september 17 Agrarian Issues and Populist Movements (1865–1896)

End of farm isolation due to telephones and automobiles; closer contact with the outside world.
Shift from self-sufficient to commercial farming after 1850; after the Civil War, farmers produced large amounts of staple crops (e.g., corn and wheat) for domestic and overseas sale.
Credit problems: need long-term loans for land, livestock, machines; short-term loans to bridge to harvest.
Labor: full-time hired hands and migrant labor during peak seasons.
Production: aim for maximum harvest at minimum cost; use expensive machines on large farms.
Prices: affected by marketplace; good or bad times depend on price received for crops.
Supplies: reliance on manufactured goods and other farmers for food.

Low agricultural prices; prices fell as demand dropped and new competition emerged (e.g., from Argentina, Australia, Canada).
Insufficient and expensive credit; farmers viewed as poor credit risks; banks reluctant to lend; usury defined as lending at unreasonably high rates.
High interest rates up to $25\%$ per year; mortgage defaults leading to loss of homes and farms.
Distribution margins: farmers earned about half the price city consumers paid; blamed grain storage elevators, packing houses, insurance, wholesalers, and railroads.
Railroads: monopolies with routine rates set by what the traffic bears; bad service; discrimination between short and long hauls; lack of state regulation prior to federal action.
High industrial prices due to tariffs protecting manufacturers.
Growth of business monopolies restricting competition.

Farmers joined organizations: the Grange, the Greenback Labor Party, and the Populist Party to seek government help; marked shift away from laissez-faire toward government responsibility for economic wellbeing.
Grange (Patrons of Husbandry) founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley; local farmer clubs and political activity; Granger laws in several states.
Wabash v. Illinois (1886): railroads in interstate commerce not subject to state regulation.
Grangers established cooperatives (co-ops) to grade, pack, sell, ship crops, and buy equipment; profits returned to members; early co-ops struggled due to capital and management limits.
Interstate Commerce Act (1887): federal regulation of railroads; banned discrimination in rates/rebates; required ten-day notice and public posting of rates; created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).
ICC was weak but established the precedent of federal regulation of private interstate businesses; enforcement limited by law language, complexity, and reliance on Supreme Court support.
Grange contributions: stimulated mail-order houses (Montgomery Ward, Sears, Roebuck); social activities; helped farm cooperatives.

Farmers sought cheap money (inflation) to ease debt; valued devaluation of money relative to debt repayment.
Greenbacks: federal issue of over $4\times 10^{8}$ in greenbacks during Civil War; recall after war; Species Resumption Act (1875) fixed greenbacks around $4\times 10^{8}$ to gold, causing deflation.
Greenback Movement: large protests; Greenback Labor Party peaked in 1878 with > $10^{6}$ votes; declined afterward.
Silver question: coinage of silver ended by the Coinage Act (1873) (demonetization, the Crime of ’73) despite new silver finds.
Silver proponents argued for resuming coinage at ratio $\frac{16}{1}$ (silver to gold) to increase money supply; supported by farmers.
Silver Purchase Acts (1878, 1890) bought silver to back currency, but did not stop price declines; gold reserves fell by 1893.
President Grover Cleveland repealed the Silver Purchase Act, pursued gold via bonds (Wall Street bank involvement) to preserve the gold standard; opposed by silver interests and farmers.

Farmers formed alliances; populists emerged (late 1880s–1890s): push for monetary reform, political reforms, and government ownership of key systems.
Omaha Convention (1892) platform: free and unlimited coinage of silver at $\frac{16}{1}$ ; graduated income tax; government ownership of telegraph, railroad, and telephone; direct election of senators; secret ballot.
Labor alignment: shorter working hours; restrictions on immigration.
Populist success: > $10^{6}$ popular votes in 1892; 22 electoral votes (mostly in the West); 1894 gains in Congress.

Democratic nominee: William Jennings Bryan (silver advocate) delivered the Cross of Gold speech; campaigned for free silver and economic reform.
Republican nominee: William McKinley; supported gold standard, high tariffs, and limited government interference; campaign managed by Marcus Hanna with large contributions.
Bryan supported by farmers and silver interests; McKinley drew strength from bankers and industrialists; Bryan carried the South and West, but McKinley won the industrial North/East.
Result: McKinley won the electoral college; Populist Party faded soon after; many populist goals influenced the later Progressive Movement.

Note: Figures in text are summarized as key values: price changes, money supply concepts, and political gains for quick recall.