never encroached upon the gold reserve, which in the past had always been sacredly preserved for the redemption of outstanding paper obligations of the Government.

"During all of its operations, down to the change and reversal of its policy by the election of 1892, no man can assert that in the industries affected by it wages were too high, although they were higher than ever before in this or any other country. If any such can be found, I beg that they be named. I challenge the enemies of the law of 1890 to name a single industry of that kind. Further, I assert that in the industries affected by that law, which the law fostered, no American consumer suffered by the increased cost of any home products that he bought. He never bought them so low before, nor did he ever enjoy the benefit of so much open, free, home competition. Neither producer nor consumer, employer or employee, suffered by that law.

LARGEST VOTE EVER CAST FOR GOVERNOR.

What the people of Ohio thought of the matter was proved by their making him Governor the next year, he polling the largest vote ever cast for Governor, and in 1893, when renominated to that office, his plurality was the largest ever given a gubernatorial candidate in time of peace. It was while he was Governor that he was a delegate to the Minneapolis convention that renominated Harrison, where he again displayed his sense. of honor and stood by the President. He was chairman of the convention and an attempt was made to railroad him in over the heads of both Harrison and Blaine, but he steadfastly declined the nomination, though the vote on the first ballot stood, Harrison, 535; Blaine, 182; McKinley, 182: Reed, 4; Robert Lincoln, 1.

But the very sacrifices he made for his friends, his rugged honor and honorable frankness, coupled with his known policies, made him the leader of his party as a man and as an exponent of its economic theories of government and their application and administration. Consequently, on June 18, 1896, at the Republican National Convention held at St. Louis, McKinley was

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oposed for the Presidency for the third time. The situation. was not that of 1888 or 1892, the field was open to nim and he was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 6611⁄2 votes, the nearest to him, Reed, securing but 84%1⁄2, and was elected in November, receiving 7,104,799 votes at the polls, a plurality of 601,854 over Bryan, and in the electoral college 271 votes to Bryan's 176.

The nomination and election of 1896 came to Major McKinley when he was 53 years old, experienced in public life through his splendid Congressional drill of fourteen years, from 1877 to 1891, and his executive training as Governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896. Moreover, as one of the few rare and natural campaigners, the President had come in touch with the people in a way that put him thoroughly in touch with American hopes, feelings, aspirations. He knew what the people believed in and he felt convinced that he knew the policies, fiscal, economic, administrative, that meant their welfare and permanent rehabilitation of the industries of the entire country. In all his career he had never gotten out of touch with the plain people, those who make up the brain and brawn of the nation, and it was as their choice that he went into the White House in 1897.

moment.

A CRITICAL PERIOD.

No President ever entered upon his duties at a more critical The country had passed through a severe industrial and financial crisis, the unwise legislation of Democratic theorists with the threat of their monetary vagaries had paralyzed manufactures, halted trade, put an embargo on commerce and shrunk credit to such an extent that the complex business needs of the country were absolutely powerless despite the vast natural resources and the energy of the people. During the campaign the President had not hesitated to predict returning prosperity if the economic policy of the Democrats be reversed and the country rest its finances on the gold standard.

On election the way he met the gigantic issues which awaited him on his induction into office on March 4, 1897, and the supreme

skill with which he sailed the Ship of State through very stormy waters won the admiration of the whole country. Immediately convening Congress in extraordinary session, he recommended a consideration of the tariff problem. The Dingley law was passed, and business prospects brightend instantly. Under the low Wilson bill tariff financial failures in the country during the first six months of 1896 alone numbered 7,602, with liabilities amounting to $105,535,936.

The first six months of 1900 under "McKinley times" showed the smallest number of failures known in a like period of time within eighteen years, the decrease in liabilities alone from the first half of 1896 being $45,471,728.

SOUND CURRENCY BASIS.

The President's plan to provide a more stable currency basis, as set forth in his first and second annual addresses, was that "when any of the United States notes are presented for redemption in gold and are redeemed in gold, such notes shall be kept and set apart and only paid out in exchange for gold," but though the Dingley bill became law on July 24, 1897, it was not until March 14, 1900, that the financial reforms of the McKinley administration were completed in the passage of the "Gold Standard Act."

The President's messages, after prosperity had been assured by the tariff measure, so that the President indeed proved that the campaign phrase dubbing William McKinley the "advance agent of prosperity" had been no idle boast, were marked by a broad grasp of the practical problems in hand which took on more and more of an international character as the difficulties with Spain over Cuba increased and the Eastern situation owing to the weakness of China took on a threatening attitude.

In his message to the special session of 1897, which enacted the Dingley law, the President had dwelt wholly on the tariff, but in his regular message to Congress, in December, 1897, he asked for the full consideration of the currency question, and he repeated this recommendation in 1898, holding before Congress the