Populist Movement: Agrarian Fight for Fair Treatment

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The populist movement began with a group of farmers who sought out reform against the government for what they considered unfair treatment. For example, big businesses were allowed to have monopolies during this period, which also hurt the average farmer and better shipping rates were offered by the railroad to these larger companies. Under those circumstances, the farmers decided that they needed their own representation due to the fact that neither the Republican nor Democratic Party catered to their needs. For these reasons the agrarians started the populist movement during the early 19th century. During the beginning of this century was extremely hard for farmers. Due to the fact that they weren’t making as much money due to the fact that the price of crops were dwindling. As a result, you saw an increase in tenant Farmers who were people …show more content…

They formed two groups in order to compete with big business in hopes that they would be able to purchase larger quantities of goods to get the better shipping, but unfortunately no one wanted them to succeed especially the banks and the feed stores because they made so much money of them. Nonetheless, they didn’t let this minor setback slow them down. In 1886 they decided to pressure political candidates of both parties to endorse them, which eventually led to failed promises due to the fact that democrats and republicans rarely cooperated with each other. As a result, they formed the Populist Party, a party that catered to the poor farmers in hopes to attempt to force the government to listen to their needs, which included acquiring so much debt due to the lack of currency in circulation. The government came up with the Sherman Silver Purchase ACT and the Sub Treasury plan, policies that were supported by the populist group at the time, but they also wanted initiative, referendum, and

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