Study On The Populist Movement In Kansas In The Late 19th Century

In the late 19 th century,due to the development of industrialization and urbanization in the United States,a large number of monopoly capital rose,new monopoly groups such as railway companies and loan institutions exploited the interests of farmers from transportation and capital.Kansas was a typically agricultural state of the Midwest and the farmers were exploited heavily,so that farmers in the state started a series of revolts.The most notably was activities of populist party as the third party.In 1890,the Kansas populist party was founded and became one of the first representative states in the country to establish the populist party.As the largest third party movement at that time,the populist party mainly defended farmers' rights through political means.On the establishment of the populist party in Kansas,its power was relatively weak,so it chose to cooperate with the Democratic Party.Its purpose was to help the populist party to enter the political stage of Kansas and grasp the state power through the support of the Democratic Party to promote the political platform of the populist party.The successful cooperation of the populist with the Democratic Party greatly contributed to its electoral success.In two successful periods,the alliance helped the populist party gain control of state legislatures and government offices,enabling it to introduce populist legislative reforms in the state.When the populist movement flourished in Kansas,party leaders and representatives of the legislature debated on issues of farmer's concerns,such as railroads and loans,and enacted bills that based on the platform of reform.In legislative reforms,the populist party put an high premium on the establishing and the passing of a maximum freight rates law.Even though the bill failed to pass during this period,the other related to railway bill was enacted,which aimed to enlarge the power of the Railroad Commission,to regulate the behaviors of certain operations of the railway company and to ban the arbitrary freight.The purpose of the above bill was tostop the railway company to monopolize in the field of transportation.At the meantime,the populists also thought highly on the right of farmers to redeem their mortgages.The populist party realized that farmers were unable to redeem their mortgages in a short period of time,so the populist party urged the legislature to enact and pass a bill that extended the time for foreclosure victims to redeem their mortgage.In order to gain the support of the working class,the populist party backed the legislative reform to defend the rights and interests of workers,enacted and passed bills to improve the working conditions of workers.In the ten years from 1890 to 1898,the situation of farmers in Kansas was gradually improved.The main role of the populist party was also reflected in the impact on the conservative forces of the two parties,influencing the conservative policies of the two parties,and laying the foundation for the progressive movement in the 20 th century.At the creation of the populist party in Kansas,the Democratic Party agreed to cooperate with the populist party and supported the election of this third party.The compromise between the two parties in some aspects,such as the platform,subtly influenced the Democrats,so as to promote the reform idea of the populist party in the state.After being successfully elected,the populist party often fought against the republican party in the state legislature to carry out its own legislative reform,which gradually influenced the republicans.As a result,the republican party inherited the ideas of legislation reform originating from the populist party.After the decline of the populist party in 1898,the republicans adopted the populists' platform in Kansas and continued to carry out legislative reforms in state congress including railroad freights and antitrust that the populist party was most concerned about,and these reforms provided a reference for the progressive movement.