Farming Frontier• of 1862

• 160 acres of public land fee to any family that settled on it for a period of 5 years

• 1870-1890 about 500,000 families claimed land• About 2.5 million families purchased land from railroads and speculators• Hardships

– Extremes of weather, grasshoppers, loneliness, lack of water, lack of wood, falling prices, cost of new machinery, not enough land

• Solutions– “soddies”, barbed wire (Glidden 1874), mail-order, windmills, steel plow,

new strains of crops, dams, irrigation• 2/3 of homesteader farms failed by 1900

• Act• Land grants to promote development of western railroads

New New AgriculturalAgriculturalTechnologyTechnology

““Prairie Fan”Prairie Fan”Water PumpWater Pump

Steel Plow [“Sod Steel Plow [“Sod Buster”]Buster”]

Frontier Settlements: 1870-Frontier Settlements: 1870-18901890

Case File for Virgil Earp; Prescott, Arizona (1870-1905) National Archives

Homesteads From Public LandsHomesteads From Public Lands

18871887LandLand

PromotionPromotionPosterPosterfor thefor theDakotaDakota

TerritoriesTerritories

What is the Message of this What is the Message of this Picture?Picture?

The Realty--A Pioneer’s Sod House, The Realty--A Pioneer’s Sod House, SDSD

Rain Follows the Plow!Rain Follows the Plow!

Newlands Reclamation Act Newlands Reclamation Act (1902)(1902)

Francis NewlandsFrancis Newlands

Frederick Jackson TurnerFrederick Jackson Turner

The Significance of the Frontier The Significance of the Frontier in American Societyin American Society (1893)(1893)

Frontier Effects?

- optimism, future orientation, shedding of restraints due to land scarcity, and wastefulness of natural resources

Farm Protest

• Farmers of all regions faced same problems:

• Were becoming a minority in American society– Number of farms doubled between 1865-1900– People working as farmers declined from 60%

of population in 1860 to 37% in 1900

Agriculture• Cotton Still King

• 1870-1900 acres planted in cotton more than doubled• Increased productivity led to a decline in world markets by more than

50%• Per capita income in the South actually declined• By 1900

– ½+ of white and ¾ of black southern farmers were tenants or sharecroppers

• George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute (AL) [founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881] promoted the growth of diverse crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans

• Discontent– Farmers’ Southern Alliance = 1 million + members– Colored Farmers’ National Alliance = 250,000 members

» Failed to unite

Changes in Agriculture

• Falling Prices• Increased American

production• Foreign competition

(Canada, Russia, Argentina)• Prices fell, farmers had to

grow more, causing prices to fall, …

• Rising Costs•Industrial corporations formed monopolies to keep prices high•Middlemen (wholesalers, retailers) took their cut•Railroads, warehouses charge high, discriminatory rates•Heavy taxes on property, but not income from stocks and bonds

•More commercialized

•More specialized (single crops per farm)

•Consumers dependent on stores for food and mail-order for manufactured goods

•As producers dependent on large and expensive machines such as steam engines, seeders, and reaper-thresher combines

•Larger farms of thousands of acres were run like factories

Farmers Fight Back

• National Grange Movement• National Grange of Patrons of Husbandry, by Oliver Kelley in 1868 as

social and educational organization• B6 1870s organized economic ventures and political action• Greatest in the Midwest

– Established cooperatives (run by farmers)– Lobbied state legislatures to regulate rr and elevator rates

» Supreme Court upheld in Munn v. Illinois (1877)

• Interstate Commerce Act (1886)• Wabash v. Illinois (1886) Supreme Court ruled that only the federal

government could regulate interstate trade• Congress responded to farmers by passing the ICA

– Investigate and prosecute pools, rebates, and other discriminatory practices– Took years to be useful to the farmers

Closest Current NJ Grange

Farmers Fight Back

• Farmers’ alliances• 1890 about 1 million farmers were members of alliances

(similar to granges)

• Ocala Platform, 1890• Direct election of US Senators• Lower tariff rates• Graduated income tax• New banking system regulated by the federal government• Increase money in circulation• (Would become part of the Populist Movement in 1892,

1896 elections)

“Cross of Gold”"Having behind us the producing

masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." - W.J. Bryan

The legal price is fixed ...

                     

        

Legal Gold price of silveror how many tons of silver

you need to buy one ton of gold 16 :1

              

                          

371 grains of pure silver

<= ONE DOLLAR IS DEFINED AS =>

                                                                          

23.5 grains

of pure gold

Bimetalism

... but the market price changes.

                      

       

Market Gold price of silverFrom 1837 to the Civil War

15 :1

              

                          

One silver dollar

                                                      

                 

One gold dollar

1 $ <= VALUE AS A LEGAL TENDER=> 1 $You can pay your debt either in gold or in silver at the legal ratio

1.07 $ <= VALUE OF METAL IF MELTED=> 1 $You will thus pay in the cheapest coin and melt or hoard the other.

If the market price of silver exceeds the legal price ...

... silver coins are melted and gold jewels are coined, changing the relative supply of both metals. Market price of silver declines and equilibrium is restored.

The legal ratio fixes the market ratio if enough big countries are on the same bimetallic system with the same legal ratio.

If the oversupply of silver is lasting, all the silver can be drained from the money stock.

Gold exchanges for silver at 15:1 on the bullion market, but only at 16:1 at the legal price.

$4.04 $4.25

You can either coin your silver bar directly at the mint, in which case you will get 4.04 $, or you can

first exchange it on the bullion market for gold and then coin the gold at the mint. In that case you will

get 4.5$, because silver is undervalued as a legal tender.

Silver is undervalued when used as money, so no one will use it.

Gold is overvalued when used as money, so gold coins will be the only one to circulate.

U.S. Mint

Adoption of Gold

Standard

Germany 1871

Scandinavia* 1874

Denmark 1875

Norway 1875

Sweden 1875

Holland 1875

Belgium 1873

Italy 1873

Switzerland 1873

France 1876

Spain 1876

Austria 1879

Russia 1893

India 1898

USA (officially) 1900

  * as a monetary unionformed that year

Election of 1896

Colt .45 RevolverColt .45 Revolver

God didn’t make men equal.God didn’t make men equal.Colonel Colt did!Colonel Colt did!

Legendary Gunslingers & Train Legendary Gunslingers & Train RobbersRobbers

Jesse JamesJesse James

Billy the KidBilly the Kid

Dodge City Peace Commission, Dodge City Peace Commission, 18901890

BlackBlack“Exoduster”“Exoduster”

HomesteaderHomesteaderss

Blacks Moving WestBlacks Moving West

The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great The Buffalo Soldiers on the Great PlainsPlains

A Romantic ViewA Romantic View

The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian The Buffalo Soldiers & the Indian WarsWars

The “Chinese Question”The “Chinese Question”

Exclusion Act (1882)Exclusion Act (1882) - Oriental Exclusion - Oriental Exclusion ActAct - Chinese Exclusion - Chinese Exclusion ActAct

The Tong Wars: 1850s-1920sThe Tong Wars: 1850s-1920s

Began in San Francisco in Began in San Francisco in 1875.1875.

African American & ChineseAfrican American & ChinesePopulations:Populations:

1880-19001880-1900