1. THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER Homestead Act of 1862 160 acres of land by living on it 5 yrs, improving it, and paying a small fee averaging about $30 (as low as $10) Land given away to encourage settlement of West

2. Cont. About 500,000 pioneer families migrated west. 2/3 - forced to give up - inadequate plots and drought, hail, and ravage from insects. Railroads played a role in taming the West. Improved irrigation techniques Flour-milling process by John Pillsbury of Minneapolis, increased grain demand

3. THE FAR WEST COMES OF AGE 1888-1889: 6 new States Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889 - Nearly 100, 000 "boomers" – "Sooners" – land-grabbers who claimed land illegally before land rush began. In 1890, census - first time in U.S. History, a frontier line no longer existed! – Once frontier was gone, farmers could not move west in significant numbers.

4. THE FADING FRONTIER "Safety valve" theory - Americans known for their mobility – farmers rarely remained in same place –hard times - moved west. Free acreage did lure immigrant farmers who would otherwise have lived in overcrowded eastern slums. There was the POSSIBILITY of westward migration. Frederick Jackson Turner - argued closing of the frontier had ended an era in American history.

5. THE FARM BECOMES A FACTORY Farmers - single cash-crop World’s breadbasket Massive migration of white and black Americans out of Southern Cotton Belt. Commercial agriculture run by big businesses – “Bonanza Farms”

6. DEFLATION DOOMS THE DEBTOR "Crop lien" system - impossible for farmer to get out of debt. Deflated currency, low food prices chief worries among farmers. Natural disasters – bugs, floods, drought Government-added woes: – Farmers’ land often overvalued – high taxes – Protective tariffs – trusts – Railroads – high rates ignored

7. UNHAPPY FARMERS Mother Nature unleashed powerful forces on the farmers: – Grasshoppers and cotton-boll weevil – Floods led to erosion in south – Droughts in west

8. THE FARMERS TAKE THEIR STAND National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange) 1867 - social & educational activities – Oliver Kelley Granger (state) Laws - wanted gov't control over big business to benefit the people. Munn vs. Illinois (1877) Wabash case (1886) Greenback Labor Party

9. Rise of Populist Party Farmers’ Alliances - like Grangers, sponsored social events, political action, cooperatives, and gov't regulation of railroads and manufacturers. The People’s Party (Populist Party) early 1890s through the Farmer’s Alliances (started in Topeka, Kansas). Ignatius Donnelly Mary E. Lease Populist Party convention held at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15, 1890Columbus, NebraskaJuly 151890

10. COXEY’S ARMY AND THE PULLMAN STRIKE Coxey’s Army (1894) - unemployed on Washington, DC – Coxey’s platform included a demand for gov’t to relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program + increase money supply by $500 million P ullman Strike, 1894 Eugene V. Debs helped organize American Railway Union – First time gov’t used an injunction to break a strike

11. GOLDEN MCKINLEY AND SILVER BRYAN Election of 1896 William McKinley - Republican William Jennings Bryan – Democrat Democrats refused to endorse Cleveland for his silver-purchase repeal, Pullman Strike action, and Morgan bond deal; move suicidal to the party’s hopes in 96’ -- Cleveland left office an extremely unpopular man.

12. Cross of Gold speech given at Democratic convention in Chicago -- "We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: ‘You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." Democratic platform: unlimited coinage of silver (16 to 1). Bryan - People’s party Cynical political cartoon of the speech from the magazine Judge.

13. CLASS CONFLICT: PLOWHOLDERS VERSUS BONDHOLDERS Silver issue at the forefront McKinley defeated Bryan 271-176 McKinley won Northeast and North (HOW?????); Bryan in South & West Legacy of Populism - Populism failed as a 3rd Party Populist ideas that carried forward during the Progressive Era (1900-1920): railroad legislation, graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, initiative, referendum and recall

14. REPUBLICAN STAND-PATTISM ENTHRONED Tariff rates – 46.5% Gold Standard Act of 1900 - Paper money was to be redeemed freely in gold; end to pro- silver movement