Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/67

WILLIAM McKINLEY 43 not so much in opposition to the measure, as be cause he believed that the president and the secre tary of the treasury had been "piling up a surplus" of $60,000,000 in the treasury, without retiring any of the bonds, "for the purpose of creating a condi tion of things in the country which would get up a scare and stampede against the protective system." On April 2 he presented to the house the views of the minority of the ways and means committee on the Mills tariff bill. On May 18, the day the general debate was to close, McKinley delivered what was described at the time as "the most effec tive and eloquent tariff speech ever heard in con gress." The scenes attending its delivery were full of dramatic interest. The speaker who immedi ately preceded him was Samuel J. Randall, who had insisted on being brought from what proved his deathbed to protest against the passage of the pro posed law. He spoke slowly and with great diffi culty, and his time expiring before his argument was concluded, McKinley yielded to Randall from his own time all that he needed to finish his speech. It was a graceful act, and the speech that fol lowed fully justified the high expectations that the incident naturally aroused. In it he showed that no single interest or individual anywhere was suffering either from high taxes or high prices, but that all who tried to be were busy and thrifty in the gen eral prosperity of the times. In a well-turned illus-