President Cleveland was notable for three important laws passed by Congress and signed by him:

(a) The Presidential Succession Act (1886). The Constitution provides that when a President dies or is removed from office or otherwise disabled, the Vice-President shall succeed him. This has occurred several times in the nation's history. But it might well happen that the same cause that took away the President would disable also the Vice-President. Then, until another election could be held, there would be no President. Some arrangement had to be made, therefore, by which the office would surely be filled by some one. Accordingly, it was provided in the Succession Act that if for any reason the Vice-President was unable to serve as President, the office should be held by some member of the Cabinet, taking them in the order in which their departments were created by law.1

(b) The Electoral Count Act (1887). The serious trouble that had arisen over the count of electoral votes in 1876 caused Congress to try to prevent such a condition occurring again. This new law ordered that hereafter each State must regulate for itself the manner in which its electoral votes should be counted. There then could be no fear of the Federal Government controlling the presidential election.

(c) The Interstate Commerce Act (1887). This law provided for a commission to regulate the manner of conducting all railway traffic, both passenger and freight, that passed through more than one State. Since the Civil War there have grown up in this country, mostly in the North, a large number of rich and powerful business and manufacturing trusts or corporations. They make very large shipments over the railroads, and previous to 1887 were able to bargain for much lower freight rates than were charged to the

1 There are now nine members, and the law names them in this order: Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of Commerce and Labor. But of course no cabinet officer can succeed to the presidency, unless, under the Constitution, he is otherwise eligible for the position.

small concerns. Having such low rates to pay, these large shippers were able to sell their goods for much less than could the small firms, and thus they got most of the trade. The latter found it hard to compete with them, and hundreds were driven out of business. The Interstate Commerce Commission was given authority to put a stop to this pernicious favoritism, and to oblige the railroads to charge the same rates to all shippers, large or small. But in our day the Commission has still larger power. The Railway Rate Act of 1906 gave it authority to say exactly what charges should be made for carrying passengers and freight from one State into another State. The Commission may also dictate what conveniences and comforts of various kinds the railways shall provide for the public.

The Federal Government has also forbidden railways to give free transportation to any one except their own employees and certain other designated persons, from one State into another State. And in many of the States there are also stringent "anti-pass" laws forbidding free railway tickets within those States.

1 Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty. In 1886 there was unveiled on Bedloe's Island, in the Bay of New York, the largest bronze statue ever made. It was designed by a French sculptor named Bartholdi and represents "Liberty enlightening the World." The Goddess of Liberty is holding aloft a flaming torch, over three hundred feet above low tide, to light the path of Europeans into the gateway of this "Land of Freedom and Opportunity." It was a present to Americans from the people of France, in memory of the days when that nation helped us to gain our independence from Great Britain.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

1. Begin to make a list of the new problems confronting the nation. 2. Tell why the Australian ballot system is an improvement on the former system of voting.

3. Relate some of the important powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

4. Make an outline of the chapter.

COMPOSITION SUBJECTS

1. Write a brief account of a few of the memorable events in Grant's life. 2. Write an account of how a strike was averted by mutual concessions. 3. Write a newspaper editorial condemning the Haymarket assassinations.

CHAPTER XLIII

HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION: THE RUSH TO OKLAHOMA, AND THE ADMISSION OF WESTERN STATES

1889-1893

387. The election of President Harrison. The Democrats, who had elected President Cleveland, wanted to reduce the tariff on imported goods. But the Republicans wished for still higher duties, in order, they said, to give to American industries better protection than before against European competition. At the presidential election in 1888 a majority of the people voted in favor of the protection policy and did not reëlect Cleveland. He was succeeded by the Republican candidate for President, Benjamin Harrison, whose inauguration took place in March, 1889.1

388. The McKinley Tariff Bill. In the autumn of 1890 Congress carried out the Republican pledges by adopting what is known as the McKinley Tariff Bill. It increased the duties on many imported articles. The act contained, however, a so-called "reciprocity" clause. This provided that if foreign countries would place only small duties on certain American manufactures that we shipped to their ports, we would reciprocate by lowering the duties on those of their products that we imported.

389. The opening of Oklahoma. By the time of Harrison's Administration it was difficult to find good farming land in the West that might be obtained from the Federal Government under the Homestead Act. There had arisen

1 Harrison was born in Ohio in 1833. His great-grandfather was Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was governor of Indiana, a general in the War of 1812, and for a few months (1841) President of the United States. President Benjamin Harrison was a lawyer in Indianapolis when the Civil War broke out; but he joined the Union army and became a brigadier-general. After the war he served as a United States Senator from Indiana. He died in 1901.

a widespread demand that parts of the large Western Indian reservations be thrown open for sale to white settlers. Accordingly, the United States bought from the aborigines in Indian Territory a large and fertile tract of about 40,000 square miles. It was called Oklahoma, and heretofore it had only been used as a pasture for the cattle and horses of the tribes of that region.

The President published a proclamation that lands in Oklahoma would be ready for sale after twelve o'clock noon of April 22, 1889. In order that everybody might have an equal chance, he declared that no outsiders should be admitted to the territory before that hour. Intense interest was aroused among the people of the entire country. Days

In 1890, the population was 10,087; in 1910, 64,205. The gain from 1900 to 1910 was over 539 per cent, the highest rate of any city in the country

before the opening, 100,000 " boomers," as they were called, were camping along the border; but a strong guard of United States soldiers kept them from crossing it. The boomers had come from nearly every State in the Union, on horseback, afoot, by railroad, or in prairie schooners. Each was anxious to have the first choice in selecting a suitable location for either a farm or a place of business.

Just as the hands of the commander's watch touched the midday hour, military buglers sounded the signal. Before their clear high notes had ceased, tens of thousands of men and boys, and even women and girls, were madly rushing forward into Oklahoma in wagons and buggies, on horseback, or afoot. It was a wild, scrambling race, each family for itself, to secure those places in the Territory which they had picked out beforehand on the maps that they had so