Chapter 25

Mechanization of Agriculture

Use of machines (reapers, tractors) that increased farm productivity but reduced farm labor needs contributing to rural debt / urban migration

Populists

Members of People’s Party

Represented farmers / workers demanding reforms like free silver, railroad regulation, direct election of senators

Homestead Strike

Violent labor conflict at Carnegie Steel in PA

Weakened unions after federal troops sided w/ management

Grandfather Clause

Laws allow voting only if one’s grandfather voted before Civil War

Disenfranchising African Americans

Pullman Strike

Nationwide railroad strike crushed by federal troops

Show gov support for business over labor

Fourth Party System

Period of political dominance by Republicans (1896 - 1932)

Emphasize big business, industrial growth, gold standard

Gold Standard Act

Law placing US currency firmly on gold, favoring bankers and industrialists over farmers

Oliver H Kelley

Founder of the Grange

Promote farmer cooperation and regulation of railroads

Mary Elizabeth Lease

Populist speaker urging farmers to oppose banks and railroads and demand econ reform

James B Weaver

Populist presidential candidate advocating free silver and gov ownership of railroads

Eugene Victor Debs

Labor leader / socialist who led Pullman Strike and later ran for president

Grover Cleveland

Conservative Democratic president supporting gold standard / used fed troops to break strikes

Jacob S Coxey

Populist leader who led unemployed workers to march on Washington demanding gov jobs

Tom Watson

Southern Populist leader who initially supported Black-white farmer unity but later embraced racism

William McKinley

Republican president whose lection in 1896 marked the triumph of big business and the gold standard

Marcus Alonzo Hanna

Wealthy Republican strategist who financed McKinley’s campaign and strengthened business influence in politics