There was a series of huge droughts that ruined much of the produce and of the grains. They had to sell what little they had in order to survive and make up for losses but they were getting killed by imported goods or by grains from other places of the US that weren't hit so severely. This is why the grain prices started dropping which caused many hardships.
A group that would most likely be supportive of the cartoon are (I'm assuming) the farmers who plowed the lands everyday yo receive very little in return. During the timeframe of the cartoon Ulysses S. Grant was president and also led the north to victory in the civil war.
Benedictines were what the monks were called