Maria’s Group
After the civil war in 1865, industry boomed. An agrarian economy was doomed
when “King Cotton” failed the south. However, Americans began to move out .West. In the
late 19th century new inventions such as combines contributed to the technological
changes that increased the production of crops which were then able to be shipped
efficiently all over the country due to the construction of railroads. Government policies were
introduced to help tend the new land and uproot Native Americans from the west. The
agrarians formed a political party known as the Populist party in response to The Panic of
1873 which caused the economic conditions in the late 1800s to greatly impoverish the
farmers. Thus, reducing the prices for crops. These small business farmers could not
compete with the competition of monopolies and other wealthy corporations that had rose
from the revolution. The farmers took the new inventions and used them to their advantage
which made the job easier, but did not bolster the economy. Many became poor and
starved, living a difficult life on the bottom of the social ladder of wealthy business owners.
Technology had greatly improved agriculture between 1865 and 1900 because it
helped with the transportation of goods, the harvesting and farming of crops, and the control
of the new land. The expansion of the railroads became a great advantage for the farmers.
They Transcontinental Railroad now ran all over the country including the barren midwest.
Cattle drives now took half the time. As shown in a map of railroads, lines were constructed
all over the country, many of which were cattle trails (Doc B). This growth of railroads
facilitated the sale of beef and wheat because they could get to major cities in the east like
Chicago faster. As shown in a magazine, close to ten thousand miles of railroad in the west
ran from Montana to Texas. (Doc F). This revolutionized the shipping of products and gave
the farmers a boost they needed. Several inventions also improved the agriculture in the
late 1800’s. The invention of silos made the storage of wheat, corn, and other crops much
easier. They held large amounts of anything farmers needed, such as feed. Joseph
Glidden’s invention, the barbed wire, changed American agriculture because it fenced in
cattle and helped protect farms from wild animals and intruders. Although it made the cattle
drives a little more difficult, it made farming easier. Another technological advance that
helped the agriculture in the west was wheat farming with horses. (Doc D) Farmers would
pull a wheat thrasher by horse. This process would cut the wheat, then it could be
harvested. Thus, getting work done more efficiently and faster. Farmers utilized the
technological advances and generally approved of these new inventions and techniques.
They benefitted them and improved conditions for those involved agriculturally from 1865 to
1900.
In the late 19th century America’s government awarded the farmers with new land
out west, but began to supervise the farming industry too much which angered the farmers.
Railroads contributed highly to the americans moving out west and aiding their success.
However the government created new laws for railroads. A prairie farmer described the
laws in Illinois in 1877 that limited freight rates. (Doc C) This controversy went all the way to
the supreme court. Once the settlers took railroads to the western lands they needed land.
The government awarded the settlers land with the Homestead Act. This act was passed
giving out 160 acres of land for a cheap price of 30 dollars to whoever would farm it. These
new lands were filled with Indians and the government was going to help to get rid of them.
A law was passed in 1887 known as the Dawes Severalty Act. It set up individuals as Indian
family heads giving 160 acres of land as an attempt to acclimate them to the American
culture. This plan deceived the Indians and confined them to smaller areas . It looked as if it
would help them but it was actually an attempt to destroy the indians and culturalize the
leftover population. An Oklahoma magazine goes to show the homesteader’s plan to
reserve their wilderness. (Doc I) The government helped the farmers acquire land, but once
they became successful they stepped in to slow production. There was a set of Supreme
Court cases called the Granger cases. In one case, Munn vs. Illinois, it allowed states to
regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads. These cases dealt with
corporate rates and agriculture. As the government got more and more involved some
people took a stand. The farmers relied on people like Mary Elizabeth Lease. She was a
lecturer, writer, and political advocate. In a speech of hers from 1892 shes speaks of the
politicians lying to the the agrarians. She talks about how misleading they were and how the
government just said the farmers suffered from over production. (Doc G) The Populist Party
adopted a party program know as the Omaha Platform in 1892 at a convention in Omaha,
Nebraska. The convention was intended to seek restoration of the government of the
Republic to the plain people, from which the class originated.
The United States went through economical changes which resulted in distinction of
social classes as well as wealthy business owners having no competition against poor,
starving, angry farmers. A system of agriculture where landowners allowed tenants to farm
their land in return for a portion of the crop produced, known as sharecropping, was
introduced in the late 1880’s. From a contract in North Carolina in 1882, a landowner is
implying that they will pay half of the net proceeds to the sale of every cropper’s cotton after
abstracting sums the landowner is responsible for and what the tenants owe (Doc. E). A
chart of historical statistics in the United States of agricultural prices in dollars per unit
shows that the price of wheat dropped from 2.16 in 1865 to .62 by 1900, the price per
pound of cotton went from .83 to .10 in the same years, and corn by the bushel had a slight
difference starting in 1870 with .52 to .35 by 1900 (Doc A). This downfall in prices resulted
from over production as a lot of land was being farmed. The poor farmers had to keep
producing though or they would become broke. Another reason the farmers couldn’t handle
the wealthy corporation owners was because their work depended on the weather. The
areas that they bought often suffered from droughts, or other forms of bad weather. Susan
Orcutt wrote to Lorenzo Lewlling about the hail ruining crops. (Doc H) This costed the
farmers a lot of money and often left many people starving. The farmers also had to deal
with the debate over a gold standard. William Jennings Bryan, the democratic agrarian
candidate in the election of 1896, goes to show how a gold standard would ruin the country.
(Doc J) Having a gold standard would result in deflation which would cause prices to drop
and then farmers would receive less revenue. Thus forcing the farmers to want a silver
standard. In all of this economic panic the subtreasury plan was created. This plan required
the federal government to construct warehouses, or sub treasuries, in counties that sold
crops with an annual value of $500,000. At harvest time, farmers could then deposit crops
in the warehouses and receive negotiable federal notes for up to 80 percent of the value of
their crops. The farmers had one year to sell their crops and then satisfy the notes along
with a 1 percent per year interest charge. The farmers response to all of the economic
problems was to create an alliance, the Farmers Alliance. The farmers in this alliance
wanted to establish an income tax and a crop linen system. This alliance later formed into
the Populist party.
The late 19th century left the farmers with ups and downs. They were picked off their
feet with new inventions after the revolution along with railroads which helped their sales
and the distribution of their products. Furthermore, Other inventions revolutionized the
agriculture industry by assisting with the harvesting of crops.. The government helped
accumulate land for Americans, but had interfered too much. The land given to the farmer
was in poor condition, rarely able to be completely farmed. The downside of this agricultural
way was the economy. There was overproduction and bad weather causing prices to
plummet. The west had supported farmers as they took what they had, but stood up for the
policies that were unfair to them. These actions are what led to a modern day agricultural
America.