three were cardinals, his Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archibishop of Baltimore, his Eminence, John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, and his Eminence, William Cardinal O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston.

Catholic Education. Altogether, American Catholics support more than 200 colleges for boys, while the number of academies for girls is over three times as great. Many orders of priests, the Jesuits, the Congregation of Holy Cross, the Paulists, the Marists, and other societies maintain colleges which offer splendid courses of instruction. For generations the Christian Brothers, of whom many are able educators, have been graduating young men trained in religion and well fitted for the duties of citizenship. Various communities of nuns likewise conduct excellent colleges.

QUESTIONS AND REFERENCES

Review Questions. - Describe the systems of transportation before the war; also the Pacific Telegraph Company. What is said of the benefits of railroad building? Explain the Homestead Law. Account for the Indian uprisings. Who was Father De Smet, S.J.? Tell the story of the Custer massacre. Describe the South after Reconstruction. Illustrate the mechanical progress between 1860 and 1880. Between 1880 and the present. What kept up the supply of labor in those periods? After 1880 what countries supplied immigrants? How many states were there in the Union in 1896? Describe the growth of the Catholic Church.

References. Garner and Lodge, The United States (History of the Nations), Vol. II; Carl Russell Fish, Development of American Nationality and American Diplomacy; Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress; Harry Thurston Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic.

1 Official Catholic Directory of Messrs. Kennedy and Sons.

CHAPTER XXXII

INDUSTRIAL AND OTHER DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

(1873-1897)

The Panic of 1873. The eight years following the close of the war formed a period of unusual prosperity. Since 1869 some 24,000 miles of railroad had been constructed. As long as the railroad companies could sell their bonds, all went well. But in 1871 the city of Chicago was almost destroyed by fire and in the following year (1872) Boston suffered severely from the same cause. To rebuild the burned sections of both cities much money was needed. Under these conditions the railroad companies were unable to sell their bonds, and with the failure of Jay Cooke and Company, of Philadelphia, bankers supporting the Northern Pacific Railroad, a panic began. Not only bankers but many mill owners and business men in other lines went into bankruptcy. Factories reduced wages or closed their doors. Many able-bodied men traveled the country in a vain search for employment. "Tramps," begging for food or clothing as they traversed the highways, for the first time were seen in great numbers.

The Centennial Exposition. The year 1876 brought round the one hundredth anniversary of American independence. To commemorate the close of the first century in the life of the nation an exposition was held in the city of Philadelphia. First planned as a great fair for the display of the products of American industries and arts, an invitation to participate was later sent to foreign nations, more than thirty of which took part. The display of manufactures opened to tens of thousands of Americans new

possibilities in industries and arts. It likewise strengthened national feeling and good will. Memorial Hall and Horticultural Hall, two of the large exhibition buildings, still stand in Philadelphia.

Strikes of 1877. — In the summer of 1877 there occurred among the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad a strike which soon spread to other systems and brought about a condition of industrial paralysis. Traffic was stopped and in the Pittsburgh riots property to the value of millions of dollars was destroyed and some lives were lost.

Specie Payment Act. During the war and for a long time afterward, a five-dollar bill was not equal in value to a five-dollar gold piece. To make them of equal value Congress decided to resume specie payment; that is, to redeem the bills in coin. The fractional currency, of the denominations of 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents, was first called in by the treasury and exchanged for 10, 25, and 50-cent silver coins. After January 1, 1879, all greenbacks were to be redeemed in specie. As John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, made the necessary preparations, gold and paper were of the same value before January 1, 1879, and when this fact became known, most people did not take the trouble to exchange their paper bills for gold or silver.

In 1873 Congress stopped the coinage of silver dollars. Five years latter it passed, over the veto of President Hayes, the Bland-Allison Act, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy each month and coin into silver dollars, silver bullion to the value of not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000. In twelve years nearly 370,000,000 silver dollars were coined. Then the Sherman act was passed, calling for the purchase of more silver; but in 1893 the purchase of silver was stopped. All our money has been kept equal to gold in value.

HAYES'S ADMINISTRATION

425

Chinese Immigration Restricted. After the discovery of gold in California, Chinese began to settle in that region. By the seventies they were becoming numerous. Prejudice against them was strong, not only because of their strange manners and customs, but because their standard of living enabled them to work for lower wages than a white man would accept. The movement against the Chinese, begun in San Francisco by workingmen, was in time so strong for Chinese exclusion that in 1879 Congress passed a bill restricting the immigration of that race. Because it violated an existing treaty with China,

President Hayes vetoed the measure. However, in 1880 he framed a new treaty, which was acceptable to China and still left Congress free to regulate the immigration of Chinese laborers. By a law passed in 1881 they have been to a considerable extent prevented from coming to this country.

JAMES A. GARFIELD

Election of 1880. In June, 1880, a Republican convention nominated James A. Garfield, of Ohio, for President and Chester A. Arthur, of New York, for Vice President. Later in the same month the Democratic convention selected for its standard bearers General Winfield S. Hancock, of Pennsylvania, and William H. English, of Indiana. Though General Hancock had a splendid military record in the Civil War, the Republicans won the election, chiefly on the issue that a protective tariff would make the country more prosperous than a tariff for revenue.1

1 The popular vote cast for Hancock was nearly as great as that received by Garfield, but the former received only 155 electoral votes as against 214 for the latter.

Assassination of Garfield. The inauguration of Garfield and Arthur took place on March 4, 1881. Four months later, July 2, 1881, while offering payment for railroad tickets at a station in Washington, President Garfield was shot in the back by a disappointed office seeker. For a time the President was kept at the White House, but in the course of the summer he was removed to Elberon, New Jersey, where on the 19th of September he died of his wound. The surgical skill of that day could not locate the assassin's bullet.

General Arthur, the Vice President, took the oath of office as President, and filled out the unexpired term of General Garfield. During this administration several important laws were passed.

Punishment for Polygamy. In their first platform (1856) the Republicans had declared it to be the duty of Congress "to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." We have seen how slavery was abolished, but polygamy still flourished among the Mormons in Utah. In 1882 and again in 1887 Congress enacted legislation, some of which provided heavy penalties for polygamy. The practice, if not destroyed, is expected soon to disappear.

Civil Service. George H. Pendleton, an able Democratic Senator from Ohio, introduced into Congress a bill which aimed at conferring office on the ground of fitness and not because of party service. This law of 1883 provided for the creation of a Civil Service Commission with authority to direct the examination of candidates for appointment. The average of efficiency among clerks has greatly risen since the passage of the law; but even yet the system is not perfect.1

As early as 1871 there had been an attempt to reform the civil service, but it did not receive sufficient support.