Populist Movement In Kansas example essay topic

William Allen White and the Farmer's Populist Movement During the late 19th century in Kansas there was a movement among the general population called the Farmer's Populist Movement. Today, Kansas is still by far a Republican state, but during this time the Populist Party engaged the Republican stronghold in a battle to win over the state, however, in the end the Republicans pulled through. William Allen White, at this time, had become a well known man in the journalism world and his political allegiance did not go unnoticed among either those within the political arena or those observing. William Allen White, aside from his personal political leanings towards the Republican side, was against the Populist movement that was stretching across Kansas and his forum for informing the community on why the Populist movement was wrong for Kansans became the Emporia Gazette. Through his editorials and interactions with political leaders of both the Populist and Republican Parties one can see that William Allen White hoped to persuade Kansans not to be won over by the Populist movement. Before someone can dive into William Allen White and what he did during the 1890's, an understanding of the Farmer's Populist Movement and the incumbent Republican Party of Kansas is essential.

Populism took hold amongst farm communities that had been shut out from the indirect benefits of railway construction. It took hold amongst less wealthy, unfenced farming townships in the early stages of economic development. And perhaps most importantly, it took hold amongst farm families that were experiencing a migration-induced devaluation of their human capital. Populism is interpreted as a movement rooted in the frustrating regional adjustments faced by individual farm families, rather than as simply a democratic, collective movement in American politics. Kansas Populism was prompted in 1890 because many native-born farmers found, when confronted by a years of infestation of agricultural pests and severe drought, that they lacked the skills necessary for profitable utilization of the sub-humid agricultural lands. And that is why farmers grew a more risky mix of corn and wheat on the eve of the Populist revolt; they had a fear of income losses from yield-reducing insect infestations.

The suggested pest-management technique was to eliminate either wheat or corn altogether for several years. In 1889 corn reached historically low prices; and in 1890, Kansas was hit with drought and hot winds that lowered corn output significantly. Populism explains the rise of Populism in 1890 across Kansas as a response to the frustrations of adapting crop selections and pest management routines to the sub-humid environment. Farmers raised hell in the fall of 1890, in part, because they had not yet formed the farm management skills that could have prevented such a collapse of operating income. If Populist voters were choked by monopoly power, the party should have done significantly worse in those townships served by several competing railroad lines; but if Populist voters were motivated by a dispirited hunt for capital gains on land through nearness to railway improvements, Populist candidates should have prospered as they moved farthest away from a rail station.

Therefore, if Populist voters were motivated simply by bitterness over the fact that their township did not have a rail station then Populist candidates should have done better in a township with no railway station at all. What was most important was 1) whether a township had a railroad station and 2) how far the average farmer had to travel to reach a railhead. The farmer's response to crop failures, insect damage, and the realization that a township might never get a railway station varied. Populism has become a movement precisely because of how the farm families of the central West adapted to the sub-humid agricultural conditions in hand with how a band of colorful political entrepreneurs achieved short-term success in the marketing of a new political product. The ideals of Populism campaigned for reform in three major areas: land, transportation, and money. Populists took the stance that land should be set aside for settlers and not be held on speculative grounds.

The believed that transportation and communication means for the people were "natural monopolies"1, Populists demanded that they be owned by the government and operated with the interests of the people in mind. Finally, when it came to finance, Populists insisted that the existing banking system be replaced by a system directly responsible to elected officials, since it was currently under the control of individual with primarily financial interests based back on the East coast. Aside from all of this, the platform held an appearance of opinions sympathetic to industry and in favor of a tax system based on a graduated field by income. Republicans in Kansas, much like today still, were pro-big business and decreasing the influence of government in people's everyday lives. This is where the issue of railroads steps in, railroads was often pictured as big business, establishment, Republican, and conservative. There was also harmony between the Republican controlled state government and the railroads.

In Kansas around 1890, cooperation and mutual support prevailed between state officials and rail executives. The state may have regulated the railroads, but powerful railroad influence in Topeka insured that the legislators maintained moderation in imposing any major new controls on rail 1- web activities. But the railroad commissioners did give some hint of future problems as they recognized the farmers' battle against drought and poor crop yields. This, in turn, was beginning to affect railroad business adversely, particularly in the western portion of the state. Railroad men reserved their loudest criticism for the Farmers Alliance and the People's party. Railroaders voiced disgust when the alliance in Kansas began to store farm products hoping for better market prices.

This was nothing more than the farmers forming grain pools. Since people must eat, the rail leaders felt these grain pools were of great concern not only to the railroads but to the general public as well. Railroaders also rebuked the Farmers Alliance for crying financial ruin and promoting railroad deduction when crop yields were plentiful. However, it is interesting to note that there are some definitive similarities at the core of both the Republican and Populist parties, William Peffer a leader among the Populist Party, had this to say about the similarities and differences between the two, "The Republican party believes that national government may do anything anywhere within the boundaries of the union that will promote the general welfare, and Populists believe the same", (Argersinger 188).

