aginations of its opponents had free play, and as nothing could be affirmed of its practical workings by its friends before it began to work, there was another political "tidal wave" like that of 1882, and the Democrats entered the Fifty-second Congress with an overwhelming majority.

They were under the same obligations to repeal the obnoxious McKinley Act, and enact a measure which embraced their views, as the Republicans were in the Fiftyfirst Congress. They were in far better condition to do this, as to the House, for their majority was overwhelming. They, however, did not attempt repeal or general revision, but introduced a series of Acts relating to special articles, such as the lowering of duties on manufactures of wool and on tin-plates, and the placing of wool, binding twine, etc., on the free list. The discussion of these provisions was animated, and in general they passed the House. They served to keep the sentiment of the respective parties prominent, and to shape the issues for a retrial in the campaign of 1892, by which time the practical workings of the Act of 1890 would have tested many theories, and would compel orators to hew closely to lines of facts and figures in order to carry conviction.

The McKinley Act increased duties on about 115 articles, embracing farm products, manufactures not sufficiently protected, manufactures to be established, luxuries, such as wines. It decreased duties on about 190 articles, embracing manufactures established, or which could not suffer from foreign competition. It left the duties unchanged on 249 articles. It enlarged the free list till it embraces 55.75 per cent. of all imports, or 22.48 more than previous tariffs. The placing of sugar on the free list was a loss of revenue equal to $54,000,000 a year.

Yet in its practical workings, the act never failed to

Born in Conway, Mass., July 15, 1841; graduated at Yale, 1868; graduated at Harvard Law School, 1865; continued study of law in New York city and admitted to bar there; prominent member of Young Men's Democratic Club; conspicuous for activity against "Tweed Ring;" Inspector City Schools, 1872; candidate of Reformed Democracy for District Attorney and defeated; appointed Corporation Counsel for New York city, 1876-80; reputed to have saved the city large sums by resisting fraudulent claims; resigned office, 1882; appointed Secretary of Navy by President Cleveland, March 5, 1885; received degree of LL. D. from Yale, 1888; avocate of a new navy, and made this a conspicuous feature of his administration.

Born in Chemung co., N. Y., August 29, 1843; graduated at Havanna Academy; admitted to Elmira bar, November, 1864, and appointed City Attorney; member of State Assembly, 1871-72; President of Democratic State Conventions, 1877, 1881; elected Mayor of Elmira, 1882; President of New York Bar Association, 1886-87; elected Lieutenant-Governor of New York, November, 1882; succeeded Grover Cleveland as Governor, January, 1885; elected Governor, November, 1885, on Democratic ticket; re-elected Governor, 1888; elected to United States Senate, as Democrat, 1891; a distinguished party organjeer and leader; name much discussed in connection with the Presidency.

raise the revenue expected of it, which was ample for all the needs of the Government, with a fair margin to spare.

TARIFF OF 1894.

It was thought at the time that the failure of the Fiftysecond Congress to pass a tariff act virtually repealing that of 1890 was due to the fine hand of Ex-President Cleveland. Whether this were true or not, there can be no doubt that the Democratic majority in the House of that Congress not only escaped the danger it feared through excess of untrained forces, but, consciously or unconsciously, paved the way for Mr. Cleveland's renomination. The lustre of his championship of tariff reform, the making of it a party issue, the high hope he indulged as to its future success, the shrewd calculation on his part that the battles must be many and stubborn before a system so strongly entrenched as protection could be made to yield, were all so many pointers toward his selection as leader of his party in the Presidential campaign of 1892. In the Convention which placed him in nomination, it was said of him that, "if he did not create tariff reform he made it a presidential issue. He vitalized it, and presented it to the Democratic party as the issue for which we ought to fight, and continue to battle upon it until victory is now assured. It consolidated into one solid phalanx the Democracy of the nation. In every State of this Union that policy has been placed in Democratic platforms, and our battles have been fought upon it, and this great body of representative Democrats has seen its good results."

In that Convention the Committee on Resolutions reported a tariff plank which supported the traditions of the party, but it was not deemed radical enough by a

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majority of the Convention, to whom "tariff reform" had no meaning, who wished to express their disgust at the cowardice of the party in the Fifty-second Congress, or who believed that the time had passed for further disguise of the fact that the real issue was one between Free Trade and Protection." This majority, therefore, agreed to make their departure then and there, cost what it might to the party. It was loudly hinted that in their rather desperate action they cared but little for Mr. Cleveland's success, but it is more than likely that their real aim was an issue without disguises. They were con fident of the support of the solid South, where the Confederate Constitution had in years gone by enacted frec trade. So they determined to throw the gauntlet squarely down, and by one herculean effort purge our institutions of the protective doctrine.

They took their radical step by moving the following plank as a substitute for that which had been proposed by the Committee on Resolutions:

"We denounce Republican protection as a fraud—as a robbery of a great majority of the American people for the benefit of a few. We declare it to be a fundamental principal of the Democratic party that the Government has no constitutional power to impose and collect a dollar for tax except for purposes of revenue only, and demand that the collection of such taxes be imposed by the Government when only honestly and economically ad ministered. We denounce the McKinley law enacted by the Fifty-first Congress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation. We endorse the efforts of the Democrats of the present Congress to modify its most oppressive features in the direction of free raw materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter into general con