The Policies of the Populists and Progressives in Post-Civil War America

In the period between 1870 and 1930, the populist movement concentrated on righting the wrongs of industry and economy, while the progressive movement strove for a fairer, more moral social aspect of America. Populists “regarded individuals’ selfish, private interests as…barriers to the attainment of public good…” and stressed that farmers, and other collective workers in the industry rise up and demand their rights. Progressives viewed reform as “social control.” They supported prohibition, Fundamental religious attitudes, and tried to regulate women’s clothing and women’s rights. Both movements attempted reform and progression, but in different aspects of American life.

Throughout the 1880s local political action groups known as Farmers' Alliances sprang up among Middle Westerners and Southerners, who were discontented because of crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and credit facilities. Although it won some significant regional victories, the alliances generally proved politically ineffective on a national scale. Thus in 1892 their leaders organized the Populist, or People's, Party, and the Farmers' Alliances melted away. While trying to broaden their base to include labor and other groups, the Populists remained almost entirely agrarian-oriented.

They demanded an increase in the circulating currency (to be achieved by the unlimited coinage of silver), a graduated income tax, government ownership of the railroads, a tariff for revenue only, the direct election of U.S. senators, and other measures designed to strengthen political democracy and give farmers economic parity with business and industry. Despite the brevity of its existence, the Populist movement exercised a profound influence on subsequent U.S. political life; almost all the original Populist demands, which at one time were widely viewed as radical and contradictory to America's free enterprise system, were eventually enacted into law.