3. The first year of Cleveland's administration was uneventful. The great question before the President was that of the REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. In attempting to substitute a new series of rules for appointment to office, by which the persons appointed should be selected rather for their fitness than for their party services, the President was greatly embarrassed. He found that the old forces in American politics were as active as ever, and that a reform was almost impossible under existing conditions. [Sidenote: =Labor Agitations.=] 4. The first great national event of the Cleveland administration was that of the LABOR AGITATIONS, which broke out in the spring of 1886. It was not until after the Civil War that the first symptoms appeared of a renewal, in the New World, of the struggle which has been long going on in Europe between Capital and Labor. The first difficulties of this sort in our country appeared in the mining regions, and in the factories of the Eastern States. The agitation soon spread to the West. As early as 1867 the peculiar method of action, called "striking," began among the laborers of the country. An account of the great railroad strike of 1877 has already been presented. (Pages 337 and 338.) [Sidenote: =The Southwestern Strike.=] 5. At the same time monopolies sprang up and flourished; and, coincident with this, American labor discovered the salutary but dangerous power of combination. When the trade season of 1886 opened, a series of strikes and labor troubles broke out in several parts of the country. The cities and towns were most involved in these agitations. The first serious conflict was on what is known as the Gould System of Railways, in the Southwest. A single workman, belonging to the Knights of Labor, and employed on a branch of the Texas and Pacific Railway, was discharged from his place. This action was resented by the Knights, and the laborers on a great part of the Gould System were ordered to strike. The movement was, for a season, successful, and the transportation of freights from St. Louis to the Southwest ceased. Gradually, however, other workmen were substituted for the striking Knights; but the end was not reached until a severe riot in East St. Louis had occasioned the sacrifice of much property and several innocent lives. [Sidenote: =The Chicago Anarchists.=]