The Populist Party: The Federal Reserve System

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The populist party was made up of farmers, mostly those were from the South and the Great plains. They were raging about the decline of land and the rise of industrialization and cities. These farmers believed that they were the true backbone of America and that their country and government was being ripped away from them. They focused on certain antagonist such as, Banks, farm machinery manufacturers and most of all the Railroad Companies. Many thought that these businesses were trying to get every penny that they possibly owned out of the farmers. The farmers felt that they were paying more and more to take loans and borrow money, to buy farming necessities and to sell their crops. The prices that had for the crops was degrading dramatically. …show more content…

This established a modern, more unified banking system under a mixture of private and government control. The Federal Reserve System would allow members of banks to demand their reserves to draw in greater security, and made the currency and bank credit more adjustable. This made farmers furious because it was more difficult to get loans and then made the shipping and selling of crops more expensive. They wanted the seed to be lower so the could buy more and spend the same and have a silver based currency instead of the gold based.

The Populists called for government ownership of railroads, arguing that they were too critical to be left in private hands. President Theodore Roosevelt desired to have the government regulate rather than own the railroads. The Hepburn Act of 1906 gave the federal government the power to set maximum railroad rates. This caused farmers to lose land and got in the way of farming. Farmers absolutely hated railroads it was their top enemy by

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