blic career had ended; meanwhile
he had to undergo a storm of censure so blasting that it was more like
a volcanic rain of fire and lava than any ordinary tempest, however
violent.

On the 30th of June, President Cleveland called an extra session of
Congress for the 7th of August "to the end that the people may be
relieved through legislation from present and impending danger and
distress." In recent years, the fact has come to light that his health
was at that time in a condition so precarious that it would have caused
wild excitement had the truth become known, for only his life stood in
the way of a free silver President. On the same day on which he issued
his call for the extra session, President Cleveland left for New York
ostensibly for a yachting trip, but while the yacht was steaming slowly
up the East River, he was in the hands of surgeons who removed the
entire left upper jaw. On the 5th of July they performed another
operation in the same region for the removal of any tissues which
might possibly have been infected. These operations were so completely
successful that the President was fitted with an artificial jaw of
vulcanized rubber which enabled him to speak without any impairment of
the strength and clearness of his voice.* Immediately after this severe
trial, which he bore with calm fortitude, Cleveland had to battle with
the raging silver faction, strong in its legislative position through
its control of the Senate.

* For details, see New York "Times," Sept. 21, 1917.

When Congress met, the only legislation which the President had to
propose was the repeal of the Silver Purchase Act, although he remarked
that "tariff reform has lost nothing of its immediate and permanent
importance and must in the near future engage the attention
of Congress." It was a natural inference, therefore, that the
Administration had no financial policy beyond putting a stop to treasury
purchases of silver, and there was a vehement outcry against an action
which seemed to strike against the only visible source of additional
currency. President Cleveland was even denounced as a tool of Wall
Street, and the panic was declared to be the result of a plot of British
and American bankers against silver.

Nevertheless, on the 28th of August, the House passed a repeal bill by a
vote of 240 to 110. There was a long and violent struggle in the
Senate, where such representative anomalies existed that Nevada with
a populat