ildings 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.

CHAPTER 45

THE SPANISH WAR, 1898

[Sidenote: The Cubans rebel, 1894.]

[Sidenote: Spanish cruelties, _Source-book_, 374-379.]

472. The Cuban Rebellion, 1894-98.--The Cubans laid down their arms
in 1877 (p. 372) because they relied on the promises of b