Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/702

 670 Currency. Civil Service reform. Venezuela. [i894-6 panied by widespread disorders and the stopping of traffic by violent and unlawful means. Injunctions against the rioters were issued by the Federal courts ; and among those who were arrested was the leader of the Railway Union. On July 1 President Cleveland gave orders for the protection of the mails and of inter-State commerce by regular troops ; and, a few days later, when rioting had become general at Chicago and many cars were burned and damaged, he issued a proclamation calling on the mobs to disperse on pain of being dealt with as public enemies. The rioting at Chicago was immediately brought to an end ; and order was gradually restored along the railroad lines in other places. The President's action in sending troops to the scene of disturbance, without awaiting a requisition of the State authorities, was the subject of much heated discussion; but it was at the time approved with little oppo- sition by both Houses of Congress. The question of the currency, however, continued to be a disturbing factor ; and the task of the government in dealing with it was rendered more difficult by the falling off in revenue. In November, 1894, February, 1895, and January, 1896, the President, in order to avoid a suspension of gold payments, was obliged to resort to the sale of bonds. Two of these issues were made to bankers' syndicates, who placed them- selves under special obligations to maintain the gold reserve. The third issue was offered to the public. The amount was $100,000,000; the subscriptions exceeded $680,000,000 ; but it was found in some instances that bids were speculative, the subscribers drawing gold from the Treasury in order to make their payments. The banks of the country subsequently lent their aid by depositing part of their gold reserves in the Treasury. In May, 1895, President Cleveland issued an Order bringing 30,000 places within the Civil Service Law. With this addition the classified service embraced more than 85,000 places, or substantially all between the grade of labourer and those subject to confirmation by the Senate. This was the last of a series of Orders by which he had, since his first inauguration, steadily extended the application of the Civil Service Law. He also continued to oppose what he conceived to be irregularities and extravagances in the pension system, the cost of which, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, was $158,000,000. In foreign affairs President Cleveland's second administration was marked by two events which have exerted, and must continue to exert, profound effect on the future of the United States. These were the Venezuelan incident and the insurrection in Cuba. The Venezuelan incident, as is well known, grew out of a long-standing dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela, the continuation of a dispute two centuries old between the Netherlands and Spain as to the limits of the Dutch and Spanish settlements in Guiana. As a mere question of disputed boundary, however complicated, it would ordinarily have