Problems of the Farmers
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Drought
Surpluses
Prices set by world market
Railroad corruption
Debt & monetary policies
Farmer’s
Organize
• The Grange
• The Southern
Alliance
• The Coop
Demands
for Reform
Tariff
Banking
Currency Laws
Catalyst: 1891 = Banks began to
foreclose on farm mortgages
The Farmer is the Man
When the banker says he's broke
And the merchant’s up in smoke,
They forget that it's the farmer
who feeds them all.
It would put them to the test
If the farmer took a rest;
Then they'd know that it's the farmer feeds them all.
The Silver Issue
 “Crime of ’73”  demonetization of
silver (govt. stopped coining silver).
 Bland-Allison Act (1878)  limited
silver coinage to $2-$4 mil. per mo.
(based on the 16:1 ratio of silver to
gold).
 Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890)
 The US Treasury must purchase
$4.5 mil. oz. of silver a month.
 Govt. deposited most silver in the
US Treasury rather than circulation.
Platform of
Lunacy
The Populist (Peoples’) Party
 Founded by James B. Weaver
and Tom Watson.
 Omaha, NE Convention in July,
1892.
 Got almost 1 million popular
votes.
 Several Congressional seats
won.
James B. Weaver,
Presidential
Candidate
Omaha Platform, 1892
• Free unlimited coinage of silver
• National income tax
Omaha Platform, 1892
• Government ownership of
Railroads,
telephone,
telegraphs
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Government secured loans to farmers
Treasury storehouse for surplus crops
8 hour work day
Direct election of Senators
Initiative & referendum
Australian (secret) ballot
1892 Election
Panic of 1893
 Over 16,000 businesses disappeared.
 Triggered stock market crash.
 500 Bank failures.
 3 million
unemployed.
 Govt.
continued
laissez faire
policies.
William Jennings Bryan
(1860-1925)
•Nebraska
Senator
•1896 Populist
& Democratic
Nominee for
President
The “Great Commoner”
• “You shall not press down upon the
brow of labor this crown of thorns,
you shall not crucify mankind upon
a cross of gold!”
Bryan: The Farmers Friend
18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”
Mark Hanna:
The “Front-Porch”
Campaign
William McKinley (1843-1901)
The
Seasoned
Politician
vs.
The
“Young”
Newcomer
Into
Which
Box
Will the
Voter
of ’96
Place
His
Ballot?
1896 Election
Results
Heyday of Western Populism
Gold Triumphs Over Silver
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 confirmed the
nation’s
commitment to
the gold
standard.
 Other Populist
reforms were
adopted by
Dem. &
Republicans
Analyze the ways in which technology,
government policy, and economic
conditions changed American Agriculture in
the period 1865-1900.
In your answer be sure to evaluate
farmer’s responses to theses changes.
Technology
• Railroads:
– Standard gauge track
– Atchison, Topeka,
Santa Fe
– Great Northern
– Refrigerated cars
• Chemical fertilizers
• Grain elevators
• Dry farming
– Irrigation expensive
w/o government aid
– windmills
• Meatpacking processes
– Swift & Armour
• Improvements in
– Steel plows
– Threshers
– windmills
Economic Conditions
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Boom & bust cycles
Extension of commercial farming
Panics of ’73, ’93
Overproduction= crop surpluses
Railroad policies
– Short/long haul
– Rebates/drawbacks
• Sharecropping (south)
Government Policies
• Homestead Act (’62)
• High tariffs
– Dingley
– McKinley
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Gold Standard
Interstate Commerce Commission
Oklahoma Land Rush
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Farmer’s Responses
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The Grange
Bimetalism
Populist Party
Omaha Platform (include details & success of)
Populists
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James Weaver
Tom Watson
Pitchfork Ben Tillman
Sockless Jerry Simpson
Mary Elizabeth Lease
William Jennings Bryan
• Election of 1896