Farmers and the Rise of the Populist Party                        

    Hazards to Farmers

Declining prices

Debt (Crop-lien system)

     Southern Alliance

Unethical business practices of railroads

Bribes

"Stock-watering" (increase the number of stocks without adding to assets)

Natural Monopoly

"pooling"- dividing up RR traffic of the same route to cover costs

The Grange

Founded in 1867 by Oliver Hudson Kelley

Set up mills, factories, banks, insurance companies, grain elevators, and

Cooperatives

1.5 million members by 1874

Granger Laws

Passed in some states as an effort by farmers to stop the unfair

     business practices of the RR

Private Businesses Object

RR lawyers cited the fourteenth amendment

Grange believed laissez-faire rules do not apply to monopolies

Munn vs. Illinois (1877)

The Supreme Court backs the Grangers

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

After the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. announced a 10% wage cut,

     workers went on strike across the country.

2/3 of the nation's trains were halted

Interstate Commerce Act (1887)

Railroads must be "reasonable and just"

Forbid pooling and rebates

Required them to publish rates and give advance notice of ratechanges

The Act was an eventual failure

Farmers demand "Cheap Money"

Inflation

DEFLATION

DEFLATION was rampant for 3 decades after the Civil War, and pricesreceived by farmers dropped by 2/3.

Gold Standard- the nation makes all its currency convertible into gold rather than gold and silver

Free Silver- Farmers demand that all silver mined and brought to the mint be coined Bland-Allison Act

Election of 1892- The Rise of the Populist Party

Originated from the Southern and Northern Alliances

Demanded:

Free silver                                    

More paper currency                    

Cheaper credit

Condemned:

Political corruption

Newspapers dominated by business

Condition of labor

Benjamin Harrison and the "Billion-Dollar Congress"

Pension Act

Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890

Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890

McKinley Tariff Bill

Strikes

Homestead Strike

Strike against pay for steel workers

Pinkerton Guards were brought in

Pullman Strike

Led by Eugene V. Debs, members of the American Railway

           Union struck

When the Pullman Palace Car Co. cut wages by 1/3.

The Haymarket Riot

Workers for McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago clashed

           with police, resulting in a bomb being thrown at police.

8 German Anarchists were blamed for the incident

The strikes and riots were a direct result of the DEPRESSION OF 1893

Election of 1896

William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan

Bryan-

"You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns,

You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold"

Huge proponent of "Free Silver"

Campaign endorsements from businesses pushed McKinley far ahead

Unions

Molly McGuires

Irish miners who worked for Reading RR in Pennsylvania resorted to

Sabotage and murder

The Knights of Labor

Open to all workers in every field

Platform:

End to child and convict labor

Equal pay for women

Safety codes

8 hour day

Nationalization of RR and telegraph lines

American Federation of Labor

Focus on labor issues and skilled workers

Worked within capitalism 

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