1. EOC Focus Unit 2
Analyze the economic challenges to American farmers and farmers’ responses to these challenges in the mid to late 1800s

2. Life on the farms was hard
Severe weather: Cold winters, Dry summers, tornadoes
Indian Attacks
Farmers had to use a technique called dry-farming (growing crops that needed little water.)
Sometimes grasshoppers would eat all the crops.

3. Farmers Struggle
During the 1880s, new inventions greatly increased farm production.
But greater production led to lower prices for farm goods.
Farmers in Canada, Argentina, and elsewhere were also growing more crops.
The world’s supply of food crops was greater than the demand from consumer.

4. FARMERS AND THE POPULIST MOVEMENT
In the late 1800s, many farmers were struggling
Crop prices fell, Farmers had no cash, went further into debt, and their lenders foreclosed on their mortgages
The railroad companies charged outrageous prices to ship crops (no regulation!)

5. ECONOMIC DISTRESS HITS FARMERS
Between 1867 and 1887 the price of a bushel of wheat fell from $2.00 to 68 cents
Farmers got caught in a cycle of debt

7. The Grange The Grange was set up in 1867 to help farmers in the South.
Many farmers joined the Grange to get help during the difficult economic times
The main goal of the Grange was to regulate rising fare prices of railroad and grain elevator companies after the American Civil War.
It purpose was to provide a social outlet & an educational forum for isolated farm families.
It became a political organization for farmers that wanted railroad regulation and money back by silver.

8. Farmer’s Alliances
Farmers stepped up their political activism by forming groups known as Farmers’ Alliances.
The Farmer’s Alliances helped send lectures from town to town to educate people on lower interest rate on loans and government control on railroads & banks.
Farmers Alliances were created throughout the south and west but alliance failed help the farmers enough

10. THIS POLITICAL CARTOON SHOWS A POPULIST CLUBBING A RAILROAD CAR
POPULIST PARTY IS BORN
Populist is another word for people. Founded in 1892 and became a national People’s Party (government back into the hands of the people)
It was developed from ideas of the Grange and Farmers’ Alliance.
Populism/Populist Party – began where the people sought reforms to lift the burden of debt from the farmers and workers and to give the people a greater voice in their government. Represented a grand coalition of farmers, laborers, and reformers, which aimed to put government back into the hands of the people.
THIS POLITICAL CARTOON SHOWS A POPULIST CLUBBING A RAILROAD CAR

11. Populist Reforms
Regulate the railroad companies (Stop them from charging such high rates)
Unlimited coinage of Silver If a silver standard would not be accepted they would have settled for bimetallism,
Graduated income tax
Constitutional demands: Direct Election of Senators, Ballot initiatives & Secret Ballot.
To get industrial workers to support them: 8-hour workday, restrict immigration

12. THE STOCK MARKET CRASHED IN 1893
THE PANIC OF 1893
Nationwide economic problems took center stage in America in 1893
Railroads went bankrupt, the stock market lost value, 15,000 businesses and 500 banks collapsed,
3 million people lost their jobs – putting unemployment at 20%
THE STOCK MARKET CRASHED IN 1893

25. THE PEOPLE’S PARTY WAS SHORT-LIVED BUT LEFT AN IMPORTANT LEGACY
THE END OF POPULISM
With McKinley’s election victory, Populism collapsed, burying the hopes of the farmer
The U.S. stays on the Gold Standard until the 1970s
Third Parties can cause major parties to change agendas
Depressions cause panic in the moment but are soon forgotten once prosperity begins
Populism Impact: Many of the beliefs of the Populists were the root of Progressives and many ideas were later used by Democrats and Republicans.
THE PEOPLE’S PARTY WAS SHORT-LIVED BUT LEFT AN IMPORTANT LEGACY

26. Extra Terms/Review
Morrill Land-Grant Acts or creation of agriculture colleges - An Act donating Public Lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.
gold standard - the system by which the value of a currency was defined in terms of gold, for which the currency could be exchanged.
Bimetallism - a system allowing the unrestricted currency of two metals (e.g., gold and silver) as legal tender at a fixed ratio to each other.

27. agricultural surplus
production that exceeds the needs of the society for which it is being produced, and may be exported or stored for future time

28. business monopolies
Only one company to turn to for your services, example, one railroad company to ship your crops to the market, they can charge what ever they like due to the fact they have no competition.

29. Cross of Gold Speech, 1896
Given by William Jennings Bryan, he said people must not be "crucified on a cross of gold", referring to the Republican proposal to eliminate silver coinage and adopt a strict gold standard.

30. Farmer’s Alliances
Farmers stepped up their political activism by forming groups known as Farmers’ Alliances.
The Farmer’s Alliances helped send lectures from town to town to educate people on lower interest rate on loans and government control on railroads & banks.
Farmers Alliances were created throughout the south and west but alliance failed help the farmers enough

31. The Grange The Grange was set up in 1867 to help farmers in the South.
Many farmers joined the Grange to get help during the difficult economic times
The main goal of the Grange was to regulate rising fare prices of railroad and grain elevator companies after the American Civil War.
It purpose was to provide a social outlet & an educational forum for isolated farm families.
It became a political organization for farmers that wanted railroad regulation and money back by silver.

32. Grange Laws
The main goal of the Grange was to regulate rising fare prices of railroad and grain elevator companies after the American Civil War.
series of laws passed in several Midwestern states of the United States, namely Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, in the late 1860s and early 1870s

33. Homestead Act (1862)
gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost. In all, more than 270 million acres of public land, or nearly 10% of the total area of the U.S., was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.

34. Industrialization
period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one
From farming focus to this>

35. Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. TheAct required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates.

37. urbanization Shift from rural to urban areas for citizens to live.
Massive migration to cities from rural areas due to demand to fill jobs.
People have less kids in families because less farm hands are needed

38. Analyze changes that occurred as the United States shifted from agrarian to an industrial society.

39. Gospel of Wealth, 1889
Andrew Carnegie was an American millionaire and philanthropist who donated large sums of money for public works. His book argued that the wealthy have an obligation to give something back to society.

40. Improvements in Agriculture
Mechanized reaper – reduced labor force
Steel plow – cut through dense sod
Barbed wire – kept cattle off crops
Windmills – powers irrigation systems
Hybridization – allowed greater yields

41. Government regulation over food
Which government agency was created in 1906 to address the problems discussed in this excerpt and how did it help to solve the problems?
FDA
Food and Drug administration

42. Laissez-faire
A theory that the economy does better without government intervention in business.

43. Ellis Island Located in New York Harbor, it served as
an immigration station for millions of immigrants arriving in the U.S. from Europe between 1892 and 1954.

44. Angel Island
Asians-primarily Chinese, arriving on the U.S. West Coast were processed at this immigration station in San Francisco Bay,
California between
1910 and 1940.

45. Chinese Exclusion Act A law, enacted in 1892, that prohibited
All Chinese except students,
teachers, merchants, tourists,
and government officials from
entering the U.S. The law was
not repealed until 1943.

46. Nativism
An anti-foreign feeling that arose in the 1840's and 1850's in response to the influx of Irish and German Catholics.

47. Industrialists John D. Rockefeller-Oil Andrew Carnegie- Steel
J.P. Morgan- Banking & finance

48. Push Pull factors to come to USA in 1800s

49. Push Pull factors to come to USA in 1800s