Populist Movement In The 1890s

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Farmers and workers began to organize in the late 1860s and succeeded in building powerful national organizations to oppose, as a Nebraska newspaper put it “ The wealthy and powerful classes who want the control of government to plunder the people.” As the nation’s most important, the railroad played a large part in generating this unrest. By the end of the century, the communities whose livelihoods depended directly or indirectly on the railroads presented the most significant challenge to the two-party system since the Civil War. The Populist Movement is a major third party of the 1890s formed on the basis of Southern Farmers’ Alliance and the other reform organizations. The populist party is also known as the people’s party. This paper will …show more content…

To control inflation, the Government takes currency out of circulation and uses the gold standard, causing deflation. Farmers were hurt by deflation, over-production, and high tariffs. Farmers organized the grangers. A granger is the national grange of the patrons of husbandry, a national organization of farm owners, which was formed after the Civil War. Granger laws were then set up because of Munn v. Illinois, which stated that state laws enacted in the Midwest in the 1870s that regulated rates charged by railroads, grain elevator operators, and other middlemen. The United States Supreme Court declared granger laws against railroads unconstitutional in Wabash v. Illinois. Grangers mounted their greatest assault on the railroad corporations. The grangers go into decline because of the United States Supreme Court decision. The Farmer’s Alliance formed their platform by giving free silver to cause inflation and raise prices for farm products. In 1887, the Interstate Commerce Act was passed by Congress. The Interstate Commerce Act is a federal law that was designed to maintain the railroad industry. The Interstate Commerce Act was also designed to make sure there was no practices of monopoly. This act does not state a specific rate for railroads, but one of the requirements was for the rates to be reasonable and