CLASSES OF POLITICIANS

Elected.

723

received scant courtesy from the democratic administration. Some of the civil service reformers were disappointed in Cleveland's appointments. More important than all else was Tam- Harrison many's open defection. It was charged that its devotees "traded" Cleveland votes to elect their champion, David B. Hill, governor of the state. The fact that he ran ahead of Cleveland at the polls by 14,491 votes and was elected seems to prove the charge. All these things, irrespective of the tariff question, would have accounted for the change from a democratic plurality of 1149 in 1884 to the Harrison plurality of 13,002 in 1888. The electoral vote was Harrison 233, and Cleveland 168, but in the popular vote the democrats had a plurality of 100,000.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN A NEW STAGE

New

If the democrats showed a renewal of life the republicans showed even more plainly that they were entering on new conditions. The party was a more perfect machine and less under presidential authority than ever before. Moreover, the per- Leaders. sonnel was shifting. In it Sumner had no modern counterpart, Schurz and the liberals were in revolt and acting with the enemy, Garfield had no successor, and even Conkling, powerful through his intellect, could not be matched in an organization which surrendered itself to men like Senators Quay of Pennsylvania and Platt of New York. Bishop Potter characterized them as holding "the conception of the national government as a huge machine existing mainly for the purpose of rewarding partisan service." A group of new men of a better type existed in congress, McKinley and Thomas B. Reed being the most conspicuous examples, but they did not shake themselves loose from the control of the machine. Of the older group only Blaine and John Sherman remained; both were weakened in health, and were borne along by forces they could not control. Blaine became secretary of state in the new cabinet and lent it the prestige of his name. Windom, of Minnesota, a politician rather than a financier, became secretary of the treasury, Redfield Proctor, of Vermont, secretary of war, Benjamin F. Tracy, of New York, secretary of the navy, W. H. H. Miller, of Indiana, attorney-general, John Wanamaker, of Pennsylvania, postmaster-general, John W. Noble, of Missouri, secretary of the interior, and Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Wisconsin, secretary of agriculture. They proved themselves good heads of department, for all they were unknown to the country. Wanamaker's appointment occasioned much comment because it was known he had made a large contribution to the Cabinet. campaign funds, and public opinion persisted in thinking

The

the office was Quay's reward for it. He had risen to prominence as a successful proprietor of a department store in Philadelphia.

Obstruction.

The republicans now controlled both branches of congress for the first time in eight years, and were determined to enact their party program. In the house obstruction had become a powerLegislative ful weapon, and this must be broken down. A common method of defeating legislation was to consume time in dilatory motions. Another was for the minority to fail to answer a roll call when a few of the majority were absent and to raise the point of no quorum, which by the constitution must be a majority of the house. The republicans employed both methods freely when in the minority, but were now determined to abolish them. Thomas B. Reed, the new speaker, a blunt man who could not be confused, was just the man to carry out their wishes.

The session opened with much filibustering in the house. Finally on January 21, 1890, Reed refused to appoint tellers on a democratic

"Czar" Reed.

motion to adjourn. The omission would have been a serious breach of duty had the motion been made in good faith, but it was plainly dilatory, and the house sustained him. He also announced he would entertain no such motions in the future. The democrats were angry, but they became still more enraged eight days later when he counted a quorum. When a motion was put there were 161 yeas, 2 nays, and 165 not voting, the last being democrats. The usual point of "No quorum voting" was made, when to the surprise of the minority Reed began calling the names of democrats before him and ordered the clerk to record them as present. A storm of protests arose in which mingled cries of "revolutionary," "unconstitutional," and "usurpation." Bland shouted in the face of the speaker, "You are not a tyrant to rule over this house or the members of this house in any such way, and I denounce you as the worst tyrant that ever presided over a deliberative body." Reed paid no heed to the storm, but continued calling the names of the democrats, remarking several times, "The chair must proceed in an orderly manner." The wrangle lasted a fortnight, and ended only when a rule was adopted to allow the speaker to count as present members he saw before him. This rule and another against dilatory motions were adopted by counting a quorum. Reed's proceedings caused much comment out of doors. Democrats generally pronounced him a "Czar," but as the atmosphere cleared, his position was indorsed by fair-minded people, and the democrats at the next session in organizing the house felt constrained to accept it, although they gave the rules committee and not the speaker the deciding function.

THE MCKINLEY TARIFF AND THE SURPLUS

The obstructionists muzzled, the majority turned to the double task outlined in the platform of 1888. There should be a new tariff con

REPUBLICANS IN ENTIRE CONTROL

725

sonant with the aggressive school of protection, and the surplus should be reduced. Harrison expressed both ideas in his inaugural and in his first annual message, and congress willingly carried out his suggestion.

A Double
Program.

While the house was closing its long debate on the Mills bill in the early autumn of 1888, the republican senate prepared a tariff bill of its own, a kind of manifesto of protection for effect in the election. In the following short session it passed the The McKinley bill as a substitute for the Mills bill, and here the matter Tariff. rested when the session ended in March. The bill supplied a working program for the next congress which, soon after convening, sent it to the ways and means committee, William McKinley, Jr., chairman. In a short time it came back with a few changes and was known as the McKinley bill. It easily passed the house and finally got through the senate after the "Silver Senators" were conciliated by the passage of the Sherman silver law. But the debates were long and the bill did not became law until October 1, five weeks before the congressional elections of 1890. The chief features were as follows:

Its Features.

