BELLRINGERS

							BELLRINGERS
     TEXTBOOK:
         V2-13
        AHSGE
MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY
     QUESTIONS
                   CHAPTER 16 SECTION 2: POPULISM
                               PAGES 500-507
                              Guide to Reading
                                  Main Idea
 In the 1890s an independent political movement called populism emerged to
                       challenge the two major parties.
                             Reading Objectives
Explain why farmers wanted a greenback currency and why the adoption of the
                  gold standard led to the Farmers’ Alliance.
   Describe who joined the Populist Party and what the party’s goals were.
                               Section Theme
Economic Factors: Currency and credit problems led to the rise of the Populist
                                  movement.
I. Unrest in Rural
       America
A.   In the 1890s, a political movement called Populism
     emerged to increase the political power of farmers and
     to work for legislation for farmers’ interests. The
     nation’s money supply concerned farmers.
B.    To help finance the Union in the Civil War, the
     government issued millions of dollars in greenbacks, or
     paper currency that could not be exchanged for gold or
     silver coins. This rapid increase in the money supply
     without a rapid increase in goods for sale caused
     inflation–a decline in the value of money. The prices of
     goods greatly increased. To get inflation under control,
     the federal government stopped printing greenbacks and
     started paying off bonds. Congress also stopped making
     silver into coins. As a result, the country did not have a
     large enough money supply to meet the needs of the
     growing economy.
I. Unrest in Rural
     America
C. This led to deflation–or an increase in the value of
   money and a decrease in the general level of prices.
   Deflation forced most farmers to borrow money to
   plant their crops. The short supply of money
   caused an increase in interest rates that the
   farmers owed.
D. Some farmers wanted more greenbacks printed to
   expand the money supply. Others wanted the
   government to mint silver coins. The Grange was a
   national farm organization founded for social and
   educational purposes. When the country
   experienced a recession, large numbers of farmers
   joined the Grange for help. The Grange changed its
   focus to respond to the plight of farmers
      I. Unrest in Rural
           America
E.   Grangers put their money together and created
     cooperatives–marketing organizations that
     worked to help its members. The cooperatives
     pooled members’ crops and held them off the
     market to force the prices to rise. Cooperatives
     could negotiate better shipping rates from
     railroads. The Grange was unable to improve the
     economic conditions of farmers. By the late
     1870s, many farmers left the Grange and joined
     other organizations that offered to help them
     solve their problems.
        II. The Farmers’
              Alliance
A.   The Farmers’ Alliance was formed in 1877. By 1890 it had
     between 1.5 and 3 million members with strength in the
     South and on the Great Plains. The Alliance organized
     large cooperatives called exchanges for the purpose of
     forcing farm prices up and making loans to farmers at low
     interest rates. These exchanges mostly failed.
B.   Many exchanges overextended themselves by loaning too
     much money at low interest rates that were not repaid.
     Wholesalers, manufacturers, railroads, and bankers
     discriminated against the exchanges. The exchanges were
     too small to dramatically affect world prices for farm
     products.
       II. The Farmers’
            Alliance
C.   Members of the Kansas Alliance formed the
     People’s Party, or Populists, to push for political
     reforms that would help farmers solve their
     problems. Most Southern leaders of the
     Alliance opposed the People’s Party because
     they wanted the Democrats to retain control of
     the South. One Southern leader, Charles
     Macune, came up with a subtreasury plan to set
     up warehouses where farmers could store their
     crops to force prices up.
         III. The Rise of
               Populism
A.   In 1890 the Farmers’ Alliance issued the Ocala Demands to help
     farmers choose candidates in the 1890 elections. The demands
     included the adoption of the subtreasury plan, the free coinage
     of silver, an end to protective tariffs and national banks, tighter
     regulation of the railroads, and direct election of senators by
     voters. Many pro-Alliance Democrats were elected to office in
     the South.
B.   By early 1892, Southern members of the Alliance began to
     realize that Democrats were not going to keep their promises to
     the Alliance and they were ready to leave the Democratic Party
     and join the People’s Party. In July 1892, the People’s Party held
     its first national convention where it nominated James B.
     Weaver to run for president
        III. The Rise of
            Populism
C.   The People’s Party platform called for unlimited coinage
     of silver, federal ownership of railroads, and a graduated
     income tax, one that taxes higher earnings more heavily.
     It also called for an eight-hour workday, restriction of
     immigration, and denounced the use of strikebreakers.
     Democrats nominated New Yorker Grover Cleveland for
     the 1892 presidential election. Cleveland won the election.
D.   The Panic of 1893 was caused by the bankruptcy of the
     Philadelphia and Reading Railroads. It resulted in the
     stock market crash and the closing of many banks. By
     1894 the country was in a deep depression.
       III. The Rise of
             Populism
E. President Cleveland wanted to stop the flow of
   gold and make it the sole basis for the country’s
   currency, so he had Congress repeal of the
   Sherman Silver Purchase Act. This caused the
   Democratic Party to split into the goldbugs and
   the silverites. Goldbugs believed the American
   currency should be based only on gold. Silverites
   believed coining silver in unlimited amounts was
   the answer to the nation’s economic crisis.
IV. The Election of
         1896
A. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan
   for the presidential election of 1896. He strongly
   supported the unlimited coinage of silver. Populists
   also supported Bryan for president. The
   Republicans nominated William McKinley of Ohio
   for president. He promised workers a “full dinner
   pail.” Most business leaders liked McKinley because
   they thought that unlimited silver coinage would
   ruin the country’s economy. McKinley won the
   election of 1896.
B. New gold strikes in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon
   Territory and in other parts of the world increased
   the money supply without needing to use silver. As
   the silver issue died out, so did the Populist Party.
     Chapter 16 Section 2
         Review Quiz
                                        A. deflation
                                        B. greenback
                                         C. inflation
                                         D goldbug
                                         E. silverite
__ 1. the loss of value of money
__ 2. a piece of U.S. paper money first issued by the North during the Civil War
__ 3. a person who believes that American currency should be based on a gold standArd
__ 4. a decline in the volume of available money or credit that results in lower prices, and,
    therefore, increases the buying power of money
__ 5. a person who believes that coining silver in unlimited quantities would solve the
    nation’s economic crisis
6. List the issues that the Democrats endorsed in the 1896 presidential election.
7. Economic Factors What economic problems caused farmers to support populism?
8. Analyzing How did the Farmers’ Alliance contribute to the rise of a new political
    party?
9. Describe who joined the Populist Party and what the party’s goals were.