President. McKinley had 600,000 more votes than Bryan and was elected. The size of the vote shows the deep interest taken in the money question. After the result of the election was known, business began to improve.

The gold standard.-McKinley's election was a victory for the gold standard. After he had been President for three years, a law was passed (March, 1900) which declared gold to be the standard of the country. The Secretary of the Treasury was directed to have a gold reserve fund of not less than $100,000,000 and to keep all other forms of money equal in value to gold.

This step was comparatively easy at that time, because the world's annual product of gold was much greater than ever before, and the country was prosperous.

The tariff. The question of the tariff had been brought to the front before the money question was settled. The presidential election of 1888 was fought on that issue and not on personalities as in 1884. The Democrats in 1888 renominated Cleveland on a platform demanding a tariff for revenue only. This meant that no more duties should be collected than were sufficient to pay for the expenses of the government. The reason Cleveland demanded that import duties should be lowered then was because such huge sums of money had been taken from circulation and piled up in the treasury that business suffered for lack of funds. This large surplus tempted politicians to waste it. Some thought that the surplus ought to be paid out in raising pensions to Civil War veterans, and others said that much of it could be used in improving rivers and harbors.

The Republicans nominated Harrison (p. 425) on a platform that called for protection to American manufactures, and he was elected. William McKinley of Ohio, then a member of the House of Representatives, introduced a tariff measure known as the McKinley Bill. This increased the duties on most articles made or grown in the United States. He pleased a million farmers by putting a high duty on wool. Cleveland had proposed free wool. A politician who had dreamed of a "gun that would

hit if it was a wolf and miss if it was a sheep" said that Cleveland ought to get such a weapon. The farmers whose sheep he had hit voted against him.

The McKinley Bill raised the cost of living and defeated the Republicans in 1892. Cleveland was reëlected to succeed Harrison. In general, the Democrats stood for a low tariff and the Republicans for a high tariff, but men in both parties wanted a tariff that suited their interests. A sugar planter who was a Democrat said: "I favor free trade in everything except sugar."

Foreign dangers. This was a period of peace, but three troubles with foreign nations might have been serious. An uprising of the best people in New Orleans (1891) killed some Italian citizens in putting down a branch of the Mafia (mä’fë-ä), a secret society of blackmailers and other criminals. Italy withdrew her minister to the United States, but diplomacy settled the affair peaceably.

Some sailors on shore leave from a United States war vessel were attacked in Valparaiso, Chile (1891). One of our sailors was killed, and eighteen were wounded. Chile claimed that our men were at fault. Harrison demanded an apology and reparation. Chile gave a forced apology and satisfied the United States.

The most serious foreign trouble came in Cleveland's second administration. There was a dispute over a boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana. Richard Olney of Massachusetts, then Secretary of State, declared that under the Monroe Doctrine the United States was interested in defending Venezuelan rights, and demanded that the boundary should be settled by arbitration. Great Britain replied that the Monroe Doctrine did not apply to the settlement of a boundary dispute between herself and Venezuela. President Cleveland startled the United States by saying in effect that we would fight if Great Britain should take any territory rightfully belonging to Venezuela. The United States then started to have the boundary line investigated by a commission of her own citizens.

Facing this determined attitude, Great Britain agreed with Venezuela to have the question settled by an international jury. The United States was satisfied, and both nations were glad that the danger of war had passed. The international jury found that most of the disputed territory belonged to British Guiana.

Summary of Points of Emphasis for Review.—(1) The five Presidents of the period, their scholarship and previous experience in government, (2) new problems and their attitude toward them, (3) what the civil service is, (4) the need for its reform, (5) Hayes's fight for reform, (6) effect of the assassination of Garfield on the reform, (7) the steps taken by Arthur, Cleveland, and Harrison and the result of their efforts, (8) cheap money vs. sound money, (9) why the free coinage of silver was demanded, (10) victory for the gold standard, (11) tariff for revenue only vs. tariff for protection, (12) three troubles with foreign nations and their settlement.

