The Farmer's Revolt
Farmers were once known for being able to do everything themselves. They grew their own food and sewed their own clothes. People often yearn for the old days and complain about so many people living in cities. Many farmers had to give up their farms and move to the cities, because of something that happened in the late nineteenth century. High prices forced farmers to concentrate on one crop. The large-scale farmers bought expensive machines, increasing their crop yield. This caused the smaller farmers to be left behind. The small farmers could no longer compete and were forced give up their farms and look for jobs in the cities. The smaller farmers who stayed blamed their troubles on banks and railroads. In the 1890's western and southern farmers came together to make up the political party called the Populist Party. Their plan was to take control of the White House; then they could solve all their problems. The increase in crop yield caused a change in the economy, which the party set out to straighten out in 1892. On their party platform
------------------------------------------------------------------------ James Laurence Laughlin wrote an article "Causes of Agricultural Unrest" that was published in the Atlantic Monthly. He wrote, "the farmers, in all honesty, have attributed their misfortunes to the "constriction" in prices", caused by lack of gold, not overproduction of their crops. He then went on to explain how that could not be possible, and we simply have produced too much wheat. Poet Vachel Lindsay wrote a poem concerning the subject, entitled, "BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN, BRYAN: The campaign of 1896 as viewed at the Time by a Sixteen Year Old, etc." In it he mentioned the "Election at midnight; Boy Bryan's defeat" which was when the Populists lost the election. He then wrote "Defeat of the wheat; victory of the letterfiles" and "Defeat...[of] the blue bells of the Rockies, and the blue bonnets of Texas, by the Pittsburgh alleys" He was simply saying that the city people had defeated them and would therefore get their way. All the problems and troubles of the farmers were caused by the invention of new farm
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 732
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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