Topic 10.4: Farmers and Populism

• Unrest in Rural America– Falling Prices and Rising Debt

• Greenbacks: U.S. paper money • Inflation: money loses value, higher

prices• Deflation: lower prices, higher

buying power– Deflation Hurts Farmers

• The Crime of ’73: The decision of the government to stop the minting of silver

The Grange– The Grange Takes Action: Oliver H. Kelley: 1867– Focused on teaching farmers NEW TECHNIQUES

MEANT TO INCREASE PROFIT

– The Grange Fails• Didn’t change economic problems of

farmers• Railroads fought back by cutting

services and refusing to lay more track• Wabash v. Illinois: limited a state’s

ability to regulate the railroads, states could not regulate interstate commerce

• The Farmers’ Alliance• Lampasas County, Texas 1877

• Cooperatives: Marketing Organizations to benefit members

– The Alliance Grows• Kansas

• Nebraska

• North Dakota

• South Dakota

• South and Great Plains

– The People’s Party: Populists– The Sub-treasury Plan: called for the government to

set up warehouses where farmers could store crops for low-interest loans until prices increased.

The Beginnings of Populism

• Populism: a political movement founded in the 1890s that mainly: 1) represented farmers, 2) favored free coinage of silver, and 3) favored government control of railroads and other big industries