Populism
 Declining Profits
 Thanks to new technologies, farmers had opened up the Great Plains and were
producing a much greater supply of grains
 Grain supply ↑ = Grain prices ↓
 Farmers were earning ____________________________
 Rising Costs
 High tariffs + unionized factory workers = high prices on manufactured goods
 Banks were charging high interest on loans
 Railroads were charging higher fees for shipping grain to eastern markets
 Farmers were paying ______________________________
 The Money Supply
 To fund the Civil War, US government had flooded the market with paper money
(“greenbacks”)
 Supply of $↑ = Value of $↓ (inflation)
 3 Types of Money
 ___________________________
 _______________________ & ________________________ coins
 Bank notes backed by government _____________________
 Government response to inflation
 Stopped printing greenbacks
 Stopped minting silver coins
 Started paying off government bonds to reduce number of bank notes in
circulation
 Response was too strong and reduced the money supply too greatly
 Supply of $↓ = Value of $↑ = Prices ↓ (_________________________)
 Deflation Hurts Farmers
 Decrease in money supply meant loans were harder to get and interest rates
were higher
 Farmers were getting LESS for their crops but paying MORE for mortgages & other
loans
 “___________________________”
 Farmers believed that greedy _______________________ had pressured
government into reducing the money supply
 Began to organize and campaign for government to resume printing greenbacks
and/or minting silver coins
 The ________________________
 “The Patrons of Husbandry” founded in 1867 by USDA official
__________________________
 Designed to organize rural farmers; by 1874, the Grange had over 1 million
members
 The Grange Takes Action
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 Pressured state legislatures to regulate railroad & warehouse rates
 Joined ______________________________________ Party (also called the
_______________________________) a new political party aimed at getting the
government to print more paper money
 Created farmers’ cooperatives
Farmers’ ______________________________________
 Pooled farmers’ crops and held them off the market in order to limit supply and
force up prices
 By working together, farmers could also negotiate better shipping and
warehousing rates
The Grange Fails
 Greenback Party failed to win public support – average American didn’t trust
paper money
 Cooperatives never grew large enough to be effective
 Many states did pass laws setting maximum rates for railroads, but ….
___________________________________________
 1886
 Supreme Court ruled that states could not regulate railroads because the
railroads were involved in interstate commerce; interstate commerce can only be
regulated by federal law
The Farmer’s Alliance
 Formed in 1877 in Texas
 By 1890 had nearly 3 million members
 Also tried to create cooperatives, but failed for many of the same reasons
The ____________________________________________________ Party
 Founded in 1890, more commonly called the Populists
 Western farmers of the Alliance decided that the changes needed to help farmers
required a new political party
 Southern farmers opposed a third-party because it might weaken the Democratic
Party
The Subtreasury Plan
 Southern farmers proposed that the government set up warehouses called
____________________________________ where farmers could store their
surplus crops
 Also wanted government to provide low-interest loans to farmers
 Many Democratic politicians won elections in the South after promising to
support the Subtreasury Plan, but then reneged
The ____________________________________________________ Act of 1890
 Congress authorized the US Treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per
month to put more money into circulation
 Still, it wasn’t enough to ease deflation, so it didn’t help farmers
The _________________________________Platform
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 Called for unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 oz. of silver = 1 oz. of gold
(bimetallism)
 Called for federal takeover of ________________________________
 Called for a _________________________________________________
 Called for tighter government_____________________________ of banking and
industries
A Populist Candidate for President
 1892, Populists met in Omaha, NE and nominated
_____________________________________ to run for President of the United
States
 Came in a distant 3rd place in the election with only 22 electoral votes, but still a
strong showing for a 3rd party candidate
Panic of 1893
 2 large railroad companies were forced into bankruptcy, triggering a collapse of
the banks who had loaned the railroads money
 Worst economic crisis US had experienced to that point
 18% unemployment
Treasury Crisis
 Panic of 1893 caused investors to cash in their government bonds for gold,
draining the US gold reserve
 Congress responded by repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to stop people
from trading in silver for gold
Goldbugs vs. Silverites
 Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act split the Democratic Party
 ________________________ believed that US currency should be backed
exclusively with gold
 ________________________ believed that coining unlimited silver would ease
the economic crisis
 Election of 1896
 Populists wanted to nominate a candidate who supported silver, but Democrats
beat them to the punch
 Faced with either supporting the Democratic candidate and giving up their 3rd
party status or nominating their own candidate and splitting the pro-silver vote,
the Populists chose to support the Democrats
 _____________________________________________________
 Only 36 when Democrats & Populists nominated him for president
 Powerful speaker who won nomination with his pro-silver
“_________________________________________________________” speech
 The “Cross of Gold” Speech
“Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported
by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we
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will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: 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’s Campaign
 Toured the country for weeks, giving hundreds of speeches
 Strongly supported in the West and South, but not by city-dwellers (who didn’t
care about the silver issue) or Catholic immigrants (who didn’t like his Protestant
minister style speeches)
William McKinley’s _________________________________________________
 Republican candidate
 McKinley refused to travel and speak, opting instead to stay home in Ohio and let
visitors come to him
 Republican Party had local Republicans campaign for McKinley instead
 Won support of urban workers and big business
William McKinley
 1843 – 1901
 25th President (1897-1901)
 Republican
 Expansionist who oversaw the Spanish-American War
 Assassinated in 1901
Gold in Alaska
 Alaska had been purchased by US from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million
 Discovery of gold in ______________________ 1898 boosted the nation’s gold
reserves and ended the silver debate, leading to the decline of the Populist Party