The Farmer’s Revolt

Farmers OrganizeAgriculture’s Decline• 1860: 50% of wealth and 30% of national income• 1910: 20% of wealth and 18% of income

Agriculture’s Response• 1867 Nat’l Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry • 1860 – 1870s Grange Movement

– Cooperatives, rural mail delivery, farm credit, temperance, direct election of Senators, social events

• 1877 Charles Macune of Texas, and the Farmers’ Alliance– 1.5 million white farmers– 1 million black farmers– Sub-treasury plan

Mary Lease

“Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.”

Farmers should “raise less corn and more hell.”

People’s Party is Born

• 1891 People’s Party formed in Nebraska. Nicknamed the Populist Party.

• Omaha Platform, 1892– Labor Theory of Value (Marxist concept)– Silver/Bimetallic Coinage (inflationary)– Income Tax (progressive, not regressive)– Sub-treasury/Public Warehousing (public subsidy)– Public ownership of railroads (socialism?)

Tom Watson

“You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both.”

Election 1892: President Cleveland (Again!)

Populists in the Election of 1892

Grover Cleveland (D): 46% 5.6 million 277 EC

Benjamin Harrison (R): 43% 5.2 million 145 EC

James Weaver (P): 9% 1 million 22

Election NumbersCleveland (D)

In 88: 5.50 million in pop vote, 168 in Electoral CollegeIn 92: 5.55 million in pop vote, 277 in Electoral College

Harrison (R)In 88: 5.4 million in pop vote, 233 in Electoral CollegeIn 92: 5.2 million in pop vote, 145 in Electoral College

Weaver (P)In 92: 1 million in pop vote, 22 in Electoral College

So? Electorate grows, but northern Republican voters in rural, farming areas go Populist while southern Democratic votes in rural, farming areas remain loyal to Democratic party.

Lesson for Populism? Seek Southern Democrat farm voters for 1896.

1896

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydrq2-j92cUMcKinley Bryan

Election: A Year of Realignment

McKinley (R): 7.1 million51%271 EC

Bryan (D/P): 6.5 million47%176

Economic woes of the 1895 recession ended, worker strife in declined, farmer suffering abated, McKinley advocated stronger American involvement in Pacific as patriotic mission, many Populists (especially in North) rejected an alliance with the Democratic Party.

“Hayseed” Socialism?

Why did Populism fail at the electoral level?Why did worker struggles and farmer struggles

result in defeat, particularly in comparison to farmer-labor alliances in other nations?

Why no socialism in the USA?Legacies of Populism?Role of Third Parties in US system- Populism,

Progressivism, Socialist, Libertarian, Reform, Green, etc?