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Settling the Great Plains

Between 1870 and 1900, over 400 million acres of land was settled. Favorable land policies and completion of the transcontinental railroad made rapid settlement west of the Mississippi possible. Settling the Great Plains. Land rush – in Oklahoma settled 2 million acres in one day.

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Settling the Great Plains

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  1. Between 1870 and 1900, over 400 million acres of land was settled. Favorable land policies and completion of the transcontinental railroad made rapid settlement west of the Mississippi possible. Settling the Great Plains Land rush – in Oklahoma settled 2 million acres in one day. Homestead Act: Gave 160 Acres to Head of Household. Many exodusters (blacks who moved from the south) took advantage. Factors in Rapid Settlement Parks – Gov’t set aside 1000’s of acres of land that would become a major part of the National Parks System (ex: Yellowstone)

  2. Black“Exoduster”Homesteaders

  3. National Parks

  4. Farmers – Ups & Downs New inventions made farms more efficient (steel plows, windmills, reapers & barbed wire). Morrill Act helped set up agricultural colleges. However, drought caused many large cash-crop farms to fold.

  5. New AgriculturalTechnology Steel Plow [“Sod Buster”] “Prairie Fan”Water Pump

  6. Barbed Wire Joseph Glidden

  7. The Range Wars Farmers/ Sheep Herders CattleRanchers

  8. Farmers – Ups & Downs New inventions made farms more efficient (steel plows, windmills, reapers & barbed wire). Morrill Act helped set up agricultural colleges. However, drought caused many large cash-crop farms to fold. Economics: High cost of shipping grain from railroads added to burden. Railroads charged high prices to transport grain. Farmers Organize – Hardships brought farmers together in alliances. Example: the Grange, formed to educate farmers, also organized to fight the railroads & sponsor state legislations to regulate the railroads. (Official name was The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry.)

  9. Populism People’s Party gave rise to “Populism,” in 1892. Held their convention in Omaha, Nebraska, the party platform centered around farmers and workers. Panic of 1893: Farmers had over-extended debt, railroads expanded faster than demand, several going bankrupt in 1893. Gov’ts gold supply wore thin (because of purchasing silver). Panic struck Wall Street, by the end of 1893, 15,000 businesses & 500 banks collapsed. Central Issue: ‘Gold Standard’ or ‘bimetallism.’ Silverites, supporters of bimetallism, felt that backing currency w/ both gold & silver would stimulate the economy. Gold bugs, supporters of gold standard, felt that retaining a currency backed only in gold would produce a more stable economy. 1896 Election: Republicans (gold standard) nominated Wm McKinley. Democrats & Populists (silverites) nominated Wm Jennings Bryan. Bryan gained the nomination with his “cross of gold” speech, but lost the election. Populism collapsed after the election

  10. Gold Bugs & Silverites

  11. William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech gave rise to many political cartoons

  12. “A suggestion for the 53-cent dollar.” Source: Mark Sullivan, Our Times, Vol. 1, The Turn of the Century (adapted) This cartoon from the 1896 presidential election campaign attacked William Jennings Bryan’s proposal for (1) free coinage of silver (2) lower tariffs on farm goods (3) strengthening the gold standard (4) government regulation of the railroads

  13. “If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands 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.”

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