CHAPTER XXXIII INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS THE retirement of President Grant was pathetic. As a commander of armies he had won enduring honors, but his eight years' service in the great office of the presidency had added no luster to his name. For the intrigues and corruptions of his administration he was responsible only in so far as he was incapable of perceiving and checking them. That he was personally honest cannot be doubted. He received no share of the plunder of his dishonest officials, and it must have grieved his soul when he realized, as he certainly did, that his administration would be remembered more by the corrupt practices of the officials whom he trusted than for anything else. But the American people have affectionately overlooked his weaknesses, and they remember him as the heroic figure that forced the surrender of Vicksburg and of the Confederate army at Appomattox; while his generous terms at the surrender of Lee and his mild partisanship in the years following endeared him to the people of the South. NEW CONDITIONS President Hayes was a sincere man and not without ability; but he was not popular with his party. He never gained, nor attempted to gain, a place in its inner counsels. His withdrawal of the troops. from the South displeased many; his vetoing the Bland Silver Bill won him few friends. All corruptionists were arrayed against the President when they found that he was beyond their reach. Then it must be added that Mr. Hayes had no power to win and manage Congress, as many of his predecessors had done. The Democrats had control of the House, and during the whole four years no distinctive party measure could be passed. In fact, the Democrats on several occasions held up the necessary legislation, such as the appropriation bills, by putting on riders for the repeal of some obnoxious Republican law, notably the General Elections Law of 1872. Every effort to coerce the President was resorted to, such as refusing appropriations necessary to carry out the laws, but the President refused to yield; he vetoed one measure after another and triumphed in the end. But these were only ripples compared with the turbulent breakers of the past, and the Hayes administration was of great benefit to the country as a season of political restfulness. From the outbreak of the war fifteen years before, the violence of partisan or military contest, or both, had been incessant. Now for the first time since the firing on Fort Sumter the South was left to take care of itself, the great parties were well balanced, and the people were free to turn their attention to the industrial development of the country. They felt too, as never before, the oneness of the nation. The bitterness engendered by the great civil strife was beginning Political rest. to soften, and, but for the occasional rumors of violence at the South, the negro question and the secession question passed out of the public mind. For half a century such political quiet had been unknown; and for the first time in American history the national pride was rightfully enthroned in the public heart, and state pride forever relegated to the second place. Mr. Hayes was fortunate in securing William M. Evarts as secretary of state and John Sherman as secretary of the treasury. The great task before Sherman was to bring about resumption of specie payments without disturbing the business of the country. This he did with admirable skill, and when the day of resuming came (January 1, 1879), not a ripple did it make on the business world. The secretary had $130,000,000 in gold with which to redeem outstanding notes; but few were offered, so great was the confidence of the people in the government. During the last half of the Hayes administration the Democrats were in full control of both houses of Congress - for the first time since 1858. But owing to the veto power of the Republican President the Democrats could carry out no party measure. The deadlock continued for ten years longer. Meantime the people turned their attention to business. For the first time the resources of the South were added to the economic forces of the nation. The system of labor in the South before the war was such that only the agricultural interests could be developed. The vast coal beds, covering some forty thousand square miles, the extensive iron deposits, the 1 Except for two years, 1881-1883, when the Republicans, who controlled the House by one vote, also controlled the Senate by the single deciding vote of the Vice President. illimitable timber regions - all had remained unused. But now the old system was swept away, the whole South was thrown open to the labor of the world, mines were opened and manufactories built, and this without any decrease, but indeed with a steady increase, of the production of cotton. One effect of the newly awakened industrial life was that the great business interests of the country became centralized in the hands of a comparatively few men. Great corporations were organized, and as a partial result the labor world became restless. In 1877 the great railroad strike occurred. The employees of Great railthe Baltimore and Ohio Railroad went on a strike on the road strike, 14th of July, and they were soon followed by the em- 1877. ployees of all the other great lines east of the Mississippi, and for two weeks all traffic in that great section was at a standstill. The strikers took possession of the railroad property,-tracks, yards, roundhouses, and rolling stock, and in Pittsburg, the center of the disturbance, there were serious riots, resulting in many deaths, and in the destruction of millions of dollars' worth of property. In Martinsburg, West Virginia, in Baltimore and other places there was much rioting and frequent conflicts between the rioters and the troops sent to keep the peace. The governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia were forced to call for national troops to aid them in enforcing the laws. By the end of July the fire of