To what extent did the changes that the country underwent at the turn of the century make America a better society?
The Populist Movement posed the biggest challenge to big corporations that America had ever seen. In addition, it brought several advancements to agriculture. Populists sought to modernize agricultural industry by switching the type of farming to self- sufficient large- scale crops. They also established the Farmer's Alliance, an organization of farmers that believed in society to be economically cooperative and that all farmers work together like neighbors . Therefore, the Populist Movement can be considered a good thing for American society.
"If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." William Jennings Bryan- A Cross of Gold