Wanted, dead or alive`
Farmers and the Populist Movement:
Farmers unite to address their economic
problems, giving rise to Populism
Economic Distress
• Farmers borrow a lot of money to buy new technology, like
mechanical reapers and tractors
• Farmers buy more land to grow more crops to pay off debts
• After Civil War, government takes Greenbacks out of circulation
• Debtors have to pay loans in dollars worth more than those
borrowed
• Prices of crops fall dramatically, deflation
• 1870s, debtors push government to put more money in circulation to
cause inflation
• 1878 Bland-Allison Act-money supply increase not enough for
farmers
Problems with the
Railroads
• Lack of
competition
lets railroads
overcharge
to transport
grain
• Farms
mortgaged to
buy supplies;
suppliers
charge high
interest
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.
Farmers Demand the unlimited coinage of Silver!!
Bi-Metallism Issue
Price Indexes for
Consumer & Farm
products: 1865-1913
Founder of the National Grange
of the Patrons of Husbandry
(1867)
The Grange
Movement
 First organized in the 1870s in the
Midwest, the south, and Texas.
 Set up cooperative associations.
 Social and educational components.
 Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger
Laws.”
 Rapidly declined by the late 1870s.
The Farmers Alliances
 Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first 
the Southern Alliance; then in the
Midwest  the Northern Alliance).
 Built upon the ashes of the Grange.
 More political and less social than the
Grange.
 Ran candidates for office.
 Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47
representatives in Congress during the
1890s.
United
We
Stand,
Divided
We Fall
 In 1889 both
the Northern and
Southern Alliances
merged into one—the
Farmers’ Alliance.
• "What you
farmers need to
do is raise less
corn and more
Hell." -Mary
Elizabeth Lease,
1890
Platform of Lunacy
The Populist
(People’s) Party
 Founded by James B. Weaver
and Tom Watson around
farmer’s interests.
 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
1.
System of “sub-treasuries.”
2.
Abolition of the National Bank.
3.
Direct election of Senators.
4.
Govt. ownership of RRs, telephone &
telegraph companies.
5.
Government-operated postal savings banks.
6.
Restriction of undesirable immigration.
7.
8-hour work day for government employees.
8.
Abolition of the Pinkerton detective agency.
9.
Australian secret ballot.
10. Re-monitization of silver.
11. A single term for President & Vice President.
Govt.-Owned Companies
1892 Election
The Panic of 1893
Here Lies Prosperity
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.
Coxey’s Army, 1894

Jacob Coxey & his “Army of
the Commonwealth of Christ.”

March on Washington  labeled “hayseed socialists!”

Demanded the government to create public works jobs for the
unemployed
Result of Election Returns
 Populist vote
increased by
40% in the
bi-election year,
1894.
William Jennings Bryan
Democrat
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.
Bryan’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!
Democra
tic Party
Taken
Over by
the
Agrarian
Left
Platform  tariff reductions; income tax; stricter
control of the trusts (esp. RRs); free silver.
Bryan: The Farmers Friend
(The Mint Ratio)
18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”
Gold / Silver Bug
Campaign Pins
William McKinley
Republican
Mark Hanna:
The “Front-Porch”
Campaign
HALF A BILLION BACK OF M'KINLEY.
The following is a list in part of the members of the Union League
Club Committee that has been appointed to provide funds to
combat the free silver sentiment. Each man is possessed of great
wealth and in control of much more:
•
NAME: John D. Rockefeller
OCCUPATION: Manufacturing
WORTH: $125,000,000
•
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Railroads
100,000,000
C. P. Huntington, Railroads
60,000,000
J. Pierpont Morgan, Banker
25,000,000
Joseph Milbank, Banker
20,000,000
Andrew Carnegie, Manufacturer
20,000,000
William D. Sloane, Carpets
15,000,000
John Sloane, Carpets
15,000,000
David Dowes, Banker
12,000,000
Herman O. Armour, Provisions
12,000,000
Brayton Ives, Banker
10,000,000
•
•
•
John H. Starin, Transportation
10,000,000
George Bliss, Banker
8,000,000
Samuel Thomas, Contractor
7,500,000
Charles L. Tiffany, Jeweler
7,000,000
LeGrand B. Cannon, Railroads
6,500,000
Henry H. Cook, Financier
6,500,000
. (If the wealth of this committee were converted into
metallic money it would absorb all the gold in the
United States and about $75,000,000 of the silver.)
--Raleigh News and Observer, September 6, 1896,
reprinted from New York Journal, 3 August 1896
Are you rich? If yes, how did you get rich? Is somebody
else poor because you are rich? Are you rich because
somebody else was willing to work while you loafed
around? Did you get rich by taking from the man who
worked for you four-fifths of all he produced? If yes, is
that sort of thing creditable to you? When you started
out to get rich why didn't you do it by working yourself?
Couldn't you get rich without stealing what another
produced?
--The Coming Nation, August 1, 1896
The
Seasoned
Politician
vs.
The
“Young”
Newcomer
1896 Election
Results
Gold Triumphs
Over Silver
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 A victory for the
forces of
conservatism.
The End of Populism
• McKinley gets East, industrial Midwest; Bryan South,
farm Midwest
• McKinley elected president; Populism collapses; leaves
legacy:
– the powerless can organize
– agenda of reforms enacted in 20th century by
Progressives
– Victory for the gold standard and conservatives
– Election ends the politics of paralysis and stalemate
and leads to the domination of Republican rule until
the New Deal coalition of 1932
– Overall, the election showed the emergence and
domination of big business, urban America.
The
Wizard
of Oz
by L.
Frank
Baum
What Are the
Metaphors?

