Dbq Fatmer Unhappiness

Dbq Fatmer Unhappiness

Trang Nguyen
AP History
January 13, 2013
Agrarian’s Discontents
The time between 1880 and 1900 was a problematic time for America. After being freed from the
Civil War, America and its citizens were finally able to live a comfortable life again. However, in the late
19th-century American farmers experienced much economic distress due to various reasons. Crops, such as
cotton and wheat, which were once the dominant crops there was in America, were selling at such low
prices that it was almost impossible for farmers to gain any profits. With the deflation in American currency
and the demonetization of silver, farmers were facing serious troubles with debts. Furthermore, with the
improvements on railroad transportation came about the problem with competition, making it harder for
farmers to transports their crops because of the freight shipping. Near the end of the 19th-century, agrarians
complained that the monopolies and trusts, the deflation and money shortages, and railroads as threats to
their way of life, though in some cases their complaints were invalid.
Close to the end of the 19th-century, businesses were prospering which led to the rise of monopolies
and trusts. With the rise of these monopolies and trusts, the farmers began to worry about sudden
unreasonable price raises that would harm the consumers and eventually themselves due to the
disappearance of competition. James B. Weaver stated claimed that “monopolies organized to destroy
competition and restrain trade” thinking that “they limit the price of raw material so as to impoverish the
consumer...[reducing] the price of every class of labor connected with the trade” (Doc F). He thought that
every businessmen out there was aiming to crush the competition in order to achieve their monopoly, but
that wasn't true. The fear of farmers of price raises wasn't something to be concern of because it never
actually happened, and instead the prices tend to falter. Furthermore, the farmers...

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