Question

In the 1890s, the farmers' alliance evolved into the people's party (or populists), the era's greatest political insurgency. Identify the statements that describe the populists.

Answer 1

The Populist Party wanted to push several issues at the time in the 1890s in the United States.  

1. Free Silver--one of their biggest platforms was to change the currency to free silver to make it more affordable for the average person to use, instead of having money backed up by the gold standard.

2. Eight hour workday--They wanted to have workers and laborers be given an eight hour workday to give workers better working conditions than what they currently faced.

3. Income tax--They wanted to have a federal income tax (which later becomes the 16th Amendment) to have different taxes for people based on their income, or how much money they would make.  So essentially, a very wealthy person would have higher taxes than a poor person.

4. Regulation of the railroad--They wanted the government to regulate the railroad instead of the big businesses regulating the railroad and coming up with the prices.  The farmers especially felt as though it was not fair to allow the business owners to set the prices.

The Populist Party was essentially called the People's Party because they wanted to better represent and recognize the common people in government.