Lesson 10.4

Blue Highlighter = Definitely Important

Red highlighter = teacher said it’s important

ALMOST ALL OF THIS LESSON IS IMPORTANT

economic problems faced by farmers:

• farmers were losing money

• farmers went into debt

• farmers lost their land

causes of the economic problems:

• farm prices dropped sharply

• interest rates on loans went up

• industrialization of cities

• mechanism of farms

actions farmers took to solve the problems

• organized alliances (the grange and the populist party)

Farmers worked hard while bankers took advantage

Railroads and Banks set rates very high without regard to the negative effects on people (farmers)

Goals of the Farmers Alliance:

• persuade the government to form postal banks with low-interest loans

• to force railroads to lower prices

It was with mixed success

GRASSROOTS: The bottom level of government (from the grassroots up”

POPULIST PARTY: Diverse groups that felt the gov. was not addressing their interests (mostly appealed to farmers)

William JB ( a presidential candidate for the Populist Party) acknowledged they didn’t have a great deal of money and used phrases like “the plain people of this country”, “our”, and “we” statements

The populist party was weakened when the democrats also nominated WJB

Democrats claimed populism would lead to black supremacy which drove whites away