Mary E. Lease's Role In The Populist Party

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Mary E. Lease, the child of Irish immigrants, is most commonly known for her role in the Populist Party and her most famous saying, “ farmers should raise less corn and raise more hell”. Yet most do not know in addition to being a key member of the populist party and helping solve farmers problems she also helped form labor unions and social changes for women. In 1889 Kansas experienced severe droughts,high shipping costs and mortgages and many foreclosures. This helped organize the Populist Party.In 1890 a growing revolt started with Kansas farmers.The revolt was against the high interest, mortgages and railroad rates that the farmer were forced to pay.At the same time Mary E. Lease and her husband,Charles, had just left Texas after some unsuccessful farming ventures and moved to to Kansas. Since she and her husband were Kansas farmers she participated in the revolts and became the face of the Populist Party. With the Populist Party Mary spoke all over the United States and advocated for regulation over railroad rates,free trade and as a whole the Party advocated for the …show more content…

The goal of the Kansas Farmer’s Alliance was to give the farmers more of a say in buying their supplies and selling their products.Then the Alliance started to fail due to lack of money, management and support.With the fail of the Alliance most of the members joined the Populist