Agrigarian discontent in the 1890'sWhy the farmers were wrong
...ot sufficient to make the earnings...when we make up a train of ten of fifteen cars of local freight...we can attach fifteen or twenty cars...of strictly through business. We can take the latter at a very low rate than go without it." Later, when asked the consequences of charging local traffic the same rate as through freight, Mr. Parker responded, "Bankruptcy, inevitably and speedy...". While the railroads felt that they must use this practice to make a profit, the farmers were justified in complaining, for they were seriously injured by it. A perfect example of this fact can be found in The Octopus by Frank Norris. A farmer named Dyke discovers that the railroad has increased their freight charges from two to five cents a pound. This new rate, "...ate up every cent of his gains. He stood there ruined." (Doc. H). The railroads regularly used rebates and drawbacks to help win the business of large shippers, and made up this loss in profit by increasing the cost to smaller shippers such as farmers. As a result, many farmers, already hurt by the downslide in agriculture, were ruined. Thus, the farmers of the late nineteenth century had a valid complaint against railroad shippers, for these farmers were hurt by the unfair practices of the railroads. Near the end of the nineteenth century, business began to centralize, leading to the rise of monopolies and trusts. Falling prices, along with the need for better efficiency in industry, led to the rise of such companies as Carnegie Steel and Standard Oil, which controlled a majority of the nation's supply of raw steel and oil respectively. The rise of these monopolies and trusts concerned many farmers, for they felt that the disappearance of competition would lead to erratic and unreasonable price rises that would hurt consumers. James B. Weaver, the Populist party's presidential candidate in the 1892 election, summed up the feelings of many Americans of the period in his work, A Call to Action: An Interpretation of the Great Uprising. He wrote, "It is clear that trusts are...in conflict with the Common law. They are monopolies organized to destroy competition and restrain trade.... Once they secure control of a given line, they are master of the situation... They can limit the price of the raw material so as to impoverish the producer, drive him to a single market, reduce the price of every class of labor connected with the trade, throw out of employment large numbers persons...and finally...they increase the price to the consumer.... The main weapons of the trust are threats, intimidation, bribery, fraud, wreck, and pillage." However, the facts refute many of Weaver's charges against the monopolies. While it is true that many used questionable means to achieve their monopoly, many were not out to crush competitors. To the contrary, John D. Rockefeller, head of Standard Oil, competed ruthlessly not to crush other refiners but to persuade them to join Standard Oil and share the business so all could profit. Furthermore, the fear that the monopolies would raise prices unreasonably was never realized. Prices tended to fall during the latter part of the 1800's creating what some have called a "consumer's millennium". Thus, the agrarian complaints against monopolies were not incredibly valid, for the monopolies did very little harm to farmers of the time. Finally, deflation and falling prices during the late 1800's led to the most heated complaint of farmers and the Populist party that grew out of agricultural discontent. Deflation had been running rampant during the latter half of the 1800's, as evidenced by the drastic fall in the value of wheat and cotton. To fight the deflationary trend, the Populists demanded a reversal of the Coinage Act of 1873, which demonetized silver. The Populist platform for the 1892 election called for unlimited coinage of silver and an increase in the money supply "to no less than $50 per capita.". Here again, the farmers are wrong in the assessment of their problems. It is true that the country's money supply was not adequate. United States government data from 1961 shows that though the country's population between 1865 and 1875 increased by nearly four million, the country's money supply actually decreased. Howeve...