Western Farmers Dbq

From 1880-1906, Hesperian grangers were affected by multiple issues that they precept as threats to their way of life. The main threats to the husbandmans were sandbags, trusts, and the g everyplacenment, because these institutions either had the power to drasti holler outy affect the index of the husbandmans to make makes. Therefore, the farmers were non wrong to encounter frustration toward those institutions when the institutions caused the farmers to live lives of increasingly organic poverty.The main source of agrarian discontentment with the railroads was a result of the rising railroad rates that made it increasingly delicate for the farmers to make a decent brisk by shipping their crops via freight trains. In a book called The Octopus, a farmer named Dyke imagened to ship his record hop and was shocked upon discovering that the railroad rate had change magnitude from two cents per pound to five cents per pound, rendering him futile to make whatsoever proc eeds at all (Document H).This practice of reproduction the railroad rates without warning was unsporting to the farmers and made it virtually impossible for any farmer to make a profit by shipping his crops. The farmers were also generally affected by the activity of trusts and banks and the soften that trusts exerted on their particular lines of business. In a book by James B. weaverbird the argument is made that trusts were in despatch throw of the situation, having power over both the producer of raw materials and the consumer of the products (Document F).In most cases, the farmers hide under both categories, and the trusts often took estimable value, buying raw goods from farmers at genuinely moo prices that made it very unwieldy for farmers to profit and selling back the realised goods at gamey prices the farmers could b arly tolerate if at all. The Eastern banking conglomerates were especially stiff due to their ability to call in debts and repossess homes of t he farmers. The picture in The husbandmans Voice, a Chicago paper from the late 1880s, depicts the power an eastern banker held over the poor western farmers who are unable to pay their bills.The trusts did have an highly high degree of control with little to no opposition, so the farmers were right to disapprove of trusts and call for legislation to disband them. The regimens actions concerning the inflation of the American dollar were extremely detrimental to the ability of the average farmer to make a living. In chair William McKinleys acceptance speech in 1896 (Document B), McKinley argues that free silver would pass the order of money, and no one suffers so more(prenominal) than from cheap money as the farmers and laborers. The decrease in the value of money caused by inflation would make the farmers crops almost worthless. The farmers complaints regarding the disposal were valid due to the failure of the organization to stop inflation, which is shown in the table com parability the population to the money in circulation (Document C). The heart and soul of money in circulation increased ceaselessly from 1880 to 1895. It could be argued from the railroads point of view that if the prices werent increased to keep up with inflation, the railroads would be unable to make profit.In a good word before the Senate Cullom Committee, George W. Parker, vice-president of the Cairo Short stage business Railroad, testified that if the railroads kept their prices at constant levels, they would go bankrupt (Document G). However, the main problem with the railroads the farmers had was not necessarily the rising prices, but the concomitant that the prices rose without warning. It was extremely difficult to plan shipments and end up making profits. J. Lawrence Laughlin wrote that the farmers are wrong to blame the decrease in prices of wheat on the scarcity of silver (Document E).Laughlin claimed that such(prenominal) a decrease was hardly a result of global overproduction of wheat. While he made a valid point, it did not change the position that wheat prices were still extremely low and the government could still have been at fault. The farmers still had reason to be infuriated at the government due to the governments failure to protect the farmers from such a global overproduction by implementing a tariff on immaterial wheat and its failure to regulate railroads and trusts, going away them free to excavate the pockets of the farmers as profoundly as they pleased.It was certainly not sonant being a western farmer in the late 19th coke to the early 20th century. The farmers were complete slaves to the more powerful industries, especially the railroads. The farmers had valid reasons to be discontent with the circumstances. The railroads and other trusts had complete control of the markets and trade systems, while farmers faced forever and a day rising shipment prices and constantly change magnitude crop prices and sales. The go vernment simply stood lazily by and watched the farmers be manipulated and taken advantage of by the titans of industry, forcing the farmers into increasingly severe poverty.