Apush Dbq Essay

In the late nineteenth century, farmers faced problems that they saw as threats to the lifestyle they lived. Monopolies, trusts, railroads, money shortages and distribution of silver were the reasons why these agrarian people were discontent, and they had the right to complain about any of these things. Although some may say that the complaints made by these agrarians are not valid, farmers did indeed have their fair share of problems. As a result of these problems, the Populist Party which was made up of farmers arose because of reasons that the farmers thought caused agricultural decline, giving valid reasons to be discontent and not happy with the unfairness they had to go through in an unprotected world market. In the late 1800s deflation

In Document D, it shows that farmers blamed the “Eastern Master” because no one came to aid them while their prices fell. The Populist Party thought that “free silver” was the answer to the farmer’s problems and without it, they thought it was a “vast conspiracy against mankind,” and it also emphasized that it “would not make labor easier, the hours shorter, or the pay better.”(Doc B). Frank Norris wrote The Octopus as seen in Document H in regards to how farmers felt. Former president William McKinley on the other hand, stated that silver would lead to more problems. Farmers would be the “first effected by silver and the last to recover from them...”(Doc B). In Document B it states that “it is mere pretense to attribute the hard times to the fact that all our currency is on a gold basis,” and Document H shows evidence of this when Dyke says to

In most cases their complaints were valid. Unfairness was shown in contrast to the success industrialized businessmen were experiencing compared to the farmers experience. Also, crops such as cotton and wheat which were two essential crops to American society and now were selling at prices so low that it was almost impossible for farmers to make a profit off their crops, many farmers invested in things that made it worse as well. Finally, transportation became a problem because it allowed competition from foreign countries to emerge which made it harder for American farmers to get rid of surplus crop, so crops were transported on railroads with ridiculous rates attached. Finally, in the Midwest droughts were happening and the degeneration of business’s in the 1890's devastated many of the nation’s farmers showing that farmers did have the right to complain and should have been discontent with what was going