The Omaha Platform

The populists created a Farmers’ Alliance that began in Texas and it organized low cost insurance for farmers and put banks in their place with regulations. The Farmer’s Alliance also gave the government the ownership of the transportation system to regulate their costs and monopolies. When the Grangers lobbied for regulation of the

The Populist Party was the people’s party, hence the name Populist, the party was created in the late 1800s when the Southern Famer alliance contacted Powderly, the head of The Knights of Labor. The party’s first platform was called the Omaha Platform which called for the abolition of the national bank, graduated income tax, direct election of senators, civil service reform, an eight hour work week, and the gov’t control of railroads, telegraphs and telephones. The Populists supported the Prohibition

The Populist Party is often referred to as the party of and for the people, and is labeled as such because it was, very candidly, founded by the common people, such as farmers and other laborers. While this party was in power, they had many ambitions and ideas that they sought to spread to others, and aspired to achieve. To understand the topic completely, one requires a general knowledge of the formation of the populist party, the elemental beliefs, goals and ideals, and how the downfall of the party came about, as this will aid in the understanding of the populist party’s want of free coinage of silver and how it would have helped debtors initially, but would have had a comprehensive and unfavorable effect on the American economy

Farmers united to protect their interests, even creating a major political party. The party was called the peoples party which became known as the populist party. Populists drew its strength from rural areas. Populists tended to be poor and uneducated. They had ideas such as government ownership of major industries. The Populists supported labors demand for an eight

The period between 1870 and 1900 was a time to change politics. The country was for once free from war and was united as one nation. However, as these decades passed by, the American farmer found it harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the cash crop of agriculture, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit. Improvements in transportation allowed larger competitors to sell more easily and more cheaply, making it harder for American yeoman farmers to sell their crops. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the fall of business in the 1890s devastated the farming community. Most notably, the Populist Party arose to fight what farmers saw as the issues affecting

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s America was going through many changes and many of these were fought by the Populists. Silver being demonetized was another major problem for the Populists and they fought it along with asking for a national government regulated currency as well. The Populist Party also fought against the harsh taxes that were in place at the time in the United States. The biggest concern for many of the Populists was how to handle crop failures and how prices were to be controlled. All in all, the Populist movement was centered on helping out the farmers and improving the ever changing economy.

The Populist Party was hardly winning any support from the eastern and northeastern part of the United States. Most of the party’s goals would negatively affect the industrial economy and quite possibly cause a backward reform into the agricultural past. Another goal of the Omaha Platform was to transfer the operation and ownership of railroads to the government for the best interest of the people. They would also want to transfer the control of all types of communication such as, telegraphs and telephones to the government as well. This would hurt all the transportation and communication businesses in the country. Big business owner such as, Andrew Carnegie would be against the Omaha Platform and as people knew, money could control the government. If he did not own his own railroad company it would hurt his business significantly; it would for him to pay for transportation causing a chain reaction and raising the price of steel in reaction causing the price of anything with steel to

After 1880, the Grange gave rise to regional farmers’ alliances, which joined in 1892 to form the People’s Party. In the elections in the same year, their candidate gained 1 million popular votes showing the major political parties how serious the farmers’ issues were. The fall of the People’s party can be attributed to the financial panic that America faced in 1893. People started to embrace the idea of raising money supply by coining silver, which later became a burning issue in the 1896 Presidential election. Consequently, the populist joined forces with the Democratic party to support William Bryan for president who lost the seat to William McKinley, Republican. After the election, the party lost significant political power. 3.The New Deal It brought reforms in the sense that it raised the role of the American government in business and people’s welfare. When Roosevelt was elected, he made several changes to relief the starving individuals and the unemployed during the great depression

