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How Technology Government Policy And Economic Conditions Changed American Agriculture

435 Words2 Pages

Moi Banerjee
1/7/14
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Technology, government policy and economic conditions changed the American agriculture drastically in the period 1865-1900. Technology increased hugely over the years but the prices were outrageous to the agriculture society. Because farmers could not afford anything, they lived in poor conditions. Although the farmers were the “front-face” of the society and provided everything for the country, people were forgetting about the, and they were not being represented enough in the government and its policy. The United States were growing very fast; technology made job conditions easier to work with. With the new technological advancements, the country was getting easier to access. The railroads were replacing old methods of transportation. From 1870 to 1890, the number of railroads grew immensely with the major land grants (Document B). With technological innovations such as steel plows and mechanical reapers, it made agriculture easier. But, it hurt farmers more as they did not receive much money since they were taken by the power hungry railroad …show more content…

They were a laissez-faire type of government. The Republicans favored all the power-hungry company heads and the large, booming industries and represented them well. So, the farmers were not well represented in the US Government and was not helped anywhere. But, the people in Illinois were able to secure a victory when the Supreme Court allowed Illinois legislature to pass a law to decrease freight rates (Document C). Strong leaders like Mary Elizabeth Lease suggested to the people that the government was lying and deceiving them and she backed her argument with overproduction (Document G). The Republicans did not support the farmers and they hurt the economy because they were the type of government who would not help their fellow

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