William McKinley has been inaugurated the twenty-fifth President of the United States with a popular demonstration and acclaim that symbolizes more than anything else the hope that with this administration will begin relief from the business depression which has weighed on the country so heavily for the past four years. As proof thathe is sensible of the situation, McKinley made it almost his first official act to issue a.call for an extra session of Congress for the purpose of revising the tariff law, and that Congress assembled yesterday. A tariff bill which had been in course of preation for some months past was immediately placed before it. This will be called the Dingley Bill, taking its name from the Chairman of the Committee of the House of Representatives which has jurisdiction over thetarify, andcloselyresemblesthe McKinley Bill of 1890, which, paradoxically enough, was the cause of the national defeat of the Republicans in 1892 and one of the greatest of the contributing causes of their victory in 1896. This Dingley Bill is what is knowaas a "high protective" measure. Its duties upon imports generally are high, very high, although that it is not prohibitive is shown by the fact that the Republicans confidently expect from its operation an addition to the revenue of the country of from $65,000,000 to $75,000,000 a year. This would offset the average deficit of the four years past of something like $45,000,000 "a year and leave a comfortable margin towards the payment of the nation's debt.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.