ally long and bitter in the Senate, President Cleveland,
pursuing the policy of paying gold for all greenbacks presented at the
Treasury, was unable, even by the sale of $50,000,000 in bonds, to keep
the Treasury gold reserve up to the $100,000,000 figure. Both old
greenbacks and Sherman law greenbacks, being redeemed in gold, reissued
and again redeemed, were used by exchangers like an endless chain pump
to pump the Treasury dry. In February, 1895, the reserve stood at the
low figure of $41,340,181. None knew when the country might be forced to
a silver basis. In consequence, business revived but slightly, if at
all, after the repeal.

In its first regular session the same Congress enacted the Wilson
Tariff. As it passed the House the bill provided for free sugar, wool,
coal, lumber, and iron ore, besides reducing duties on many other
articles.

It also taxed incomes exceeding $4,000 per annum. The Senate, except in
the case of wool and lumber, abandoned the proposal of free raw
materials, stiffened the rates named by the House, and preferred
specific to ad valorem duties. Many believed, without proof, that
improper influences had helped the Senate to shape its sugar schedule
favorably to the great refiners. The President pronounced sugar a
legitimate subject for taxation in spite of the "fear, quite likely
exaggerated," that carrying out this principle might "indirectly and
inordinately encourage a combination of sugar refining interests." In a
letter read in the House, however, he upbraided as guilty of "party
perfidy and dishonor" Democratic Senators who would abandon the
principle of free raw materials. But nothing shook the senatorial will.
What was in substance the Senate bill passed Congress, and the President
permitted it to become a law without his signature.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
William L. Wilson.

The Wilson law pleased no one. It violated the Democrats' plighted word
apparently at the dictation of parties selfishly interested. The Supreme
Court declared its income tax unconstitutional. The revenue from it was
inadequate, and had to be eked out with new bond issues. These were
alleged to be necessary to meet the greenback debt, but this need not
have embarrassed the Government had it followed the French policy of
occasionally paying in silver a small percentage of the demand notes
presented. Borrowing gold abroad, moreover, tended to inflate prices
here, stimulating imports, discouraging expor