Evening star., 1922-11-05
NO ISSUE is PARAMOUNT
in THIS YEARS CAMPAIGN
Candidates for Congress Largely Making
Appeals on Platforms Of Their
Own Drafting.

protective tariff, and barons OF great
wealth created at the expense Of the
ultimate consumer.
Hardly anything else was discuss
ed. The campaign resulted in the
election Of Harrison by a small ma
jority in the electoral college and re-
turning a scant plurality Of repub-
licans in the House. The republicans
organized the House with the aid Of
third party votes and for two months
operated under general parliamentary
law without specific rules.
Mckinley Bill CpheavaI.
At the election Immediately follow
ing, in 1890, the tariff was again
prominently an issue. The democrats
claimed that the Mckinley bill had
raised the price of everything the
people bought. The bill had not had
time fairly to show its effects. but
the democratic campaign cry was ef-
fective.
Another issue in the 1890 campaign
raised by the democrats was that the
Reed Congress had been a billion
dollar Congress-" Never before had
the appropriations reached the bill
lion-dollar mark. The republicans
answered this in the words Of Speaker
Reed himself-"This is billion-d
lar country" But the cry Of the
high cost of living" had its effect.
1t was taken advantage of by dealers
to put up prices arbitrarily.
The republicans were showed un-
der. The democrats had a tremen-
dous majority in the next House (the
fifty-second Congress) and the repub-
lican minority was less than 100
members-so few in numbers that
they held their caucuses in commit
tee rooms.
Then began the tariff troubles Of
the democrats. They held the House
In the Fifty-second and Fifty-third
Congresses. Cleveland was elected in
1892. largely due to the Homestead
strike in Pennsylvania. 1t was
charged against the Harrison admin
istration that his denomination was
brought about at the Minneapolis
convention by delegates appointed
to office by him. Shortly after Cleve-
lands second Inauguration In 1898 in
dustrial depression set in and the
populist party came into existence
demanding free coinage of silver.
Many democrats in Congress were
FREQ silverites, but the eastern and
northern democrats, who constituted
about 50 per cent of the democratic
strength in the House. and President
Cleveland himself. were bimetallists,
or. as the silverites called them. gold
bugs"
Bryan Dawns ON Horizon.
The Treasury Department, with for
mer Speaker Carlisle at its head (and
he was a bimetallist), was having its
troubles in maintaining the parity
between gold and silver. 1t was at
this time that William Jennings
Bryan first came up on the horizon.
He made a sensational speech In the
House favoring free silver and free
trade. The Treasury could not main
tain its gold reserve without bor-
rowing gold at high interest rates.
The Treasury was purchasing silver
bullion at the rate of 2.500.0 900 ounces
a month, under the silver-purchasing
clause of the Sherman act. This.
Secretary Carlisle said, was manda-
tory. The more the Treasury bought
the cheaper silver got and the dearer
gold became.
Cleveland saw where we were headed.
He called Congress into extraordinary
session in the dog days and demanded
repeal Of the purchasing clause of the
Sherman act. This provoked a fight
between the silver democrats and the
gold democrats. The party was split
up the back. Republicans in Con-
gress, except those from the silver
mining states, voted with the gold