, which is the noblest form for
the settlement of international disputes.
October 31.
I have politics enough during the week.
What I need, when I go to church, is
Christ, and Him crucified.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY, ICl
November 1.
The future is the sacred trust of us all,
South as well as North.
November 2.
The poorest dollars always eventually
land in the pockets of the poorest people,
for when the break or crash comes the
poor man loses it.
November 3.
I would rejoice to see demonstrated to
the world that the North and the South
and the East and the West are not sepa-


lo-i Hii'S OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
rated or in danger of becoming separated
because of sectional or party differences.
November 4.
Doubtless there have been pension
abuses and fraud in the numerous claims
allowed by the government, but the policy
governing the administration of the pen-
sion bureau must always be fair and
liberal.
November 5.
Every attempt to array class against
class is opposed to the national instinct
and interest and should be resisted by
every citizen.
November 6.
It was the concurrent law of nations
that made the double standard; it will


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. IO5
minishing the hay wagon on which he
hauls it.
November 13.
New things are often found hard to
do. Our fathers found them so. We
find them so.
November 14.
We propose to have the best of every,
thing that is going.
November 15.
The noble, self-effacing, willing minis-
ters of peace and good-will should be
classed with the world's heroes.
November 16.
Reciprocal trade arrangements with
other nations should in a liberal spirit be
carefully cultivated and promoted.


106 BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY.
November 17.
We cannot all be great scholars, but we
can all have good scholarship.
November 18.
Let us remember now and in all the
future that we are Americans.
November 19.
We are a nation of working people;
we recognize no caste and will tolerate
none beneath our flag.
November 20.
We must get over the idea in this
country that the government makes
money.


BITS OF WISDOM, MCKINLEY. 113
change of commodities is manifestly es-
sential to the continued and healthful
growth of our export trade.
December 8.
It is not a question of candidates, it is
not a contention for office; it is a con-
tention for country—not a contention in-
spired by sectional considerations, but of
devotion to the duty which affects and in-
spires the great heart of the American
people.
December 9.
The bitterness of the war belongs to
the past. Its glories are the common
heritage of us all. What was won in that
great conflict belongs just as sacredly to
those who lost as to those who triumphed.
December 10.
The first mission that a poor, depre-