Resource Center OLLibrary
|
362 |
|
[1892 |
of work that it is getting to be difficult to think of any that
they cannot do.1
The following year (1892) a second great strike
in our history occurred (§ 377). The workmen in the Carnegie
Steel Works at Homestead, near Pittsburg, asked for higher wages
and stopped work when this demand was refused. The company hired a
force of detectives to protect their buildings, and fierce battles
were fought between them and the strikers. Both sides used
firearms and on both sides a number were killed. Eventually the
governor of Pennsylvania was obliged to send a military force to
occupy the town and restore order.
398. Summary. Aside from the opening of
Oklahoma and the admission of six new states (in two of which
women may vote and hold office the same as men), the principal
events of Harrison's administration were (1) the building of many
new ships of war; (2) the passage of the new Pension Act, the
Sherman Silver Purchase and Coinage Act, and the McKinley
Protective Tariff; (3) the Census Report, the Patent Office
Celebration, and the Homestead Strike.
1 Among the
inventions of the nineteenth century, not previously mentioned,
attention may be called to the following: the machine gun,
smokeless powder, fixed ammunition, breech-loading cannon; the
Westinghouse air brake for cars, automatic electric signals, the
interlocking safety switch, the automatic car coupler, vestibule
trains, the Pullman and the Wagner palace cars; the compressed-air
drill, the sand blast for cutting designs on glass; the electric
search light, electric welding and heating; cold storage;
noiseless firearms; color photography; the submarine signaling
apparatus; aluminum ware; enameled kitchen ware; dyes made from
coal tar; wood paper; wire nails, gimlet-pointed screws, plain and
barbed wire fence; the cash carrier for stores, the passenger
elevator; ocean steamers built of steel with water-tight bulkheads
and twin screws; the hydraulic dredge; the gas engine, the Corliss
engine; the voting machine; the tin-can-making machine; water gas;
Yale, combination, and time locks; the bicycle.
Among the most noteworthy scientific discoveries
of the last century (not previously mentioned) are spectrum
analysis, dynamite, the use of cocaine as a local anæsthetic
in producing insensibility to pain, the X or Röntgen Ray used
in surgery (and, to some extent, in the arts) for seeing and
photographing objects otherwise invisible to the eye, the use of
antiseptics in surgical operations, and finally the discovery and
treatment of disease germs, the production of liquid air, and the
discovery of the properties of radium.
|
1893] |
|
363 |
GROVER CLEVELAND1 (DEMOCRAT)
399. Cleveland's (Second) Administration
(Twenty-fourth President, 1893-1897); the Introduction of the
Australian or Secret Ballot. Soon after Harrison became
President (1889) a new kind of ballot or voting paper was used by
the people of Massachusetts for the first time in the United
States. It was called the Australian ballot, because it was
introduced here from that country. One great fault in the old
system of election was that the bystanders could see how each one
voted. This often prevented a man from voting independently, and
so did great harm.
The Australian method is this:
1. An officer hands the voter a printed ballot
having on it the names of all the candidates of the different
political parties.
2. The voter, passing behind a railing, enters a
narrow booth, or stall, where no one can overlook him, and makes a
cross opposite the names of such candidates as he chooses.
3. Finally, he folds his ballot so that no one
can see what names he has marked, and, in the presence of an
officer, deposits it in the ballot box. When Mr. Cleveland was
elected to his second term of office (1892) many states had
adopted the Australian ballot or one resembling it. No less than
forty-four states out of forty-eight now use it.
400. The World's Columbian Exposition; Panic
and "Hard Times" (1893); Repeal of an Important Act; the Bering
Sea Case. In October (1892) the public schools throughout the
Union celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery
of America by Columbus. At the same time the magnificent
buildings
1 Grover Cleveland
(§ 387, note 1) was elected a second time by the Democrats
(Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, Vice President) over Benjamin
Harrison (§ 394, note 1), the Republican candidate for
reëlection. The political question was practically the same
as in the previous presidential election (§ 394, note 1). At
this election a new party, calling itself the "People's Party," or
"Populists," voted for James B. Weaver of Iowa for President. Out
of a total of 444 "electoral votes" cast for all presidential
candidates, he received 22, but none cast of Kansas, which gave
him 10. The "Populists" in their platform declared themselves in
favor of the union of the labor forces of the United States to
secure (1) the ownership of all railway, telegraph, and telephone
lines by the national government; (2) free coinage of silver in
its present ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one of gold; (3) the
establishment of postal savings banks; (4) the prohibition of all
alien ownership of land.
|
364 |
|
[1893 |
of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago were dedicated.
The next spring (1893) President Cleveland opened the great Fair
to the public. It proved to be a brilliant success in every
respect.
But the summer brought "hard times" to
multitudes. There had been a business panic (§§ 275,
312, 373) in the spring, which was followed by many disastrous
failures. Property of all kinds fell in value, and immense numbers
of people who depended on the work of their hands for their daily
bread were thrown out of employment. Great strikes in the coal
mines and on one of the leading coal railways increased the
distress.
Before the presidential election the Republicans
and the Democrats had both declared themselves on the side of
"honest money," and had resolved that they would make every
dollar, whether silver or paper, as good as gold.
President Cleveland believed that the Sherman
Silver Purchase and Coinage Act (1890) was doing harm to the
country (§ 396). He called a special meeting of Congress
(1893), which repealed the purchase clause in the act. This
stopped the buying of silver and checked the making of silver
dollars.
