c.20
Farmers Unite to Address Common
Problems
• Farmers faced serious problems after the Civil
War, both in the South and in the West.
• The prices they could sell their crops for kept
going down. This was because the United States
was withdrawing greenbacks - money printed for
the Civil War – from circulation.
• The decline in prices also meant that farmers had
to pay back their loans in money that was worth
more than when they borrowed it.
• Farmers urged the U.S. government to increase
the money supply, but the government refused.
• Meanwhile, farmers continued to pay high
prices to transport their crops (usually
grain).
• Often they paid as much to ship their
crops as they received for them.
• Many farmers were on the brink of ruin,
and the time, it seemed, had come for
REFORM.
• Many farmers joined together to push for
reform.
• In 1867, a farmer named Oliver Hudson
Kelley started an organization that became
known as the Grange that by the 1870s
spent most of its time and energy fighting
railroads because of the high prices they
charged for transporting farmers’ products.
• The Grange gave rise to the Farmers’
Alliances. Alliance members traveled
throughout the Great Plains educating
farmers about how to get lower interest
rates on their land and equipment, as well
as ways to protest the railroads.
The Rise and Fall of Populism
• Alliance leaders realized that to make far-reaching
changes, they needed political power, so laws
could be changed.
• So, in 1892, they created the Populist Party (or
People’s Party). This party was the beginning of
populism, a movement to gain more political and
economic power for common people.
• The Populist Party pushed for reforms to help
farmers and called for reforms to make
government more democratic.
The Populist Platform
• 1. An increase in the money supply (adding silver
to the gold standard)
• 2. A graduated income tax (the rich pay more
taxes)
• 3. A federal loan program for farmers
• 4. Direct election of U.S. Senators by popular vote
• 5. Single terms for the president and vicepresident
• 6. A secret ballot to prevent voting fraud
• 7. An 8-hour workday
• 8. Immigration restrictions
• The party appealed to many struggling
farmers in the country and industrial
laborers in the cities.
• Then, in 1893, the nation faced an economic
crisis called the Panic of 1893 that
continued on through 1895.
• The crisis made things even worse for
farmers and industrial workers, and the
Populist Party gained more and more
followers by the day.......
• SO. When the major political parties began to
choose candidates for the 1896 presidential
election, one important issue rose to the forefront:
Should the country’s money be backed with
both gold AND silver, instead of just the
traditional gold?
• On one side were the “silverites” who favored
bimetallism, a monetary system in which the
government would give people gold or silver in
exchange for paper currency or checks.
• On the other side were the “gold bugs” who
favored gold standard – backing dollars solely with
gold.
Gold Bugs & Silverites
Gold Bugs
Who They Were
Silverites
Bankers and
businessmen
Farmers and
industrial laborers
What They Wanted
- gold standard
- LESS money in
circulation
- bimetallism
- MORE money in
circulation
Why
Loans would be
repaid in stable
money
Products would be
sold at higher prices
DEFLATION
-Prices fall.
-Value of
money
increases.
-Fewer people
have money.
INFLATION
-Prices rise.
-Value of
money
increases.
-More people
have money.
Effects
• Republicans were “gold bugs”. They
elected William McKinley for president.
• The Democrats AND the Populists both
favored bimetallism, so BOTH parties
nominated William Jennings Bryan, who
had delivered an emotional speech at the
Democratic convention in favor of
bimetallism, known as the “Cross of Gold”
speech.
• Thus, the stage was set for a momentous
showdown between wealthy and poor
interests, and on election day, the vote for
the White House went for…………………..
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.
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.
Supreme Court Decisions
 Munn vs. Illinois (1877)
 Wabash, St. Louis, &
Pacific Railroad Company vs.
Illinois (1886)
Gift
for the
Grangers:
The
Farmer
Pays
for All!
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.
The Populist (Peoples’) Party
 1890 Bi-Election:
So. Alliance  wanted to
gain control of the Democratic Party.
No. Alliance  ran 3rd Party candidates.
 1892  800 met in St. Louis, MO
majority were Alliance members.
over 100 were African Americans.
reps. of labor organizations & other
reformers (Grange, Greenback Party).
Platform of Lunacy
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
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
Bi-Metallism Issue
Causes of the 1893 Panic
 Begun 10 days after Cleveland took office.
1. Several major corps. went bankrupt.
 Over 16,000 businesses disappeared.
 Triggered a stock market crash.
 Over-extended investments.
2. Bank failures followed causing a contraction
of credit [nearly 500 banks closed].
3. By 1895, unemployment reached 3 million.
 Americans cried out for relief, but the Govt.
continued its laissez faire policies!!
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 Commonweal of Christ.”
 March on Washington  “hayseed socialists!”
Result of Election Returns
 Populist vote
increased by
40% in the
bi-election year,
1894.
 Democratic
party losses in
the West were
catastrophic!
 But, Republicans
won control of
the House.
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.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeTkT5
-w5RA
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.”
Democratic
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)
Mark Hanna to Candidate
McKinley
“A Giant Straddle”:
Suggestion for a McKinley
Political Poster
The
Seasoned
Politician
vs.
The “Young”
Newcomer
Joshua A. Levering:
Prohibition Party
Into
Which Box
Will the
Voter
of ’96
Place His
Ballot?
1896 Election Results
Why Did Bryan Loose?
 His focus on silver undermined
efforts to build bridges to urban
voters.
 He did not form alliances with
other groups.
 McKinley’s campaign was well-
organized and highly funded.
Gold Triumphs Over Silver
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 confirmed the
nation’s
commitment to
the gold standard.
 A victory for the
forces of
conservatism.
The Wizard
of Oz
by L. Frank
Baum
1964: Henry Littlefield’s
“Thesis”?
Henry Littlefield’s Thesis on Frank Lloyd Braun’s Wizard of OZ
•
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of America's favorite pieces of juvenile literature. Children like
it because it is a good story, full of fun characters and exciting adventures. Adults--especially
those of us in history and related fields--like it because we can read between L. Frank Baum's
lines and see various images of the United States at the turn of the century. That has been true
since 1964, when American Quarterly published Henry M. Littlefield's "The Wizard of Oz: Parable
on Populism." Littlefield described all sorts of hidden meanings and allusions to Gilded Age
society in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: the wicked Witch of the East represented eastern
industrialists and bankers who controlled the people (the Munchkins); the Scarecrow was the wise
but naive western farmer; the Tin Woodman stood for the dehumanized industrial worker; the
Cowardly Lion was William Jennings Bryan, Populist presidential candidate in 1896; the Yellow
Brick Road, with all its dangers, was the gold standard; Dorothy's silver slippers (Judy Garland's
were ruby red, but Baum originally made them silver) represented the Populists' solution to the
nation's economic woes ("the free and unlimited coinage of silver"); Emerald City was
Washington, D.C.; the Wizard, "a little bumbling old man, hiding behind a facade of paper mache
and noise, . . . able to be everything to everybody," was any of the Gilded Age presidents.
•
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was no longer an innocent fairy tale. According to Littlefield, Baum, a
reform-minded Democrat who supported William Jennings Bryan's pro-silver candidacy, wrote the
book as a parable of the Populists, an allegory of their failed efforts to reform the nation in 1896.
"Baum never allowed the consistency of the allegory to take precedence over the theme of
youthful entertainment," Littlefield hedged at one point; "the allegory always remains in a minor
key." Still, he concluded that "the relationships and analogies outlined above . . . are far too
consistent to be coincidental."
“Parable of the Populists”?

