spital at a certain time,
whether he was or not--the records did not state it, but they knew it
was so--and who would also swear that they knew he had received a shock
which affected his hearing during a certain battle, or that something
else had happened to him; and so all those pension claims, many of which
are worthless, have been allowed by the Government, because they were
'proved.'"

* June 27, 1890.

The increase in the expenditure for pensions, which rose from
$88,000,000 in 1889 to $159,000,000 in 1893, swept away much of the
surplus in the Treasury. Further inroads were made by the enactment of
the largest river and harbor appropriation bill in the history of the
country up to this time. Moreover, a new tariff bill was contrived in
such a way as to impose protective duties without producing so much
revenue that it would cause popular complaint about unnecessary
taxation. A large source of revenue was cut off by abolishing the
sugar duties and by substituting a system of bounties to encourage home
production. Upon this bill as a whole, Senator Cullom remarks in
his memoirs that "it was a high protective tariff, dictated by the
manufacturers of the country" who have "insisted upon higher duties than
they really ought to have." The bill was, indeed, made up wholly
with the view of protecting American manufactures from any foreign
competition in the home market.

As passed by the House, not only did the bill ignore American commerce
with other countries but it left American consumers exposed to the
manipulation of prices on the part of other countries. Practically all
the products of tropical America, except tobacco, had been placed upon
the free list without any precaution lest the revenue thus surrendered
might not be appropriated by other countries by means of export taxes.
Blaine, who was once more Secretary of State, began a vigorous agitation
in favor of adding reciprocity provisions to the bill. When the Senate
showed a disposition to resent his interference, Blaine addressed to
Senator Frye of Maine a letter which was in effect an appeal to the
people, and which greatly stirred the farmers by its statement that
"there is not a section or a line in the entire bill that will open
the market for another bushel of wheat or another barrel of pork." The
effect was so marked that the Senate yielded, and the Tariff Bill, as
finally enacted, gave the President power to impose certain duties
on sugar,