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
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. In 1890 clergyman Washington Gladden wrote an article called "The Embattled Farmers". This is shown by the graphs, "Production and Prices, 1860-1895" In 1860, only 1000 million bushels of corn was produced, and the price per bushel was about $. These machines were expensive and small farmers could not afford them. 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. " In it he mentioned the "Election at midnight; Boy Bryan's defeat" which was when the Populists lost the election. speculation in farm products, over-greedy middlemen, and exorbitant transportation rates. This forced them to be left behind when the lager farmers bought machines and increased crop yield. Since the increase in crop yield, this caused overproduction, which resulted in farmers having to lower their prices greatly. He then wrote "Defeat of the wheat; victory of the letterfiles" and "Defeat. The overproduction caused a decrease in price, which in turn raised interest rates. As the amount of crops produced increased, the prices paid for them decreased. 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.
Common topics in this essay:
Production Prices,
Revolt Farmers,
White House,
Populist Party,
Atlantic Monthly,
Boy Bryan's,
Texas Pittsburgh,
Embattled Farmers,
BRYAN BRYAN,
Vachel Lindsay,
crop yield,
bryan bryan,
crop yield caused,
yield caused,
increase crop yield,
populist party,
income tax,
cities farmers,
increase crop,
farmers bought,
bryan bryan bryan,
control railroad,
wrote article,
|
Acceptance Essays
