Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/240

200 affair, President McKinley found that he had his hands more than full with all the public business on hand and accumulating. Acting under his instructions, a new tariff bill, known as the Dingley Bill, was passed by Congress, which proved more satisfactory than that which had preceded it. This was followed by considerable business relating to the money question, and then by attention to the affairs of the Union and Kansas Pacific railroads, who were struggling under large debts and who were seemingly unable to adjust their finances properly.

It was a tremendous amount for the President to do, but he never shrank from any task, however difficult, and wisely surrounded himself with a Cabinet of men fully capable of assisting him in the discharge of public duties.

In one particular the opening of President McKinley's term in office was peculiar in the fact that there was very little "red tape," as it is termed. The President went about all business openly, and never denied himself to any one who wanted to see him on a matter of importance. One day a