sts and the Silver party
as well as of the Democrats. The Democratic platform denounced
imperialism and trusts, and reiterated the demand for the free coinage
of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republicans renominated
President McKinley, and nominated Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President,
on a platform indorsing McKinley's administration and favoring the gold
standard of money. McKinley and Roosevelt were elected.

%580. McKinley Assassinated.% On March 4, 1901, the President began
his second term, which six months later came to a dreadful end. In May a
great fair--the Pan-American Exposition--was opened at Buffalo, and to
this exposition the President came as a guest early in September, and
was holding a public reception on the afternoon of the 6th, when an
anarchist who approached as if to shake hands, suddenly shot him twice.
For several days it was thought that the wounds would not prove fatal;
but early on the morning of the 14th, the President died, and that
afternoon Mr. Roosevelt took the oath of office required by the
Constitution and became President.

[Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt]

%581. Public Measures adopted in 1901-1904.%--The events connected
with our large island possessions had directed much attention to our
military and naval forces. As a result, Congress passed several measures
to increase the efficiency of the army, and appropriated large sums for
additions to the navy. For the reclamation of the arid parts of the Far
West an important law was enacted (1902), setting aside the money
received from the sales of public land in that part of the country and
appropriating it for the planning and construction of irrigation works.
In 1903 a ninth member was added to the President's cabinet in the
person of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The new department was
made to include the Department of Labor established fifteen years
before, and a number of other bureaus already existing; at the same time
the Bureau of Corporations was newly established, and was given the
power to investigate the organization and workings of any trust or
corporation (except railroads) engaged in interstate or foreign
commerce, and, with the President's approval, to publish the
information so obtained.

A long-standing dispute as to the eastern boundary of southern Alaska
was referred to a British-American tribunal, which decided chiefly in
favor of the United States (1903). By a reciprocity treaty with Cuba
which