populist and progressive era

After the civil war the west continued to expand. The homestead act and transcontinental railroad led to the growth of towns and cities as well as farming and the cattle industry. Farmers faced problems and organized the farmers alliance the largest citizens movement of the nineteenth century farmers sought to remedy their situation, it was founded in texas in the late 1870’s, the alliance spread to forty-three stats by 1890. The alliance proposed that the federal government establish warehouses where farmers could store their crops until they were sold. Using the crops as collateral, the government would then issue loans to farmers at low interest rates, thereby ending their dependence on bankers and merchants. Since it would have to be enacted by congress, the subtreasurey plan as this proposal was called, led the alliance into politics. In the early 1890’s the alliance evolved to the peoples part also known as the populists, the populist platform proposed many changes in election, tax, and economic policy. A desire to counter deflation and increase the money supply called for ‘free silver’ to back to dollar.
The progressive movement was an effort to cure many of the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurted industrial growth the frontier had been tamed, great cities and businesses’ developed and an overseas empire established but not all citizens shared in the new wealth, prestige and optimism. Progressivism also was coated with strong political overtones, and it rejected the3 church as the driving force for change their goals included the desire to remove corruption and unique influence from government through the taming of bosses and political machines also the effort to include more people directly in the political process and the conviction that government must play a role to solve social problems and establish fairness in economic matters