McKINLEY 



3573 



McKINLEY 



in Asiatic conditions. A renewed demand for 

 a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was still 

 another result of the war (see HAY-PAUNCE- 

 FOTE TREATY; PANAMA CANAL). During the re- 

 mainder of his term the President's efforts were 

 centered on the organization and maintenance 

 of government in Cuba, and on the preparation 

 of the Cubans for self-government. In the 

 Philippine Islands, the native insurrection, 

 which was led by Aguinaldo (which see), was 

 suppressed, and through the efficiency of Judge 

 William H. Taft and the other administrators 

 selected by the President, the greater portion 

 of the new United States possessions were be- 

 ing governed peaceably within a short time 

 after the conclusion of the waj. 



The Antitrust Movement. The organiza- 

 tion of great corporations, aiming to secure 

 monopolies, was one of the most disquiet- 

 ing tendencies in the last decade of the nine- 

 teenth century (see TRUSTS). Many large cor- 

 porations formed at this time were not "trusts" 

 in the accepted sense, but the public looked 

 with suspicion on any large industrial organiza- 

 tions. One evidence of this distrust was a flood 

 of state laws regulating the formation of large 

 corporations and prohibiting the organization 

 of monopolies. This tendency toward the con- 

 centration of capital received a decided check 

 as a result of the decision of the Supreme 

 Court in the case of the United States vs. 

 Trans-Missouri Freight Association, a combina- 

 tion of Western railroads. 



Other Events. The year 1900 was marked by 

 three events of the first importance. One of 

 these was the Gold Standard Act, making the 

 gold dollar the standard of value in the United 

 States. This act, which became a: law on 

 March 14, 1900, gave a legal definition to a con- 

 dition which already existed. A second event, 

 important for its result rather than in itself, 

 was the Galveston flood. The flood caused 

 great loss of life and property, but out of it 

 arose a political innovation, the commission 

 form of municipal government (see COMMIS- 

 SION FORM OF GOVERNMENT). A third event 

 was the Boxer Rebellion (which see). The ac- 

 tion of the United States in joining the Euro- 

 pean powers in their demands on China was a 

 further proof that the isolation of the United 

 States was a thing of the past. American war- 

 ships were sent to Chinese waters, and Ameri- 

 cans marched through the sacred "Forbidden 

 City." 



Election of 1900. At the Republican National 

 Convention, held at Philadelphia, on June 19, 



1900, President McKinley was renominated by 

 acclamation. For Vice-President the conven- 

 tion chose Theodore Roosevelt, of New York. 

 Two weeks later the Democrats nominated 

 Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson, who had been 

 Vice-President with Cleveland, and declared 

 for free silver and against imperialism. By 

 "imperialism" they meant the policy of colonial 

 expansion. The Republican candidates bene- 

 fited from the remarkable prosperity which had 

 prevailed in the United States since the pre- 

 vious election, and appealed to the voters with 

 "Four years more of the full dinner-pail," and 

 similar slogans. The election resulted in a 

 sweeping victory for the Republican candidates. 

 McKinley and Roosevelt received 292 electoral 

 votes as against 155 for Bryan and Stevenson. 

 The popular vote was 7,219,530 for the Repub- 

 licans ; 6,358,071. for the Democrats. 



McKinley's Second Term. The second term 

 began on March 4, 1901. A few weeks later 

 Aguinaldo was captured, and took the oath of 

 allegiance to the United States, and in June 

 the second Philippine Commission formulated 

 a code of laws for the islands. Military rule 

 then came to an erfd. Cuba had already 

 adopted a constitution, and in July free trade 

 was established with Porto Rico. The right of 

 Congress to regulate trade between the United 

 States and the newly acquired dependencies 

 was affirmed by the Supreme Court in the so- 

 called "Insular Cases" (1900), which are among 

 the most important constitutional decisions 

 ever made by that body. 



The prosperity of the country since his ac- 

 cession to office seems to have worked a change 

 in McKinley's views on the tariff. Through his 

 public career he had stood consistently for a 

 high tariff, but on September 5, 1901, in an 

 address at Buffalo, N. Y., he expressed the hope 

 that "by sensible trade relations which will not 

 interrupt our home production, we shall ex- 

 tend the outlets for our increasing surplus. 

 . . . The period of exclusiveness is past." 



The President was in Buffalo for the purpose 

 of visiting the Pan-American Exposition. On 

 the sixth of September, the day following this 

 address, he held a public reception at the ex- 

 position in the Temple of Music. Hundreds 

 of people were in line to shake hands with the 

 Chief Magistrate. One of these, Leon Czolgosz, 

 an anarchist, advanced to meet the President 

 with a revolver concealed in a bandage around 

 his right hand. As he drew near, he fired, the 

 bullet lodging in the muscles of the President's 

 back. President McKinley was removed to the 



