Dissent, Depression, and War

Farmers’ Alliance

Black Members excluded from some alliances

Southern Farmers’ Alliance members

Farmers’ advocate in Kansas

Populists The Populist platform called for  direct election of senators  the secret ballot, and other electoral issues  supported the eight-hour day and an end to contract labor More than just a response to hard times, Populism presented an alternative vision of American economic democracy.

Workers  American Workers agitate for better working conditions, better pay, shorter work day  Two of the most violent disputes between labor and capitalists are the Homestead lockout and strike 1892 and the Pullman strike of 1894

Homestead Steel Works, Pennsylvania

Homestead Workers

Pinkertons leaving barges after surrender

Cripple Creek mines, Colorado

Mine shaft

Fire at Cripple Creek

Pullman

George Pullman

Company town  4,300 acres nine miles south of Chicago  Planned and built by George Pullman after the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Family could never own their home Rents were percent higher than nearby communities Wages slashed five times in 1893, but rents stayed high Stockholders continued to get 8% dividend

Pullman

Pullman strikers

American Railway Union  90 % of the workers walked off the job  Pullman shut down the factory  Workers appealed to the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs  Beginning on Jun 29, 1894, the membership refused to handle any train that carried Pullman cars  Switchmen across the country would not work with the cars  By July 2, railways from New York to California were paralyzed by work stoppage

Crushing the strike  An injunction against Eugene Debs said he could not speak in public  When he did, he was arrested and put in jail  Later, Debs formed the Socialist Party, and became a candidate for the U.S. Presidency

Nellie Bly  Journalist who defied editor and wrote about the Pullman Strike—sympathizing with strikers

Pullman Strike

Frances Willard and the WCTU

Willard’s contributions  Willard radically changed the direction of the WCTU. She moved it away from religiously oriented programs to a campaign that stressed alcoholism as a disease rather than a sin and poverty as a cause rather than a result of drink;  Willard created a broad reform coalition  Knights of Labor  People’s Party  Prohibition Party  WCTU had over 200,000 members in the 1890s  This gave women valuable experience in political action.

William Jennings Bryan

Coxey’s Army

Jacob Coxey

Marching to Washington

Democrats and Populists  The cartoon suggests that the Populists would take over the Democratic Party by nominating Bryan.  In reality, the Populists lost identity by nominating a Democrat

William McKinley