CHAP. XXXVIII. THE FIFTY-SECOND CONGRESS. 1913 bership originally to those whose interests were agricultural. The first "Alliance" was formed in Texas, to oppose the wholesale buying up of the public lands by private individuals; and, although the scope of the organization soon became not merely local, but national in its importance, for about ten years the Alliance remained a Southern organization. In 1887, about ten years after the first local Alliance in Texas was formed, and five after the State Alliance, the "Farmers' Union" of Louisiana united with it, under the name of the "Farmers' Alliance and Co-operative Union of America." Branches were quickly established in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. Later in the same year, the "Agricultural Wheel," a similar society operating in the States of Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, was amalgamated with the Alliance, the new organization being called "The Farmers' and Laborers' Union of America." The spirit of the movement had simultaneously been embodied in the "National Farmers' Alliance" of Illinois, which was started in 1877, and quickly extended into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Dakota. A minor organization, the "Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association," was started in 1887, in the southern part of Illinois. Finally, in 1889, at a meeting held in St. Louis, these different bodies were all practically formed into a union for political purposes, aiming at legislation in the interests of farmers and laborers; and the name of the "Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union" was chosen. In a meeting at Cincinnati in the spring of 1891, delegates from the Knights of Labor were present, and the name of "The People's Party of the United States of America" was adopted, and a platform adopted. In this declaration of its principles and objects, it demands the abolition of National Banks, and the issue of legal tender Treasury notes, the free and unlimited coinage of silver, the prohibition of alien ownership of land, that taxation shall not be used to build up one class at the expense of another, that revenue be limited to necessary expenses of the Government, a rigid national control of the railroads, that sub-treasuries be established to lend money at two per cent. upon non-perishable products and real estate, and the election of the President and Vice-President by a direct vote of the people. The time of the Fifty-second Congress was, as is too often the case in years when a Presidential election takes place, spent less in actual legislation than in seeking to define the position of parties toward the great issues before the country. In March Mr. Bland, of Missouri, Chairman of the Committee on Coinage, and originator of the Silver Coinage Act of 1878, reported to the House of Representatives a bill for free coinage of silver, and an animated debate took place, showing that Republicans as well as Democrats were divided on this important monetary question. At the same period a bill was introduced by Mr. Springer, of Illinois, to abolish the duty on wool imposed by the McKinley tariff. The debate lasted for nearly six weeks, and took the form of a discussion of the merits of protection and tariff reform respectively. It was passed by a decisive majority of 194 to 60 votes, and thus afforded a fair test of the opinion of the House of Representatives on the revision of the tariff. Both debates, however, revealed dissensions within the opposing parties; as an important section of the Republicans favored free silver, and an equally important part of the Democrats favored a tariff for protection. Meanwhile the labor party was gaining a considerable amount of sympathy from the disastrous events that took place at the great iron works at Homestead, Pennsylvania. These mills, situated on the Monongahela River, a few miles from Pittsburg, are the property of the Carnegie Steel Company, and in June the managers announced to their workmen a reduction of wages, not because the works could not be carried on with profit unless a reduction was made, but because "improvements in the plant enabled the men to make a greater output with the same amount of labor." In other words, wages were to be reduced, not because the company was losing money, but because the men were making too much. The men, backed by the Amalgamated Association of Steel and Iron Workers, refused to accept the new scale of remuneration, and on July 1 the whole of the hands who adhered to the union were locked out. The company resolved to continue operations with non-union men, and to employ armed men to protect their works, if necessary. Two hundred and fifty men, under the employment of the notorious Pinkerton Agency, of Chicago, were ordered to Homestead, and an attempt was made to land them by the river during the night of July 6. The boats conveying the armed guards were met at the works by a mob of thousands of workmen who forbade their disembarcation. A parley ensued, and during the parley a shot was fired-it is not known from which side-then firing became general, and was kept up in a desultory manner during the day. At five in the afternoon the Pinkerton men surrendered under a guarantee of safe-conduct, but the leaders of the workers were unable to protect them from the fury of the men and women who had assembled. Fully one hundred of them were seriously injured as they were being taken to jail, while in the previous fighting eleven workmen and six Pinkerton men had been killed, and eighteen workmen and twenty-one guards wounded. On July 12 the town was occupied by all the military forces of the State. The trouble at Homestead was speedily followed by disorder in the mining regions of Idaho, where the union men had been locked out on April 1, and here so threatening were the miner- that the President had to dispatch a body of United States troops to the scene. In Buf CHAP. XXXVIII. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 1915* falo, a serious strike of switchmen took place in August, and the National Guard of various cities, to the number of 8,000 men, were hurried to the spot. In Tennessee, there was a revolt against the system of employing convicts in the mines, and again military forces had been employed to preserve the peace. To these and other disturbances arising from the relations of employers and employed, may be attributed, to a great extent, the political revolution of November. On the 7th of June, 1892, the National Republican Convention assembled at Minneapolis. There had been long a growing dissatisfaction with President Harrison on the part of some leading politicians, and when, on June 4, Mr. James G. Blaine resigned his office as Secretary of State, he was at once made a strong candidate for the nomination. On the final ballot, however, Mr. Harrison was nominated by 535, while Mr. Blaine and Mr. McKinley had only 182 votes each. The platform of the party embodied resolutions in favor of protection, reciprocity, bimetalism, and "a free and unrestricted ballot." The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago on June 21, and in its ranks too dissension was revealed; but in spite of the efforts of the whole delegation from New York State, Grover Cleveland was nominated by 617 votes on the first ballot. The platform denounced the policy of protection as unconstitutional, the enactment of any Force Bill, and the system of reciprocity, and declared that "the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic value." Two other tickets were put into the field, that of the Prohibitionists, who nominated as their candidate General J. Bidwell, and that of the People's Party, whose standard-bearer was General J. B. Weaver, of Iowa. The campaign was truly one of education, the results of the McKinley Bill being used by both parties in confirmation of their arguments. The final vote in November was a surprise to all; even the warmest partisans of Grover Cleveland, who had always believed that he would be elected, never hoped for such a triumph at the polls. Of the whole 444 electors chosen, no fewer than 277 were on the Cleveland ticket, against 145 for Harrison, and 22 for Weaver. A striking sign of the revolution in public sentiment was given by Illinois, which was carried for Cleveland by 27,000 majority, popular vote. Early in September renewed attention was drawn to our immigration laws by the arrival of several steamers from ports in Europe where cholera had been raging, and when it became known that numerous deaths from cholera had taken place during the voyage, a widespread feeling of apprehension was the result. The President issued a proclamation ordering that no vessel be admitted to any port until it had undergone a quarantine of twenty days. Camps of refuge were instituted at Sandy Hook and on Fire Island, and a cholera hospital established on Swinburne Island. In spite of |