1. HOW PEOPLE RESPONDED TO BIG BUSINESS
THE RISE OF THE POPULIST PARTY

2. REGULATION OF BIG BUSINESS
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Somewhat ineffective – courts couldn’t always enforce it
Interstate Commerce Act
Gave Congress the right to regulate railroads
A state could not set rates on interstate commerce – they couldn’t charge prices for railroads coming in to their state from another state

3. Opposition to big business
In the West: The Grange
In the East: Labor Unions
POPULIST PARTY

4. POPULIST PARTY

5. Rise of the populist party (1891)
Major platforms:
Government ownership of railroads and telegraph networks
8 hour work day for industry
Restrictions on immigration
Individually or with a partner, determine WHY each of these issues would be appealing to people in

6. MAJOR PLATFORMS, CONT “free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold”
GOLD BUGS
SILVERITES
Who they were
Bankers and businessmen
Farmers and laborers
What they wanted
Gold standard – less money in circulation
Bimetallism – more money in circulation
Why
Loans would be repaid in stable dollars
Products would be sold at higher prices
Effects
DEFLATION
*prices fall
*value of the dollar increases
*fewer people have money
INFLATION
*prices increase
*value of the dollar decreases
*more people have money

7. Election of 1896 McKinley won…
William Jennings Bryan v. William McKinley
Populist v. Republican
McKinley won…
End of the Populism movement
…. But, those ideas carried on with the Progressives

8. Wizard of Oz (1900) Literature as political commentary
With a partner de-code excerpts from the Wizard of Oz