Meanwhile (1893), a serious dispute in regard to
Bering Sea was settled. We claimed that when we bought Alaska
(§ 368) we bought the right to control Bering Sea and could
close it against English and other foreign seal hunters. The
foreign seal hunters denied our right to shut the sea. Finally,
the question was left to a commission1 to decide. They
reported that Bering Sea must remain open, but that the seals
should be properly protected, and not killed by everybody at all
times. This protection was what we most wished to secure. We got
it, as we did the damages for the destruction done by the
Alabama (§ 374), by peaceful means. That bloodless
victory was an advantage to us and to the world. The more such
bloodless victories any nation can win, the better.
401. The Coxey "Industrial Army"; the Pullman
Strike; more "Hard Times." The next spring (1894) a man named
Coxey started from Ohio to lead an "army" of the unemployed
1 Bering Sea
Commission: this commission consisted of seven eminent men chosen
by the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy, and
Norway and Sweden.
|
1894-1896] |
|
365 |
to Washington to demand relief from the government. Some of
those who joined him were honest men seeking work, but many were
simply "tramps" and criminals. Coxey, with a part of his "army,"
reached the national capital, but accomplished nothing, and his
disgusted followers soon disbanded and disappeared.
Shortly after this a third historic strike
occurred (§ 397). Several thousand workmen employed in
building Pullman cars at Pullman, near Chicago, struck for higher
wages. Next, the men on a number of western railways struck in
order to stop the use of these cars until the Pullman Company
should raise the rate of wages. For a time trains ceased running
between Chicago and San Francisco and other points. Much railway
property was destroyed, and the President felt compelled to send
United States troops to Chicago and to certain points in
California to protect the carrying of the mails and to maintain
order. Meanwhile (1894), a new money panic (§§ 275, 312,
373, 400) did enormous damage to all kinds of business and for a
time made it harder than ever for men to get work.
402. The Wilson Tariff. After a long and
bitter contest Congress enacted (1894) a modified form of what was
originally called the Wilson Tariff (§§ 200, 234, 266,
267, 269, 324). It reduced protective duties about one fourth, and
admitted wool, salt, and lumber free. It furthermore condemned
"trusts" (§ 390) and all combinations in restraint of lawful
trade which affected imports in any way.
403. The Admission of Utah; the "New
West." Two years later (1896) Utah -- the forty-fifth state --
was admitted to the Union. The admission of Utah naturally called
attention to the marvelous growth of the "New West" in population,
wealth, and industrial enterprise. Thousands of miles of railways
had been constructed in that section within ten years, cities and
towns had multiplied, mines of precious metals had been opened,
and cattle ranches, sheep ranches, and grain farms were yielding
food products on a gigantic scale.
404. The Venezuela Question. In his third
annual message (1895) President Cleveland expressed the hope that
the long-standing dispute between England and Venezuela respecting
the boundary
|
366 |
|
[1896-1897 |
line of British Guiana might be settled by a joint committee of
arbitration (§§ 374, 400). England, however, failed to
act, and the President, with the consent of Congress, appointed a
commission to determine "the true divisional line between the
Republic of Venezuela and British Guiana." Soon after, England and
the United States settled the dispute in a friendly way
(1896).
405. Summary. The chief events of
Cleveland's second administration were (1) the introduction at
presidential elections of the Australian or secret ballot; (2) the
opening of the World's Columbian Exposition; (3) the financial
panics of 1893-1894, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Act; (4) the
settlement of the Bering Sea controversy and of the Venezuela
boundary dispute; (5) the Coxey "Industrial Army" movement; (6)
the Pullman strike; (7) the passage of the Wilson Tariff; (8) the
admission of Utah.
406. McKinley's and Roosevelt's
Administrations (Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Presidents, Two
Terms, 1897-1905); the Dingley Tariff. When the new President
entered office the government was in great need of money to meet
its expenses; Congress passed the Dingley high Protective
Tariff2 (§§ 200, 234, 266, 267, 269, 324,
402) "to provide revenue for the support of the government, and to
encourage the industries of the United States."
1 William McKinley
was born in 1843 in Niles, Ohio; died, 1901. He enlisted in the
Civil War, and was promoted for gallant service to the rank of
major. After the war he began the practice of law in Canton, Ohio.
In 1876 the Republicans elected him to Congress. In 1890 he
introduced the McKinley tariff. In 1896 the Republican vote,
supplemented by the votes of many "Gold Democrats," elected him
President of the United States (Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey,
Vice President) over William J. Bryan, the Democratic and Populist
candidate. The great question at the election was whether the
United States should adopt the free and unlimited coinage of
silver advocated by the regular Democratic party and by the
Populists, but opposed by the Republicans and the "Gold
Democrats." Mr. McKinley was reëlected President by the
Republicans in 1900 (Theodore Roosevelt of New York, Vice
President) over William J. Bryan. The Democrats demanded "Free
Silver" and the ultimate independence of the Philippines; the
Republican platform upheld the gold standard, and pledged
self-government, as far as practicable, to the Philippines.
2 The tariff got its name from Nelson
Dingley, who originated the measure.
|
1897-] |
|
367 |
|
The Dingley Tariff made many changes: |
2.
It generally imposed higher rates on silks, woolens, and
other woven fabrics.
