have had an opportunity to ask him a question I would like to have done it, because I could have exposed the fallacy of his argument.' So I want him to do it now.

“Do you think there would be an idle man in America if we manufactured everything that Americans use? Do you think if we didn't buy anything from abroad at all, but made everything we needed, that every man would not be employed in the United States, and employed at a profitable remuneration? Why, everybody is benefited by protection, even the people who do not believe in it-for they get great benefit out of it, but will not confess it; and that is what is the matter with Virginia. Heretofore she has not believed in it. You have not had a public man that I know of in Washington for twenty-five years, save one, except the Republicans, who did not vote against the great doctrine of American protection, American industries, and American labor; and do you imagine that anybody is coming to Virginia with his money to build a mill, or a factory, or a furnace, and develop your coal and your ore-bring his money down here when you vote every time against his interests and don't let those who favor them vote at all? No! If you think so you might just as well be undeceived now, for they will not come.

if

"Why, old John Randolph, I don't know how many years ago, said on the floor of the American Congress, in opposing a protective tariff, he did not believe in manufactories. Why,' said he, you have manufactories in Philadelphia you will have cholera six months in the year.' That was what the Sage of Roanoke' said, and Virginia seems to be still following the sentiments he uttered years and years ago.

"I tell you, manufactories do not bring cholera—they bring coin, coin; coin for the poor man, coin for the rich, coin for everybody who will work; comfort and contentment for all deserving people. And if you vote for increasing manufactories, my fellowcitizens, you will vote for the best interests of your own State, and you will be making iron, and steel, and pottery, and all the great

THE UNITED STATES PEACE COMMISSIONERS OF THE SPANISH WAR. Appointed September 9, 1898. Met Spanish Commissioners at Paris, October 1st. Treaty of Peace signed by the Com missioners at Paris, December 1oth. Ratified by the United States Senate at Washington, February 6, 1899.

leading products just as Ohio and Pennsylvania are making them to-day.

"Be assured that the Republicans of the North harbor no resentments--only ask for the results of the war. They wish you the highest prosperity and greatest development. They bid you, in the language of Whittier :

In the Congress of 1887, which had a Democratic majority, Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. This committee prepared a tariff bill, popularly known as the Mills' Bill, the debate upon which was one of the longest and most spirited that had occurred in Congress during many years. McKinley took a very active part in the opposition, his private office in the hotel being a meeting place for manufacturers from all parts of the country. Major McKinley heard them all with great patience. In addition, he was surrounded by a small library of printed volumes and a mass of reports and statistics bearing upon the conditions of industry alike in the United States and foreign countries.

Great as was the labor involved, he never seemed to weary of it, and was constantly accessible to visitors on business pertaining to the proposed bill. All who came in contact with him greatly admired his mastery of the subject in its highly varied details. The report which gave the views of the Republican minority was drawn by him, and in it he cited the various objections to the measure,

and made manifest the fallacy of the theory upon which it was based. In the discussion of the bill which followed occurred the incident related by Judge Kelley which we have quoted above.

The debate on the Mills' Bill was very spirited, and the part taken in it by McKinley was active and effective. An amusing recontre took place between him and Leopold Morse, a Democratic member from Massachusetts, Much has been said about how free

wool would cheapen the workingman's clothing. Morse was a member of a firm of dealers in clothing, and McKinley, with the purpose of giving an effective object lesson on this point, had procured a suit of cheap clothes from this firm. speech as given in the Congressional Record:

AN AMUSING ENCOUNTER

We quote from his

"The expectation of cheaper clothes is not sufficient to justify the action of the majority. This is too narrow for a national issue. Nobody, so far as I have learned, has expressed dissatisfaction with the present price of clothing. It is a political objection; it is a party slogan. Certainly nobody is unhappy over the cost of clothing except those who are amply able to pay even a higher price than is now exacted. And besides, if this bill should pass, and the effect would be (as it inevitably must be) to destroy our domestic manufactures, the era of low prices would vanish, and the foreign manufacturer would compel the American consumer to pay higher prices than he had been accustomed to pay under the 'robber tariff,' so called.

“Mr. Chairman, I represent a district comprising some 200,000 people, a large majority of the voters in the district being workingmen. I have represented them for a good many years, and I have never had a complaint from one of them that their clothes were too high. Have you? [Applause on the Republican side.] Has any gentleman on this floor met with such complaint

in his district?

"Mr. Morse: They did not buy them of me.