Dorothy  ?

Slippers  ?

Kansas  ?

Emerald City  ?

Wicked Witch of the
East  ?

Oz  ?

The Wizard  ?

Munchkins  ?

Wicked Witch of the
West  ?

Flying Monkeys  ?

Tinman  ?

Scarecrow  ?

Cowardly Lion  ?

Yellow Brick Road  ?
Oz = Ounces of Gold
The Yellow Brick Road
= paved with gold bricks,
and leads to D.C.
The Emerald City =
Washington D.C., the
color of money
Dorothy’s journey on
the Yellow Brick Road
Coxey’s March on Washington
Dorothy= the common
person, a farmer
Kansas  heart land of
the country, populist
stronghold
The Wicked Witch of the East = Eastern
bankers, New York City
The Munchkins =
subjects, pawns of the
eastern banking and
industrial interests
The Scarecrow = western farmers.
They were Populists who could not
make money, thus had no brain
Tinman= Eastern industrial workers,
factory work dehumanized them, they
did not have a heart
The Cowardly Lion =
William Jennings Bryan.
Toto = teetotaler
The Temperance party.
The Wicked Witch of the
West = Republicans & William
McKinley
Monkeys= Plains Indians
The Wizard of Oz =
Presidents of the Gilded Age, they
have no real power, or Mark Hana, the
rich business man behind the scenes
controlling things.
Ruby Red Slippers= They
were silver slippers in the book!
Money backed by silver will
solve the country’s problems.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Name one economic problem farmers faced in the late
19th century?
What political party was formed (created) to represent the
farmers?
Did farmers support a money supply backed by gold or
gold and silver?
Who won the Presidential election of 1896, William
McKinley or William Jennings Bryan?
What city did the Emerald City represent in the Wizard of
Oz?
What type of worker did the Tin Man represent in the
Wizard of Oz?
What was the symbolism behind the Scarecrow not
having a brain?
In the BOOK, The Wizard of Oz, what color were
Dorothy’s shoes?
• Analyze the ways in
which people organized
in the US in response to
corporate consolidation
and industrialization
from 1865-1915.
• Analyze how TWO of the following
groups responded to the “New Stock”
of immigrants in American urban
centers from 1865 to 1900
– Reformers
– Nativists
– Political Machines
• Analyze the impact of the following on the
American industrial worker between 1865
and 1900.
•
•
•
•
Government actions
Immigration
Labor Unions
Technological changes
• “The period from 1870 to 1900
experienced more conflict than consensus
over labor relations.”
– Assess the validity of this statement with
respect to TWO of the following:
• Government
• Industrialists
• Organized Labor
• Choose TWO of the following
organizations and explain their strategies
for advancing the interest of workers. To
what extent were these organizations
successful in achieving their objectives?
Confine your answer to the period from
1875 to 1925.
– Knights of Labor
– American Federation of Labor
– Socialist Party of America
– Industrial Workers of the World
• Explain how TWO of the following
individuals responded to the economic and
social problems created by
industrialization during the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
– Jane Addams
– Andrew Carnegie
– Samuel Gompers
– Terrance Powderly
• Identify and analyze the factors that
changed the American city in the second
half of the nineteenth century.
• How and why did transportation
developments spark economic growth
during the period from 1860 to 1900 in the
United States?
Heyday of Western
Populism
Gift
for the
Grangers:
The
Farmer
Pays
for All!
Mark Hanna to Candidate McKinley
Into
Which
Box Will
the Voter
of ’96
Place His
Ballot?