Populists
Populists
1. Who are they?
– Populist movement starts with farmers
– Organize together to change the system
2. Problems for Farmers
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Crop prices falling
Railroads charging enormous fees to ship crops
Had trouble repaying loans
Felt everyone was making money off them
3. National Grange
– Organization of farmers
• Created to help farmers help each other
– Fought to get state governments to regulate
railroad prices
4. Farmers’ Alliance
– Fought against the gold standard
– Gold Standard: each paper bill was worth a
certain amount of gold, could only print as much
money as there was gold in the treasury
– Farmers wanted more paper money so they
wanted the Silver Standard as well (money
backed by silver)
5. Populist Party
– New political party formed by farmers in the
National Grange and in Farmer Alliances
– Fought for income tax, bank regulation,
government regulation of railroads, and silver
coinage
– 1892 Election: they won several seats in congress
and in several state offices
Populist Party
• a. Sub-Treasury (opened in various counties which produced at least
$500,000 worth of agricultural products per year and would give loans for
up to 80% of the crop)
b. Free Silver (coinage of silver)
c. Direct Election of Senators (17th Amendment to the Constitution)
d. Graduated Income Tax (16th Amendment to the Constitution)
e. Lower Tariffs to Help Farmers
f. Government Regulation of Railroad and Utilities
What is an allegory?
• a symbolic narrative
Yellow Brick Road
• Gold Standard in the
country
Scarecrow
• Farmers (no brains by
society's standards, but
smarter than given
credit for)
Cowardly Lion
• William Jennings Bryan
(not a coward, but a
leader, as lions are
usually dominant)
Tin Man
• Industrialization
(doesn’t have a heart,
but doesn’t hate either)
Dorothy’s Slippers
• Silver exchange (YES they are red in the
movie; this was done to make them
stand out. In the original book the
slippers were silver. Remember the
slippers hold the power until the end,
because silver was the exchange. Once
back in Kansas they were gone, just as
silver was overtaken by the Gold
standard.)
Dorothy
• Level-headed, innocent
humans
Wizard
• Politicians (trying to be
all things to all people)
Winged Monkeys
• Plains Indians
(Remember the midwestern view of
farming, and having to
deal with the Indians;
they were not bad
people but could be
swayed by good and
evil.)
Wicked Witch of the East
• Bankers who have
nothing for farmers
Wicked Witch of the West
• Nature (water kills and
the farmers need water)
Good Witch of the North
• Northern businesses
that could seemingly do
everything well, and
were educated
Munchkins
• Little people of society
(middle class and
below)
Emerald City
• Washington, D.C.
Tornado
• The idea of “change”
Populist Party Poster
• Create a political cartoon or a campaign
poster about the populist party.
• Make sure that at least three issues that they
focused on are addressed.