3. Or the surplus must be distributed among the states as in 1837, or spent.
%546. The Mills Tariff Bill.%—Each plan had its advocates. But the Democrats, who controlled the House of Representatives, attempted to solve the problem by cutting down the revenue, and passed a tariff bill, called the Mills Bill, after its chief author, Mr. R. Q. Mills of Texas. The Republicans declared it was a free-trade measure and defeated it in the Senate.
%547. The Campaign of 1888; Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President.%—In the party platforms of 1888 we find, therefore, that three issues are prominent: (1) taxation, (2) tariff reform, (3) the surplus. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, and demanded frugality in public expenses, no more revenue than was needed to pay the necessary cost of government, and a tariff for revenue only. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, and demanded a tariff for protection, a reduction of the revenue by the repeal of taxes on tobacco and on spirits used in the arts, and by the admission free of duty of foreign-made articles the like of which are not produced at home.
[Illustration: Benjamin Harrison]
The Prohibitionists, the Union Labor party, and the United Labor party also placed candidates in the field. Harrison and Morton were elected, and inaugurated March 4, 1889.
%548. The Republicans in Control.%—The Republican party not only regained the presidency, but was once more in control of the House and Senate. Thus free to carry out its pledges, it passed the McKinley Tariff Act (1890); a new pension bill, which raised the number of pensioners to 970,000, and the sum annually spent on pensions from $106,000,000 to $150,000,000; and a new financial measure, known as
%549. The Sherman Act.%—You remember that the attempt to enact a law for the free coinage of silver in 1878 led to the Bland-Allison Act, for the purchase of bullion and the coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of silver each month. As this was not free coinage, the friends of silver made a second attempt, in 1886, to secure the desired legislation. This also failed. But in the summer of 1890, the silver men, having a majority of the Senate, passed a free-coinage bill (June 17), which the House rejected (June 25). A conference followed, and from this conference came a bill which was quickly enacted into a law and called the Sherman Act. It provided
1. That the Secretary of the Treasury should buy 4,500,000 ounces of silver each month.
2. That he should pay for the bullion with paper money called treasury notes.
3. That on demand of the holder the Secretary must redeem these notes in gold or silver.