BENJAMIN HARRISON. (1833- .)
One term, 1889-1894.
Although President Cleveland offended many of his party by his devotion to the policy of civil service reform, he was renominated in 1888, while the nominee of the Republicans was Benjamin Harrison. Other tickets were placed in the field, and the November election resulted as follows: Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, Democrats, 168 electoral votes; Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, Republicans, 233; Clinton B. Fisk and John A. Brooks, Prohibition, received 249,907 popular votes; Alson J. Streeter and C.E. Cunningham, United Labor, 148,105; James L. Curtis and James R. Greer, American, 1,591.
THE TWENTY-THIRD PRESIDENT.
Benjamin Harrison was born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His father was a farmer, and his father was General William Henry Harrison, governor of the Northwest Territory, and afterward President of the United States, and the first to die in office. His father was Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Thus the twenty-third President possesses illustrious lineage.
Benjamin Harrison entered Miami University when a boy, and was graduated before the age of twenty. He studied law, and upon his admission to the bar settled in Indianapolis, which has since been his home. He volunteered early in the war, and won the praise of Sheridan and other leaders for his gallantry and bravery. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, and his ability placed him among the foremost leaders in that distinguished body. As a debater and off-hand speaker, he probably has no superior, while his ability as a lawyer long ago placed him in the very front rank of his profession.
THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER.
The Conemaugh Valley, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, is about twenty miles in length. The city of Johnstown lies thirty-nine miles west-southwest of Altoona and seventy-eight miles east-by-south of Pittsburg. It is the seat of the Cambria Iron Works, which give employment to fully 6,000 men, and is one of the leading industrial establishments of the country. Conemaugh Lake is at the head of the winding valley, eighteen miles away, and was the largest reservoir of water in the world. It was a mile and a half wide at its broadest part, and two miles and a half long. Most of the lake was a hundred feet deep. The dam was a fifth of a mile wide, ninety feet thick at its base, and one hundred and ten feet high. The mass of water thus held in restraint was inconceivable.
The people living in the valley below had often reflected upon the appalling consequences if this dam should give way. Few persons comprehend the mighty strength of water, whose pressure depends mainly upon its depth. A tiny stream, no thicker than a pipe-stem, can penetrate deeply enough into a mountain to split it apart, and, should the reservoir ever burst its bounds, it would spread death and desolation over miles of country below.
There had been several alarms, but the engineers sent to make an examination of the dam always reported it safe, and the people, like those who live at the base of a volcano, came to believe that all the danger existed in their imagination.