These events and conditions were the reason behind the foundation of the populist’s party and their platform. They declared “ that this republic can only endure as a free government while built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the nation.”(Populist party platform, 1892) They believed that they would be able to correct the wrong and bring back the power of the government to the people, and put end to the poverty through the platform they issued. Through the platform, they provided solutions to both economical and political problems. To begin with, they called for creating unions to defend the producing class and the labor to protect them and giving them back their stolen rights. Also, they declared that “ wealth belongs to him creates it” and any other sources of income are counted as robbery. In addition, the populist’s party regarded the railroads as a public corporation not to be owned privately to prevent any monopoly or increase in the costs to protect these poor farmers from exploitation. They called for the a safe, flexible, national currency to be issued by the government as well as free coinage of silver and gold in a ratio of 16:1. Regarding the taxes they demanded it would not exceed the 2 percentile per year and it should be graduated according to the income, so the rich

The final nominee in the 1912 Election was the Socialist Eugene Debs. Debs as a Socialist deeply cared for the needs of the worker and pledged to take the necessary steps to strengthen America’s working class. As a former Conventional Trade Unionist, Debs knew that reform was needed in order to change conditions for working Americans. “True socialists” however, differentiated themselves from “unionists” how sought for more industrial action than political action. Even though Roosevelt, Wilson and Debs seemed to express support to worker rights; each had his own position on the issue. Each advocated for different measures that would help the individual worker’s social needs as well financial needs. Taft, however, did not fully support the worker’s rights.

The Omaha Convention which took place in Omaha, Nebraska in 1892. According to Eric Foner, “ The platform put forth a long list of proposals…direct election of U.S. senators, government control of the currency, a graduated tax income, system of low-cost public financing to enable farmers to market their crops, and recognition of the right of workers to form labor union.” (Foner, 2010, p. 682) Although many farmers joined this cause, it was primarily farmers, and with the major population of United States consisting of industrial workers plans didn’t go far. Some Populists tried to gain more members by trying to unite black and white farmers as one but because of the racism between southern farmers, the alliance in the southern areas would not allow blacks from partaking in meetings. So Populist tried to join forces with factory workers by engaging and supporting the worker rights, but industrial workers didn’t appeal to the Populists ideology, though both fought against large corporations their political standpoint was different. Farmers wanted low tariff prices and higher priced agricultural resources

Due to “…falling agricultural prices and growing economic dependency” (Foner 636) in the mid-nineteenth century, farmers in the South began to face inevitable economic uncertainty. Farmers, both white and black alike, were thrown into poverty due to sharecropping and the fall of the price of cotton, and many faced the fear of losing everything they had due the inability to pay bank loans. Believing that their situation was caused by “…high freight rates…excessive interest rates for loans…and the fiscal policies of the government” (Foner 636), disgruntled farmers hoped to better their lives and conditions through the founding of the Farmers’ Alliance in the 1870s. However, by the 1890s, the Alliance transformed into what became known as the Populist Party. Keeping their roots in mind, the Populists sought to end what they considered political corruption and economic inequality that arose during the Reconstruction. In order to do so, they proposed “…the direct election of U.S. senators, government control of currency, a graduated income tax, a system of low-class public financing…the right of workers to form labor unions…[and a] public ownership of the railroads” (Foner 638). In addition to their propositions, the Populists were considered radical due to their embracement of science and technology, their belief that the

The party adopted a platform calling for the free coinage of silver along with the abolition of national banks. Another aspect of the Populist Party, is a graduated income tax, government ownership of all forms of transportation and communication, and the election of Senators by direct vote of the people. Civil service reform, a working day of eight hours, postal banks, pensions, and the reform of immigration regulations are just some of the other views and beliefs of populists.

In the same manner, to grow, both parties fed off the major political parties by gaining members that were originally democrats for the Omaha Platform and republicans for the Hartford Tea Party. While the Hartford Tea Party wanted independence, they believed in a more free market society¬-Capitalism- where the government would not interfere with businesses. They believe

The Populists supported labor demands, such as people in the labor force only being allowed to work eight-hour workdays. The Populists tried to encourage more governmental control over the banking systems as well as governmental control over the operation of the nation's railroad and communication systems. One of the most controversial Populist demands was the money supply. Farmers saw inflation as a way to improve their way of living as the price level of their crops began to rise. The farmers also planned to expand the money supply at on point.