470. Election of 1896.--In 1896 the Republicans held their convention at St. Louis and nominated William McKinley of Ohio for President. They declared in favor of the gold standard, unless some arrangement with other nations for a standard of gold and silver could be made. They also declared for protection to home industries. The Democrats held their convention at Chicago. The men who had stood by Cleveland found themselves in a helpless minority. William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska was nominated for President on a platform advocating the free coinage of silver and many changes in the laws in the direction of socialism. The Populists and the Silver Republicans also adopted Bryan as their candidate. Now, at last, the question of the gold standard or the silver standard was fairly before the voters. They responded by electing McKinley and a Republican House of Representatives. [Illustration: WILLIAM MCKINLEY.] [Sidenote: The Dingley tariff, 1897.] 471. The Dingley Tariff, 1897.--The Republicans, once more in control of the government, set to work to reform the tariff in favor of high protection. Representative Dingley of Maine was chairman of the committee of the House that drew up the new bill, and the act as finally passed goes by his name. It raised the duties on some classes of goods and taxed many things that hitherto had come in free. Especially were duties increased on certain raw materials for manufactures, with a view to encourage the production of such materials in the United States. The reciprocity features of the McKinley tariff (P. 383) were also restored. CHAPTER 45 THE SPANISH WAR, 1898 [Sidenote: The Cubans rebel, 1894.] [Sidenote: Spanish cruelties, _Source-book_, 374-379.]