The Populists vs.....

After the Civil War many Americans moved west in the search for a better life but in the late 1880s and early 1990s they had to face problems that crushed their American dream. This sparked a political and social movement known as populism. In the early 1890s it cost farmers more to produce corn then they earned money form selling it so many of them burned it or used it as fuel. Farmers Alliances formed and lead to the formation of the Populist Party, or People’s Party in 1892. The Party gave a voice to the farmers and warned about the dangers of political corruption and an unresponsive government. They wanted the government to own and regulate the railroads and telegraph companies, a graduated income tax and to fight the low prices for crops they called for the coinage of silver, or so-called “free silver”.