President should be authorized to take off the duty on sugar whenever the sugar-producing nations removed their duties on our farm products and certain other articles. Mr. McKinley presented this amendment to the Committee on Ways and Means. It was not adopted. Mr. McKinley voted for it the first time it was presented. Then a second proposition containing some modifications was presented, and Mr. McKinley voted for that, as he voted for the Blaine reciprocity amendment every time it was submitted.

Mr.

"It has been currently reported that Mr. Blaine denounced the McKinley Bill with such vigor that he smashed his hat. Blaine's opposition to the bill was because of the free-sugar clause. He criticized the refusal of Congress to take advantage of conditions which he thought were favorable to our trade. They proposed to throw away the duty on sugar when he wanted them to trade with it.

"When what was known as the Aldrich Amendment was adopted, Mr. Blaine was perfectly satisfied, and there was nothing in the current tales that he was unfriendly to Major McKinley. On the contrary, he was one of his warmest friends. Had it not been for Mr. McKinley and Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, the reciprocity clause in the tariff act would never have been adopted.”

In conclusion of our consideration of this famous commercial and fiscal measure, it must be said that no opportunity arose to test its effect upon the national revenues. The vast quantity of goods, of the classes upon which the rates of duty were increased, that were rushed into our ports before the law became operative, and a concurrent holding back of those that were to be placed upon the free list, prevented the new tariff from pursuing its normal course. It was little more than a month in existence before the Fall elections gave it its death-blow. The advent of a Democratic Congress alarmed those whose business the tariff would have benefited, and the deadlock in trade which was soon to show itself early began to manifest itself in the commerce of the country. The McKinley tariff fell before it could be fairly tried.

A

CHAPTER X

Governor of Ohio

T the election of 1890, as we have said, the Democrats so manipulated the districts as to defeat Mr. McKinley by 300 votes in a district normally Democratic by 2,900, and thus prevent his return to Congress. Great was their rejoicing at this. They thought they had crushed their arch-enemy at last. But they reckoned without the chief factor in the problem. The answer to their exultation came unhesitatingly. Mr. McKinley in the following year was nominated by the Republicans by acclamation for Governor of the State.

The platform of the Convention re-affirmed the devotion of the party to the patriotic doctrine of protection, and recognized the McKinley bill as the ablest expression of a principle enacted in fulfillment of Republican promises. It made declarations in favor of such legislation by Congress as would in every practical mode encourage, protect, and promote agriculture. It demanded protection of the wool industry. It declared that gold and silver should. form the basis of all circulating mediums, and expressed the desire to add the entire production of the silver mines of the United States to the currency of the people.

A MEMORABLE CAMPAIGN

Then followed one of the most memorable campaigns ever waged in the Buckeye State. Mr. McKinley began his campaign on August 1, and for three months he traveled night and day, making from two to a dozen speeches a day, until he had visited eighty-four out of the eighty-eight counties of the State, and made in all 130 speeches. His campaign was on national issues, on the

tariff, on protection; and so eloquently and passionately did he defend his principles that great crowds turned out to hear him. The attention of the whole country was drawn to the State of Ohio and the campaign. Newspaper correspondents followed the champion of protection in his tour of the State, and filled the press of the country with descriptions of scenes novel in political campaigns.

The Democrats contested every inch of the ground stubbornly, but the people turned to McKinley as the apostle of the true dispensation, and women and children said he had made protection and tariff plain to them. In that campaign, the first general campaign Mr. McKinley had ever made, he was pronounced the best votegetter ever seen on the stump in Ohio. He won the admiration of Democrats, as he won the devotion of Republicans, and his election by a majority of over 21,000 votes was gratifying to one party, without being a source of bitterness to the rank and file of the other party.

MCKINLEY RENOMINATED FOR GOVERNOR

The opening of the second Cleveland Administration in 1893, was followed by a business distrust that in a brief time developed into a widespread panic. Even the greatest financial combination in the land, the Associated Banks of New York, practically suspended payment, issuing clearing-house certificates in place of money. Dismay took the place of hope; ruin succeeded prosperity.

In the height of the panic Governor McKinley was renominated by the Republicans of Ohio by acclamation. A spirited contest followed. His opponent was the Hon. L. T. Teal. Nothing was to be said of the personal fitness of the candidates, and the campaign was conducted on the basis of party issues. The revulsion against the protective policy was reaching its end, the people were repenting of their temporary change of sentiment, and the issue brought before them was that of protection or free trade.

The discussion extended throughout the Fall; when at length the people came to indicate their opinion at the ballot-box, their

verdict showed the change in public opinion. McKinley was re-elected Governor with a plurality of 80,955; up to that time the largest but one in the history of the State.

Mr. McKinley's record as Governor was an admirable one. He never forgot that he was not alone the representative of the party which had elected him, but the Chief Magistrate of the whole State, and he was untiring in his efforts to secure for the State a wise, economical, and honorable administration. He took great interest in the management of the public institutions, making a special study of means for their betterment, and securing many important and much-needed reforms. He urged the preserving and improving of the canal system, and was an earnest promoter of the movement for good roads. To the question of tax reform he paid much attention and repeatedly urged its importance upon the Legislature. Many questions relating to the welfare of workingmen became acute during his administration, and were dealt with by him in a spirit of intelligent sympathy.

MCKINLEY A WISE AND FIRM GOVERNOR

He had already long been known as an advocate of an eighthour system, and of arbitration as a means of settling disputes between employers and employees. It was due to his initiative that the State Board of Arbitration was established in Ohio, and to its successful operation he gave for nearly four years his close personal attention. He made various wise recommendations for legislation for the better protection of life and limb in industrial pursuits, and as a result several salutary laws to such effect were put upon the statute books. When destitution and distress prevailed among the miners of the Hocking Valley, he acted with characteristic promptness and decision. News that many families were in danger of starving reached him at midnight. Before sunrise he had a carload of provisions on the way to their relief.

Many times during his administration the peace of the State was disturbed by unseemly outbreaks requiring the application of

the restraining power of the Government. This power McKinley exercised with great firmness and discretion. Fifteen times it was necessary to call out the State troops for the maintenance or restoration of order, but on no occasion was the use of them in any respect oppressive. During the summer of 1894 strikes and other disturbances prevailed, especially on the chief railroad lines, and for three weeks the regiments were on duty, acquitting themselves most creditably for the protection of property and enforcement of the law, without any unnecessary harshness towards either party to the disputes. On two noteworthy occasions desperate efforts were made by ill-advised mobs to commit the crime of lynching. Governor McKinley promptly used the military forces of the State to prevent such violence of law and dishonor of the Commonwealth, and showed himself a thorough master of the trying situation.

A distinctive feature of the McKinley administration was the absence of red tape and needless formality. In his method of transacting business the Governor was concise and direct, and in his intercourse with the people, though dignified, he was always approachable and genial. Access was readily had to him at all reasonable times, and no matter of actual interest ever failed to receive his courteous, prompt, and painstaking attention.

HIS FINANCIAL MISFORTUNE

During the period of Mr. McKinley's governorship occurred a most serious misfortune, due to his misplaced confidence in an old friend, and unhesitating readiness in coming to the rescue of one in financial straits. The result of his overconfidence and unquestioning kindness of heart was the sweeping away of the small fortune which he had spent his life in accumulating. Some attempt was made to attach discredit to his name on account of his failure, there being a few who suggested that there was some wrong-doing connected with it. But when the facts became known, they were found to redound to his generosity and goodness of heart, and served to add to his already great popularity.