Documents 17.3 and 17.4 Farmers and Workers Organize: Two Views

Farmers and Workers Organize: Two Views

Farmers in the Midwest and the South organized to address the problems they faced as a result of industrialization and the growth of big business. The Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange) in the 1860s and 1870s and the Populists in the 1880s and 1890s both tried to deal with various social and economic issues. Compare the following pronouncement of the Grange with an excerpt from the Populist Party platform, adopted on July 4, 1892, in Omaha, Nebraska.

Explore

17.3 The Ten Commandments of the Grange, 1874
  1. Thou shalt love the Grange with all thy heart and with all thy soul and thou shalt love thy brother granger as thyself.
  2. Thou shalt not suffer the name of the Grange to be evil spoken of, but shall severely chastise the wretch who speaks of it with contempt.
  3. Remember that Saturday is Grange day. On it thou shalt set aside thy hoe and rake, and sewing machine, and wash thyself, and appear before the Master in the Grange with smiles and songs, and hearty cheer. On the fourth week thou shalt not appear empty handed, but shalt thereby bring a pair of ducks, a turkey roasted by fire, a cake baked in the oven, and pies and fruits in abundance for the Harvest Feast. So shalt thou eat and be merry, and “frights and fears” shall be remembered no more.
  4. Honor thy Master, and all who sit in authority over thee, that the days of the Granges may be long in the land which Uncle Sam hath given thee.
  5. Thou shalt not go to law[yers].
  6. Thou shalt do no business on tick [time]. Pay as thou goest, as much as in thee lieth.
  7. Thou shalt not leave thy straw but shalt surely stack it for thy cattle in the winter.
  8. Thou shalt support the Granger’s store for thus it becometh thee to fulfill the laws of business.
  9. Thou shalt by all means have thy life insured in the Grange Life Insurance Company, that thy wife and little ones may have friends when thou art cremated and gathered unto thy fathers.
  10. Thou shalt . . . surely charter thine own ships, and sell thine own produce, and use thine own brains. This is the last and best commandment. On this hang all the law, and profits, and if there be any others they are these.

Choke monopolies, break up rings, vote for honest men, fear God and make money. So shalt thou prosper and sorrow and hard times shall flee away.

Source: “The Ten Commandments of the Grange,” Oshkosh Weekly Times, December 16, 1874, reprinted in Rich Harvest: A History of the Grange, 1876–1900, by D. Sven Nordin (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1974), 240.

Explore

17.4 Populist Party Platform, 1892

FINANCE—We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible issued by the general government. . . .

  1. We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1. . . .
  2. We demand a graduated income tax.
  3. We believe that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we demand that all State and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, economically and honestly administered. . . .

TRANSPORTATION—Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people. The telegraph and telephone . . . should be owned and operated by the government in the interest of the people.

LAND—The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by aliens should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only.

EXPRESSION OF SENTIMENTS

  1. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot, and a fair count in all elections . . . without Federal intervention, through the adoption by the States of the . . . secret ballot system.
  2. Resolved, That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation now levied upon the domestic industries of this country. . . .
  3. Resolved, That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the present system, which opens our ports to [immigrants including] the pauper and the criminal classes of the world and crowds out our [American] wage-earners; and we . . . demand the further restriction of undesirable immigration.
  4. Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor. . . .
  5. Resolved, That we regard the maintenance of a large standing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition. . . .
  6. Resolved, That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corporation for any purpose.

Source: “People’s Party Platform,” Omaha Morning World-Herald, July 5, 1892.

Interpret the Evidence

  • Question

    IOYH2y15QhqCqL5+cpj1OlaUPHIB/mvv3DlGgqYbyuRBxFmhmBCHsVCCS0sRwP3aPfjYSCaYvKHyead4oJIPuqvHB+G/GCNSQBOoH8YdPfbhcbJhr+DqjiO/nXbyp0zS57y/4hVswC7VfBD66WlA6V22jobCqlzANJxt8g==

  • Question

    tzxrL4oq9kVySG6TdqUpCxryCZAvc4hpO+sA9l5xlrUYQwvCWEto3TqMqNO67VWIYBxHhKBPRI3iyKMiu/9DZ1Q86a3kT8MXZU1IvQjTu0Sec0w3rUw8nr8z3y7mejnUmBxHfJxw3UTkr1NEX4Kj8W6WKy8=

Put It in Context

Question

87u2Wqm/KrO9UMnmoq6T3li4iKNQeSBmDIYfnPk0d2vlTC9La+s4pRNzWAUejEoUl+dPkP90yd5blULHNrxb3tJHxn9p6Ev7rqOV3fqriKfs58q1hdbDHEEmtFi9l4HbXZmNUbe7xjaPF34JnmSkFii9PfstAoTc2r4BZESEXVTGj6txRDnMitpsr8SXU8NITtqgrcJgTJpuIcAoCz/quoYKoH4ABSB5