Civil Service Act (1883), was
designed to secure appointment to public office on the ground of
fitness, and not for political service.

%540. Corporations.%--These measures were all good enough in their
way; but they left untouched grievances which the workingmen and a great
part of the people felt were unbearable. That the development of the
wealth and resources of our country is chiefly due to great corporations
and great capitalists is strictly true. But that many of them abused the
power their wealth gave them cannot be denied. They were accused of
buying legislatures, securing special privileges, fixing prices to suit
themselves, importing foreign laborers under contract in order to
depress wages, and favoring some customers more than others.

%541. The Anti-monopoly and Labor Parties.%--Out of this condition of
affairs grew the Anti-monopoly party, which held a convention in 1884
and demanded that the Federal government should regulate commerce
between the states; that it should therefore control the railroads and
the telegraphs; that Congress should enact an interstate commerce law;
and that the importation of foreign laborers under contract should be
made illegal.

This platform was so fully in accordance with the views of the Greenback
or National party, that Benjamin F. Butler, the candidate of the
Anti-monopolists, was endorsed and so practically united the
two parties.

[Illustration: Grover Cleveland]

%542. The Republican and Democratic Parties%.--The Republicans
nominated James G. Blaine and John A. Logan, and the Democrats Stephen
Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. The Prohibitionists put up
John P. St. John and William Daniel. The nomination of Blaine was the
signal for the revolt of a wing of the Republicans, which took the name
of Independents, and received the nickname of "Mugwumps." The revolt was
serious in its consequences, and after the most exciting contest since
1876, Cleveland was elected.

%543. Public Measures adopted during 1885-1889.%--Widely as the
parties differed on many questions, Democrats, Republicans, and
Nationalists agreed in demanding certain reform measures which were now
carried out. In 1885 an Anti-Contract-Labor law was enacted, forbidding
any person, company, or corporation to bring any aliens into the United
States under contract to perform labor or service. In 1887 came the
Interstate Commerce Act, placing the railroads under the supervision of
commissioners