Populists Populists 1 Who are they Populist movement

Populists

Populists 1. Who are they? – – Populist movement starts with farmers Organize together to change the system 2. Problems for Farmers – – Crop prices falling Railroads charging enormous fees to ship crops Had trouble repaying loans Felt everyone was making money off them

3. National Grange – Organization of farmers • Created to help farmers help each other – Fought to get state governments to regulate railroad prices

4. Farmers’ Alliance – Fought against the gold standard – Gold Standard: each paper bill was worth a certain amount of gold, could only print as much money as there was gold in the treasury – Farmers wanted more paper money so they wanted the Silver Standard as well (money backed by silver)

5. Populist Party – New political party formed by farmers in the National Grange and in Farmer Alliances – Fought for income tax, bank regulation, government regulation of railroads, and silver coinage

– 1892 Election: they won several seats in congress and in several state offices

Populist Party • a. Sub-Treasury (opened in various counties which produced at least $500, 000 worth of agricultural products per year and would give loans for up to 80% of the crop) b. Free Silver (coinage of silver) c. Direct Election of Senators (17 th Amendment to the Constitution) d. Graduated Income Tax (16 th Amendment to the Constitution) e. Lower Tariffs to Help Farmers f. Government Regulation of Railroad and Utilities

What is an allegory? • a symbolic narrative

Yellow Brick Road • Gold Standard in the country

Scarecrow • Farmers (no brains by society's standards, but smarter than given credit for)

Cowardly Lion • William Jennings Bryan (not a coward, but a leader, as lions are usually dominant)

Tin Man • Industrialization (doesn’t have a heart, but doesn’t hate either)

Dorothy’s Slippers • Silver exchange (YES they are red in the movie; this was done to make them stand out. In the original book the slippers were silver. Remember the slippers hold the power until the end, because silver was the exchange. Once back in Kansas they were gone, just as silver was overtaken by the Gold standard. )

Dorothy • Level-headed, innocent humans

Wizard • Politicians (trying to be all things to all people)

Winged Monkeys • Plains Indians (Remember the midwestern view of farming, and having to deal with the Indians; they were not bad people but could be swayed by good and evil. )

Wicked Witch of the East • Bankers who have nothing for farmers

Wicked Witch of the West • Nature (water kills and the farmers need water)

Good Witch of the North • Northern businesses that could seemingly do everything well, and were educated

Munchkins • Little people of society (middle class and below)

Emerald City • Washington, D. C.

Tornado • The idea of “change”

Populist Party Poster • Create a political cartoon or a campaign poster about the populist party. • Make sure that at least three issues that they focused on are addressed.