Tornado  ?

Silver Slippers  ?

Dorothy  ?

Emerald City  ?

Toto  ?

Oz  ?

Kansas  ?

The Wizard  ?

Wicked Witch of the
East  ?

Munchkins  ?

Wicked Witch of the
West  ?

Tin Woodsman  ?

Scarecrow  ?

Flying Monkeys  ?

Cowardly Lion  ?

Yellow Winkies  ?

Yellow Brick Road  ?
•Hmmm………
1896 America:
The Populist Movement
&
The Wizard of Oz?
Could it be the same?.............
Tornado = Panic of 1893?
• Economic Market
• Panic- over Bi-metallism
Dorothy = Mary Elizabeth Lease
(ie. The Kansas Pythoness)?
•
“Raise less Corn and more Hell”
Toto, & the Munchkins = Average Poor Joe/Jane
American Citizens (ie. “the little people”)?
Scarecrow = The Farmer?
Tin Man = Industrial Workers?
Cowardly Lion = The Gilded Age
Presidents?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Garfield
Chester Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Candidate- William Jennings Bryan
Good Witch = William Jennings
Bryan?
Wicked Witch = William McKinley?
“Oh-We-Oh!” Soldiers & Flying Monkeys = U.S. Military
who was used by the government to put down labor strikes
Ruby (Silver) Slippers = Silver
Standard?
Yellow Brick Road = Gold
Standard?
Emerald City = Washington D.C.?
The Wizard of Oz = Big Business, the
Giant Corporations Who Ruled D.C.?
•
Unfortunately for the Populists, their inspired movement for the White
House ultimately failed when McKinley won the election and defeated
Bryan for the presidency.
•
Bryan’s meager funds could not match the millions of dollars backing
McKinley by rich industrialists, and though he campaigned furiously
throughout the country, sometimes making as many as 20 speeches a
day (while McKinley merely campaigned from his own front porch), Bryan
only garnered 6.5 million votes to McKinley’s 7 million.
•
Ultimately, not enough industrial workers (Tin Men) voted for him
because they were afraid that bimetallism would lead to higher prices on
goods and that their rich employers would not raise their wages in order
to help them keep up with the already tough economy.
•
In fact, many of the big business owners not only warned their workers
that they would not increase their wages if Bryan won but that they’d also
better not bother showing up for work the next day – because they’d be
FIRED!
•
Thus, with McKinley’s election, Populism collapsed, burying the hopes of
the farmers.
•
Yet then again, not so fast…….
•
Connections Across Time:
POPULISM 1892 and Today
• The Populist Party may have been short-lived, but the
term populism (politician for the people) remains very
much alive in today’s political lexicon.
• While the Populists of the late 1800s fought for the rights
of farmers and laborers and battled the railroad
companies, today’s political analysts often hang the label
of populist on a candidate fighting for middle-class
families and blue-collar workers against big corporations.
• In the current political landscape, however, where nearly
all candidates rely on corporate donations to help them
cover the increasingly exorbitant cost of campaigning, it
is often difficult to claim the title of populist.
So who’s your “populist”?
Who really stands for
“change”?
• Ron Paul, Ross Perot, Rick Santorum, and Barack Obama
Heyday of Western Populism
Why Did Populism Decline?
1. The economy experienced rapid change.
2. The era of small producers and
farmers was fading away.
3. Race divided the Populist Party,
especially in the South.
4. The Populists were not able to break
existing party loyalties.
5. Most of their agenda was co-opted by
the Democratic Party.