Silver should be coined freely with gold, but with parity of value. Civil service should be promoted. The Chinese, paupers and contract laborers should be prevented from immigration to the United States. The tax on state banks should be repealed. Soldiers should be pensioned, popular education favored, railroad employes protected by law, the "sweating system" abolished, employment of children in factories prohibited, and sumptuary laws opposed.

The National Convention of the Prohibitionists was held in Cincinnati, beginning on the 30th of June. General John Bidwell, of California, was nominated for President, and J. B. Cranfall, of Texas, for Vice-President. The platform declared for laws for the suppression of the liquor traffic; demanded equal suffrage for women; and governmental control of railroads and telegraphs; restriction of immigration; suppression of speculation in margins; free coinage of silver at existing ratio, and an increase in the volume of money; tariff for revenue, and proper protection against the influence of foreign nations.

The National Convention of the People's party assembled at Omaha on the 4th of July. The numbers in attendance and the enthusiasm showed conclusively a great increase in the following of this party, which now began to be designated as Populists. The platform declared in favor of the union of the labor forces of the United States in a common cause against corporate power, demanded governmental control of railroads, telegraphs and public corporations; demanded also the free coinage of silver at the existing ratio, and an increase in the circulating medium; also an income tax; also a system of government savings banks; also opposition to ownership of lands by aliens and corporations. On this platform General James B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and Judge James B. Field, of Virginia, for VicePresident, were nominated. With this personnel and under

these respective political banners the parties to the contest went to the people in the campaign of 1892.

About the time of the national conventions in this year began the distressing series of events which, with increasing volume, widened into all departments of American industry, blasting the fruits of labor and indicating in the industrial society of the United States the existence of profound and dangerous vices. On the 30th of June the managers of the great iron works at Homestead, a short distance from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, apprehending a strike of their operatives on account of a reduction of wages, declared a lockout, and closed the establishment. This was said to be done under the necessity of making repairs and the like; but the dullest could not fail to understand the true intent of the corporation.

The operatives, thus wronged, assumed a threatening attitude; and the managers sent secretly to the Pinkerton detective agency at Chicago for a force to protect the works. A large body of armed men was sent with the purpose of putting the same secretly into the works to defend the establishment. As the boat bearing the Pinkerton force came near to Homestead, it was fired on by the strikers, and a battle ensued, in which ten strikers and four detectives were killed. A very large number of the latter were wounded on the boat, and the whole were driven away. The strikers gained possession of the works; the civil authorities were powerless; and an appeal was made to the governor of the State.

The Pennsylvania National Guard to the number of 8,500 was called out, under proclamation of the governor. On the 12th of July a military occupation was established at Homestead, and was maintained for several weeks. The restoration of order was extremely difficult. The leaders of the strike were arrested. Superintendent Frick of the

iron works was attacked by an anarchist who attempted to assassinate him in his office. At length, under the necessity which the social order has to maintain itself, the original wrong done by Andrew Carnegie, proprietor of the works, and his subordinates, was enforced by law and by the power of the military. In the meantime the miners of the Coeur d'Alene mining region in far-off Idaho rose against a body of non-union workingmen, who had been introduced into the mines, killed many, and drove away the remainder. Railroad bridges and other property were destroyed, and a reign of terror established. It was not until the 17th of July that military rule prevailed over the rioters, whose leaders were arrested and imprisoned.

In a short time a dreadful scene of violence was enacted at Buffalo. A strike occurred of the switchmen of the Erie and Lehigh Valley railway at that city. The attempt was made to put the strikers down; whereupon they attacked the loaded freight trains standing on the side-tracks, and burned the cars by hundreds. The whole National Guard of New York was, on the 18th of August, summoned to the scene. The strikers were overawed, or dispersed. On the 24th of the month a settlement was reached, and the switchmen who had begun the strike returned, as far as possible, to their duties.

About this time an alarm came from the approach of cholera. That dreadful disease had broken out at Hamburg, and had desolated the city. The malady spread to Antwerp, Bremen and Havre, and found even in London and Liverpool a few points of infection. On the 31st of August the steamer Moravia arrived at New York from Hamburg, bearing the disease. The vessel was quarantined in the lower bay. Proclamation was made by the President requiring all ships from infected ports to be detained outside the danger line for twenty days. A few other steamers

beside the Moravia arrived with cholera on board, and the authorities of New York were obliged to contend with the disease until the coming of cold weather.

In due time the presidential election was held. Though the followers of Harrison had been able to force his renomination, they were not able to secure his re-election. Everything went overwhelmingly against the Republican party, and mostly in favor of the Democrats. Of the electoral votes, Cleveland received 277, Harrison 145, and Weaver 22. Of the representatives in Congress elected, 217 were Democrats, 128 Republicans, and 8 Populists. The popular vote showed for Cleveland and Stevenson, 5,554,685; for Harrison and Reid, 5,172,343; for Weaver and Field, 1,040,600; for Bidwell and Cranfall, 273,314. Thus, by a remarkable change from the verdict of 1888, the defeated candidate of that year was restored to the Presidency by a popular plurality of nearly four hundred thousand votes.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE date now arrived for the celebration in the United States of the Fourth Centennial of the discovery of America by Columbus. The other nations conceded to our country and people the honor of holding a World's Columbian Exposition as a jubilee and commemoration of the giving of these continents to mankind by the Man of Genoa, in the years 1492-93.

The suggestion of holding a world's fair in America in 1892, in celebration of the quadricentennial of the New World, was first made in the year 1882. The idea was received with such favor that a general agitation of the project by the public press almost immediately followed. But nothing definite was done until the Paris Exposition of 1889 had further emphasized the importance of the celebration.

When the demand for such a fitting observance of the great event became urgent, cities began to contend for the honor, and Congress signified a willingness to hear the claims and proposals of contestants. Washington City, New York, Chicago and St. Louis entered the lists to secure the location, each with an agreement to provide suitable grounds and raise by subscription the sum of $5,000,000 with which to erect buildings for the purpose. Chicago submitted her claims with an agreement to raise $10,000,000 for the Exposition. Each city sent delegations of prominent citizens to press their respective claims before Congress. A decisive vote, after eight ballots, was reached by that body on February 24th, 1890, the result being as