Editing History of the United States (section)

==== Economic growth ====
Important legislation of the era included the 1883 [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Civil Service Act]], which mandated a competitive examination for applicants for government jobs, the 1887 [[Interstate Commerce Act]], which ended railroads' discrimination against small shippers, and the 1890 [[Sherman Antitrust Act]], which outlawed monopolies in business.<ref name=":28" />

After 1893, the Populist Party gained strength among farmers and coal miners, but was overtaken by the even more popular [[Free silver]] movement, which demanded using silver to enlarge the money supply and end the depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Worth Robert |year=1993 |title=A Centennial Historiography of American Populism |url=http://history.missouristate.edu/wrmiller/Populism/texts/historiography.htm |journal=Kansas History |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=54–69 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702202601/http://history.missouristate.edu/wrmiller/Populism/Texts/historiography.htm |archive-date=July 2, 2010}}</ref> Financial and railroad communities fought back hard, arguing that only the [[gold standard]] would save the economy. In the [[1896 United States presidential election|1896 presidential election]], conservative Republican [[William McKinley]] defeated silverite [[William Jennings Bryan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harpine |first=William D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LANgsuVoBwC |title=From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign |year=2006 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=9781585445592 |pages=176–186 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929001850/https://books.google.com/books?id=0LANgsuVoBwC |archive-date=September 29, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:McKinleyAssassination.jpg|thumb|The [[Assassination of William McKinley|assassination]] of [[William McKinley]] in [[Buffalo, New York]] on September 6, 1901, depicted in a portrait by [[Leon Czolgosz]]]]

Prosperity returned under McKinley. The gold standard was enacted, and the tariff was raised. By 1900, the U.S. had the strongest economy in the world.<ref name=":29" /> McKinley was [[Assassination of William McKinley|assassinated]] by [[Leon Czolgosz]] in 1901, and was succeeded by [[Theodore Roosevelt]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-28 |title=William McKinley - Biography, Presidency, Assassination, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-McKinley |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

The period also saw a major transformation of the banking system, with the arrival of the first [[credit union]] in 1908 and the creation of the [[Federal Reserve System]] in 1913.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kazin |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWLGcZ7pyAC&pg=PA181 |title=The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political Turn up History |year=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400839469 |page=181 |display-authors=etal |access-date=November 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519113935/https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWLGcZ7pyAC&pg=PA181 |archive-date=May 19, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Credit Union History |url=https://www.acumuseum.org/credit-union-history |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184356/https://www.acumuseum.org/credit-union-history |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |access-date=November 29, 2018}}</ref> Apart from two short recessions in [[Panic of 1907|1907]] and [[Depression of 1920–1921|1920]], the economy remained prosperous and growing until 1929.<ref name=":29">{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=H. Wayne |year=1966 |title=William McKinley as a Political Leader |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=417–432 |doi=10.1017/S0034670500013188 |jstor=1405280 |s2cid=145544412}}</ref>