LXXVII. CHAP. sion, and then inaugurating a system to train the people thus relieved to a higher plane of civilization, self-reliance, and self-government. The general and gradual progress of the whole Union in all its industries and business relations was uniform during that same administration, and when it ended the prospect for the future was still more encouraging. In all business circles confidence was inspired because there was no doubt but the financial measures of the general Government would remain unchanged. The interstate traffic of the Nation is estimated to be forty times the value of the foreign trade. The balance of foreign trade in our favor during the last three years of that administration averaged annually more than $417,000,000-that is, the value of our exports exceeded just so much that of our imports. This difference was paid in gold or its equivalent. We had also become in these three years a creditor nation, as our capitalists had loaned to European governments immense sums of money. This national success may be traced to the judicious financial measures of the general Government, which had been supplemented by the industrial energy and general intelligence of all our people-the latter characteristic being largely the outgrowth of our public schools and the freedom of opportunity in this favored land. It was not strange, then, that the election of November, 1900, resulted in the re-election of William McKinley to succeed himself as President of the United States, standing as the representative of an administration of the Government which had been able to show such notable triumphs both in war and in peace. CHAPTER LXXVIII. MCKINLEY'S SECOND TERM. Inauguration of McKinley and Roosevelt.-The President's Tour to the Pacific Coast.-At the Pan-American Exposition.-His Farewell Address.-His Death.-Sketch of Theodore Roosevelt.-Continuation of the Philippine War.-The War in China. Independence for Cuba.-The Isthmian Canal.-The Alaska Boundary.-Great Coal Strike.-Our Island Possessions. American Inventions. - President Roosevelt's First Message.-Naval and Military Power.-Gifts of Benevolence. WILLIAM MCKINLEY, who had been reëlected by larger CHAP. majorities than he received in 1896, was inaugurated LXXVIIL President a second time on March 4, 1901. At the same time Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office as Vice-President. In his inaugural address President McKinley said: "When we assembled here on March 4, 1897, there was great anxiety with regard to our currency and credit. None exists now. Then our treasury receipts were inadequate to meet the current obligations of the government. Now there are sufficient for all public needs, and we have a surplus instead of a deficit. I have the satisfaction to announce that the Congress just closed has reduced taxation to the amount of forty-one million dollars. . . . We should not permit our great prosperity to lead us to reckless ventures in business, or profligacy in public expenditures." His cabinet remained as it was during his first term, LXXVIII. CHAP. except that Attorney-General Griggs soon resigned and was succeeded by Philander C. Knox, of Pennsylvania. Late in April the President set out on a tour to the Pacific coast, by way of New Orleans. In speaking at Memphis he said: "What a mighty, resistless power for good is a united nation of free men! It makes for peace and prestige, for progress and liberty. It conserves the rights of the people and strengthens the pillars of the government, and is a fulfillment of that more perfect union for which our Revolutionary fathers strove and for which the Constitution was made. No citizen of the Republic rejoices more than I do at this happy state, and none will do more within his sphere to continue and strengthen. it. Our past has Our past has gone into history. the annals of mankind. Our No brighter one adorns An Exposition to illustrate the progress of civilization in the western hemisphere in the nineteenth century had been projected, to be held on the Niagara frontier in 1898, and in July, 1897, President McKinley drove the memorial stake on Cayuga Island, near the village of La Salle. But the war with Spain postponed the enterprise, and when it was revived the location was changed to the city of Buffalo, and there the Pan-American Exposition was held, May 1 to November 2, 1901. In its buildings and grounds it resembled the Columbian Ex MCKINLEY'S SECOND TERM. 1205 LXXVIII. position that was held in Chicago in 1893, though it CHAP. was on a smaller scale. The President visited the Exposition early in September, and on the 5th of that month made a speech that at once attracted attention all over the world, and has become historic as his farewell address. The following are its most significant passages: "Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise, and intellect of the people and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and even whims of the people, and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and low prices to win their favor. "The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, improve, and economize in the cost of production. Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. Without competition we should be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no farther advanced than the eighteenth century. But though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be. "The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illustrating the progress of the human family in the western hemisphere. This portion of the CHAP. earth has no cause for humiliation for the part it has LXXVIII performed in the march of civilization. It has not accomplished everything; far from it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and, recognizing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and commerce, and will coöperate with all in advancing the highest and best interests of humanity. The wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the world's work. The successes of art, science, industry, and invention are an international asset and a common glory. "After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world! Modern inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged as never before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing knowledge and trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. The same important news is read, though in different languages, the same day in all Christendom. Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined. |