Activities. Compare the "spoils system" (Chap. XXI.) with the civilservice-examination method of selecting government officials. Which of the two would a good business man consider the better, and why? Read Pendleton's speech on civil service reform in James, Readings in Am. Hist., 514-525, and that of Carl Schurz in Hart, Am. Hist. Told by Contemporaries, IV., 636-638.

Find out how the officials of your city, town, county, and state receive their positions. Give a three-minute talk on the best and the worst way of selecting public employees.

Write one hundred words to show in what respects the period from 1877 to 1897 is a new period."

Explain how a creditor or a debtor may be treated unjustly in the payment of the exact number of dollars called for in an agreement.

In one sentence for each, write the definition of the following terms: (a) demonetization, (b) free coinage of silver, (c) protective tariff, (d) tariff for revenue only, (e) gold standard.

IV.-XXIII.;

References for Teachers.—Paxson, Recent Hist. of U. S., Ford, The Cleveland Era (Chron. of Am.); Fish, Development of Am. Nationality, 450-482; Sparks, National Development, IX., XII., XVII.; Buck, Agrarian Crusade (Chron. of Am.), VI.-XII.; Dewey, National Problems, II., IV., V., XI., XIII.-XVII., XIX., XX.; Rhodes, Hist. of the U.S. from Hayes to McKinley; Paxson, The New Nation, V.-VIII., X., XIII., XIV.; Andrews, The U. S. in Our Own Time, IX., X., XII., XIII., XVII.; Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic, I.-XI.; Beard, Contemporary Am. Hist., 90-132; Bogart, Economic Hist. of the U. S., XXVI.; Hart, Am. Hist. Told by Contemporaries, IV., 518-540, 557-572.

For Pupils.-Elson, Side Lights on Am. Hist., II., 285-351; Hart, Source Book of Am. Hist., 360-365; Barstow, Progress of a United People (Century Hist. Readers), 26–35.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE UNITED STATES BECOMES

A WORLD POWER

Change of view. It had become the settled policy of the United States to attend to its own affairs and to pay no attention to what other nations were doing so long as they did not actually interfere with her or try to set aside the Monroe Doctrine. The people thought that nothing could arise to make them meddle with the affairs of any foreign nation or to induce them to get a foot of land in the Old World.

McKinley's administration (1897-1901) saw the the United States do two things directly opposed to the nation's former

policy: (1) interfere with the affairs of Spain and China, and (2) acquire territory in the Old World. As a result, the United States became a world power.

Trouble in Cuba.-In Grant's administration the Cubans began (1868) a ten years' war to free themselves from Spanish rule. Americans wanted Cuba to secure her freedom. They

sometimes sent her supplies, and a few even fought in her army. Spain caught some of these Americans and put them to death. The United States then came very near declaring war against Spain. These ten years of war did not bring independence to the Cubans, although Spain promised them a large measure of self-government, a promise that she did not keep. The Cubans again rebelled in 1895, and Spain sent over a harsh general to crush them. Spain was angry because citizens of the United States were expressing sympathy for Cuba.

War with Spain.—The United States battleship Maine, which had been sent to Havana to protect American interests, was blown up at night by a mine or other external object (February 15, 1898). Two hundred and sixty of her crew were killed and sixty wounded. The country was shocked as it had not been since the days of the Civil War. "Remember the Maine" became a slogan. Her destruction, sympathy with the Cubans, and the loss of American trade and large investments in Cuba, led Congress to declare war with Spain (April, 1898). Congress at the same time declared that it was not the intention of the United States to hold Cuba permanently but to give it peace and freedom and then to leave the government of the island to its own people.

Attitude of foreign nations.-Six ambassadors from leading European nations sent a note to President McKinley. This communication and his reply were thus condensed by a newspaper correspondent: "Said the six ambassadors: 'We hope for humanity's sake that you will not go to war.' Said Mr. McKinley in reply: 'We hope if we do go to war you will understand it is for humanity's sake.""

Most of the European nations sided with Spain and thought the United States should mind her own business. Continental European newspapers called the war "an act of international piracy without shadow of justice." The great English papers, with one exception, took the side of the United States. When London heard of the declaration of war, the Stars and Stripes