use."

The letter deals with other topics also, of greater or less importance; but subordinates all other issues to that of the tariff, which is more directly involved in the election than any other.

A "tariff for revenue only" is not, of course, Free Trade, though common phraseology applies that term to the system when adopted, as in England. It, however, scouts the idea of Protection, and, if consistently carried out, leaves protected industries to stand or fall on their own merits. This, President Harrison thinks, challenges the protected industries to a "fight of extermination." Mr. Cleveland, as we have noted, thinks it not fraught with menace to any American interest.

Manning, of Alabama. Senator J.H. Kyle, of South Dakota, was presented by a delegate from Colorado. A few other nominations were made, including the names of Ignatius Donnelly, General Field, and Mann Page, of Virginia.

From the beginning of the balloting, General Weaver led all his competitors. Only one ballot was required, the vote standing 992 for General Weaver, and 265 for Senator Kyle. A few candidates received single votes, including Mr. Page. The following States and Territories were not represented in the roll-call: Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Alaska, Arizona, Indian Territory, New Mexico, and Utah. It was after midnight when the balloting was completed. The result was announced amid great enthusiasm, after which General Weaver's nomination was made unanimous.

President Harrison's letter was closely followed by an important note, also dated September 3, addressed by Ex-Secretary Blaine to the chairman of the Republican Committee for the State of Maine, in which the three issues of the tariff, reciprocity, and national currency, are very forcibly treated from the Republican point of view.

The People's Party Convention.

The first National Convention of the People's Party assembled in Omaha, Neb., July 4. Mr. H. L. Loucks, of South Dakota, was appointed per

Nominations for the Vice-Presidency followed without delay. General James G. Field, of Virginia, was presented by Mr. Beverly, of Arkansas; and Mr. Gaither, of Alabama, nominated Ben Terrell, of Texas. A vote

of 733 to 554 secured the nomination to General Field. Before the Civil War, Mr. Field had been AttorneyGeneral of Virginia. He served as a Quartermaster in the Confederate Army, losing a leg in the service, and was made a Brigadier-General of Militia during the period of reconstruction. The planks in the platform adopted are substantially those which were accepted at the St. Louis Conference last February, and which have already been given in Current History (p. 74). The preamble to the platform makes the announcement that the Nation has been "brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin." Business is prostrated; public opinion has no voice; labor is impoverished; corruption reigns supreme; land is concentrating in the hands of capitalists; and "the fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few." This dreadful condition of affairs is laid to the charge of the two great political parties, who have made no serious effort to prevent its development, but have been absorbed in a struggle for power and plunder. Neither do they now promise any substantial or beneficial reform.

They have agreed together to ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue but one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, National banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver, and the oppression of the usurers, may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the altar of mammon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure corruption funds from the million

aires."

The Socialist Convention.

Eight delegates, representing the five States of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, assembled in New York City on August 28, and nominated candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, in the interest of the Socialist Labor Party. Simon Wing, of Massachusetts, a tailor living in Boston, was the choice of the Convention for Chief Executive, his colleague being Mr. Matchett, a carpenter of Brooklyn, N. Y.

The Socialist platform, similar to that adopted at Chicago in 1889, demands: That the Government own all public means of transportation and communication; that municipalities manage water-works, gas-works, electric plants, etc.-all industries requiring municipal franchises; that a graduated income tax be imposed, small incomes being exempt; that all laws and measures of importance be proposed and voted on directly by the people; that the office of President and Vice-President, and that the Senate of the United States, be abolished; that the Government be carried on by an executive board elected by the House of Representatives.

Although declaring for an abolition of the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, the party has nominated candidates for these offices, stating that it is determined to work only by constitutional means.

It is not to be assumed that the Socialist Convention, though claiming the dignity of a national organization, has introduced any new or important factor into the contest, or that it seriously affects the independent judgment of the great body of workingmen. It has no direct connection with the American Federation of Labor, which great organization has taken no official part in the campaign. It is the opinion of Mr. Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation, that the interests of the wage workers will be little affected by either a Republican or a Democratic victory. The People's party, he thinks, will get a majority of the Labor votes, but is not to be considered a Labor party, as

a large increase in the exports of breadstuffs, explained by the bad harvests and widespread distress abroad, and a small increase in exports of fruits, seeds, copper and its manufactures, and live cattle. Exports of cotton, refined sugar, mineral oil, and provisions, showed a decrease.

Since the system of meat inspection provided in the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, has been adopted (see Vol. I., p. 146), not only have all the foreign restrictions which for years excluded American meats from European markets been removed, but the value of American pork for export has been increased at least one cent a pound, a fact which bears testimony to the thorough efficiency of the inspection.

The collapse, early in September, of the famous establishment of Sir Titus Salt, at Saltaire, England, for the manufacture of plushes, worsted coatings, and all-wool dress fabrics, is striking evidence of the serious conditions affecting English trade. The establishment had been in operation about forty years, and at one time employed 4,000 hands. With the passage of the McKinley Tariff Law, the American business of the firm shrank so that a branch establishment, located at Bridgeport, Conn., had to be started in the United States. The English press has attributed the failure of the English establishment to the new tariff law; but an additional cause is found in the fact that the home market had been surrendered to French and German manufacturers, who were underselling English goods in English markets.

Prices and Wages Under the Tariff. In several of the preceding numbers of this review, we have outlined some of the commercial and industrial changes observable under the operation of the McKinley Tariff Law of 1890 (see Vol. I, pp. 409 and 535). The results already noted received an important supplement on July 19 last, when Senator Aldrich, as chairman, submitted the report of the sub-committee of the Senate Finance Committee, as to the effect of the tariff upon prices and wages. The report is

formally indorsed by every member of the committee, and is based on elaborate investigations which have been carried on for the last sixteen months. The sub-committee included men of different political persuasions Senators Aldrich and Carlisle; Allison and Jones, of Nevada; Hiscock and Harris-who have been assisted by eminent economists, including General Francis A. Walker, of Massachusetts, Professor H. C. Adams, of the University of Michigan, Professor E. J. James, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of the Department of Labor. These names are a guarantee of thoroughness and impartiality in the investigation; and give to the united report of the sub-committee the quality of a permanent contribution of great value to the history of the effects of tariff legislation upon national prosperity.

The investigation covered a period of twenty-eight months, from June 1, 1889, which period includes one full year's operation of the McKinley Tariff Law. It was found that prices in general had not risen, but, on the contrary, were lower than before the tariff law went into effect. Comparing the month of June, 1889, with the month of October, 1891, the committee found that in seventy cities the average retail price of 214 articles covering all the necessaries of life, had declined 64/100 of 1 per cent; that wholesale prices for the same articles had declined 33/100 of 1 per cent; that the prices of agricultural products had advanced 18.67 per cent; and that the average of wages in fifteen general occupations had advanced 3/4 of I per cent. In fine, the cost of living of a family in ordinary circumstances was 44/100 of 1 per cent less at the end of the period under investigation than at the beginning. It was found also, that at the end of the period the tendency to lower prices and lower cost of living still continued.

These facts, of course, are presented at their face value. Various interpretations will be placed upon them. Whether a causal connection can be traced between them and the passage of the McKinley Tariff Law, or whe

ther they are due to a combination of causes with which that law may have little or nothing to do, are questions upon which opinions will differ, and for the solution of which the facts of themselves afford no data.

Tin Plate Manufacture. During the fiscal year ended June 30 last, the official reports of the Treasury Department show that there were produced in the United States 13,646,719 lbs of tin and terne plates, and that over 4,800,000 lbs of American sheet iron or steel were made into articles to be plated. During the first quarter of the year, there were five firms engaged in the business, who made 826,922 lbs; during the second quarter, eleven firms were employed, whose total production was 1,409,821 lbs; in the third quarter, twenty firms produced an aggregate of 3,209,225 lbs; and, in the last quarter of the year, the production amounted to 8,207,751 lbs, the output of twenty-six firms. The list of manufacturers and the general proportions of the trade are on the increase.

CHOLERA IN AMERICA. America has frequently suffered from epidemic diseases, the germs of

which have been carried hither from the Old World; but never before have her powers of resistance or her ability to grapple intelligently with the problems of sanitation been so great as at present.

Early in the month of September, the cholera, after spreading desolation in Asia and Europe, arrived at the port of New York, and threatened to make entry into and ravage our country. The year 1832 seems to have been the first in which the scourge reached our shores. Indigenous to Asia, where it has probably lurked at all times, it did not appear in Europe until 1826; and it was not until 1829 that it spread to the western portions of that continent. Once there, however, it was quickly borne to America, appearing in 1832. A second serious visitation occurred in 1848, when the ship Swanton brought from Havre to New Orleans a message of death for thousands along the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and the overland route to California. A third outbreak, starting in the East in 1850, entered Europe in 1853, and was specially destructive in North and South America. In 1875, 1884, and 1887, the disease made its last appearances in Europe before the present visitation; but, although