HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Nationstates, William Jennings Bryan, Money Supply
HIUS 131 – Lecture 10 – The Populist Revolt
Dorothy and the Emerald City
• Wizard of Oz
• Aunt and Uncle changed by hard times, no longer laugh or have fun
• Historians: allegory of populist revolt; fantasy story about populism/populist movement
Frank L. Baum
• Same age as Bellamy, grappled with same issues as him
• Spent time in South Dakota writing for a newspaper until it failed, observing the struggles of
American farmers
o Cotiued to osere farers’ reolt/populist reolutio fro Chiago, here he oed
after SD
• Supporter of Bryant during election of 1896
The Farer’s Dilea
• Increasing distress and poverty among farmers
• High tariffs
o US government placed taxes on imported goods
o Industrialists liked this, it protected US products and forced consumers to buy American
o Not good for farmers who had to buy farm machinery
• Having to pay more for products that they increasingly needed in order to run farms
• Had to pay exorbitant railroad rates in order to transport products
o Railroads in most areas were monopolies, no competition, so farmers had to pay what the
railroads charged, which was a lot
• Declining prices for farm products/goods, especially cotton
o Industrialization in Europe and the US spurred nation-states to seek out new producers of
raw materials
o Prior to CW, American South was leading producer of cotton on world market; after CW
South encourages pre-CW levels of cotton production, but by this time Egypt, Brazil, and
India were also producing cotton, so price of cotton going down
• Good for consumers, textile manufacturers, but bad for farmers that were growing
cotton
• Same thing happened with wheat
• Paying more for agricultural products and bringing in less money for goods they were producing
• To make ends meet, borrow from merchants/banks and paying high interest rates
• Those that wanted to sell their land to get out from under debt found that years of drought made
their farms almost worthless
o Could’t ee sell out at a profit
• No matter how hard they worked, the only people that got rich were eastern manufacturers,
railroads, bankers, and merchants
• Small-scale white farmers in the south had it the worst
o Most lived in up-country areas of south, away from plantations
o Before CW, did not own slaves
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Fought reluctantly for Confederate cause, many had been drafted in CW
o Return home to find that farms destroyed by CW battles, plundering
o To get back on their feet, start borrowing, but can never get out from under debt
o By 1880s, many farmers facing possibility of losing farms to the banks
o iles to the earest post office, 100 miles to wood, 20 miles to water, and 6 inches to
hell
The People’s Party ad Populis
• Largest 3rd part movement in US history
• Populism a far-reaching and radical challenge to rise of industrial capitalism
• During 1880s, farmers began to organize in local communities in order to discuss/think about
ways to improve their situation/write the wrongs they felt were engulfing them, began to organize
farer’s alliaes
o Social, share suffering, think of ways to put US on different course
• at a eetig i Oaha, Neraska, represetaties of farer’s alliaes ae together to
for politial part: People’s/Populist Part
• Party of poor, white farmers
• Omaha Platform
o Government ownership of railroads
o Income tax
• NOT to support expenses of nation-state
• Some people have too much wealth; very rich are using their wealth to destroy
democracy through bribing
▪ Radical democrats in this sense
o Free coinage of money
• Silver standard
• Wanted more money in circulation
▪ If money supply got too tight, they would be paying debts back with money that
was worth more than what they had borrowed
▪ If money supply was large, they would be paying debts back with money that
was worth less
o Laws against monopolies
o Federal government should open banks in post offices, where farmers could borrow money
at a fair interest rate
• Were’t allig for goeret to oertake priate ak, ut goeret should
create own banks to give loans to poor people
o Sub-treasury plan
• Farmers market crops through local, popularly controlled, government-owned
agencies
• Pool crops, store them in local warehouse; warehouse gives us an advance on crops to
tide them over; warehouse would hold pooled crops until prices rose, then sell
• Circumvent fluctuations of world market
o End to immigration
• Wanted to get support from industrial workers
• Intense suffering leading farmers to question the direction in which the nation was moving
• Not seeking limited program to help themselves; they wanted to place US on entirely new footing
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com