470. Election of 1896.--In 1896 the Republicans held their convention at St. Louis and nominated William McKinley of Ohio for President. They declared in favor of the gold standard, unless some arrangement with other nations for a standard of gold and silver could be made. They also declared for protection to home industries. The Democrats held their convention at Chicago. The men who had stood by Cleveland found themselves in a helpless minority. William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska was nominated for President on a platform advocating the free coinage of silver and many changes in the laws in the direction of socialism. The Populists and the Silver Republicans also adopted Bryan as their candidate. Now, at last, the question of the gold standard or the silver standard was fairly before the voters. They responded by electing McKinley and a Republican House of Representatives.
[Illustration: WILLIAM MCKINLEY.]
The Dingley tariff, 1897.
471. The Dingley Tariff, 1897.--The Republicans, once more in control of the government, set to work to reform the tariff in favor of high protection. Representative Dingley of Maine was chairman of the committee of the House that drew up the new bill, and the act as finally passed goes by his name. It raised the duties on some classes of goods and taxed many things that hitherto had come in free. Especially were duties increased on certain raw materials for manufactures, with a view to encourage the production of such materials in the United States. The reciprocity features of the McKinley tariff (P. 383) were also restored.
CHAPTER 45
THE SPANISH WAR, 1898
The Cubans rebel, 1894.
Spanish cruelties, Source-book, 374-379.
472. The Cuban Rebellion, 1894-98.--The Cubans laid down their arms in 1877 (p. 372) because they relied on the promises of better government made by the Spaniards. But these promises were never carried out. Year after year the Cuban people bore with their oppression. But at last their patience was worn out. In 1894 they again rebelled. The Spaniards sent over an army to subdue them. Soon tales of cruelty on the part of the Spaniards reached the United States. Finally the Spanish governor, General Weyler, adopted the cruel measure of driving the old men, the women, and the children from the country villages and huddling them together in the seaboard towns. Without money, without food, with scant shelter, these poor people endured every hardship. They died by thousands. The American people sent relief, but little could be done to help them. The Cubans also fitted out expeditions in American ports to carry arms and supplies to the rebels. The government did everything in its power to stop these expeditions, but the coast line of the United States is so long that it was impossible to stop them all, especially as large numbers of the American people heartily sympathized with the Cubans. Constant disputes with Spain over the Cuban question naturally came up and gave rise to irritation in the United States and in Spain.
[Illustration: THE "MAINE.">[