t. In the next four
years he nearly doubled the number in the classified service in the face
of opposition from his most intimate associates.

The problems of prosperity and national growth, developing in the
eighties and culminating between 1885 and 1889, involved administrative
efficiency rather than party policy. On every side the Government was
forced to expand its activities, and Cleveland was occupied in getting
new machinery into operation and meeting conditions for which no
precedents existed.

Organized labor had gained concessions from Congress in a Bureau of
Labor, in 1884, and an Anti-Contract Labor Law in 1885. These called for
sympathetic administration and encouraged labor to hope for more. During
1886 and 1887 the views of labor leaders attracted much attention
because of a series of strikes and riots. In the greatest of these the
local chapters of the Knights of Labor fought against the Gould railways
of the Southwest--the Missouri Pacific and the Texas Pacific. The strike
originated in March, 1886, in sympathy with labor organizers who had
been discharged by the railroad. Under the leadership of Martin Irons it
spread over the Southwest, causing distress in those regions which were
dependent upon the railroad for fuel and food and causing disorder in
the towns where the idle workmen congregated. Powderly and the other
chief officials of the Knights tried to stop the strike, but were
ineffective, while the railroad managers shaped events so as to divert
the sympathies of the Western people against the strikers. The Knights
never recovered from the blow which the loss of the strike inflicted
upon them.

In May, 1886, a general demonstration in favor of the eight-hour day
was planned and carried out. In Milwaukee riots ensued, the militia was
called out by Governor Rusk, and a volley was fired into the mob. In
Chicago the union movement was combined with anarchy and socialism, and
opponents of all did not discriminate among them. A meeting of the
anarchists was broken up by the police, several of whom were killed by
the explosion of a bomb thrown in the tumult. In 1887 a group of the
anarchist leaders were hanged, having been convicted of what may be
called constructive conspiracy. The unrest revealed by the strikes and
riots showed that the old period of uniform well-being and satisfaction
was over.

The demands made upon politics by organized labor were exceeded by the
demands of organized patrioti