Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/335

 GROVER CLEVELAND 283 December, 1895, the president recommended a gen eral reform of the banking and currency laws, in cluding the retirement and cancellation of the greenbacks and treasury coin notes by exchange for low-interest U. S. bonds; but congress failed to act on this recommendation. Gold exports con tinued, and in January preparations were made for a new loan. An invitation was issued asking ap plications for $50 thirty-year four-per-cent bonds to the amount of $100,000,000 before February 6. European bankers held back, a free-coinage bill having been meanwhile reported favorably in the senate, but Americans subscribed freely, and the treasury obtained $111,000,000 in this way. This success was contrasted by Mr. Cleveland s op ponents with his policy in the loan of 1895, which was made by contract with a syndicate of bankers ; but it was pointed out in favor of that policy that it was the only course possible in a sudden emer gency, and that such an emergency did not exist in the year 1896. On May 29 the president vetoed a river and har bor bill that provided for the immediate expendi ture of $17,000,000, and authorized contracts for $62,000,000 more, but it was passed over his veto. In July, 1894, serious labor troubles arose in Il linois and other states of the west, beginning with a strike of the employees of the Pullman palace car company, and spreading over many of the rail-