Populism in the American heartland

1
Populism in the American heartland

• Americas first political reaction to rampant
  industrialism

2
Vachel Lindsay on the Populists

• Prairie avenger, mountain lion,
• Bryan,Bryan,Bryan,Bryan,
• Gigantic troubadour, speaking like a siege gun,
• Smashing Plymouth Rock with his boulders from the
  West

3
Themes in Populist ideology

• A golden age passed by
• James Weaver and the old time democrats
• Equal rights for all, special privileges for none
• Farming virtue
• Natural Harmonies
• There is a brotherhood of producers that links
  all people
• America offers immeasurably rich natural
  resources that should produce a living for all

4
Themes in Populist ideology cont

• dualistic version of social struggles
• all struggle is really between workers and the
  interests or moneyed powers
• conspiracy theory of history
• Ignatius Donnelly - A vast conspiracy against
  mankind has been organized on two continents and
  it is rapidly taking control of the world.
• contraction of currency was a deliberate squeeze
  by gold interests

5
Themes in Populist ideology cont

• conspiracy theory of history cont
• Anti-Semitism without the violence or action
  plan.
• Doctrine of the primacy of money
• control of money control of society

6
Thomas Watson

• We have become the worlds melting pot. The scum
  of creation has been dumped on us. Some of our
  principal cities are more foreign then American.
  The most dangerous and corrupting hordes of the
  Old World have invaded us. The vice and crime
  which they have planted in our midst are
  sickening and terrifying. What brought these
  Goths and Vandals to our shores? The
  manufacturers are mainly to blame. They wanted
  cheap labor and they didnt care a curse how
  much harm to our future might be the consequence
  of their heartless policy.

7
Currency supply

• How does a nation increase its Currency supply?
• Increase specie supply
• suppress investment
• What effect does a static currency supply and
  growing economy have upon the value of currency
  and interest rates?

8
Currency supply - cont

• The 16-1 government ratio and the 14 - 1 private
  ratio.
• The comstock strike
• Crime of 73
• Bland Allison act of 1878 - silver dollars are
  not circulated
• Sherman silver act of 1890 - world drop in prices
  destroys.

9
Currency supply - cont

• Greshams law
• two specie compete, all things being equal, which
  will be in most use or demand?
• What happens to the value of something that is
  not in demand?
• Which interests in America need to have an
  enlarged money supply, and are willing to chance
  inflation?

10
Supply curve for silver currency
S1 pre-comstock silver supply
S2 post-comstock silver supply
Price
Demand for silver
Quantity
How does this benefit poor farmers with debt?How
would a wealthy bank feel about this supply
shift?What did the populists think people would
spend their increased silver supply on?
11
At the age of 52, after a long life of toil,
economy, and self-denial, I find myself and
family virtually paupers.
12
The Populists

• Western Alliance Southern Alliance and Colored
  Alliance
• Leaders
• Tom Watson
• Leonidas Polk
• Jerry Stimpson
• Mary Lease
• Coxeys Army and the Depression of 1893 and 1897

13
Mary Lease

• farmers should raise less corn and more hell
• Proposes a vast reshuffling of the peoples of the
  earth in which the tropics in both hemispheres be
  taken over by white planters with Negroes and
  Orientals as tillers of the soil.
• Through all the vicissitudes of time, the
  Caucasian has arisen to the moral and
  intellectual supremacy of the world, until now
  this this favored race is fitted for the
  stewardship of the earth and emancipation from
  manual labor.

14
Clevelands policies

• Repeal the Sherman silver purchase act 1893
• Float 62 million bonds to J.P. Morgan and August
  Belmont
• Wilson Gorman tariff seemed to lower tariffs but
  left huge loopholes
• Challenges to the gospel of success