That bill increased the tariff rate on most articles of foreign manufacture, with a view to discourage their importation and insure a market for the goods of American making. It was prophesied by his opponents that the result of that bill, which went into effect in 1890, would be the instant paralysis of all the industries of the nation, the crushing of labor and the impoverishment of trade. But an exactly opposite effect resulted. Though the McKinley bill was permitted to remain in its entirety through but four years of life, the industrial interests of the nation went forward with an amazing advance, and the material wealth of the country—farming, manufacturing, labor, both skilled and unskilled, together with commerce by both land and sea—was vastly increased. It was the master work of William McKinley’s life. It was the crowning achievement of his labors. It was the expression of his best statesmanship. It stands to-day and it will stand to the end of time as the wisest revenue measure within the possible power of the country’s securing. He had fixed upon the world a recognition of “the American policy.” And the commerce of the world demonstrates to-day the wisdom of that schedule. It was said at the beginning of this chapter that William McKinley’s public life embraced the whole era of protection. It began with his first election to Congress. It closed with the sudden and lamentable closing of his career by the bullet of an assassin at Buffalo. The existence of the era of protection was co-extensive with his civil service to the nation. It is identified with him, and will so remain forever. When the passing years evolved new issues—when “new occasions brought new duties”—William McKinley was ready for them. He had finished his earlier work, and was ready for the newer demands. No one who witnessed that session of the House in 1890, when William McKinley was at the height of his congressional career, and no one who followed the published accounts of it can ever forget the great occasion. The sentiment in favor of protection was clearly the dominant sentiment of the nation. But there were conflicting interests. And the man’s masterly leadership was never more signally shown than when he won over all opposition within his party by summoning representatives of each industry, and skillfully guiding them into agreement upon a series of schedules which should be fair to all interests, and just to the people of the country. That essential unity of support having been secured, the McKinley bill became a law. Men said no agreement could be arrived at—that the rival interests were too strong and insistent to be adjusted. But the man who saw in 1866 the justness and wisdom of tariff protection as a national policy, won in 1890 the victory toward which his best abilities had been guiding him for twenty-four years.