mob violence had burned out and the strikers resumed work. In some instances the strikers had won some advantage by the strike; but in many cases they went back to work without any substantial gain. The railway strike was contagious. It was followed by sympathetic strikes in many callings-coal-mining, manufacturing, and many branches of industry in which the wages of the laborer were low and the disturbance spread to the Pacific Coast. The most serious of these was the strike of the anthracite miners of Pennsylvania, which spread to the bituminous regions of West Virginia and westward to Illinois. The twofold grievance of the miners was too low wages, and the obligation to purchase all their supplies at the company stores at exorbitant prices. The miners, who had the general sympathy of the public, won in the contest and gained an advance of 10 per cent in wages.1 1 Just before this strike the notorious Mollie Magnires, a murderous band that had spread terror through the coal regions of Pennsylvania for several years, were rup down and captured, several of the leaders being hanged. Close upon these events followed a labor agitation of a different kind on the Pacific Coast, known as the anti-Chinese movement. The Chinese began migrating to California in large numbers soon after the concluding of the Burlingame Treaty. Their willingness to work for very low wages rendered them, as their numbers increased, undesirable competitors with white laborers. After earning a few hundred dollars they would betake themselves back to their native land, whence hordes of their brethren would come to America to repeat the process. In no case did the Mongolian pretend to become an element in American society; he remained apart from the body politic, retaining his peculiar customs and superstitions. The Chinese threatened to deluge the whole western coast with their undesirable presence. After various sporadic efforts that came to nothing, a movement against Chinese immigration was set on foot Anti-Chinese movement. in 1877. The laborers of San Francisco, led by Dennis Kearney, one of their number, held many open meetings to denounce Chinese labor and immigration. The meetings were disorderly, and the leaders, including Kearney, were imprisoned. But the movement would not subside. Congress was petitioned to take up the matter, to the end that the Burlingame Treaty be modified in the interest of the people of the Pacific Coast. In 1878 Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion measure, which, however, was vetoed by President Hayes. Years passed and the Chinese continued to come in increasing numbers. The agitation was renewed, and in 1888 a Chinese Exclusion law was enacted. This was followed in May, 1892, by the Geary Chinese Exclusion Law, introduced by representative Geary of California. This law was the most sweeping of its kind ever enacted by any country, and it awakened a vigorous protest from the Chinese government. While to some extent evaded, the law has greatly relieved the western coast of a most undesirable class. Geary law, 1892. About the time of Hayes's accession to the presidency an industrial movement of the farmers reached its height. The Patrons of Husbandry, commonly called Grangers, was a secret orThe Grangers. ganization for the promotion of agricultural interests. It was organized in Washington in 1867, admitted both men and women to membership, and professed to be non-political, though it had much political influence in forcing a reduction of the exorbitant freight rates of the railroad corporations. In 1876 the membership reached at least a million and a half. THE FISHERIES DISPUTE 847 Another agricultural society, the Farmer's Alliance, was organized in 1873. It spread rapidly until it became national in scope.1 It is not a secret order, as is the order of Grangers, but it gives more attention to questions of politics. The Alliance opposes the alien ownership of land, national banks, and federal election laws. THE FISHERIES DISPUTE The most important matter in our foreign relations during the Hayes administration was the settlement of the Canadian fisheries question, as provided for in the Treaty of Washington of 1871. For more than half a century the Atlantic coast fisheries had been the subject of controversy between the United States and England. The treaty made at the close of the Revolution continued to the citizens of the new republic the right to fish in Canadian waters, which they had enjoyed as colonists. But at the making of the Treaty of Ghent, at the close of the War of 1812, the British claimed that all existing treaties were abrogated and that our fishing rights had expired. The treaty, however, left the matter unmentioned and the Americans continued to exercise the rights granted in the former treaty. 1818. But in 1818 another treaty was concluded, by which the Americans, for the privilege of taking and curing fish on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, renounced forever the right to take, dry, or cure fish within three marine miles of any of the coasts of his Majesty's other possessions in America. From this moment the trouble began. The difficulty of determining the three-mile limit, the presence of armed vessels to prevent violations of the treaty, and the rulings of the local courts by which alleged vio- Treaty of lators were tried, each played its part in disturbing the peace between the two countries. This disturbance continued until 1854, when a new treaty was made. This is known as the Reciprocity Treaty. It restored the rights of the Americans substantially as granted by the Treaty of 1783, but at a great price. The price was reciprocity or free trade between the United States and Canada in a great many kinds of goods, nearly all of which favored Canadian interests. The markets of the United States were thrown open to Canada for nearly every article she could produce. The treaty provided that either party 1 The national organization was not completed till 1889. Treaty of 1854. |