representing nearly every form of productive industry. Sometimes as many as twenty-four speeches were delivered in a single day. One of the most noteworthy of these visitations occurred on October 9, when over 1,000 of "Stonewall" Jackson's old soldiers from the valley of the Shenandoah marched arm in arm with ex-soldiers of the Union armies to pay their respects and promise their support to the republican candidate.

Many observers profess to see in the campaign of 1896 our first national conflict with, and first positive defeat of, socialism, or, in other words, the idea that it is the duty of the state to employ its powers and resources for the benefit of all its members alike. This particularly seems to have been the case abroad, notably in England and Germany, where no campaign had ever before attracted so much attention as this, and where none seems ever to have done more to give to foreigners a clear appreciation. of the intellectual and moral forces which determine the judgment and shape the political action of a majority of the American people.

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"The fact is," says the London Graphic, "that the struggle did not belong to the normal category of constitutional developments. * * * It is now recognized that the election was not a constitutional struggle at all, but a veiled civil war. * Mr. Bryan did not appeal to the people of the United States on a question of administration, but on principles fundamental to the republic, and which, as Lord Salisbury said (at the lord mayor's banquet in the Guildhall), lie at the base of human society.' it was an attempt to upset the republic, and was not less revolutionary because it employed for its ends the popular vote instead of the less insidious methods of armed warfare. * * * Had the Bryanites succeeded the victory would not have been merely a success for one American political party, but the first great triumph of an international movement which has for its object the subversion of the exist ing state of society."

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And the London Times, the "thunderer" of free-trade England, was even moved to speak of the peril of the struggle as "greater than that of foreign war or domestic disloyalty."

That Mr. Bryan is nominally a free trader," it remarked, "is a point of very little importance, even with those who believe most earnestly in the justice and the expediency of free trade, in comparison with the impetus that would be given by his triumph to the passions aroused by appeals to large masses of poor, ignorant, and angry men too ready to believe that repudiation and plu der are in accordance with the dictates of eternal equity."

The above quotations are, of course, strongly biased. They are given here merely as showing the character of

the philosophy indulged in by Europeans in general over the issues of the recent struggle.

One of the peculiar developments in the course of the campaign was the remarkable rise, in October, in the price

CHARLES E. BENTLEY OF NEBRASKA, NATIONAL PARTY CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT.

of wheat, concomitantly with a continued though fractional drop in that of silver. The rise in wheat is accounted for by shortage in crops abroad and consequent enormously increased demand for the American product. It is estimated that the twenty wheat-growing states of the Union profited by the movement to the extent of over $90,000,000. It had been argued by many silver agitators that no rise in values could occur, and especially none in farm products, unless silver rose first. Undoubtedly the sudden addition to the resources of those whose attach

ment to the silver cause was based in part upon their distress under the burden of heavy high-rate mortgages, mitigated somewhat the sentiment for silver throughout the West. It is to be noted that Colorado was the only Western state which gave Mr. Bryan a crushing majority; and that is classed as a mining state, where for years all parties alike have vehemently advocated free coinage of silver.

Another interesting feature peculiar to this campaign was the speech-making tour of Union generals and other officers through the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan. The party consisted of Generals 0. 0. Howard, Daniel E. Sickles, T. J. Stewart, O. A. Marden, and Russell A. Alger, besides Captain John R. Tanner, the successful republican candidate for governor of Illinois, and Corporal Tanner of New York. Three hundred speeches were delivered to audiences aggregating, it is estimated, 1,000,000 people. The party travelled on a special train made up of a baggage car, dining car, combination sleeping and observation car, and a flat car. On the last mentioned, were mounted a rapid-fire gun and a mortar in charge of experienced gunners, who fired salutes at the various stopping places.

The question of prohibition was overshadowed by that of silver; and the prohibition vote, even including that of the national party (p. 296), showed a falling off of about 123,000 as compared with 1892. The prohibition party, however, emerges from the campaign, as its organ, the New York Voice, says, "with an organization unimpaired, with purpose unshaken." This was the seventh presidential campaign in which it participated.

The developments in national politics since the election, are treated below in their appropriate place under the heading "United States Politics.

THE CUBAN REVOLT.

Military Operations. Through the quarter the struggle has continued with the frightful barbarism and suffering that mark the scene of guerrilla war. The western part of the beautiful island, outside of Havana and a few other towns, has largely been ravaged and laid waste. No decisive engagements have been fought; skirmish, chase, raid, and ambush have been incessant amid the rough wooded hills of the interior. The untrustworthiness of the reports, nearly all filtered through Spanish headquarters, make impossible the compiling of any just account of the fighting. A few events that seem the most significant are noted here.

Early in October, General Bernal, marching to La Esperanza, was attacked by 2,000 rebels under Antonio Maceo, and suffered heavy loss including several prominent officers. The Spanish report estimates the rebel loss as more than 230, the Spanish losing 121. A few days later General Bernal's battalion was attacked near Pinar del Rio by 3,000 infantry and 800 cavalry, and would have been destroyed except for the arrival of Colonel Granados's column, whose vigorous onslaught drove back the rebels. The Spanish report their killed as numbering twelve; rebel, eighty. General Castellanos reported that he had raised the siege of Cascorro in Cambiguey after routing 5,000 insurgents under Maximo Gomez in sixteen engagements on October 4 and 5: his force numbered 2,100. General Echague reported that his brigade on October 9 attacked Maceo's entrenched camp on the heights of Guayabitos, and captured it by a bayonet charge-Maceo in his retreat leaving hundreds of his men dead on the field, while the Spanish killed numbered twenty. Many engagements of less importance figure in the Spanish reports for October, in all of which the Spaniards were successful.

As far as can be judged, these battles in Pinar del Rio province were occasioned by repeated attempts of the Spanish troops to intercept Maceo, who, with about 2,500 men out of his whole force of 6,000, had come down to convoy to his impregnable mountain fortress the men and supplies of the most formidable expedition ever landed on Cuban shores. This expedition had been fitted out in France, or at least with money supplied from France, and comprised, with the supplies, a number of men well known in Paris. and in Havana-its leaders being Leyte Vidal and Juan Rius Rivera. It is reported to have brought 5,000 rifles, 1,000,000 cartridges, 5,000 blankets and waterproofs, some dyna

mite cannon, medicines, etc. General Weyler, aware of the expedition and of Maceo's movement to secure it, ordered five columns of troops in combination to intercept Maceo while on the plain, the result being a Spanish loss of more than 600 men (the rebel loss being probably somewhat more), and Maceo's entire success in convoying the expedition safely to the hills, whose pathless and fortified labyrinth of cliffs, for

'est, swamps, and rivers can be held by a small force against a vast army. Maceo as usual out-generalled the Spanish commanders. General Bernal, returning to Havana in ill humor after his disasters in early October, pronounced Maceo's position impregnable, the Spanish soldiers cowardly, and Weyler's whole plan futile.

An official report from Havana, October 23, announced the capture with slight resistance of Cacarajicara, where Maceo had been encamped. Advices from Key West two days later made it evident that the rebel

leader had drawn a large Spanish force to Cacarajicara by his feint of encamping there, while by forced marches he made a southward detour and suddenly struck the trocha (fortified line crossing the island) at its central post, Artemisa. He notified the commandant there that before opening fire he would give the inhabitants five hours in which to leave the town. The Spanish commander, despising the threat, would not permit anyone to leave. Maceo began his cannonade in the night, firing dynamite shells; and in fortyfive minutes the town was in ruins and many of the people were killed. Immediately the insurgent force crossed the line of the trocha and joined the force of General Aguirre in Havana province.