of the Cleveland regime. The excess of exports over imports in the Cleveland term was about $29,000,000; the similar excess during the Harrison term, three years in each case, is $281,000,000; the total foreign trade, exports and imports counted together, for the three years ending March 31, 1889, was $4,289,000,000; during the last three years it was $5,161,000,000, showing an excess in favor of the Republican years of $871,000,000. In the last twelve months of the Cleveland administration there were free imports into the United States amounting to $254,000,000, or thirty-four per cent of the total imports for that year; in the corresponding twelve months ending March 31, 1892, there were $461,000,000 of free imports, and they constituted fifty-five per cent of the total imports. The increase in free imports consists mainly of articles that enter into the daily use of the people, such as tea, sugar, coffee and similar things.

To the Harrison administration must be credited the admission of six new States into the Union, giving six additional stars to our flag.

Great improvements have been made in the Indian service; nearly 80,000 Indians have been naturalized and received allotments of land, and nearly 36,000 square miles have been acquired for homestead settlements. The Indian service has been greatly improved, and the appointees in that department have been brought under the civil service rules. Schools have been extended among the Indians, and the attendance in them has materially increased.

A great work has been done in the Pension Office, and it has been subjected to very severe criticism. The Pension Law of 1890, which has been very severely criticised, declares in brief that whenever an ex-soldier or sailor is unable to support himself, by reason of disability not arising from faults of his own conduct, he shall be entitled to a pension ranging from six to twelve dollars a month, without regard to his rank. Under this law, no able-bodied man receives a pension, and at the same time provision is made that no disabled man shall be without a means of relief. Twenty-five years ago the pensions amounted to about $21,000,000 annually, and at the same time the interest on the public debt was $144,000,000; at present the pension list requires about $140,000,000 from the Treasury annually, while interest on the public debt is about $23,000,000; consequently, there has been little change in the twenty-five years as to the burden of the war, it being very nearly the same in 1892 that it was in 1867; in the one case the great bulk being interest on the debt, while in the other the great bulk is the pension list.

The new navy, about which so much has been said of late, is fairly to be

credited to the Republican party, as the construction of it was ordered by a Republican Congress in 1883. The navy began with four new ships; the Cleveland administration continued the work, and constructed sixteen new vessels with an aggregate of nearly 50,000 tons; the present administration has been constructing a total of thirty-six new vessels, with the aggregate of 122,000 tons, and it is also reconstructing the old monitors, or such of them as are considered available, so that it may be fairly stated that there has been a total under construction during this administration of forty-one vessels. Nineteen have been

constructed entirely during this administration, and twenty-four are under construction; sixteen have been finished and commissioned, and ten have been launched and are in process of completion; three types of ships have been provided-battleships, the armored cruiser, and the swift protected cruiser. The efficiency of the new navy was well shown in the very quick preparations that were made for possible hostilities with Chili. In an incredible space of time a fleet ship was sent out, and our ships appeared in Valparaiso harbor with such promptness that if any of the Chilian authorities had contemplated a declaration of war

against the United States, on account of the feebleness of its marine, they were induced to take a second thought upon the subject.

At the beginning of the present administration there were 8734 moneyorder offices in the country; there are now more than 12,000 of these offices, showing an increase of very nearly one-third. Experiments have been made in the matter of free delivery in the country districts, and with considerable success; the free-delivery offices in two years have been increased from 154 to 519. The gross revenues of the Postal Department have increased nearly $5,000,000 annually under the present administration, but it is proper to say that the expenses have increased in the same ratio. The Post-Office every year requires an appropriation from the government to carry on its work, as it has required an appropriation for the same purpose almost every year since the Republic began its existence. The schedules of the mails have been increased during this administration; the number of post-offices is several thousands more than it was when President Harrison was inaugurated, and a new feature has been adopted for the distribution of foreign mails on board ship, so that there will be no delay over their distribution when they arrive in port. Negotiations are now under way for the establishing of pneumatic tubes or some other rapid system of transportation in all the large cities, so that the mails can reach their destination much more rapidly than at present.

