The Farmers' Grievances

It is historian John D. Hicks? thesis that the Southern and Western sodbusters suffered greatly in the new industrial system and blamed their distress on the railroads, the trusts and menial prices, the bullion-lenders and the bankers, and the money and banking system.

Western farmers blamed umteen of their troubles upon the railroads, which sent all western crops to the markets. The farmers had no choice simply to use these roads. The railroads naturally exacted high judge. The local fr ogdoad rates were particularly higher than the long distance rates. Railroads, fortified by monopoly and supported by politics, were accused of controlling freight and fares at their own pleasure to the oppression of the farmer according to the principle, ? return as much out of the pockets of the farmers as we can without fetching it all?. It was believed that the practice of stock-watering had much to do with the high rates. The capitalisation of railways was 3 to 4 times higher than the normal rate. The farmers overly believed that the railroads were stealing their priceless heritage of free lands.

Farmers saw that commencement prices led to their lack of winity and that trusts joined with railroads and politicians to pick plurality?s pockets. Prices dropped in certain sections of the country and later be that farming was carried at an actual loss because it was over the hail of production. A western farmer had to sell his corn for eight to ten cents a bushel when the eastern broker demanded much than a dollar for it. Trusts dominated the market by purchasing raw material at their own price, then merchandising the finished product at any price they wanted. Trusts give the farmer with clothing, with the machines he had to use, with the fuel he had to burn, with the materials for living.

Money-lenders and bankers change magnitude the farmers? shoot with debts, high interest rates, and taxation. The widespread dependence upon the crop-lien system increased the burden of debt for farmers. They believed that the eastern capitalists were conspiring against them. Interest rates, already high, rose quiet higher. The western farmer was mortgaged literally for all he was worth and his fruits of labor. Taxation was inevitable for the farmers because of the land they couldn?t hide. Farmers delineated one-fourth of the nation?s wealth but stipendiary three-fourths of the taxes unlike the railroads who refused to pay taxes.



The farmer was convinced that he was the helpless victim of unfair, unreasonable, ad discriminatory taxation. The local farmer was getting poorer and poorer every year.

Finally, the farmers believed that their chief grievance was against the system of money and banking. The value of the dollar was greater than it once had been. It would buy two bushels of grain where formerly it would but only one. The overproduction theory, low prices of goods and high interest rates added together with the commissions, debts and mortgages made the ascension value of the dollar a serious matter for the farmers. By 1879, the greenback currency reached a secure value with gold. This allowed the money-lenders and bankers to prosper while agriculture languished.

Sources:John D. Hicks and the Populist Revolt. Reviews in American History 1985 13(1): 142-154. Reviews the state of scholarship on populism, focusing on the impact, continuing vitality, and criticism of Hickss The Populist Revolt (1931)Allen F. Davis. Conflict and Consensus in Modern American History. 1984

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