The Agrarian Revolt and Election of 1896

• Farmer Problems
  • World-wide glut of agricultural products
    • world wide trade
    • the Suez Canal makes the world much smaller, which leads to much more competition
  • Machinery was very expensive because of the tariff, amongst other reasons
  • Huge debt and charged high interest rates from the banks
  • Deflation and contraction of currency
    • lower prices and less money in circulation caused problems for farmers
  • Over production by farmers- new lands and new technology. This is the biggest reason!
• Foreclosures and Tenant Farmers
  • Tenant Farmers have everything they need to become farmers except land
  • Share croppers had nothing except for their labor
• Who to blame other than themselves?
  • Railroads are the number one scapegoat. The farmers had a love hate relationship with the railroads since they needed them, but the railroads took advantage of them.
    • Railroads didn't offer long vs short haul discrimination. It was the same price for a short ride as a long ride.
    • No secret rebates
    • Didn't publish their rates
  • Banks
    • Land was not used as a colateral for loans, even though land was the only thing farmers had that was of value to a non-farmer
    • Banks also did not do "short season" loans
  • Government: high taxes and tariffs
  • Trusts/Monopolies: raising prices
• Other issues
  • loneliness
  • natural disasters: floods, blizzards, crop diseases, droughts
• Early Farm Organizations
  • Patrons of husbandry (National Grange) founded by Oliver H Kelley
  • The Grange Movement
    • first organized in the 1870s in the Midwest, South, and especially Texas
    • social and educational purposes
    • created cooperatives
    • succeeded in lobbying for "Granger Laws"
      • first state to pass granger laws was Massachusetts
    • Munn vs. Illinois 1877 said it was ok for the government regulation of railroads, even though it was overturned by the Wabash case 8 years later
    • Rapidly declined by the late 1870s
  • The Farmers Alliances
    • began mid 1880s, Texas was first in the Southern Alliance; then in the Midwest the Western Alliance
    • built upon the "ashes" of the Grange
    • More political and less social than the Grange
    • rand candidates for office
    • Eventually the farmer's revolt would control 8 state legislatures and had 47 rep.s in Congress
    • In 1889 the Southern and Midwestern Alliances combined, founded by Charles W Macune
  • The National Farmer's Alliance and Industrial Union
    • met in Ocala, Florida "Ocala Demands"
      • better cooperatives
      • Macune's Sub-treasury System
        • the government establishes warehouses to store wheat
        • when the wheat value is low, farmers can sell the grain to the warehouses for 80% market value in greenbacks
        • this is good because it gives farmers more money and it also inflates the currency
      • more national banks
      • free coinage of silver
      • government regulation of RR and telegraphs (maybe ownership if necessary)
      • secret ballot
      • one six-year term for the President
      • postal banks
      • women's suffrage
      • Initiative, referendum, and recall
  • The Populist (Peoples') Party
    • In the 1890 Midterm Election
      • Southern Alliance wanted to gain support of the Democratic Part
      • Western Alliance ran 3rd Party candidates
      • Colored Farmers Alliance and cooperative union with 1 million members joined later
    • In 1892 800 met in St. Louis to organize
      • majority were alliance members
      • knights of labor, prohibitionists, Henry George single taxers, socialists, communists, etc.
    • Leaders
      • Leonidas Polk of NC
      • James B. Weaver
      • Tom Watson of GA
      • Mary "Yellen" Lease of KS
      • "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman of SC
    • Met in Omaha, Nebraska in 1892. The Omaha Platform is almost exactly the same as the Ocala Demands
    • Problems
      • West and South couldn't agree
      • Farmers vs. Factory workers
      • Black vs. White (Democrats played the race card)
• 1892 Presidential Election
  • Grover Cleveland vs. Benjamin Harrison
  • Same candidates as 1888! This time, Cleveland would be elected and not Harrison.
  • Harrison lost because
    • Homestead Steel Strike and others 1892
    • High 48.4% McKinley Tariff
    • Voters demanded fiscal conservatism (the people were tired of government spending).
