Higgs emphasized on the exploitation of farmers by mortgagers, freight owners and monopolists as the major cause of farm protests and the subsequent formation of agrarian parties1. However, other scholars like Robert McGuire have subjected the complaints of farmers to statistical testing, founding each claim inconsistent to some extent with the available evidence about the terms of trade 2. This paper will assess the actual causes of agrarian unrest and the formation of agrarian parties, paying particular attention to the Populist Party. John D. Hicks has summarized the complaints of the farmers. First, farmers claimed that farm prices were falling and, as a consequence, so were their incomes.
After Roosevelt read the graphic novel, he pushed for passage of the Meat Inspection Act. The Act was passed and set strict cleanliness requirements and created the program of federal meat inspection, but it required the government to pay for the inspections and companies were not required to label their canned goods. Sinclair was considerably successful as the results of his efforts to bring about change are still evident today. Susan B. Anthony is one of the most well known woman suffragists in American history. In the late 1890s, women were not allowed to vote while African American men were (as per the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.)
In the article “The United Farmworkers Union”, by Rick Tejada-Flores talks about the struggle that chicanos had in the 1900’s. The UFW is the only successful union ever to defend the rights of those who grew and harvested the crops. There were many attempts to organize a union in the past and they all failed. In the 1910’s and 1920’s there were many attempts led by Communist unions. The National Labor Relations Act took effect in 1936 giving most american workers the right to join unions.
In the AAA’s first year the supply of food outstripped the demand. The AAA could raise prices by paying farmers to destroy crops, milk and livestock. To control production and farm prices the AAA paid farmers to leave some of their land uncultivated. For example if the markets demand for wheat and cotton decreased the AAA would give money to farmers as subsides which are grants of money given to farmers or any other
Extra Credit: Cesar Chavez Film Cesar Chavez was a farm worker organizer and a powerful union activist. The film showed how he did his best to exterminate the mistreatment and unfairness done to Latino farmers. The most amazing part for me was how Cesar quit his Community Service Organization job and managed to bring all the farmworkers together under one roof by first putting himself in their situation. The fact that Cesar and his wife took some days to actually be in the life of a farmer showed just how dedicated he was to creating a union. By, engaging with the farmers, interviewing them and inviting them to the church and his house for meetings, and talking to the Filipino leaders who were already on strike, Cesar was able to successfully bring together the farmworkers for a successful union.
How far is it accurate to describe Stalin's policy of collectivisation as a failure? Collectivisation was enforced in 1929 under Stalin's agricultural reform policies, who aimed to merge small farms into 'collective farms'. He did this with the intention of: producing a grain surplus, creating more food production for the population, producing a surplus of man power in the countryside, which could be used in urban areas, and to create a rural working class. It is argued by many historians that the outcomes of collectivisation was largely negative, and describe it as a failure. However whether or not this is true is still a debated area of discussion today.
Economically and industrially Russia was also falling far behind many other Western countries at the time, like Britain and Germany. When Count Witte became Minister of Finance in 1893, there was desperate need to decrease inflation, improve infrastructure and encourage foreign investment. This essay will discuss how successful he was at introducing policies that addressed these problems. A great success for Witte was the expansion of heavy industry in Russia. He linked industrial growth with a stronger nation politically and economically, and was inspired by the more developed nations in the west.
It is accurate to an extent to say that the most important result of the collectivisation of agriculture was that it imposed communist control on the countryside because generally this was the case; private land ownership was banned and peasants were paid an annual wage- splitting up the collective of the profits of the year, however only to an extent because it didn’t impose complete communist control as peasants in a Kolkhoz, for example, were still able to keep a private plot of land, showing not complete communism. And there were also other results of collectivisation such as the increase in migration to cities and increase of grain procurement, which were almost more important than the imposed communist control on the countryside. Collectivisation of agriculture did impose communist control on the countryside because it meant that all farming in the countryside was equal as all private land ownership was banned and so peasants could no longer sell their own goods in market. Instead collective farms were set up under the Kolkhoz or the Sovkhoz system, by 1941 98% of land was collectivised. But this wasn’t complete communist control because the peasants of the Kolkhoz were stilled allowed to keep a private plot of land.
In this essay I will explain how the Tsar kept control in Russia and dealt with some problems and did not deal with others. In 1906 all the agricultural land was owned communally but harsh winters, slow production and old fashioned techniques had lead to starving peasants who grew crops only to feed themselves. At the same time the skilled workforce in cities had to rely on grain that had been imported from other countries. The Tsarist regime had to deal with these issues because it could not lose the support of the peasants and the workers. Nicholas II put Prime Minister Stolypin’s land reforms into place.
As seen in “The Farmers’ Grievances”, a skillful farmer, compared to his physicist or tailor counterparts would never terminate his financial troubles; and in contrast to other professions, advancements and pioneering in the farming field only dug the financial pit deeper (Document A). Many of the financial troubles faced by farmers portrayed them to be not the indispensible feeding hand of America, but perhaps just the opposite, as stated by Mary E. Lease: “The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. The West and South are bound and prostrate before the manufacturing East.” (Document C) Lease provides a vital historical aspect of farming, comparing farmers to “common people”, rather than the agricultural giants that they are today. It thus becomes apparent why a worker putting so much effort into his business but getting so little out would wish to revolt. Railroad companies that charged four times as much as on the East gave farmers incentive to band together in order to combat outrages rates politically (Document D).