The strongest reason for the overthrow was the least sound. It was an unreasoning revolt against the party because of the panic of 1893 and the long period of hard times which had followed it. The panic happened after Mr. Cleveland was nominated, and therefore his election and his policy caused it! The public overlooked entirely the fact that hard times, failures, falling prices, and labor troubles had begun soon after the passing of the McKinley Bill and had steadily become graver with every month of its life. Between 1890 and 1894, the period the McKinley Bill was in force, Ohio-scoured wool fell from 71½ cents to 44½ cents, a drop of 27 cents. In 1896, under the Wilson Bill, wool began to revive. Bessamer pig-iron fell off from $18.00 to $12.00 per ton between 1890 and 1894. These same tendencies were shown in nearly all prices where the articles carried prohibitive tariffs. Almost, if not quite as great a fall in prices occurred in 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893 under the McKinley Bill, as after the Wilson Bill went into effect and a lower duty had been added to the general depression. The tariff considered the fall was greater under the McKinley Bill on many important articles. Take steel rails; under the McKinley Bill of 1890, they bore a duty of $13.44 per ton. In 1890 they sold at an average price of $31.77. In 1891 the price fell to $29.91; in 1893 to $28.12½. The Wilson Bill reduced the duty on rails to $7.84. The average price the first two years after the bill went into operation was $24.00, and in the third year the price rose to $28.00. The lowest price at which steel rails have ever been sold in this country was in the first year of the Dingley Bill, $17.00 per ton. After the duty was put on barley for the farmer by the McKinley Bill, the price went up for one year, 1891, but in 1892 it fell off 10 cents, and in 1893, 14 cents. Free barley and the continued depression did little worse. Hides had no duty under either the McKinley or the Wilson bills. The price began to fall in 1892, reached its lowest level in 1894, and in 1895 rose higher than it had been in many years. All woollen goods fell under the McKinley Bill and began to recover in 1896. Measured by business failures and labor troubles, the period of the McKinley tariff was as disastrous as that of the Wilson. Indeed, there is quite as much reason for laying the panic of 1893 to one bill as to the other, but neither was responsible.