Availing themselves of the effective means of crushing obstruction provided by the powers of the Rules Committee, in one day they passed the Tariff Bill as amended by the Senate, which eventually became law, and then passed separate bills putting on the free list coal, barbed wire, and sugar.These bills had no effect other than to put on record the opinion of the House, as they were of course subsequently held up in the Senate.This unwonted insubordination on the part of the House excited much angry comment from dissatisfied Senators.President Cleveland was accused of unconstitutional interference in the proceedings of Congress; and the House was blamed for submitting to the Senate and passing the amended bill without going through the usual form of conference and adjustment of differences.Senator Sherman of Ohio remarked that "there are many cases in the bill where enactment was not intended by the Senate.For instance, innumerable amendments were put on by Senators on both sides of the chamber...to give the Committee of Conference a chance to think of the matter, and they are all adopted, whatever may be their language or the incongruity with other parts of the bill."The bitter feeling, excited by the summary mode of enactment on the part of the House, was intensified by President Cleveland's treatment of the measure.While he did not veto it, he would not sign it but allowed it to become law by expiration of the ten days in which he could reject it.He set forth his reasons in a letter on August 27, 1894, to Representative Catchings of Missouri, in which he sharply commented upon the incidents accompanying the passage of the bill and in which he declared:
"I take my place with the rank and file of the Democratic party who believe in tariff reform, and who know what it is; who refuse to accept the result embodied in this bill as the close of the war; who are not blinded to the fact that the livery of Democratic tariff reform has been stolen and used in the service of Republican protection; and who have marked the places where the deadly blight of treason has blasted the counsels of the brave in their hour of might."The letter was written throughout with a fervor rare in President Cleveland's papers, and it had a scorching effect.Senator Gorman and some other Democratic Senators lost their seats as soon as the people had a chance to express their will.
The circumstances of the tariff struggle greatly increased popular discontent with the way in which the government of the country was being conducted at Washington.It became a common belief that the actual system of government was that the trusts paid the campaign expenses of the politicians and in return the politicians allowed the trusts to frame the tariff schedules.
Evidence in support of this view was furnished by testimony taken in the investigation of the sugar scandal in the summer of 1894.
Charges had been made in the newspapers that some Senators had speculated in sugar stocks during the time when they were engaged in legislation affecting the value of those stocks.Some of them admitted the fact of stock purchases, but denied that their legislative action had been guided by their investments.In the course of the investigation, H.O.Havemeyer, the head of the Sugar Trust, admitted that it was the practice to subsidize party management."It is my impression," he said, "that whenever there is a dominant party, wherever the majority is large, that is the party that gets the contribution because that is the party which controls the local matters." He explained that this system was carried on because the company had large interests which needed protection, and he declared "every individual and corporation and firm, trust, or whatever you call it, does these things and we do them."During the tariff struggle, a movement took place which was an evidence of popular discontent of another sort.At first it caused great uneasiness, but eventually the manifestation became more grotesque than alarming.Jacob S.Coxey of Massillon, Ohio, a smart specimen of the American type of handy business man, announced that he intended to send a petition to Washington wearing boots so that it could not be conveniently shelved by being stuck away in a pigeonhole.He thereupon proceeded to lead a march of the unemployed, which started from Massillon on March 25, 1894, with about one hundred men in the ranks.These crusaders Coxey described as the "Army of the Commonweal of Christ," and their purpose was to proclaim the wants of the people on the steps of the Capitol on the 1st of May.The leader of this band called upon the honest working classes to join him, and he gained recruits as he advanced.Similar movements started in the Western States."The United States Industrial Army,"headed by one Frye, started from Los Angeles and at one time numbered from six to eight hundred men; they reached St.Louis by swarming on the freight trains of the Southern Pacific road and thereafter continued on foot.A band under a leader named Kelly started from San Francisco on the 4th of April and by commandeering freight trains reached Council Bluffs, Iowa, whence they marched to Des Moines.There, they went into camp with at one time as many as twelve hundred men.They eventually obtained flatboats, on which they floated down the Mississippi and then pushed up the Ohio to a point in Kentucky whence they proceeded on foot.Attempts on the part of such bands to seize trains brought them into conflict with the authorities at some points.
For instance, a detachment of regular troops in Montana captured a band coming East on a stolen Northern Pacific train, and militia had to be called out to rescue a train from a band at Mount Sterling, Ohio.
