ate excluded the
amendment on the ground that the law was general, covering the railroads
without special enumeration. The full meaning of the law remained in doubt
for nearly fifteen years, for few private suitors invoked it and the
Attorneys-General were not hostile to the ordinary practices of business.
A great financial depression which appeared in 1893 acted well as a
temporary deterrent of trusts. There was a suspicion that the law had
been intended not to be enforced, but to act as a popular antidote to
the McKinley Tariff Bill which was pending while it passed.

There were two reasons for a revision of the tariff in 1890. The
surplus, still a reason, added $105,000,000 in 1889, and continued to
embarrass the Treasury with a wealth of riches. Secondly, the election
of 1888 had gone Republican, and party leaders chose to regard this as a
popular condemnation of Cleveland and tariff reform, and a popular
mandate for higher protection, in spite of the fact that more Americans
voted for Cleveland than for Harrison. A third reason, alleged by the
opposition, was the necessity of fulfilling the pledges given by Quay
and the campaign managers to the manufacturers who contributed to the
campaign fund,--manufacturers who were parodied as "Mary":--

"Our Mary had a little lamb,
Her heart was most intent
To make its wool, beyond its worth,
Bring 56 per cent."

In April, 1890, McKinley presented his act "to equalize the duties upon
imports and to reduce the revenues." For five months Congress wrestled
with the details of the bill and the issues connected with it. In June
it rewarded the soldier allies of the Administration with a Dependent
Pension Act which granted pensions to those who could show ninety days
of service and present dependence, and which, aided by the previous
laws, relieved the surplus of $1,350,000,000 in the next ten years.
Early in July the Anti-Trust Act was passed. Two weeks later Congress
paused in its tariff deliberations to pass the Sherman Silver Purchase
Bill at the demand of Republican Senators from the Rocky Mountain
States, who wanted their share of protection in this form and were so
numerous as to be able to produce a deadlock.

The tariff that became a law October 1, 1890, was the first success in
tariff legislation since the Civil War. It enlarged protection and
reduced the revenue. The latter was done by repealing the duty on raw
sugar, which had been the most remunerat