Transcript Slide 1

The United States from 1877 to 1914
The Tariff: real issue or diversion?
• Republicans for it
• Helps manufacturing
• Helps workers keep
their jobs
• Democrats against it
• Hurts consumers
• Raises prices on
farmers
But the Populists say the tariff
debate is just a diversion from
more fundamental issues, such
as regulation of railroads,
telegraph, and access to credit.
The United States from 1877 to 1914
the gendered tariff
• Democrats: tariff
weakens the autonomy of
the white male farmer
and consumer;
emasculates him
• Republicans: tariff
enables male wage earner
to support his wife, who
then can protect the
domestic hearth
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Grover Cleveland: home-wrecker?
• Accused in election of 1884
of having fathered
illegitimate child
• Cleveland had “foraged
outside the city [Buffalo,
NY] and surrounding
villages, a champion
libertine, an artful seducer,
a foe to virtue, an enemy of
the family,” according to
one newspaper
• Once in office quickly
marries Frances Folsom
Mr. Cleveland on a less
successful day of foraging
The United States from 1877 to 1914
1888: Cleveland v. Harrison (r)
• Tariff remains key issue to the
campaign
• Harrison wins majority of
electoral votes, but loses
Congress in the election of 1890
to Democrats and Populists
• Populists win women support
in western states with their
advocacy of suffrage
Benjamin Harrison “reminds me of a pig
blinking in the cold wind.” –Theodore
Roosevelt
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Alliance St. Louis platform, 1889
• Abolition of national banks
• Substitution of money issued by the U.S.
Treasury
• Government ownership of railroads and
telegraph
• Progressive taxation
• The sub-treasury plan
The United States from 1877 to 1914
“Bleeding Kansas,” 1854
The United States from 1877 to 1914
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Faux populists
“Pitchfork” Ben
Tillman of South
Carolina
James Hogg of Texas
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Tom Watson of Georgia
“Here is a tenant – I do
not know, or care,
whether he is white or
black. He knows perfectly
well that he cannot get
goods as cheap as cash.”
The system “tears a
tenant from his family and
puts him in chains and
stripes because he sells
his cotton for something
to eat and leaves his rent
unpaid.”
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Election of 1892
• Populists elected three governors
• Five U.S. Senators
• Populist presidential candidate gets
1,041,000 votes
• 8.5 percent of the total vote
• Grover Cleveland (D) defeats Harrison (R)
by 300,000
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Coin’s Financial School, 1892
• Advocated the
unlimited coinage of
silver to create a more
deflationary currency
• Adopted by William
Jennings Bryan
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Interstate Commerce Act, 1887
• Shipping rates have to be "reasonable and
just"
• Rates must be published
• Secret rebates outlawed
• Price discrimination against small markets
illegal.
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890
• Trusts “in restraint of trade” made illegal
 Punishable
by fines of up to 10 million dollars
• Individuals who “conspire to
monopolize” guilty of a felony
• Attorney General empowered to enforce
the law
The United States from 1877 to 1914
U.S. vs. E.C. Knight Company, 1895
• E.C. Knight produced 98 percent of
refined sugar in U.S.
• But Supreme Court declared it wasn’t
violating Sherman act because it was
involved in manufacturing, not trade
• Nyah nyah nyah . . .
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Supreme Court: Income tax
unconstitutional
• 1895: by 5 to 4 in Pollock v. Farmers Loan
Supremes say that “direct taxes” may not be
imposed directly, “unless in proportion to the
census or enumeration herein before directed to
be taken.” (Section 9, para 4 of Constitution)
• Furthermore: “Representatives and direct taxes
shall be apportioned among the several states.”
• Court narrowly (5-4) construes this to mean that
Federal government can’t directly collect taxes
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Showdown for the People’s Party,
St. Louis: 1896
• “Fusionists” want to ally with Democrats using
free silver issue, and endorse William Jennings
Bryan
• “Mid-roaders” want to stick to issues like the
sub-treasury plan
• Bryan says he will not fuse with People’s Party
unless they accept pro-gold standard Democrat
Samuel Sewall as well
• Populists endorse Bryan, with Tom Watson as
their Vice Presidential candidate
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Bryan’s 1896 political program
• A graduated Federal income tax
• Direct election of United States
Senators
• Greater regulation of the
railroads, telegraph, and
monopolies to protect consumers
• Lower tariffs to protect
consumers
• Backing the dollar with silver as
well as gold for a more flexible
currency
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Mark Hanna:
Mastermind of the
McKinley
campaign of 1896
The United States from 1877 to 1914
Frank L. Baum,
Wizard of Oz, 1900
• Dorothy = average
American citizen
• Scarecrow = farmer
• Woodman = factory
worker
• Lion = William
Jennings Bryan
• Mark Hanna = The
wizard of OUNCE
(aka .OZ)