but he yielded to them under all circumstances opportunities for demonstrating their leadership upon subjects connected with the bill, and over and over again expressed in public and in private his great admiration for the assistance contributed by his colleagues in the Committee. But it is fair to say that McKinley mastered the whole subject in Congress in detail. He has made the subject of protective tariff a life study. Born and reared within the sounds of the rolling mill, and beneath the smoke and flame of furnaces, and with the full knowledge of the calls of labor and the necessities of capital, he has grown up from childhood a student of the economic questions involved in American legislation, and so he brought to this task in the 51st Congress remarkable knowledge of details and thorough equipment for the great work devolved upon him. McKinley is a man of conspicuous modesty. He never claimed the exclusive authorship of this measure, but it must be admitted that he contributed more than any one else to the policy of combining in a tariff law ample provision for sufficient revenue to meet the expenditures of the Government, and at the same time to protect and foster impartially all domestic labor and production from undue competition with the poorly paid labor of foreign nations.

It is often asserted that the McKinley Act failed in providing sufficient revenue to support the Government. This is not true, as it did furnish revenue to meet expenditures, but it did not provide a surplus

equal to the sinking fund for the reduction of the public debt. This was not the fault of McKinley or of the House of Representatives, but of the Senate, which insisted upon reciprocity clauses which largely reduced the revenue provided by that Act.

It was the misfortune of the McKinley Act that it took effect at the opening of a Presidential contest, and when "Labor Troubles" excited the public mind. The election of 1892 fell with demoralizing and almost crushing weight upon the Republican party of the country. The law of 1890 was everywhere, by Republicans and Democrats, denominated the McKinley Law, and from ocean to ocean the common people learned to so denominate it. At that time Major McKinley not only did not seek to evade the responsibility of his position, but frankly and openly admitted it, and he counselled courage and fortitude, and gave assurance of his strong faith in the ultimate triumph of the Republican party upon the very principles which then seemed to be repudiated by the people.

Addressing himself to an audience of discouraged Republicans in February, 1893, he said:

"The Republican party values its principles no less in defeat than in victory. It holds to them after a reverse as before, because it believes in them, and, believing in them, is ready to battle for them. They are not espoused for mere policy, nor to serve in a single contest. They are set deep and strong

in the hearts of the party, and are interwoven with its struggle, its life, and its history. Without discouragement our great party reaffirms its allegiance to Republican doctrine, and with unshaken confidence seeks again the public judgment through public discussion. The defeat of 1892 has not made Republican principles less true nor our faith in their ultimate triumph less firm. The party accepts with true American spirit the popular verdict, and challenging the interpretation put upon it by political opponents, takes an appeal to the people, whose court is always open, whose right of review is never questioned.

"The Republican party, which made its first appearance in a national contest in 1856, has lost the Presidency but three times in thirty-six years, and only twice since 1860. It has carried seven Presidential elections out of ten since its organization. It has more than once witnessed an apparent condemnation of Republican policy swiftly and conclusively reversed by a subsequent and better considered popular verdict. When defeat has come it has usually followed some measure of public law or policy where sufficient time has not elapsed to demonstrate its wisdom and expediency, and where the opposing party, by reason thereof, enjoyed the widest range of popular prejudice and exaggerated statements and misrepresentation."

This was the language of a bold leader of public opinion. There was no trimming, no hiding from

responsibility, no shirking from the great question of protection.

After the passage of the Tariff Act of 1890 the country rang with the designation "McKinley Law" as a term of reproach. The man who had given his name to that Act when it was denounced, boldly proclaimed his responsibility for it. When the tide turned in its favor he heartily acknowledged the aid of his colleagues.

My familiar association as a Senator from Ohio with McKinley during his service in the House of Representatives enables me to say that he won friends from all parties by uniform courtesy and fairness, unyielding in sustaining the position of his party upon every question on the floor of the House. His leadership was, nevertheless, not offensive or aggressive, and while he carried his points, he was always courteous to his opponents, impersonal in debate, and always ready to concede honest motives to his opponents. At the close of the 51st Congress, and when his services as a Congressman ended, he retired without leaving behind him a single enemy, and yet he had been unswerving in party fealty and uncompromising upon every question of principle. His name became linked with the great measure of that Congress by the common voice of the people of the whole country, and by the world at large.

He, shortly after his service in Congress, entered upon the campaign for Governor of Ohio. He was

nominated by acclamation in 1891. The State had been carried in 1890 by the Republicans by a very close majority, and the drift in the country was against the success of the Republican party. The discussion by Major McKinley in Ohio of the tariff and currency questions was one of the most thorough and instructive of all the debates in that State. It was a counterpart, in large measure, of that of 1875, when, after a series of defeats throughout the country, growing out of the use of irredeemable paper money, President Hayes, then a candidate for Governor of Ohio, boldly advocated the resumption of specie payments, and was elected on that issue. It was a campaign where principles won against prejudices. Sv, in the campaign of 1891, Governor McKinley, disregarding threatened disasters, adhered without compromise to the platform of principles involved in the tariff legislation of Congress. He neither apologized nor modified his position, and his election by upwards of twenty thousand majority in that year was the significant result.

The office of Governor of Ohio was to McKinley a new field of action. It was the first executive office he had ever held. It was his first experience in administrative duty. His success in that department of the public service was as significant and conspicuous as his experience in the legislative department of the general government had been.

He was Governor during a period involving excitement and intense commotion in Ohio-the strikes