1. The Rise of the Debtor Goal 4.03

2. Problems for Farmers Can handle the hard life but…
Can’t handle low prices for crops and high transportation costs
Lose their political influence
Everything was going up in price but their profits
The more crops they produced the less they made
Supply exceeded demand

4. Who do the Farmers Blame?
The Government:
Had turned its back on farmers, only cared about industry
Banks:
Set interest rates too high
Continuous debt
Railroad Companies:
Said that RR’s charged whatever they wanted
but farmers have to use RR to transport their goods

5. The New Movement The Granger Movement
Grew out of discontent of the farmers
The prices of farm products were declining as farmers went deeper into debt to merchants and banks and lost their farms.
At its height the Grange had 850,000 members
It worked to improve the social and economic status of farmers

6. Farmer’s Organize The Grange wanted:
government regulation of railroad rates
Did get some maximum rates set
Education on new farming techniques
The government to oversee interstate transportation

7. Farmers Alliances Wanted government regulation of railroads and banks
Believed that through farmer cooperation they could achieve their goals
National Farmer’s Alliance
Southern Farmer’s Alliance
Colored Farmer’s Alliance: had to form their own due to discrimination…major weakness in Farmer’s Alliance

8. Supreme Court Cases are gains
Munn vs. Illinois:
Allowed states to regulate RR rates within their own borders (intrastate)
Wabash vs. Illinois:
severely limited the rights of states to control interstate commerce
Led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Act
Created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads not states

9. Farmer’s Cooperatives
Alliances formed cooperatives to collectively sell their crops
Store their crops until prices level out
While they were waiting it out RR’s would be forced to lower their rates
Didn’t always work

10. Bimetallism Idea of using both silver and gold to back money
Supported by some Populists
“Silverites”: support the use of silver
“Goldbugs”: promote the use of gold only

11. Populism
Farmer’s Alliances spread creating the Populists Party or People’s Party
Their beliefs were outlined in the Omaha Platform
Warned
against dangers of political corruption
Inadequate monetary supply
And unresponsive government
Wanted the free coinage of silver, would help them payoff debts quicker
Government ownership of RR’s…new idea

12. Who would support Populism?
Farmers
Tried to reach urban workers who were unhappy with industrial elite
Needed to gain both black and white voters in the South, try to fuse the Populist party with Black Republicans
Democrats play the race card
Wilmington Race Riots of 1898

13. William Jennings Bryan
Supporter of Populism
Receives Democratic nomination for President in 1896 after delivering his “Cross of Gold Speech”
Because of Bryan’s nomination the Populists bow out of the race
Bryan looses the race and the Populists Party looses momentum
“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

15. Why did populism decline?
The economy experienced rapid change…started to see a boom
The era of small producers and farmers was fading away.
Race divided the Populist Party, especially in the South…Wilmington Race Riot
The Populists were not able to break existing party loyalties.
Most of their agenda was adopted by the Democratic Party.