XXI.

The Conventions of 1892-Movements for the Nomination of President Harrison to succeed him self-Blaine again in the Field-" Dark Horses" in Prospect-McKinley, Alger, Depew, and others-Republican Convention at Minneapolis-Proceedings at the Opening-Gov. McKinley as permanent Chairman-His Speech on the Situation-The Platform and its Principles-Mrs. J. Ellen Foster and her Speech-Call of the Roll of States-Senator Wolcott of Colorado nominates Blaine-Hon. R. W. Thompson nominates Harrison-Their nominating Speeches-Mrs. Carson Lake and what she did-Chauncey M. Depew's Speech seconding Harrison's Nomination-Harrison chosen on the first Ballot-The Nomination made Unanimous-Gen. Horace Porter names Whitelaw Reid for second Place on the Ticket -The Nomination Unanimous--The Democratic Platform and Candidate-The People's Party and the Prohibitionists-Gen. A. B. Nettleton on the Third Party Question.

HERE was every reason to believe that President Harrison would be renominated by the tenth Republican Convention, convened at Minneapolis, Minn.; though there was at the outset such a demonstration for Blaine that there was a possibility that a dark horse introduced to prevent a conflict between the forces of the two great leaders might carry off the prize, and

McKinley, Alger and Depew were mentioned.

The eloquent Governor of Ohio, Major McKinley, earned the gratitude of his party by his great Protective Tariff Bill. It is a little singular that a lawyer from an interior town should be the father of a protective tariff that one would think the sea-coast or mercantile representatives would naturally make a study of; yet it was left to him to formulate the great work. Gov. McKinley, however, was an advocate of President Harrison's nomination, and was content with the honor of chairman of the Convention.

McKinley is noted for his alleged likeness to Napoleon the Great, and for the glossiness of his hat. He is a tall-built, broad-shouldered, dark-haired man of clean-shaven face and engaging manners, who dresses well and is so conserv

ative and dignified that the many lobbyists of the Capitol give him a wide berth. Politically he is the embodiment of the protective tariff idea, this side of the tariff question having been his study for years. He is a hard and conscientious worker, and prepares his speeches with great care, and is disastrously well posted on the subjects on which he speaks; for the idea never occurs to him to speechify on any topic which he does not understand from every point of view. He can state a point as clearly as any man in Congress. He can also hold his tongue. Besides being the leading Republican debater in the House, Major McKinley was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, the most important of the House committees. Withal he is only eight and forty, having been born at Niles, Ohio, February 26, 1844. He enlisted in the United States army in May, 1861, as a private soldier in the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and received his first promotion in the services of the Republic on the battle-field of Antietam, nine and twenty years ago, being made a second lieutenant for gallantry and good conduct. Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes commanded the regiment. Major McKinley was engaged in practicing law when first elected to Congress in 1876. He continued a member of the House by successive re-elections up to 1889, with the exception of the last term of the Forty-eighth Congress-1884-85-when he was thrown out on a contest by his Democratic opponent. Yet, withal, though he has been a Congressman for thirteen years, he is still a poor man, and correspondingly popular on both sides of the House, the admiration expressed for his ability being profound and wide. There are, indeed, few public men who have won greater respect and esteem. His wife's long illness and the devotion he has shown to her has made him many warm friends aside from politics. Defeated for re-election to Congress in 1889, in consequence of the redistricting of the State, he was elected Governor in 1891.

Governor Alger, besides being a progressive Republican, is nationally popular as the former commander of the Grand Army, but he boldly announced that he would not be a candidate against Blaine, and would only accept the second place on the ticket if that statesman had the first. He was Governor of his State, Michigan, from 1885 to 1887. Born at Lafayette, Medina Co., Ohio, February 7, 1836, he was left an orphan in his eleventh year, and supported himself at farm labor until eighteen years of age. Attending evening school, he was able to take charge of a school himself while studying law. He was admitted to the bar in 1859 and began to practice in Cleveland, when ill health compelled him to seek a