 Began with Farmers  Crop prices falling= less profit for farmers  Take out loans and fall further in debt  Railroads overcharging farmers to ship goods  Begin with local Granges  Local farmers of a particular area (city or county)  Grow to national organizations  Known as Farmers Alliances  Southern Alliance- white southern farmers  Colored Farmers National Alliance- black farmers  From there, become a national political party known as the Populists

 Low Crop Prices led to debt  Deflation- not a lot of money available  Led to high interest rates and banks would not loan money to farmers

 Bi-Metalism- switch to a gold/silver standard  Increase money supply and allow banks more opportunity to give loans

 Railroads overcharged farmers to store and ship crops= more debt  Railroads gave industrialists rebates and reduce charges

 Government Control Railroads and Telegraphs- keep prices fair and fixed  Interstate Commerce Act- railroads must publish rates (ICC- govt. agency in control)

 State legislatures appoint Senators  Industry and wealthy able to control government and appointments

 Direct Election of Senators- people elect Senators  Lead to 17 th Amendment

 Extreme income gap between rich and poor  Farmers and factory workers in debt and facing financial problems

 Graduated Income Tax  Income tax- tax on earnings  Graduated Income Tax- wealthy pay more (tax based on how much you earn)

 Politicians overly influenced by wealthy business owners  Credit Mobilier Scandal- Railroad owners bribe government officials for loans and money that was stolen and not used for railroad  Former General/President Grant Administration

 One Term President- presidents only serve one term (4 years)  22 nd Amendment- limit President to 2 terms  Initiative- people propose bills  Referendum- people pass bills

 Workers  Low Pay  Long Hours  Dangerous Conditions  Triangle Shirtwaist Fire  146 sweatshop women killed due to conditions

 8 hour workday for workers  Minimum Wage Laws will eventually be passed

 William Jennings Bryant nominated by Democratic and Populist Party -Cross of Gold Speech – supports the “free coinage of silver” (silverites)  William McKinley nominated by Republicans - supports America remaining on the gold standards (goldbugs)  McKinley wins the election and the Populist Party dies out, but its reform ideas are adopted by Republicans and Democrats during the Progressive Era (1890 – 1920)

 Monopoly- one company has complete control over an industry, no competition  2 ways to form a monopoly  Vertical Integration- when one industry controls all parts of production for a product  Example- Andrew Carnegie’s Steel Company  Horizontal Integration- when one company controls the entire industry (eliminate competition by buying out competitors)  Example- John Rockefeller’s Oil Company