172 THE GREEN RISING 



brought to the verge of moral, political, and mate- 

 rial ruin." The charge is made that corruption is 

 widespread, the newspapers are subsidized, "our 

 homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, 

 and the land concentrating in the hands of the capi- 

 talists." In most specific terms this platform gives 

 expression to the farmers' grievances, as follows: 

 "Our annual agricultural productions amount to bil- 

 lions of dollars in value, which must within a few 

 weeks or months be exchanged for billions of dollars 

 of commodities consumed in their production; the 

 existing currency supply is wholly inadequate to 

 make this exchange. The results are falling prices, 

 the formation of combines and rings, the impover- 

 ishment of the producing class." 



Other specific and, at the time, radical political 

 policies advocated by the delegates to this conven- 

 tion included a demand for a graduated income tax, 

 postal savings banks, public ownership of telegraph 

 and telephone systems, initiative and referendum, 

 currency reform, and the free and unlimited coinage 

 of silver and gold at the ratio of sixteen to one. 

 These political pronouncements clearly indicate that 

 the farmers throughout a great section of the coun- 

 try had been transformed from the most conserva- 

 tive to the most radical element in the population 

 of the country. 



The Populist Party nominated James B. Weaver, 

 of Iowa, for President, and James G. Field, of Vir- 

 ginia, for Vice President. General Weaver had been 