1. The duties on agricultural products were slightly raised to please the rural West; but raw sugar, yielding a total revenue of $55,000,000, was put on the free list, and a bounty of two cents a pound for four years was offered to domestic sugar producers. As the latter raised a small part of the amount consumed, there was in this schedule a net loss of revenue of a little less than $50,000,000. A duty was placed on refined sugar to protect the American refiners. 2. The rates on bulky iron articles were little changed; in some cases they were actually lowered. This was because the seat of such manufacturing was now in the Pittsburg-Cleveland region, and freights from seaboard to that district gave a large amount of protection. 3. Less bulky articles, as woollens, cottons, and shoes, produced near the coast line, were given higher rates, often disguised by a complicated combination of specific and ad valorem duties. Some schedules were so high as to raise the suspicion that they were designed to exclude imports.

Reciprocity.

4. Through Blaine's efforts a system of reciprocity was adopted, intended to secure trade from South American states. While the bill was being considered, a Pan-American congress was in session in Washington under the special patronage of the secretary of state. He desired mutual concessions by which South American products would come to us freely in exchange for our flour and manufactured articles. Congress ignored him, for all his protesting and scolding, until when the bill was near its adoption the senate grafted on it a reciprocity clause. In its final form it provided that hides, molasses, tea, and coffee, as well as sugar, be free; but if the president thought a state producing these articles charged unfair

duties against us, he might impose duties on them at specified rates. In this form reciprocity was a club with which it was proposed to force our neighbors into concessions. Through it in 1892 we got reduction of duties in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, British Guiana, Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Gautemala, and Brazil, and some slight reductions in Germany and France. Only Colombia, Venezuela, and Haiti were disciplined for refusing to make concessions.

A Policy of
Generosity.

In his first annual message Harrison suggested liberal appropriations for pensions, naval construction, and coast defenses, and the hint was not lost on congress. The economies of the democrats were thrown aside, and much was heard about expenditures in keeping with the dignity of the nation. When the congress of 1891-1893 ended it had won the title of "the billion dollar congress." Reed expressed the feeling of his political friends in the retort, "This is a billion dollar country."

The most notable increase was for pensions. Both parties feared to antagonize the soldier vote, and certain politicians had learned the

art of utilizing it by asking for grants in behalf of the solPensions diers which no one dared refuse. Most of these grants Before 1890. were good. No one desired to be parsimonious with the men who saved the union; but there was danger that the process should run into extravagance. It might even become a means of debasing the elections. At first, relief was given to disabled soldiers and their dependent relatives. Under this plan there were 234,821 pensioners in 1875 receiving $29,270,407 annually. Garfield declared this was probably the highest point to which pensions would rise; but in 1879 arrears were granted increasing the cost by $25,000,000 a year; and by 1885 the cost of pensions was $65,171,937. Besides this, each session of congress saw the enactment of many private pension bills, granting relief where the laws would not apply. Many such bills were worthy ones; but they were rarely inspected closely, and had come to be granted as favors to members through a "courtesy" analagous to "senatorial courtesy." The presidents formerly signed these bills as a matter of course, but Cleveland investigated them, and vetoed many which he thought involved fraud. At this time the republicans carried through congress a bill giving twelve dollars a month to each old soldier dependent on his own or another person's labor, and Cleveland vetoed this also. He was widely criticized as a foe to the veterans, and the republican platform of 1888 demanded "in the presence of an overflowing treasury" legislation to keep old soldiers from dependence on public or private charity.

Thus committed, the party did not hesitate to take up a more liberal pension policy. "Corporal" Tanner, accepted representative of the soldier vote, became commissioner of pensions, and was said to have

THE SURPLUS BECOMES A DEFICIT

727

Pension Bill

exclaimed, "God help the surplus revenue!" He passed claims freely, and even looked up persons, some of them rich men, whom he thought ought to be pensioned. He was so active that Harrison removed him within a year. The pension act which of 1890. Cleveland vetoed now became law. As a result, the appropriation for this purpose rose from $89,000,000 in 1889 to $159,000,000 in 1893. It remained at nearly the latter amount until 1912, when by the Sherwood act, which neither party was willing to oppose, additional gifts were made, bringing up the annual expenditure to $180,000,000. The act of 1890, like its successor of 1912, was of twofold purpose; it was intended to reduce the surplus and thus save protection, and to have influence on the elections. To carry it into operation the government has paid since its enactment over a billion and a quarter of dollars.

A New
Navy.

The large sums voted for the navy occasioned more satisfaction. By 1880 wooden ships were discarded in European navies, but they continued the rule in the United States. Secretary of the Navy Hunt, a Southerner whom Garfield appointed, took up the task of improvement, and in 1883 two steel cruisers were ordered. Secretary Whitney, under Cleveland, continued to urge enlargement, and in 1888 he secured $17,000,000 for that purpose. These plans were unrealized when Cleveland went out of office, but the liberal gifts under his successor increased the strength of the navy, so that in 1893 it contained 22 steel ships and had risen from twelfth to fifth place among the navies of the world.

THE TARIFF LEGISLATION OF 1892-1897

Act and

When congress met in 1889 the surplus was $105,000,000. By abandoning the sugar duties and levying prohibitive duties in other schedules the revenue shrank nearly $100,000,000. At the same time the republicans spent so largely that had some of The the items not required a long time for completion there McKinley must have been an annual deficit. Seven months after Finances. the McKinley bill was passed the treasury ceased to buy bonds except to fulfill the requirements of the sinking fund. The next year even this went by default, and in 1892 came the first quarter's deficit in many years. It was a new experience to most of the people, and impressed them deeply. Harrison was alarmed, and made efforts to check the spirit of extravagance he had let loose. Tanner was sent off and granting pensions was curbed, but the swollen lists. could not be reduced. Pressure on congressional committees tempered the appropriations of 1891, and a phenomenal wheat crop, 1891, resulted in large importations of merchandise which increased the revenues and saved the administration from serious embarrassment.