The Growth of Discontent
Farmers
KEY CONCEPTS
 The Grange, Farmers‘ Alliances, and Populists emerged to contest
big business‘s control over the marketplace.
Ch. 23-26
THE GROWTH OF DISCONTENT: FARMERS ORGANIZE
• Cause
– Population and farms
– Urbanization
– Mechanization
• Consequence
– hurt farmers
•
•
•
•
Grain elevator
Manufacturing prices
Banks – crop-lien system
Railroad industry
Agrarian Groups – Grange and the Farmers’ Alliance
• People’s party
(“Populist”) party
– Mary Elizabeth Lease
– Farmers Alliance
• Farmers economic
downturn
–
–
–
–
Cost
Land
Taxes
Crops
• Result
– The Grange
Grange Utilizes Political Clout
• “Granger Laws”
• Supreme Court decisions
– Munn v. Illinois (1877)
– Peik v. the Chicago and
Northwest Railway
(1876)
– Illinois v. Wabash (1886)
• Interstate Commerce Act
Left–Side
“Labor Strikes Back”
Labor Unions
Identify: Leader(s), members,
and goals for each of the
following labor unions:
1. National Labor Union
(p552) [no leader]
2. Knights of Labor
Organization (p552)
3. American Federation of
Labor (p553)
Labor Strikes
Explain the cause and effect
for each strike:
1. Railroad Strike of 1877
(p514)
2. Haymarket Square Riot of
1886 (p552)
3. Homestead Strike of 1892
(p523)
4. Pullman Strike of 1894
(p617)
Take-A-Stand: Do strikes do more harm than good? Support
opinion and use examples from strikes discussed.