Dissent, Depression, and War

Farmers’ Alliance

Black Members excluded from some alliances

Southern Farmers’ Alliance members

Farmers’ advocate in Kansas

PopulistsThe 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 10-20 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