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The West and the Populist Movement

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1 The West and the Populist Movement

2 HOW 19TH C. FARMERS FEEL ABOUT CHANGES
Bewildered: Cities? Machines? Pace of life? Isolated: Rural emptiness Powerless: monopolies, trusts, bankers Misunderstood: “Hicks”, “ignorant”, not as self-reliant as myth holds Politics: What is going on????

3 Farmers are Struggling
Complaints of Farmers: prices are falling RRs and other middlemen are charging too much In debt due to loans Tariffs on manufactured goods Drought, insects, lonely lifestyle

4 National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (1865)
Beliefs Should organize like workers had Unite farmers Share ideas/methods Social interactions Government should regulate RRs and utilities Actions and Impact community cooperative warehouses and methods politics : “Granger Laws” control RRs (rates and shipping) Wabash v. Illinois – Granger Laws of Illinois governing RR prices are ruled unconstitutional Congress will later pass the Interstate Commerce Act

5 Farmers’ Alliance (1880s) Goals: Grows from Grange Movement
Improve Education Gov’t Action against RR and Industry Community ownership Silver to back currency Actions / Impact Improve education Attempt to support politicians who will fight RR and industrial monopolies Establish stores (warehouses), banks, and processing plants

6 Crisis in the 1890s Panic of 1893 Caused by: Effects
Agricultural depression Decline of U.S. Gold Reserve Unsound railroad financing Effects Banks fail Railroad companies declare bankruptcy Strikes 20% unemployment

7 Silver Issue Lack of gold to back money Want to use silver
Gov’t buys silver, but does not coin it Farmers want free and unlimited coinage of silver Inflation = higher farm prices = farmers pay off debt

8 Populist Party Supported Free and unlimited coinage of silver
Gov’t ownership of RR, telegraph/telephones Graduated income tax More money you make, the higher the percentage you pay in taxes Direct election of senators by public Senators had been chosen by state gov’ts (this allowed for political machines to have power)

9 Election of 1896 Rep. William McKinley Money back by only gold
Laissez faire economics Support big business Does not campaign Dem./Pop. William Jennings Bryan “Bimetallism” – money backed by gold and silver Gov’t should regulate the economy Supports farmers and lower classes Campaigns Extensively – “Cross of Gold” Speech

10 “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” – William Jennings Bryan

11 Results McKinley Wins Supported by big business and upper class
What happens to the Populist Party and their goals? Farmer’s life improves (Europe needed crops) Money crisis fades (Gold in Alaska) Populist begin to disappear, but their ideas DO NOT Populist ideals adopted by some politicians who will be called the “Progressives” – in the early 1900s many of the populist ideas will become actual laws

12 McKinley Assassinated in Buffalo on 9/6/1901
Theodore Roosevelt becomes president


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