SLAUGHTER

POPULISM

“What you farmers need to do is raise less corn and more Hell!” Mary Elizabeth Lease (1890) Populist Organizer

POPULISM:• What?

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•Political movement that tried to help out the nation’s struggling farmers

SODBUSTERS: MOVING OUT WEST

• Homestead Act• Morrill Act • Influx of movement out West for farmers looking

to start over during and after the Civil War.

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POPULIST PARTY: A PROTEST PARTY (PEOPLE’S PARTY)

• Oppose the “hand-off” paradigm of the Gilded Age.• Lived on farms• Anti-technology/modernity/xenophobic• Conservative• Jeffersonian• Disliked cities/banks/industrialists/capitalists and

the railroad tycoons.

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POPULISM• Why?

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1. Mechanization - More machines = more debt

Less workers necessary

Over-production (prices fall)

2. Everyone producing the same crops

Farmers were in trouble because of...

POPULISM

• Why?

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3. Specialization of Crops - Farmers only raise one crop (leads to trouble if that crop has problems and over-production/more competition)4. Disasters -

droughts, floods, boll-weevil, and grasshoppers

Farmers were in trouble because

of......

POPULISM• Why?

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5. Corporate Greed Barbed wire trust, Harvester Trust, Fertilizer Trust, and Banks.

Farmers were in trouble because of...

"The Iron Horse Which Eats Up The Farmers' Produce.” 1873

POPULISM

6. Railroads•-no competition to move crops•-charge whatever they pleased•-Credit Mobilier/government would not regulate the railroads.•-Charged more for short than long hauls.•-Silos storage rental fees near the railroad tracks were sky high.

Farmers were in trouble because …..

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POPULISM

7. Currency Crisis•Specie backing – money backed by valuable minerals•Not enough gold-money becomes more valuable•Farmers’ cost doubled-have to grow 2x’s the amount of crops to pay back debt.•Idea: Bring back Greenbacks from Civil War.•Nothing being done to help the farmers or workers in factories. Government seems to favor big business.

•HOW DO FARMERS RESPOND?

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NATIONAL GRANGE FOR THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY

THE GRANGE

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•Farmer’s Union founded in Minnesota – founded by OLIVER H. KELLEY

What?

•Cooperative movement - farmers pooled their money to make shared purchases of machinery, supplies, insurance, limited quantity of produce etc. •Worked for pro-farmer laws

•Granger Laws – Laws that attempted to stop discrimination of prices between long and short haul railroad routes•Ex. Interstate Commerce Act - regulated rates of railroads•Pushed for Rural Free Delivery of Mail -- RFD

How?

THE GRANGE VS. THE GOVERNMENTSTATE (ILLINOIS) AND FEDERAL

• Munn v Illinois - In 1877, a grain storage company, Munn and Scott, was found guilty for violating the Illinois granger law, which set a maximum grain storage charge. The case was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that because the company was in a business that affected the public interest, the state government of Illinois could in fact regulate the company.

• Wabash v. Illinois - This case overturned Munn v. Illinois created the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, the first federal regulation of business in the United States. This act forced railroad companies to publish their rates with the government and banned railroads from charging different rates for short and long hauls. This 1887 act also created the Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated the rates of railroads and ensured the rates remained “reasonable and just”.

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A JOINING OF TWO FORCES:

• Northern Farmer’s Alliance and the• Southern Farmer’s Alliance – 1870s • ______________________________• The Populist Party of 1890• Mary Lease from Kansas: “Kansans should raise less

corn and more hell!”• Southern Farmers Alliance did not include black farmers

– Racism still running too deep following the Civil War• Black farmers form Colored Farmers Alliance• Farmers Alliance Goals – Establish personal income

tax / issue greenbacks (inflationary currency) / regulate the railroads

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1892 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

• Omaha Platform – pro farmer / pro Greenbacks (FIAT money) / pro Industrial Union (Knights of Labor)• End the “hands-off” agenda of the U.S. Government

– Gilded Age• Government ownership of the railroads (West)• Finance Reform (Eastern Banks)• Enforce Sherman Anti-Trust Act• “16:1 oz” ratio for specie (silver to gold) to devalue

currency (Bi-metalism)• Australian Ballot (secret ballot)• Direct election of Senators (not by State Legislature)

– eventually passed with the 17th Amendment

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POPULIST PARTY & FREE SILVER•Why?

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•Populists believed that this would solve nearly all of the farmer’s problems•They wanted to use both silver and gold coins, which the government would buy -- thus increasing the amount of money in the country

• What?

•All money would be worthless, a situation that was bad for creditors (big banks) and good for debtors (farmers)

ELECTION OF 1892DEFEAT

• Won millions of votes out West, not on the East.• Decide to join forces with the Democratic Party to

get their agenda passed.• William Jennings Bryan: “Cross of Gold” Speech:

won the nomination.• -Americans were being crucified on a “cross of

gold.” • MEANING BIG BUSINESS WAS RUINING THE

COUNTRY!!

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COXEY’S ARMY

• Result of the Panic 1893: Like Pullman Strike

• Heading to Washington• 1894• Worthless waste of time

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A POPULIST PRESIDENT?

• William Jennings Bryan

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•Ran as a Populist President in 1896 on platform of Free Silver•Tried to attract Industrial workers to no avail.

“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” -- W.J. Bryan

•Big business opposes his run, Republicans win the White House, & Populists fade away

THE WIZARD OF OZ

• Written by Active Populist L. Frank Baum

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•Most things in the book represent something important to the Populist movement

THE WIZARD OF OZ

• Basic Symbols:

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Ruby Slippers - In the book, were actually “Silver Slippers” (magic of Free Silver)

Yellow Brick Road

- “Gold” many dangers for regular people (like Dorothy)

Oz - Abbreviation for Ounce (way gold is measured)

THE WIZARD OF OZ• Characters:

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Dorothy - Everyman

Scarecrow - Farmers

Tin Man - Industrial Workers

THE WIZARD OF OZ• Characters:

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Lion - William Jennings Byran

(a pacifist)

Toto Temperance

Activists (allies of

the Populists)Wizard - Preside

nt of the

United States

THE WIZARD OF OZ• Places:

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Emerald City - Washington D.C. (in the book, the color came from Green Glasses that everyone wore, a trick)Good Witches

of North & South

- Directions where Populists had friends (Midwest and South)

THE WIZARD OF OZ

• Wicked Witch of the West – Drought – she was killed with water

• Wicked Witch of the East – Bank – Populists wanted government reform of banks. She was killed when the House (Bank) fell on her

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