Populist Beliefs and Opinions
Here are a few of the many beliefs of the Populists:
- They believed in and encouraged the small, independent farmer.
- They resented big business, especially banks and Wall Street.
- In their opinion, Wall Street contained a "money trust" which restricted the amount of money that farmers could earn.
- They believed in the free coinage of silver, and wanted to deviate from the gold standard to increase the amount of money in circulation.
- They demanded cheaper prices on railroads, it was too expensive to ship crops.
- They used racism to gain support from poor whites and southerners.