"Then we shook hands again, and Mr. Boyle went out on the porch with me, and there was a lot of big men-polictitians, I guess-and I think Mr. McKinley was very nice to talk to me and keep them waiting so long.

"I guess all the boys who knows Mr. McKinley like Mr. McKinley as well as he likes them, because the boys of Canton, O., have already formed a drum core. Its the first campaign club in the country, and the boys are very proud of it. I'd join if I lived in Canton. The boys all wear white suits and drill, and are going to march for McKinley.

"HARRY WILSON."

Harry Wilson has beaten all the accomplished reporters, and his photograph of McKinley at home is perfect. It is valuable, for it is true all through, and the wholesome, serious, earnest, kindly, loving, genuine man, McKinley, stands revealed-symmetrical, strong, and genial.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CONTRASTED CONDITIONS.

Between Republican protection and prosperity and Democratic meddling, disorganizing industry and forcing hard times, displayed in speeches by McKinley in 1892 and in 1895-A plea in Boston for protection and prosperity.

G

OVERNOR MCKINLEY, on October 4th, 1892, in American Hall, Boston, addressed the people, beginning then, as he might

now, saying:

"This year we have two great questions. The contention of the Republican party is for the industries and the labor and the prosperity of the country. The second contention of the Republican party is for an honest currency with which to measure the exchanges of the people."

He proceeded to make a speech most pertinent to these times, and put to the front the leading questions. His remarkably forcible speech is now just as it was reported for the press. We quote:

"The Democratic contention, no matter what Mr. Hill may have said in his Brooklyn speech, no matter what Mr. Cleveland may have said in his recent

letter of acceptance-the contention of the Democratic party is for free trade and for a debased, worthless currency. If this is disputed, the history of the most unfortunate Cleveland adminstration proves it. [Applause.] The leaders of the Democratic party have been financially unsound for more than thirty years. [Applause.] This unsoundness has not always taken on the same form, but its effect has always been the same-to corrupt the currency of the country. You will remember its opposition to the greenback currency, its opposition to the national bank currency, its opposition to the resumption of specie payments, its declaration in favor of the inflation of the currency without limit in value and irredeemable. You will remember its declaration for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. These have been the positions of the Democratic party in every national contest for the past thirty years, one or the other, and driven from the one they have taken up the other. Their last was the free and unlimited coinage of silver. Driven by the party exigency, by the near approach of a Presidential campaign, they abandoned the free and unlimited coinage of silver, put in nomination a candidate in opposition to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and when they did that they had to break out in some other place. [Applause.] And so they declared in their platform of 1892 for the abolition of the ten per cent. tax on State bank circulation, the only object of such a declaration being to restore

such State bank circulation, and the only effect of such restoration would be the retirement of the national money of the country.

"This is the worst form of financial unsoundness that has ever emanated from the Democratic leaders, and I purpose for a few minutes, and only a few minutes, to call the attention of this audience to what the return to State bank circulation means—means to every business in the country, means to every interest of the country, means to every wage-earner of the country, means to every dollar of invested capital in the country-a proposition to go away from the national bank and the greenback and the treasury note currency to the wildcat currency of thirty years ago. [Applause.]

"You will remember that in 1866 the Congress of the United States imposed a tax on State banks. The purpose of that tax was to retire State bank circulation, and to substitute in its place national money, and it had the desired effect. State bank money went out and national currency came in. And we had to do it. We had a nation to save and we had to have national agencies to save it. State agencies would not do.

"Now, it is proposed to go back to that, when we have got the best currency in the world. And I want to read you the condition of the banks of this country prior to 1860. I have lying on this table the old Bank Note Detector, which every business man had to have to know whether the money he was receiving was

genuine or whether it was counterfeit. Here is the old document, dated the first day of December, 1859. Now, what does it show? It shows that this country at that time had 1,590 State banks of issue, exclusive of what were called 'State banks and their branches' —1,590 of them, and the notes of but fifty of those banks were at par. The notes of the 1,540 other banks were at a discount. There was not a bank in the State of Massachusetts that was quoted at par in the city of Philadelphia. There was not a note issued by any State bank in Ohio, or in any State bank in Pennsylvania, or any State bank in Illinois that was current at par outside of the jurisdiction and limits of the State. The money was fairly good within the State, but when you stepped across the State lines then the holder of that currency had to look out for the speculator and the shaver and stand a discount. And that was the kind of money with which we did the business of this country. And no man when he got some of that paper was certain that before morning came the bank would not fail. [Laughter.] And then there were 890 broken, failed, and worthless banks, in addition to the 1,590, scattered throughout every State of the Union, whose notes had been put in circulation, had been taken by the people of this country, value given for such paper money, which proved to be worthless in the hands of the people, and of no more account than the paper upon which it was printed. The Republican party is against the return to the State bank circulation. [Great applause.]