• The Panic/Depression of 1893
  • Causes
    • Labor Troubles- 1892 was the "year of the strike"
    • Agricultural Depression continues
    • Europeans demanded gold payment
    • Bimetallism argument weakened the dollar abroad
    • Lots of government bonds sold, and many concerned about repayment
  • Trigger- collapse of the Philly and Reading RR
  • Domino Effect
    • led to stock market collapse (sell off)
    • Drain on the gold reserve (too much paper)
    • factories close
    • unemployment shoots to 19%
    • Chicago burns again in 1893- at least part of it
  • Cleveland's over-simplified "Solution"?
    • Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 is problem
    • "Safety Net" ($350 m in paper money backed by $100 m in gold bullion) is in jeopardy as peeps cashed in paper for gold coins
    • divides the Democratic Party into the gold bugs and the silverites.
    • The Silverites' Solution was the free and unlimited coinage of silver. Coin's Financial School by William Hope Harvey.
    • Desperate Cleveland decides to borrow money and buy gold from JP Morgan $65m
  • The Politics of Depression- Heplessness
    • Pullman Strike of 1894 shuts down rail service to much of the nation
    • Hobos appear for the first time
    • Jacob Coxey and his Army to see Cleveland "Good Roads Bill"
    • Cleveland led the first ever "March on Washington"
• Other Events under Cleveland
  • Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894
    • In exchange for lower tariff, there was an income tax provision, but that part was delcared unconsititional by Pollock vs. Farmers Loan and Trust Company 1895
  • Cleveland's Attorney General Richard Olney refused to prosecute business under either the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Anti trust Act
• Republican Ascendancy
  • Congressional Election of 1894 or Midterm Election
    • The Democrats get blamed for the Depression.
    • Fusionist Movement in some states: the Republican and Populist parties fused together pretty successfully. They didn't necessarily agree all the time, but they were both anti-Democrat party.
    • Populist influence in 1894 unsettled the major two parties.
    • Democratic losses in the West were Catastrophic.
    • Republicans won control of the house.
  • Presidential Election of 1896
    • The Democrats: Split between gold bugs and silver bugs. The mystery was the "old Populists." Chautauqua Speaker William Jennings Bryan from Nebraska gives the "Cross of Gold" Speech.
    • Republicans: Congressman William McKinley of Ohio and a pawn of Railroad magnate Mark Hanna
    • The Campaign of 1896 was called David (Bryan) vs Goliath (McKinley). McKinley chose to do a dignified "Front-Porch" campaign.
    • Bryan's Platform in the Election of 1896
      • tariff reductions, income taz, stricter control of the trusts(especially of railroads), free silver
  • Why did Bryan loose?
    • He hid focus on silver undermined efforts to build bridges to urban voters. In other words, he alienated the factory workers, since they didn't care as much as the farmers about free silver.
    • On the other hand many populists like Mary Lease were not happy with the sell out to the Democrats.
    • He did not form alliances with other groups.
    • Bryan could not compete with 6 million dollars. McKinley's campaign was well-organized and voter intimidation was rampant. (No secret ballot yet.)
• The McKinley Presidency
  • 36 year domination by the Republicans (Ultra-conservative called "Standpatters" or "Old Gaurd"). The only Democratic President in this 36 year period was Woodrow Wilson.
  • Dingley Tariff- is the last tariff of the 19th century. 46.5% tariff in keeping with Republican tradition, since the court declared the income tax unconstitutional.
  • American farmers "celebrate" crop failures in Europe
  • Gold or Currency Standard Act of 1900 (thanks to the Yukon Gold Rush and Australia)
  • Why did Populism Decline?
    • The economy picked back up again.
    • The era of small producers and farmers was fading away. Today small producers are about 3%,
    • Rae relations divided the populist party, especially in the South.
    • The populists were not able to break existing party loyalties.
    • Most of their agenda was co-opted by the Democratic Party. Aka they stole a lot of the Democratic ideology.
    • Populists fused with the Republicans, Democrats, or just dropped out of politics.
    • Was reform dead?