The Wichita Daily Eagle

LIFE ROCKET STICKS.

The people of the country at large, for the past week, have been reading of men of whom they never had heard. They are the men who engineered the fight against Hanna in Ohio. They have been heard from, but will be heard of no more. That Hanna and his backing will wipe the earth with this ambitious crew there is not the least doubt. They were but a small contingent who attempted to take advantage of political contingency to lay Hanna out, snub President McKinley and foist themselves into power. Their failure means political extinction not only for themselves but for a number of bigger fellows who backed and banked upon them, including Governor Bushnell. Even Foraker, as the senior senator from that state, must play second fiddle, if he plays any fiddle at all during the present administration. The man Kurtz, who engineered the failing coalition, was formerly Governor Foraker's private secretary, by which he came to after recognition as a political factor and central committeeman. He being small potatoes will be readily disposed of and buried. The man who it was expected would be elected instead of Hanna, is young McKisson, the mayor of Hanna's own city, Cleveland. He is bright but unprincipled, and in his attempt to go up like a rocket he falls a very dead stick. He is only 34 years old and his political career has been meteoric. He was backed by the Kurtz-McLean-Bushnell combine because of his free silver proclivities. It was not McKisson's statesmanship, however, that made him the choice of the plotters, but because of the readiness with which he agreed to swallow the Chicago platform and his availability on that account with the Democrats. He will not only be repudiated by his own party but annihilated by the Hanna forces. The treachery of Bushnell et al. seems a political inexplicability. They all cast their chances for the future on a single throw and in throwing, lost. They deserve no sympathy. Their acts cannot be condoned. By their treachery they threatened the permanency of our great political institutions and organizations in that they defied the will of the people as expressed at the polls by a majority, and their fate is deserved.