OBJECTIVE: IDENTIFY THE
PROBLEMS FARMERS FACED AND
THEIR COOPERATIVE EFFORTS TO
SOLVE THEM
Do Now: The Law of Supply and Demand Worksheet
I. FARMER’S PLIGHT
• Population needs food  Farmers planted
more crops
• Problems –
• supply exceeds demand (prices of
crops decrease).
• RR rates same, new machine prices
rise.
• Farmers buy more land & equipmentprices fall even more!
• Take out loans, lose farms!
• UNFAIR- everyone else makes money off
of the farmers who work all day and are in
debt!
• Merchants make money- sold farm
equipment
• Bankers who lent $, make $ off of loans
and mortgages
• RXR who ship make $.
• There are property taxes- not really
income taxes....
Written by a Farmer
at the End of the 19c
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.
Price Indexes for
Consumer & Farm
Products: 1865-1913
Recap of Problems
Falling Prices for Crops
Inability to repay loans
Excessive railroad prices
Objective: Explain what the
farmers’ movement hoped to
achieve and what weakened
their efforts
Do Now: Review Plight of
Farmers
II. FARMER’S
ORGANIZE
• Joined local organizations to assist them
in day to day struggles. Form nationwide
movement
• Want: Reform RR and banking
practices.
• Grange Movement- Founder Oliver Hudson
Kelley
• National Grange- 1867
• Form cooperatives- groups of farmers pool
their resources to buy equipment & sell goods
(large amount = cheaper price). Sold
products directly to big city markets.
• Main focus- state laws regulation RR
freight/grain-storage rates. (Granger laws)
• 1870- Granger Laws passed. RR
companies challenge these Granger laws Wabash V. Illinois-state gov’t had no
power to regulate traffic that moved across
state boundaries. (interstate). So, again,
no laws protecting farmers.
• So, the fed gov steps in -Interstate
Commerce Act- 1887- Federal regulation
of RR and interstate commerce.
• Interstate Commerce Commission(ICC) monitor RR- but little power to
enforce its rulings. Courts always rule in
favor of RR.
III. The Alliance
Movement
• Farmers’ Alliance- (similar to Nat’l
Grange) Leader Mary Elizabeth Lease.
• Graduated income tax. Also, wanted
cooperatives, low cost insurance, tougher
banks regulations, gov’t ownership of RRs.
United
We
Stand,
Divided
We Fall
 In 1889 both
the Northern and
Southern Alliances
merged into one—the
Farmers’ Alliance.
Objective: Discuss why farmers
supported money backed by
silver and how it affects the
economy
Read: Money hand out.
IV.
THE MONEY
QUESTION
• Issue- Want expansion of money supply.
Print more greenbacks (paper $)
• Why do they want an increase in the
amount of $ in circulation?- (charge
more for their products, easier to pay off
bank loans, easier to get a loan).
• Background- Greenbacks originally
redeemable for either gold or silver coins.
In 1873, Congress voted to stop coining
silver and convert to the Gold Standard.
Each dollar equal to & redeemable for set
amount of gold.
• So amount of $ in circulation, limited by the
amount of gold held in the US treasury.
• Results of government using the gold
standard - decrease amount of $ in
circulation, lowering of prices, harder to
get loans/pay back loans. Many farmers
demanded silver.
• So, Congress passed the Bland-Allison
Act in 1878 -Sherman Silver Purchase
Act in 1890 to pacify the alliance- buy
silver each month, coins. But bought so
little silver, didn’t add to $ supply.
• So, farmers vote/take seats in Congress
and governorships, etc. Vote for anyone
that supports their cause.
V. A DECADE OF
POPULIST POLITICS
• Pleased by success, want to form a
political party.
• The Populist Party- People’s party.
• Called for (wanted) - graduated income
tax, bank regulation, gov ownership of RR
& telegraph companies, free or unlimited
coinage of silver. Restrictions on
immigration, shorter workday, voting
reforms.
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
&
James G. Field, VP
Omaha Platform of 1892
•
Direct election of Senators.
•
Gov. ownership of RRs, telephone & telegraph companies.
•
Gov.-operated postal savings banks.
•
Restriction of undesirable immigration.
•
8-hr work day for government employees.
•
Abolition of the Pinkerton detective agency.
•
Australian secret ballot.
•
Re-monitization of silver.
•
A single term for President & V.P.
Platform of Lunacy
• Some Success- 1892 -elected more than
10 party members to Congress, numerous
state leaders.
• Economic Depression- Many Causes
but President Cleveland blamed the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Congress
repealed the law.
Results of Populism Recap
New ideas that later became law
Political forum for addressing special
interests
Message of hope to downtrodden
Objective: Evaluate the
significance of the Populist in
the Election of 18 96
Do Now: Recall three things the Populists
wanted
VI. THE ELECTION
OF 1896
• Silver central issue.
• William McKinley- Ohio gov, Republican,
Gold standard.
• Split Democratic Party- nominated free
silver supporter William Jennings BryanPopulist Party nominated him too.
• McKinley wins....
Bi-Metallism Issue
VII. THE END OF
POPULISM- Why?
• Business leaders contributed millions to
Republican campaign.
• People don’t switch their parties
• Free silver too weak an issue for national
campaign
• Workers and immigrants found nothing to
appeal to them.
• Defeat, and conditions improve anyway.
• Democrats take some of Populist ideas as their
own.
The First Modern
Election- why?
Gold / Silver Bug
Campaign Pins
William Jennings Bryan
(1860-1925)
The “Great
Commoner”
William Jennings
Bryan
 Revivalist style of oratory.
Prairie avenger,
mountain lion,
Bryan, Bryan, Bryan,
Bryan,
Gigantic troubadour,
speaking like a siege
gun,
Smashing Plymouth Rock
with his boulders
from the West.
Bryant’s
“Cross of Gold” Speech
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
(The Mint Ratio)
18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”
Dem.
Party
Taken
Over by
the
Agrarian
Left
Platform  tariff reductions; income tax; stricter
control of the trusts (esp. RRs); free silver.
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
Gold Triumphs
Over Silver
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 confirmed the
nation’s
commitment to
the gold standard.
 A victory for the
forces of
conservatism.
Heyday of Western Populism
The
Wizard
of Oz
by L.
Frank
Baum
1964: Henry
Littlefield’s
“Thesis”?
“Parable of the
Populists”?

Tornado  ?
Dorothy  ?

Silver Slippers  ?
Kansas  ?

Emerald City  ?
Wicked Witch of the
East  ?

Oz  ?

The Wizard  ?

Tin Woodsman  ?

Munchkins  ?

Scarecrow  ?


Cowardly Lion  ?
Wicked Witch of the
West  ?

Flying Monkeys  ?




Yellow Brick Road  ?
Slide Design and Pictures from
Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY