Back to Lesson 9
The Forgotten Presidents |
Unit 1: An Age of Extremes
Topic 2: Gilded Age Populism Lesson Module 10
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Next to Lesson 11
Making Money |
Focus Activity - Determining a Purpose for Reading
Lesson Outcomes
Outcomes are what you (the student) will be able to do after the lesson is over.
1. I can define historical, political, economic, social, and historical vocabulary necessary to understanding the lesson.
2. I can explain the changing economic conditions in the late 1880s and early 1890s.
3. I can judge how the effects of economic conditions of the late 1880s and early 1890s made life difficult for American Farmers.
4. I can conclude why the farmers in the late 1880s and early 1890s were angry with the American government.
5. I can defend why the farmers in the late 1880s and early 1890s began backing the new political party that developed during this time.
1. I can define historical, political, economic, social, and historical vocabulary necessary to understanding the lesson.
2. I can explain the changing economic conditions in the late 1880s and early 1890s.
3. I can judge how the effects of economic conditions of the late 1880s and early 1890s made life difficult for American Farmers.
4. I can conclude why the farmers in the late 1880s and early 1890s were angry with the American government.
5. I can defend why the farmers in the late 1880s and early 1890s began backing the new political party that developed during this time.
Lesson Mission
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Teaching Activity - Guided Reading
Tom Watson Rallies the South
The place is Georgia; the time, 1892. A small, redheaded man named Tom Watson is standing on a wooden platform. A crowd of men tries to hear what Watson has to say, but they are having a hard time of it. Watson is a congressman running for reelection. He is a member of a new political party called the People's Party, also called the Populist Party. The Democrats are the main political party in the South at this time. They have sent a brass band to his rally. They are playing very loudly and are doing it on purpose.
There is something unusual about this southern crowd. It is both black and white. The people are mostly poor. Watson believes they have something in common - their poverty. If they stand together maybe they can do something about it. "You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced," he tells them. Corrupt Politicians
His listeners know that on Election Day, they will be under much pressure to vote for Democratic candidates. Voting is not private during this time. The Democrats have become the only party with power in the South. They have been known to stuff ballot boxes with false votes to ensure their victories. They have paid voters for their votes. Those who attempt to vote for any other party risk losing their jobs, or worse. Watson wants to change things. The People's Party is campaigning for secret ballots.
Together We Stand!
Watson and his Populists want to change other things, too. They see themselves as the party of the common man. They believe the government is working for the rich and powerful and taking advantage of the poor and weak. They believe that the people - the ordinary people - must take control of the government. They are considered radicals. They want to change the system.
A Democrat on horseback rides into Watson's Populist crowd. He is inviting everyone to a free dinner. "These men are not going to be enticed away from free, fair discussion of great public questions by any amount of barbecued beef," shouts Watson. No one moves. I Was Once Like You
Tom Watson is no common man. He is a skilled lawyer, and the largest landowner in all oId Georgia. But he can identify with people in need. He has seen trouble. Tom's grandfather - whose name was also Thomas Watson was a planter, a slave owner, and a man who was always true to his word. When the Civil War came, Grandfather Watson watched his three sons march off to battle. One son died; one became an invalid; the third, Tom's father, John, was wounded. The Watson farm was ruined. OId Tom had a stroke and lost his mind. In Georgia, it was not an unusual story.
Maybe John Watson wanted to show that things in the South hadn't changed; maybe he was crazy, because he set to work and built a great white columned southern mansion in front of his father's raw-timbered house. But he didn't have the money to pay for the house, so it had to be sold. His family-including his son Tom-moved to a small farm and lived in poverty. The First Political Reformer
Tom Watson was made of stronger fiber. He decided to make something of himself, and did. He was elected to Congress, and he built a home finer than any Watson before him. But he, too, did unexplainable things and ended his life with too much whiskey in his brain. That was when he was old, frustrated, and angry. By then he had accomplished more than he realized. He helped guide a third party that flashed across the nation like a brilliant comet. That party called the People's Party - elected five senators, ten representatives, and three governors. It championed ideas that were laughed at-at first-but later became law. And though the Populists faded away, their ideas keep reappearing, in cycles, as most comets do.
We Will Be Heard
Those reformers of the Populist Movement - spoke for ordinary Americans who didn't want to be left out of the good times that were being enjoyed by others. They demanded rights. Some people called them "communists"; some people called them "hayseeds." But they weren't either thing. They were just people who wanted to take part in the governing process; they wanted their ideas heard. And it wasn't long before there were secret ballots and woman's suffrage and many of the other things the Populists supported. They demanded that government be strong and active and help people which was, and still is, a controversial path, but one the American government soon took.
The Populist Platform
What were some of their other ideas? The Populists wanted a graduated income tax. That means hey wanted people to be taxed according to how much money they made. Wealthy people would pay more than poor people. They wanted senators directly elected by citizens - instead of by state legislatures, as the Constitution then directed. They wanted the government to lend money to farmers. They wanted the government to protect the consumer from unsafe goods and unfair practices.
AII of those, and some other Populist ideas, would be adopted by the other political parties and eventually become law. "The land," said a Populist declaration, "including all the natural resources of wealth, is the heritage of all the people and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes." That was a conservation idea before most people thought about conserving land and resources. The Farmer’s Point of View
But let's get back to Tom Watson. Remember, he is standing on a wooden platform talking to farmers; they are angry. Farm prices are low. In 1865, cotton sold for a dollar a pound. It is 1892 and cotton is 7 cents a pound. How would you like to be a farmer? It costs more than 7 cents to grow a pound of cotton! In the Midwest, wheat prices have tumbled from $2.50 a bushel in the 1860s to 50 cents a bushel in the 1890s. Farmers can't pay their bills.
When the farmers read the newspapers they learn how good life is for America's millionaires. The farmers can't understand what is happening. They are working hard and helping to feed and clothe the world. Yet while some people are getting very rich, they are losing their farms. The Populist leaders tell the farmers that there is a conspiracy. They say the eastern bankers, the railroad magnates, and the grain elevator owners are plotting against them. They are keeping the farmers poor so they can get richer. A Conflict of Interests
That isn't really true. No one is plotting against the farmers on purpose. The big money powers care only about themselves. They are working for their own interests - not against the farmers. But their interests hurt the farmers. And their money gives them political power. The farmers have little money and little political power. The Populist Movement or Populism has arisen out of frustration.
Before the Civil War, life seemed simpler. Most people, then, were farmers who grew their own food, spun their own yarn, chopped their own timber, and had to buy little outside. Now farming has changed. Railroads and new equipment - and millions of acres of new farmland in the Great Plains - have led farmers toward larger farms and single-crop production. Farmers are growing big crops - of wheat, or cotton, or corn. Those crops are not just for themselves and their neighbors: the American farmer is now competing in the world market. That farmer is amazingly productive. But the more grain he produces, the more he floods the market. Because he farms so well, he is helping to drive prices down. There is more to it than that. The farmer is no longer independent. In the South after the Civil War, everything seems changed. Many of the large plantations have been broken up. For the old aristocrats, Iosing their slaves meant losing their wealth. A new merchant class wields power. Farmers must buy their goods and farm supplies from the merchants. When they are overcharged, they can do nothing about it. They are often in debt to the merchants. They must grow what the merchants wish. Many of the merchants are also bankers. Soon they own much of the farmland. Proud former planters have become tenants. Farming Becomes An Industry
You can't be a modern farmer without modern equipment, especially on the big farms of the Middle West and Far West. Combines are needed to cut, thresh, and gather wheat. They are much faster and more efficient than human labor. To buy the new equipment, farmers must borrow from the banks. That puts them in debt. In order to pay the debt on farm equipment, to pay the mortgages on their property, and to pay railroad fees for shipping their crops, the farmers need cash. They need to sell their crops at a profit. They aren't doing that. They feel trapped.
A Monetary Plan
In Kansas, 11,122 farmers lose their farms to the banks between 1889 and 1893. Even those who hang on are angry. After all, they want to enjoy all the new things - bicycles, electricity, and so on - that other Americans are enjoying. They don't have enough money to do so. If there were more money in circulation it would help, they believe. And they are right. The Populist platform includes a monetary plan. Many bankers make fun of it. They don't think these farmers are smart enough to know anything about money.
The bankers are wrong. Farmers come by the thousands to farm meetings where they sleep in their wagons, or under the stars, share barbecues, and listen to speakers who talk of economic and national problems. The farmers listen, argue, and learn. Populism is a democratic movement, and an impressive one. It would be easier for the farmers to pay the interest on their loans if more dollars were circulating and prices were higher. The Populists now know how money can be used to help or hurt groups of people. |
Tool Box
Remember, anything in the Tool Box could be on the Topic 2 test!
People To KnowTom Watson: the person who started the Georgia Populist party. He was able to unite poor whites and blacks in the South after the Civil War to form the Georgia Populist Party that fought against big businesses whose business practices hurt American farmers.
Vocabulary To KnowPeople's Party: a political party from 1891–1904 considered the party of the common man. It wanted secret ballots, women's suffrage, a graduated income tax, more paper currency, financial help for farmers, protection from unsafe and unfair business and production practices, state control of railroads, and an end to big business monopolies
Populist Party: another name for the People's Party (See People's Party above.) Democrats: during the Gilded Age the Democrats were sympathetic to the South after the Civil War; this party helped farmers and money backed by something cheaper than gold; against protective tariffs, and opposed to the control of industry and trade by the trusts and big business. political party: organization whose aim is to gain control of the branches of government through the election of its candidates to public office. Their main functions are similar: to supply workers for government positions; to have these workers involved in making and following through with the laws and policies that are created, and to represent individuals in their government. corrupt: guilty of dishonest practices, such as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked secret ballots: voting where your vote is made in secret radicals: people favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms and work to put their extreme ideas into practice enticed: to lead on or convince someone to do something you want them to do by offering them hope or something you know they will like reformers: people who work to right wrongs; fix corruption; and change things for the better communist: a movement that aims to overthrow a capitalist economy violently and to establish a classless society in which all goods will be socially owned or a government where the economy is controlled by the government and attempts to distribute wealthy evenly hayseeds: an uneducated and poor person from a rural area suffrage: the right to vote in a political election controversial: a subject or issue were there are at least two parties in strong disagreement graduated income tax: a tax which rises in steps, with those having the highest income paying the highest percentage of tax heritage: a possession, right, status or something else that is passed down from generation to generation speculative: a risky or unsafe business practice conservation: preserving or restoring something from being lost, damaged, or neglected conspiracy: An agreement between two or more people to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action. magnates: A powerful or influential person, especially in business or industry world market: an exchange for goods or services across national boundaries to include the entire world or nearly the entire world. aristocrats: wealthy and influential people who heavily influence the government or even rule a government merchant class: a person engaged in the purchase and sale of goods for profit, especially in international markets debt: money one person, organization, or government owes to another person, organization, or government. the borrower of the money has a limited amount of time to pay back that money with interest tenant: a person or business that rents a house, building, or land from a landlord combines: complex farm machine that both cuts and threshes (separates grain seed from the grain plant) grain. mortgage: A loan that is used to buy a house circulation: the spread or dispersement of money to a wider group or area platform: a document stating the aims and principles of a political party monetary: relating or referring to money Places To KnowGeorgia
Great Plains
Kansas
Events To Know1892:
Issues to KnowPopulist Movement: a political movement that became a political party from 1891–1904. It was began by the common man - the farmers and industrial (factory) workers. These people strove to gain secret ballots, women suffrage, a graduated income tax, more paper currency, financial help for farmers, protection from unsafe and unfair business and production practices, state control of railroads, and an end to big business monopolies
Other Things to Knowdemocratic movement: when a group of people form a group to ensure the democratic rights or equal treatment of its people.
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Team Activity - Small Group Discussion
Discussion Question 1:
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Discussion Question 2:
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Discussion Question 3:
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Discussion Question 4:
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Discussion Question 5:
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Discussion Question 6:
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Individual Activity -
Lesson Module 10: The People's Party Pass Off Quiz
Make sure you play the Trivia game before October 18th with a 100% to get credit for Lesson 10: the People's Party. You have three times to pass off. So, make sure you pay attention in class and reread! Also take your time! I should not see any quizzes completed in less that 3 minutes! You may use the reading for pass-offs. Your highest grade is the grade taken.
Reflection Checklist -
Did You Complete Lesson Module 10: The People's Party
Activities for Topic 2 Lesson 10 Module:
- Did you read the lesson?
- Did you answer the discussion questions for the Team Activity?
- Did you make a 100% on the quiz?
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No?
Why Not? Get it done! |
Yes?
Victory is Yours! You have completed Lesson 10 Module: The People's Party. Congratulations! |
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