AGRARIAN PARTIES AND THEIR POLICIES 171 



back Party. Economic conditions were quite favor- 

 able for the rise of a strong farmers' party at this 

 time. Financial distress was widespread among the 

 farm population. The prices of farm products were 

 low, mortgages were being foreclosed on many farms, 

 and the farmers were concerned about the causes of 

 their financial distress. The new party naturally 

 made great headway in the West and South, where 

 this financial distress was greatest. Kansas, "the 

 mother of radical movements," was the center of 

 its greatest activity. 



The first national convention of the Populist 

 Party, or the National People's Party, was held at 

 Omaha, Nebraska, July 2-5, 1892. The platform 

 adopted at this convention summarized in vigorous 

 language the principal grievances of the people. 

 The dissatisfaction with the old parties was ex- 

 pressed as follows: "They have agreed together to 

 ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue but one. 

 They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered 

 people with the uproar of a sham battle over the 

 tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national 

 banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetiza- 

 tion of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers 

 may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice 

 our homes, lives, and children on the altar of Mam- 

 mon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure 

 corruption funds from the millionaires." 



In another connection in the platform, the state- 

 ment is made that "we meet in the midst of a nation 



