In the late 1800's there was an American, agrarian based movement called the Populist movement. The beginning can be traced back to 1870, farmers revolted by forming alliences. Origonally in Texas, the groups spread out to the great plains by the 1880's. Any farmer who was having economic problems was very attracted to the populist movement, enough people started beliveing in populism that action was taking place on the side of the farmers, and things they set out for were actually being done. With advances in machinery, and more then enough land being cultivated for farming then was needed, along with more foreign competition, the supply went way up and the prices for pretty much every product went down. Farmers had lives that needed to be funded, they needed materials, seed, and tools for the farm. Farmers also still needed to pay taxes and their mortgage. When they didn't have enough money to pay for all this they planted more, hoping to get more money, but consequently the more production from farmers the more the price dropped.
English: James Baird Weaver ( June 12, 1833 &ndash...
The extent of the Wicked Witch of the East seen in...
United StatesFarmers needed help desperately, and throughout the 1860's and 1870's, the U.S. Department of Agriculture helped organize a network of granges in almost every state. Granges are small local farmers orginizeing themselves to work together, meetings were often held to go over all the difficulties a farmer may be having. Granges also helped with the empty, lonely lives many farmers lived. By 1875 there were twenty thousand branches and more then one million members, this system must be working. With a rise in memberships, Granges didn't stop at little meetings between farms, they economic and political action. Now local granges would group together to form cooperatives. This was great, farmers would pool together their profits and as a whole would buy tools...