In 1895 he gave another evidence of his deep concern for the welfare of the workingmen. January 7 of that year the Trades and Labor Union of the Hocking Valley mining district held a meeting at Nelsonville for the purpose of effecting an organization and formulating plans for the relief of the distress and destitution existing among the miners and their families. For months the miners had been at war with their employers, and the continued loss of income had reduced them to a state of great wretchedness. A memorial was adopted at the meeting and a committee appointed to present it to the governor. They performed the duty imposed on them, and the governor, after hearing what they had to say, requested them to return to Nelsonville and ask the mayor to call a meeting of citizens to consider the question of relief. He promised that when advised of the result of that meeting he would take immediate action looking to the carrying out of their wishes. The meeting was called, and the action of the miners at their previous meeting approved. At 11:45 p. m., January 9, the governor received a message from the chairman of the Relief Committee, saying: “Immediate relief needed.” He at once sent messengers to the proprietor of a wholesale grocery, a dealer in vegetables, flour, etc., a transfer company and the officials of the Hocking Valley Railroad Company to meet him immediately at his rooms. The object of the meeting was for the purchase of a carload of provisions and to arrange for the shipment early in the morning. The supplies were purchased and loaded in the car before 5 o’clock a. m., and within nine hours after the receipt of the message the carload of provisions was in Nelsonville ready to be distributed to the hungry.
McKinley not only purchased the supplies, but also assumed the payment of the same. It was not his purpose to ask the people to provide for the payment of this car of provisions, amounting to nearly $1,000, but some of his friends learned that he had assumed the obligation and they at once took the matter in hand and secured from State officers and heads of departments the larger proportion of the amount, which they turned over to him, this being added to his own liberal subscription, thus meeting the obligation assumed by him.