Of course, coming from an iron district, one would expect him to know all about the iron trade, but he could tell you about the cotton trade of the South, or the lumber trade of the Northwest, just as well. I remember one day a member asked him off-hand about the glass factories in the country and the value of the output, and McKinley gave him the actual figures out of his head. I could hardly believe him, and I jotted the figures down on a pad. Afterward I found they were correct."
This was one of the secrets of William McKinley's success. He believed in being thorough in all he undertook. With him there was no such thing as learning a thing half or doing a thing half. If it was to be done at all, it must be done well.
And another secret was—study. He believed in study and he read all the good books that came within his reach. He was always ready to ask questions as well as to answer them. When a measure came up which was likely to affect a certain class of people, or a certain trade or industry, he would write to the people and ask them what they had to say on the subject, or he
