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"There never has been a time in our history," said he, "when work was so abundant, or when wages were so high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life. The general average of prices has been such as to give to agriculture a fair participation in the general prosperity."

This fairly describes the happy condition of the country in December, 1892. What has it been since, and what is it now? . . .

The messages of President Cleveland from the beginning of his second administration to the present time abound with descriptions of the deplorable industrial and financial situation of the country.

What a startling and sudden change within the short period of eight months, from December, 1892, to August, 1893. What had occurred?

A change of administration.

All branches of the government had been intrusted to the Democratic party, which was committed against the protective policy that had prevailed uninterruptedly for more than thirty-two years and brought unexampled prosperity to the country, and firmly pledged to its complete overthrow and the substitution of a Tariff for revenue only. The change having been decreed by the elections in November, its effects were at once anticipated and felt.

We cannot close our eyes to these altered conditions, nor would it be wise to exclude from contemplation and investigation the causes which produced them. They are facts which we cannot as a people disregard, and we can only hope to improve our present condition by a study of their causes.

In December, 1892, we had the same currency and practically the same volume of currency that we have now. It aggregated in 1892, $2,372,599,501; in 1893, $2,323,000,000; in 1894, $2,323,442,362; and in December, 1895, $2,194,000,230. The per capita of money has been practically the same during this whole period. The quantity of the money has been identical-all kept equal to gold.

There is nothing connected with our money, therefore, to account for this sudden and aggravated industrial change. Whatever is to be deprecated in our financial system, it must everywhere be admitted that our money has been absolutely sound and has brought neither loss nor inconvenience to its holders. A depreciated currency has not existed to further vex the troubled business situation. It is a mere pretense to attribute the hard times to the fact that

all our currency is on a gold basis. Good money never made times hard. Those who assert that our present industrial and financial depression is the result of the gold standard have not read American history aright or been careful students of the events of recent years. We never had greater prosperity in this country, in every field of employment and industry, than in the busy years from 1880 to 1892, during all of which time this country was on a gold basis and employed more gold money in its fiscal and business operations than ever before. We had, too, a protective Tariff, under which ample revenues were collected for the government, and an accumulating surplus, which was constantly applied to the payment of the public debt.

Let us hold fast to that which we know is good. It is not more money we want; what we want is to put the money we already have at work. When money is employed men are employed. Both have always been steadily and remuneratively engaged during all the years of protective Tariff legislation. When those who have money lack confidence in the stability of values and investments, they will not part with their money. Business is stagnated-the life-blood of trade is checked and congested.

We have either been sending too much money out of the country, or getting too little in, or both. We have lost steadily in both directions. Our foreign trade has been diminished and our domestic trade has suffered incalculable loss. Does not this suggest the cause of our present depression and indicate its remedy?

Confidence in home enterprises has almost wholly disappeared. Our shops are closed, or running on half time at reduced wages and small profit if not actual loss. Our men at home are idle, and while they are idle the men abroad are occupied in supplying us with goods.

Our unrivalled home market for the farmer has also greatly suffered because those who constitute it-the great army of American wage-earners are without the work and wages they formerly had. If they cannot earn wages they cannot buy products. They cannot earn if they have no employment, and, when they do not earn, the farmer's home market is lessened and impaired, and the loss is felt by both producer and consumer.

The loss of earning power alone in this country in the past three years is sufficient to have produced our unfortunate business situation. If our labor was well employed, and employed at as remuner

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ative wages as in 1892, in a few months every farmer in the land would feel the glad change in the increased demand for his products and in the better prices which he would receive.

It is not an increase in the volume of money which is the need of the time, but an increase in the volume of business. Not an increase of coin, but an increase of confidence. Not more coinage, but a more active use of the money coined. Not open mints for the unlimited coinage of the silver of the world, but open mills for the full and unrestricted labor of American workingmen.

While the Republicans maintained in the early part of the canvass that the Tariff was still a most important issue, yet during the closing weeks hardly any subject was discussed except the money question, and the injury that free silver would have upon the honor and industries of the country. The solid business men of the Eastern and Middle States almost without exception rallied to the support of Mr. McKinley. The gold Democrats voted for McKinley or Palmer to a large extent, according as to whether such vote in the State cast would most hurt the Democratic electoral ticket.

While there was more or less alarm and apprehension during the summer and fall as to the outcome, it can hardly be said that Mr. McKinley's election was at any time in doubt, particularly after Vermont and Maine in October had given unprecedented majorities for the Republican ticket. The most influential Democratic papers of the country, and most of the so-called independent papers were supporting the Republican ticket, and though the Free-Trade press found it hard to accept Mr. McKinley, yet the dread of free silver so overshadowed all else, that there was no hesitancy about endorsing the candidates of the Republican party in preference to those of the Democratic party. The Populists, wherever possible, fused with the Democrats, but to no purpose except in Silver strongholds. The election passed off without incident, the result of the popular and subsequent electoral vote being shown on the following page:

1 Bryan and Watson's vote is included in the vote for W. J. Bryan. Electoral votes were cast for Watson as follows: Arkansas, 3; Louisiana, 4; Missouri, 4; Montana, 1; Nebraska, 4; North Carolina, 5; South Dakota, 2; Utah, 1; Washington, 2; Wyoming, I.

CHAPTER XIV

ADMINISTRATION OF MCKINLEY-THE DINGLEY LAW-WAR WITH SPAIN-THE PHILIPPINES-CUBA-THE BOXER UPRISING

THE

HE second session of the Fifty-fourth Congress began Monday, December 7, 1896. A considerable portion of the President's annual message was devoted to the Cuban question. Attention was called to the fact that from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital was invested in business enterprises on the island, and that the trade between the United States and Cuba had reached $100,000,000 annually. The President concluded this part of his message as follows:

Whatever circumstances may arise, our policy and our interests would constrain us to object to the acquisition of the island or an interference with its control by any other power. It should be added that it cannot be reasonably assumed that the hitherto expectant attitude of the United States will be indefinitely maintained. While we are anxious to accord all due respect to the sovereignty of Spain, we cannot view the pending conflict in all its features, and properly apprehend our inevitable close relations to it, and its possible results, without considering that by the course of events we may be drawn into such an unusual and unprecedented condition as will fix a limit to our patient waiting for Spain to end the contest, either alone and in her own way or with our friendly co-operation. When the inability of Spain to deal successfully with the insurrection has become manifest, and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a hopeless struggle for its re-establishment has degenerated into a strife, which means nothing more than the useless