Dbq Farmer Problems

649 Words2 Pages

Farmers face many problems such as, a corrupt monetary policy, overproduction, and differential freight rates. The complaints of the farmers are justified because with the correction of these issues the farmers would continue with successful business. Each of the problems caused the farmers to lose money and become where they could not afford to run the businesses anymore, therefore, causing even more failure within the farming occupation. Monetary policy is the largest problem for farmers due to the multiple effects presented. As shown in government data, the population is growing fast, yet the money supply is not keeping up (Doc. C). This is because of the gold standard. The gold standard resulted in the government not issuing any more money until there was more gold found to back it up. A solution for the shortage of gold out west is bimetallism. According to the Populist Party Platform, “Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold…” (Doc. A). This quote suggest that even though silver has always been accepted it is not anymore due to the gold standard, yet bimetallism would be a solution for the farmers complaints. William McKinley spoke about how the coinage of silver, as the farmers …show more content…

This occurs when farmers continue to produce crops causing deflation in the money supply. The crops were selling for basically nothing because there was so much being produced. According to Laughlin, it is the farmers fault that they are suffering (Doc. E). If they would stop producing so much they would not be in this situation, yet they would still have the issue that they aren't making any money because they aren't producing crops, there is still a shortage of money. The farmers needed someone to help regulate the larger companies so that the smaller farmers would be able to produce their crops and make money off of

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