Populism

1
Populism
2
Declining Profits

• Thanks to new technologies, farmers had opened up
  the Great Plains and were producing a much
  greater supply of grains
• Grain supply ? Grain prices ?
• Farmers were earning LESS

3
Rising Costs

• High tariffs unionized factory workers high
  prices on manufactured goods
• Banks were charging high interest on loans
• Railroads were charging higher fees for shipping
  grain to eastern markets
• Farmers were paying MORE

4
The Money Supply

• To fund the Civil War, US government had flooded
  the market with paper money (greenbacks)
• Supply of ? Value of ? (inflation)

5
3 Types of Money

• Greenbacks
• Gold Silver coins
• Bank notes backed by government bonds

6
Government response to inflation

• Stopped printing greenbacks
• Stopped minting silver coins
• Started paying off government bonds to reduce
  number of bank notes in circulation
• Response was too strong and reduced the money
  supply too greatly
• Supply of ? Value of ? Prices ? (deflation)

7
Deflation Hurts Farmers

• Decrease in money supply meant loans were harder
  to get and interest rates were higher
• Farmers were getting LESS for their crops but
  paying MORE for mortgages other loans

8
The Crime of 73

• Farmers believed that greedy banks had pressured
  government into reducing the money supply
• Began to organize and campaign for government to
  resume printing greenbacks and/or minting silver
  coins

9
The Grange

• The Patrons of Husbandry founded in 1867 by
  USDA official Oliver H. Kelley
• Designed to organize rural farmers by 1874, the
  Grange had over 1 million members

10
The Grange Takes Action

• Pressured state legislatures to regulate railroad
  warehouse rates
• Joined Independent National Party (also called
  the Greenback Party) a new political party aimed
  at getting the government to print more paper
  money
• Created farmers cooperatives

11
Farmers Cooperatives

• Pooled farmers crops and held them off the
  market in order to limit supply and force up
  prices
• By working together, farmers could also negotiate
  better shipping and warehousing rates

12
The Grange Fails

• Greenback Party failed to win public support
  average American didnt trust paper money
• Cooperatives never grew large enough to be
  effective
• Many states did pass laws setting maximum rates
  for railroads, but .

13
Wabash v. Illinois

• 1886
• Supreme Court ruled that states could not
  regulate railroads because the railroads were
  involved in interstate commerce interstate
  commerce can only be regulated by federal law

14
The Farmers Alliance

• Formed in 1877 in Texas
• By 1890 had nearly 3 million members
• Also tried to create cooperatives, but failed for
  many of the same reasons

15
The Populist Party

• Founded in 1890, more commonly called the
  Populists
• Western farmers of the Alliance decided that the
  changes needed to help farmers required a new
  political party
• Southern farmers opposed a third-party because it
  might weaken the Democratic Party

16
The Subtreasury Plan

• Southern farmers proposed that the government set
  up warehouses called subtreasuries where farmers
  could store their surplus crops
• Also wanted government to provide low-interest
  loans to farmers
• Many Democratic politicians won elections in the
  South after promising to support the Subtreasury
  Plan, but then reneged

17
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890

• Congress authorized the US Treasury to purchase
  4.5 million ounces of silver per month to put
  more money into circulation
• Still, it wasnt enough to ease deflation, so it
  didnt help farmers

18
The Omaha Platform

• Called for unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio
  of 16 oz. of silver 1 oz. of gold (bimetallism)
• Called for federal takeover of railroads
• Called for a graduated income tax
• Called for tighter government regulation of
  banking and industries

19
A Populist Candidate for President

• 1892, Populists met in Omaha, NE and nominated
  James B. Weaver to run for President of the
  United States
• Came in a distant 3rd place in the election with
  only 22 electoral votes, but still a strong
  showing for a 3rd party candidate

20
Panic of 1893

• 2 large railroad companies were forced into
  bankruptcy, triggering a collapse of the banks
  who had loaned the railroads money
• Worst economic crisis US had experienced to that
  point
• 18 unemployment

21
Treasury Crisis

• Panic of 1893 caused investors to cash in their
  government bonds for gold, draining the US gold
  reserve
• Congress responded by repealing the Sherman
  Silver Purchase Act to stop people from trading
  in silver for gold

22
Goldbugs vs. Silverites

• Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act split
  the Democratic Party
• Goldbugs believed that US currency should be
  backed exclusively with gold
• Silverites believed that coining unlimited silver
  would ease the economic crisis

23
Election of 1896

• Populists wanted to nominate a candidate who
  supported silver, but Democrats beat them to the
  punch
• Faced with either supporting the Democratic
  candidate and giving up their 3rd party status or
  nominating their own candidate and splitting the
  pro-silver vote, the Populists chose to support
  the Democrats

24
William Jennings Bryan

• Only 36 when Democrats Populists nominated him
  for president
• Powerful speaker who won nomination with his
  pro-silver Cross of Gold speech

25
The Cross of Gold Speech

• Having behind us the producing masses of this
  nation and the world, supported by the commercial
  interests, the laboring interests and the toilers
  everywhere, we will answer their demand 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.

26
Bryans Campaign

• Toured the country for weeks, giving hundreds of
  speeches
• Strongly supported in the West and South, but not
  by city-dwellers (who didnt care about the
  silver issue) or Catholic immigrants (who didnt
  like his Protestant minister style speeches)

27
William McKinleysFront Porch Campaign

• Republican candidate
• McKinley refused to travel and speak, opting
  instead to stay home in Ohio and let visitors
  come to him
• Republican Party had local Republicans campaign
  for McKinley instead
• Won support of urban workers and big business

28
William McKinley

• 1843 1901
• 25th President (1897-1901)
• Republican
• Expansionist who oversaw the Spanish-American War
• Assassinated in 1901

29
Gold in Alaska

• Alaska had been purchased by US from Russia in
  1867 for 7.2 million
• Discovery of gold in Alaska 1898 boosted the
  nations gold reserves and ended the silver
  debate, leading to the decline of the Populist
  Party