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sition should be settled by a commission authorized to draw up a treaty of peace.

Spain tried to wriggle out of these conditions, but our government was firm, and they were accepted by her in every particular. The peace protocol was signed at Washington August 12, and hostilities ceased. But the war was not over. A treaty of peace alone could put an end to

that.

On October 1, a commission appointed by the President, consisting of Mr. Day, who resigned his office as Secretary of State; Senators Davis of Minnesota, Frye of Maine, Gray of Delaware, and Hon. Whitelaw Reid of New York, met in Paris with a similar body of Spanish representatives, and proceeded to draw up a treaty of peace. On the 10th of December this was signed. Porto Rico and other Spanish islands of the West Indies, excepting Cuba, were ceded to the United States. The Philippines were purchased by us for twenty million dollars, a clear case of generosity on our part, for they were at our mercy. Cuba was left under our protection. Spain retired from America.

The Spanish-American War left us with many new and difficult problems. In the Philippines, an insurrection under the lead of Aguinaldo speedily broke out and overspread Luzon. The people of Cuba were anxious to establish a stable government, and a powerful party demanded independence.

While the war was in progress, Congress, by joint resolution, July 7, annexed the Hawaiian Islands. This course had been under consideration a long time, though successfully delayed during President Cleveland's administration. Our territory was thus suddenly and very widely extended during the year 1898. We ceased being merely a continental power; we became a world power with important possessions in Asia.

Congress proceeded to consider the best form of government for our new possessions. The Constitution extends over the states in our Union, but not over the territories, or Alaska. It does not extend to Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, or the Philippines. The form of government for

territories and for these new possessions rests wholly with Congress. A military government was provided for Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines; a civil government for Hawaii. On the 19th of March, 1900, a modified tariff act was passed for Porto Rico. A fifteen per cent decrease of duties was allowed, and the entire revenue from the operation of the act was ordered to be expended in the island for the benefit of its people. It was used in support of free public schools, for sanitation, and for public works.

On March 15, 1900, the gold standard currency bill became a law. It assured the maintenance of public credit and the payment of the national debt on the basis of gold.

The ten years ending with 1900 were a period of remarkable growth in American exports. American commerce was extended as never before. Our manufactures outsold those of any other nation. The increase in 1900 over the exports of 1890 was, in the aggregate, more than two hundred million dollars—a trade activity which revolutionized the financial world. This indicated that New York City was becoming the world's commercial center.

The most striking feature of our commercial expansion was the progress of the country in supplying machinery and tools for the world. In 1890, our shipments of machinery and tools aggregated relatively little in our exports; in 1900, more than sixty million dollars worth of machinery alone was sent abroad. The change was due to the appreciation of American work by the outside world. American inventive genius has at last gained control of the world's markets. It is probable that America has made only a beginning in its export trade. This trade includes all the iron and steel interests; brass and metal work; foods and food products; fertilizers; cars, carriages, and cycles; telegraphic and scientific instruments; motors, paper, clothing, chemicals, sugar, and copper.

The Spanish-American War added about one million square miles to our territory and several millions of people, many of whom, in the Philippines, were in a savage

state.

In 1776, the population of the United States was less than three millions, and its area about eight hundred and

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thirty thousand square miles; in 1900, the population of our country and its dependencies is more than seventy-five millions, and the area they inhabit is more than six times as great as our original domain at the time of the Declaration of Independence.

At Philadelphia, on the 21st of June, 1900, the Republican party, assembled in national convention, unanimously renominated William McKinley for President, and for VicePresident named Theodore Roosevelt, Governor of New York. The platform sustained the President's administration and repeated the essentials of the platform of 1896.

The Democratic party met in national convention in Kansas City, July 4th, and on the 5th renominated William J. Bryan for President, and on the 6th the convention named Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice-President. Mr. Stevenson had served in this office during the second Cleveland administration. The platform repeated that of 1896.*

The issues of the campaign were the gold standard; expansion; trusts and monopolies; prohibition; and the labor question in various forms. The free-silver issue of 1896 was revived by the Democrats, but the voters showed less interest in it than during the campaign of that year. Undoubtedly the existence of a state of war in the Philippines helped the Republicans. The country was not disposed to change presidents in war time. The issue of expansion as a national policy was not set separately and

*Nominations were made in convention, also, by the Populists, the Prohibitionists, the Socialists, and other parties.

Nominations by other political parties were made as follows: Populists.-William J. Bryan for President; Charles A. Towne, of Minnesota, for Vice-President.

Middle-of-the-Road Populists.-Wharton Barker, of Pennsylvania, for President; Ignatius Donnelly, of Minnesota, for Vice-President. Prohibitionists.-John G. Woolley, of Illinois, for President; Henry B. Metcalf, of Rhode Island, for Vice-President.

Socialist Labor.-Job Harriman, of California, for President; Max S. Hayes, of Ohio, for Vice-President.

Social Democrats.-Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, for President; Job Harriman, of California, for Vice-President.

Socialists. Joseph F. Malloney, of Massachusetts, for President; Valentine Remmill, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President.

United Christians.-Rev. Dr. S. C. Swallow, of Pennsylvania, for President; Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, of Kansas, for Vice-President.

squarely before the voters, but was involved with the silver, the labor and other questions.

At the November election McKinley and Roosevelt received 7,263,266 popular and 292 electoral votes; Bryan and Stevenson, 6,415,387 popular votes and 155 electoral. The result was interpreted as a strong popular indorsement of McKinley's administration.