Populism Ppt

The Problems of farmers • Farmers had much to deal with in their economic life. Bankers, processors, railroads, grain elevator operators, railroads, world markets. • Attitude of self-reliant individualism made political activism difficult at first. • Farmers also differed from @ other from region to region.

The Problems of farmers Long term decline in commodity prices hurt farmers • Supply of farm goods increased due to more land and better tech. Over production. • Transportation and communications tech brought farmers into world competition.

The Problems of farmers Farmers see RR and processors as villains • Resented high RR rates while Rockefeller got rebates. • Felt they had little bargaining power as individuals (compare to Rockefeller)

The Problems of farmers •

High tariffs hurt farmers- they paid higher prices for manufactured goods while getting low prices for their produce. High debts a problem- borrowed for land, tech., and supplies. Discontent focused on currency issuethey wanted inflation.

• • – –

The amount of greenbacks was fixed Hard currency difficult to come by.

Price Indexes for Consumer & Farm Products: 1865 -1913 1865-1913

Granger Movement • •

• •

Granger = old word for granary Started as a social and educational response to farmers isolation, evolved into cooperatives. Idea- to free themselves from conventional marketplace. Political initiatives- to regulate rates charged by RR and warehouses. Granger laws.

Founder of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (1867)

The Grange Movement ¾ First organized in the 1870s in the

Midwest, the south, and Texas.

¾ Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger

Laws.”

¾ Rapidly declined by the late 1870s.

Gift for the Grangers: The Farmer Pays for All!

The Farmers Alliances ¾ Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first Æ

the Southern Alliance; then in the Midwest Æ the Northern Alliance).

¾ More political and less social than the

Grange.

¾ Ran candidates for office. ¾ Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47

representatives in Congress during the 1890s.

Farmers’ Alliances • • •

Collective action seen as means for relief from chronic hardships. Alliance tended to attract more of the prosperous farmers than Grange had. By 1890, about 1.5 million (white) members of Alliances. About 1 million members of Colored Farmers’ Alliance.

Farmers’ Alliances • Women welcomed into Alliance. • Cooperatives were for a time prosperous, but eventually fell victim to opposition (economic) by powerful business interests. Discriminated against by distributors, banks, etc.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall In 1889 both the Northern and Southern Alliances merged into one— the Farmers’ Alliance.

Populist Party Formed in 1892. Developed their own political platform on which people disagreed…

Platform of Lunacy

Bi -Metallism Bi-Metallism Issue

Here Lies Prosperity

William Jennings Bryan (1860 -1925) (1860-1925)

The “Great Commoner”

Bryant ’s ““Cross Cross of Bryant’s Gold ” Speech Gold” 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

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: The Farmers Friend (The Mint Ratio)

18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”

Omaha Platform of 1892 FINANCE 1. We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1. 2. We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than $50 per capita. 3. We demand a graduated income tax. 4. We believe that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people

Omaha Platform of 1892

TRANSPORTATION …the government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people [as well as the] telegraph, telephone…

Govt. -Owned Companies Govt.-Owned

Omaha Platform of 1892

LAND The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes… All land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs…should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only.

Omaha Platform of 1892 Supplementary Resolutions: We demand • an Australian or secret ballot system. • a graduated income tax • a rigid enforcement of the existing eighthour law on Government work • initiative and referendum • election of Senators of the United States by a direct vote of the people

The Populist (Peoples ’) Party (Peoples’) ¾ Founded by James B. Weaver

and Tom Watson.

¾ Omaha, NE Convention in July,

1892.

¾ Got almost 1 million popular

votes.

¾ Several Congressional seats

won.

James B. Weaver, Presidential Candidate

The Subtreasury Plan • Allow the farmers to store their crops in Government Warehouses • Have the government loan them 80% of the value of their crops at 1% interest • This would accomplish: – immediate source of cheap credit – would bring higher prices for crops – solve the lack of currency problem

1892 Election

Heyday of Western Populism

1896 Election Results