“reasonable and just,” and that no special rates, rebates, drawbacks, or unjust discriminations are made for one shipper over another.  In 1888 a second Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the return of any Chinese laborer who had once left the country.  That same year a Department of Labor was established and put in charge of a commissioner.  His duty is to “diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor.”

%544.  Political Issues since 1888%.—­Thus by the end of Mr. Cleveland’s first term many of the demands of the workingmen had been granted, and laws enacted for their relief.  These issues disposed of, a new set arose, and after 1888 financial questions took the place of labor issues.

%545.  The Surplus and the Tariff.%—­These financial problems were brought up by the condition of the public debt.  For twenty years past the debt had been rapidly growing less and less, till on December 1, 1887, it was $1,665,000,000, a reduction of more than $1,100,000,000 in twenty-one years.  By that time every bond of the United States that could be called in and paid at its face value had been canceled.  As all the other bonds fell due, some in 1891 and others in 1907, the government must either buy them at high rates, or suffer them to run.  If it suffered them to run, a great surplus would pile up in the Treasury.  Thus on December 1, 1887, after every possible debt of the government was met, there was a surplus of $50,000,000.  Six months later (June 1, 1888) the sum had increased to $103,000,000.

Unless this was to go on, and the money of the country be locked up in the Treasury, one of three things must be done: 

1.  More bonds must be bought at high rates.

2.  Or the revenue must be reduced by reducing taxation.

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.