CONCLUSION 309 



period and the Greenback party, but the main issues of the 

 Independent parties were " reform " and railroad regulation, 

 while the Greenbackers demanded " reform " and fiat money. 

 The Peoples' or Populist party, however, seems to have been 

 the heir of both of these. The origin of the Populist party is to 

 be found in the St. Louis platform adopted by the Farmers' 

 Alliance and the Knights of Labor in 1889.* This platform 

 demanded the issue of legal tender treasury notes on a per capita 

 basis ; laws to prevent speculation in agricultural and mechanical 

 productions; free coinage of silver; reservation of public lands 

 for actual settlers; tariff reform and reduction of taxation; and 

 finally government ownership of railroads. With this platform 

 and, in the South, with a proposition for government warehouses 

 or sub-treasuries where the farmer could store his produce as 

 security for loans at nominal interest, the alliances went into 

 politics in 1890 and won notable victories in a number of southern 

 and western states. 



In 1892 the Populist party became the political representative 

 of the alliances, as the Independent parties had been the political 

 representatives of the Granger movement. The Alliance plat- 

 form was elaborated and planks added favoring postal savings 

 banks, the old parties were denounced for agreeing to ignore 

 such issues as " capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, 

 trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver, and the 

 oppressions of the usurers " ; and again victories were won by 

 the third party, though in many cases by means of fusion with 

 the weaker of the old parties. By 1896 the free silver plank 

 had risen to first place among the demands of the Populists; 

 and in that year this radical political movement, which came 

 from the West and the South, got control of the organization 

 of the Democratic party. 2 



The political and economic propositions of the Grangers, 

 the Alliance, and the Populists, were generally ridiculed by 



1 Dunning, Farmers' Alliance History, 122. On the Populist party, see also 

 F. L. McVey, The Populist Movement; J. A. Woodburn, Political Parties and Party 

 Problems in the United States , 110-117; Chamberlain, Farmers' Alliance, ch. v; 

 D. L. Dewey, National Problems, 244-246. 



2 Cf. Woodburn, Political Parties, ch. viii. 



