The Farmer's Revolt
Farmers were once known for being able to do everything themselves. They grew their own food and sewed their own clothes. People often yearn for the old days and complain about so many people living in cities. Many farmers had to give up their farms and move to the cities, because of something that happened in the late nineteenth century. High prices forced farmers to concentrate on one crop. The large-scale farmers bought expensive machines, increasing their crop yield. This caused the smaller farmers to be left behind. The small farmers could no longer compete and were forced give up their farms and look for jobs in the cities. The smaller farmers who stayed blamed their troubles on banks and railroads. In the 1890's western and southern farmers came together to make up the political party called the Populist Party. Their plan was to take control of the White House; then they could solve all their problems. The increase in crop yield caused a change in the economy, which the party set out to straighten out in 1892. On their party platform
" All the problems and troubles of the farmers were caused by the invention of new farming machines. Poet Vachel Lindsay wrote a poem concerning the subject, entitled, "BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN: The campaign of 1896 as viewed at the Time by a Sixteen Year Old, etc. All of these documents mentioned simply aid as to show what exactly the party wanted, and how the economy changed, and what they would do. " James Laurence Laughlin wrote an article "Causes of Agricultural Unrest" that was published in the Atlantic Monthly. Since the increase in crop yield, this caused overproduction, which resulted in farmers having to lower their prices greatly. They would have taken control of the railroad and used it for the people, lowered the interest rate, established the legal coinage ratio, and established a fair income tax. They also wished to set the economy straight and asked for an unlimited coinage of gold and silver at a ratio of sixteen to one and a graduated income tax. A farmer wrote a letter to the editor of a Populist newspaper that read, "We will get permanent relief only when the government owns the railroad and when we have government banks where we can get money at a small rate of interest. As the amount of crops produced increased, the prices paid for them decreased. The railroad was charging extremely high prices to transport grain. The railroads were being greedy and had huge transportation fees. In it he blamed the ruin of the farmers on "protective tariffs, trusts. These machines were expensive and small farmers could not afford them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**.
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