THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER
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Transcript of THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER
THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER
• Homestead Act of 1862 • 160 acres of land by living on it 5 yrs,
improving it, and paying a small fee averaging about $30 (as low as $10)
• Land given away to
encourage settlement of West
Cont. • About 500,000 pioneer families migrated west. • 2/3 - forced to give up - inadequate plots and
drought, hail, and ravage from insects. • Railroads played a role in taming the West. • Improved irrigation techniques • Flour-milling process by John Pillsbury of
Minneapolis, increased grain demand
THE FAR WEST COMES OF AGE
• 1888-1889: 6 new States
• Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889 - Nearly 100, 000 "boomers" – "Sooners" – land-grabbers who claimed land illegally
before land rush began. • In 1890, census - first time in U.S. History, a
frontier line no longer existed! – Once frontier was gone, farmers could not move west
in significant numbers.
THE FADING FRONTIER
• "Safety valve" theory - Americans known for their mobility – farmers rarely remained in same place –hard times - moved west.
• Free acreage did lure immigrant farmers who would otherwise have lived in overcrowded eastern slums. There was the POSSIBILITY of westward migration.
• Frederick Jackson Turner - argued closing of the frontier had ended an era in American history.
THE FARM BECOMES A FACTORY• Farmers - single cash-crop• World’s breadbasket • Massive migration of white and black
Americans out of Southern Cotton Belt. • Commercial agriculture run by big businesses
– “Bonanza Farms”
DEFLATION DOOMS THE DEBTOR • "Crop lien" system - impossible for farmer to get out
of debt. • Deflated currency, low food prices chief worries
among farmers. • Natural disasters – bugs, floods, drought• Government-added woes:– Farmers’ land often overvalued – high taxes– Protective tariffs – trusts – Railroads – high rates ignored
UNHAPPY FARMERS • Mother Nature unleashed powerful forces
on the farmers:– Grasshoppers and cotton-boll weevil– Floods led to erosion in south – Droughts in west
THE FARMERS TAKE THEIR STAND
• National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (The Grange) 1867 - social & educational activities – Oliver Kelley
• Granger (state) Laws - wanted gov't control over big business to benefit the people.
• Munn vs. Illinois (1877)• Wabash case (1886)• Greenback Labor Party
Rise of Populist Party • Farmers’ Alliances - like Grangers, sponsored social
events, political action, cooperatives, and gov't regulation of railroads and manufacturers.
• The People’s Party (Populist Party) early 1890s through the Farmer’s Alliances (started in Topeka, Kansas).
• Ignatius Donnelly • Mary E. Lease
Populist Party convention held at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15, 1890
COXEY’S ARMY AND THE PULLMAN STRIKE
• Coxey’s Army (1894) - unemployed on Washington, DC – Coxey’s platform included a demand for gov’t to
relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program + increase money supply by $500 million
• Pullman Strike, 1894 Eugene V. Debs helped organize American Railway Union
– First time gov’t used an injunction to break a strike
GOLDEN MCKINLEY AND SILVER BRYAN
• Election of 1896 • William McKinley - Republican • William Jennings Bryan – Democrat• Democrats refused to endorse Cleveland for his
silver-purchase repeal, Pullman Strike action, and Morgan bond deal; move suicidal to the party’s hopes in 96’ -- Cleveland left office an extremely unpopular man.
• Cross of Gold speech given at Democratic convention in Chicago
-- "We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: ‘You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
• Democratic platform: unlimited coinage of silver (16 to 1). Bryan - People’s party
Cynical political cartoon of the speech from the magazine Judge.
CLASS CONFLICT: PLOWHOLDERS VERSUS BONDHOLDERS • Silver issue at the forefront • McKinley defeated Bryan 271-176 • McKinley won Northeast and North (HOW?????);
Bryan in South & West • Legacy of Populism - Populism failed as a 3rd Party • Populist ideas that carried forward during the
Progressive Era (1900-1920): railroad legislation, graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, initiative, referendum and recall