CHAPTER XIX.

THE MCKINLEY BILL-THE GREAT MEASURE OF THE FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS.

McKinley's Modesty in Speaking of his Own Achievements — His Associates Trust him Implicitly - His Belief the Basis of the Act How it was Framed No Interest Refused a Hearing - Working on Schedules until after Midnight -His Associates Marvel at his Powers of Endurance A Brilliant Scene on the

Day he Presents the Measure - His Speech Listened to with the Greatest Attention - Protection a Conviction, Not a Theory, with Him - The Passage of the Bill - It Becomes an Act - McKinley's Control of the Measure in the House His Able Management of Men - The Question of Reciprocity - The Most Harmonious Tariff Act Ever Put on the Statutes.

M

CKINLEY always spoke of the great measure of the Fifty-first Congress as The Tariff of 1890 ; the people have always spoken of it as the McKinley Bill. The reason is that McKinley is constitutionally and habitually modest and reticent regarding himself and his achievements, but the people have the instinct of calling things by their appropriate names, and they are keen in fixing, by common consent, credit where it belongs. McKinley did not desire to make the bill his own; his ambition was to make it a measure of the Republican party, and he did it. He sought co-operation and welcomed it always. Some of his supporters and admirers were able

men, and he gave them every opportunity they desired to show their leadership upon any subject connected with the bill, he even expressed his admiration for the assistance contributed by his colleagues in that connection. Yet, after all, the bill was his in its principles, in its details, in its phraseology, and in its successful management. Two years later, after the Republican defeat of 1892, when members of his own party were charging the reverses to the tariff act, he accepted full responsibility for it. Later, when the tide turned and the act was welcomed as an issue by Republicans, he again spoke of it as The Act of 1890. The House of the Fifty-first Congress, it should be remembered, was the first Republican House for many years. There was an army of men on the Republican side of the House, and in the majority of the Committee on Ways and Means, who had had comparatively little experience in any constructive legislation.

McKinley, "born within the sound of rolling mills and beneath the smoke and flame of furnaces," from childhood a student of economic questions, especially as involved in American legislation, had demonstrated his extensive knowledge, not only of the general principles of revenue legislation, but of the relations to trade and commerce of the smallest articles in the tariff schedules. Probably no Congressman ever had shown so thorough a knowledge of the uses of the various commodities, or of the processes by which they entered into manufacture. He had pointed out to Mills and his colleagues in the preceding Congress facts they had never dreamed of.

It was, perhaps, fortunate that the majority of the Committee on Ways and Means, of which he was made chair

man, contained no specialists men of one idea, who are usually dangerous. It was certainly fortunate that they depended constantly upon his knowledge, and trusted implicitly in his judgment. The larger principles involved in the measure, such as related to the administrative features, the mathematical calculations upon the industrial and commercial effect of various changes, and their effect upon federal revenue, were derived from him. His belief formed the basis upon which the measure rested; his spirit was the inspiration of the whole act.

How and when did he do it all? The room of the Committee on Ways and Means at the Capitol, and his little office at the Ebbitt House were the liveliest workshops in Washington during the Fifty-first Congress. The industry of framing the bill ran day and night, into the small hours. The Committee met in its room at the Capitol to hear all who wished to be heard on the bill, manufacturers, laborers, importers, free traders, and protectionists. The McKinley Bill was no "closed door" affair. Not a single interest, asking to be heard, was refused, in significant contrast to the way in which the Mills bill had been framed, and to the way in which the Wilson-Gorman act was secretly doctored and concocted later. At the very beginning McKinley announced that he would listen to the testimony of any of the great interests of the country until the bill was finally passed. So frank and open was he in his work that the business of the country continued in a feeling of absolute security. There was no distrust, and rumors could not be used in Wall Street to shake the foundations of finance. or frighten commercial and business men. Wheels turned, and looms hummed with no interruption.