[Sidenote:  Scarcity of money.]

[Sidenote:  Repeal of the Sherman Law.]

[Sidenote:  Wilson tariff.]

468.  Silver and the Tariff.—­In the summer of 1893 there was a great scarcity of money.  Thousands of people withdrew all the money they could from the banks and locked it up in places of security.  But Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Law and put an end to the compulsory purchase of silver and the coinage of silver dollars.  This tended to restore confidence.  The Democrats once more overhauled the tariff.  Under the lead of Representative Wilson of West Virginia they passed a tariff act, lowering some duties and placing many articles on the free list.

[Sidenote:  Chicago Exhibition, 1893.]

469.  The Chicago Exhibition, 1893.—­The four hundredth anniversary of the Columbian discovery of America occurred in October, 1892.  Preparations were made for holding a great commemorative exhibition at Chicago.  But it took so long to get everything ready that the exhibition was not held until the summer of 1893.  Beautiful buildings were erected of a cheap but satisfactory material.  They were designed with the greatest taste, and were filled with splendid exhibits that showed the skill and resources of Americans, and also with the products of foreign countries.  Hundreds of thousands of persons from all parts of the country visited the exhibition with pleasure and great profit.  No more beautiful or successful exhibition has ever been held.

[Illustration:  THE FISHERIES BUILDING, WORLD’S FAIR, CHICAGO.]

[Sidenote:  William McKinley.]

[Sidenote:  W.J.  Bryan.]

[Sidenote:  McKinley elected President, 1896.]

470.  Election of 1896.—­In 1896 the Republicans held their convention at St. Louis and nominated William McKinley of Ohio for President.  They declared in favor of the gold standard, unless some arrangement with other nations for a standard of gold and silver could be made.  They also declared for protection to home industries.  The Democrats held their convention at Chicago.  The men who had stood by Cleveland found themselves in a helpless minority.  William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska was nominated for President on a platform advocating the free coinage of silver and many changes in the laws in the direction of socialism.  The Populists and the Silver Republicans also adopted Bryan as their candidate.  Now, at last, the question of the gold standard or the silver standard was fairly before the voters.  They responded by electing McKinley and a Republican House of Representatives.

[Illustration:  WILLIAM MCKINLEY.]

[Sidenote:  The Dingley tariff, 1897.]

471.  The Dingley Tariff, 1897.—­The Republicans, once more in control of the government, set to work to reform the tariff in favor of high protection.  Representative Dingley of Maine was chairman of the committee of the House that drew up the new bill, and the act as finally passed goes by his name.  It raised the duties on some classes of goods and taxed many things that hitherto had come in free.  Especially were duties increased on certain raw materials for manufactures, with a view to encourage the production of such materials in the United States.  The reciprocity features of the McKinley tariff (P. 383) were also restored.