Populist Movement Analysis

Feeling that the system was being rigged, that the government was not looking at the common interests, farmers decided to form a third party and seek a broader political representation. During this shift from the agrarian to the industrial economy, American farms find themselves facing significant problems in selling their crops at a good price and in dealing with this new type of economy. Speculators controlled the land prices, the railroads charge exorbitant prices the farmers in order for their goods to market leaving the farmers with not enough money for the next season forcing them to pledge to creditors. Farmers did feel represented by neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party. The felt like no one was looking out for them nor supporting them. This led, In the 1880s to the people's …show more content…
Everyone was welcomed in the farmers’ alliance, including blacks and women. The alliance also supported laborers and did support the strike against the pacific railroad in 1886. But the alliance leaders knew that the only possible way to make a difference for themselves was to be a political presence and so, in 1892, the Populist Party was formed in St. Louis. The Populist Party will gain popularity in the next few years, but during the presidential elections of 1986 the continent is split into two. From one side we have the south that supports the agrarian movement and the desire to see silver coined, from the other is the north with its believed industrialism and gold coinage to be the only way to do it. The republicans were supporting the big business and the workers where threat with the loss of jobs if they happened to vote democrat. So, the Republican Party won that election and the Populist Party was crashed. But although it did lose at the polls, the populist movement did set a new political agenda for years to come in the United