four years before, and held the electoral votes of 18 of the
states, he lost New York and Indiana by very narrow margins, a result
in which other issues played a large part. Harrison was elected and
the party favoring a high protective tariff came into power.

Sec. 9. #The tariff, 1890-1896#. The tariff act (known as the McKinley
act) of October, 1890, followed. This was a general extension of the
principle of protection. The rates on woolen goods were on the whole
increased and made in more cases prohibitive. The rates on wool were
increased. The rates on iron, which was already highly protected, were
little changed except by the increase of the duty on tin-plates. The
duty on sugar (in the main a revenue duty, yielding $55,000,000
a year) was removed and a bounty was granted to domestic sugar
producers. In the next three (fiscal) years, 1892-1894, the average
rate proved to be over 49 per cent on dutiable (4 per cent increase)
and 22 per cent on free and dutiable (the remission of sugar duties
accounting for the most of this fall of 8 per cent from the average
under the preceding law--4 per cent fall from the last year of its
operation). Particularly noticeable, however, was the increase in the
proportion of goods entering free, which was nearly 55 per cent of
all merchandise as contrasted with about 33 per cent between 1884 and
1890.

Again the political weather vane shifted. The month after the McKinley
bill became law, the Congressional elections (November, 1890) returned
an overwhelming Democratic majority in the House, altho this was a
period of business prosperity, a fact usually favoring the party in
power. In 1892, Cleveland, being again a candidate, was successful
over Harrison by a largely increased plurality of the popular vote,
and received almost double the electoral vote of his opponent.
The House was Democratic, and the Senate soon became so. Business
prosperity was rising again to a high level, but there were many
features of financial and speculative weakness in the situation,
intensified by growing fear of a cheap money (silver dollar) inflation
under the act of 1878 providing for the annual purchase of silver.
A financial panic occurred in September, 1893, six months after
Cleveland's inauguration.

Nevertheless Congress enacted the next year, Aug. 28, 1894, the Wilson
tariff act. The changes made by this legislation were not on the whole
very great, but were nearly all in the direction of the l