LAD #19- Populist Party Platform

The Populist Movement came from the farmers’ alliances in the 1870’s and 1880’s. They soon became almost a third party, in accordance with neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. They opposed concentrated wealth, such as was seen in banks and big business, and thus were also against many of the achievements of industrialism. They wanted to have equal rights for men and women. They wanted labor unions, and wanted wealth to belong to those who earned it. They wanted a national currency, and free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold, under the restrictions to the ratio of 16 to 1. They wanted the amount of circulated money to be increased, and were in favor of an income tax. They wanted wealth to be in the hands of the people, and thus were against centralized wealth. They wanted government-owned railroads, telegraphs, and telephones. They demanded a free ballot, immigration quotas, shortened labor hours, were against the maintenance of a large standing army, and wanted to limit the tenure of the President’s office to be for one 4-year term.