Why Was The Populist Party Successful

I think that the Populist Party was successful, even though, they may have had few failures. The Populist Party, however had many organizations such as the grange, colored farmer alliances, and other regional alliances. The rise of the party was the climax of two decades of farmers suffering in the South and West. In 1890, the party supported policies to release the hardships of the farmers and it had an important impact on the politics.
Populism was a movement to increase farmers’ political power and to work for legislation in their own interest. Therefore, many farmers joined the Populist party because they were in the midst of an economic crisis. Some new technology helped enabled many farmers to produce more crops, but the greater supply
caused prices to fall. Farmers selling their goods overseas was difficult, due to high tariffs. The farmers also felt that they were victimized by the large and faraway entities such the banks obtaining loans and railroads setting their shipping rates.
During the Civil War, the government expanded the money supply by issuing millions of dollars in greenbacks; paper currency that cannot be exchanged for gold or silver coins. However, the greenbacks without an increase in goods for sale caused inflation; a decline in the value of money. The greenbacks, however, lost its value and the prices of goods rises. After the Civil War ended, the United States had three types of currency, greenbacks, gold and silver coins. For inflation to be under control, the federal government stopped printing greenbacks and they began paying off the bonds.