It is interesting that these two dueling parties have similar foundations and beliefs when it comes to their respective agendas. Now that there is a clear understanding of what it meant to be on either side of the dividing line between Republicans and Populists. What was it about William Allen White and his editorials that influenced the Populist movement in Kansas? Let us take a look. Born in Emporia in 1868, William Allen White grew up in El Dorado, Kansas. His mother, Mary Ann Hatten, had much influence over William during his early years.

William's mother was a stout black abolitionist Republican. As a young woman attending university at Knox College, she had the chance to hear one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, afterwards she "fell madly, platonically, but eternally, in love with Abraham Lincoln" (White 7). Differing very much from his mother, William's father, Dr. Allen White was a man that dearly loved politics, anti-slavery Democratic politics that is. It was his mother, more so than his father, that took hold of William as a young boy, "Never had a child more strongly minded parents" (White 9). Much reverence is given to his mother by William, "She was not afraid to go into the wilds of Kansas... into a pioneer town... and wild Indians roaming less than one hundred miles to the westward... she walked on her heels like a captain of artillery. And under her shimmering white skin it was all solid iron in heart and soul" (White 8).

One can tell William's mother had much influence on how he would turn out to be later on in life, and this won't transfer just into his everyday behavior, it will transfer into his ideals on how people should be and what he held important for his fellow Kansans, his personal politics would later be defined by many of these characteristics. As a young boy selling cigars, William, without knowing, began learning the rules of business and the economy. At the beginning he stood by his father and the defense of the Democratic ideals, which is what most young boys would do, in any effort to emulate their father. It wasn't until later on in life that it would occur to him that he would want to fight for the faith and ideals of his mother's party, the Republicans. Moving forward to 1891, W.A. White accepts a job in Kansas City at the Kansas City Journal. This is where he began his career in journalism, a life-long affair for him that would shot him later on in life into notoriety and respect.

The Journal was a political organ that depended on its patronage and prestige of the Republican Party. At this point in time newspapers in larger cities, Kansas City included, were becoming business enterprises with politics playing a substantial role in how prosperous each would be. The Journal, however, did not catch this wave and its circulation decreased because of it. W.A. White kept this in the back of his mind for years and years, the understanding of a newspaper being an enterprise with political under-tidings would be significant later when he would take over the Emporia Gazette. After a few months at the Journal, W.A. White had his first opportunity to infuse his own politics when he was given the chance to write his own column. It may not have amounted to much, but it got the job done at the time, his initials and soon name would start circulating amongst other journalists at other newspapers, newspapers that had political ties and also among Kansas Republican politicians. In 1892, March, he was sent by the Journal to be a Topeka correspondent, a job that was quite dignified for an editorial writer and highly ambitious for White because it gave him a chance to show his face in the political arena and capital of Kansas.

He looked at himself as an ambassador for the Republicans of Kansas. By this time in Kansas the Populists had begun sweeping across the Midwest, and Kansas was their next target. White could not allow the Populists to do this, "As in every fusion, respectable minorities of both parties were fighting it; but, on the other hand, those in both parties who wanted the fleshpots favored fusion. It was the business of the Republican ambassador to Topeka to stop the fusion, so that the Republicans might defeat the divided forces. That was part of my job" (White 214).

This was the beginning, White felt it necessary to stop the Populists from fusing with the Democrats in Kansas, and he took it upon himself to do what he could to keep the Republicans as the majority in Kansas. His actions thereafter are important, his conniving and conspiring within the Populist and Democratic parties, his attendance at political conventions for all three parties, it is safe to say that William Allen White knew the inner-workings of all three political parties and used this to his advantage when reporting. From his attendance to these conventions and meetings, White says this about his opposition, "By their clamor against the trusts, by their demand that the railroads be regulated and that the currency be inflated... They were trying to establish economic as well as political equality, to help the underdog... It was all Karl Marx, highly diluted... ".

(White 216). As White wrote about the Populists in his editorials he continued to snub his way into the gentry of Topeka, trying to get in good with the political manipulators of the political parties and understand more of what was going on behind the scenes. "Of course I made friends with the Populist leaders in Kansas. I was a friendly dog by training and by breeding. Jerry Simpson, a self-educated man ten years or so my senior, I came to respect deeply... He accepted the portrait which the Republicans made of him as an ignorant fool because it helped him to talk to the crowds that gathered to hear him" (White 217).

Jerry Simpson had a different way of stating what his party the Populists were all about, "The fundamental doctrine of Populism was public ownership and public conduct of public utilities" (Diggs 156). What does all this mean though? How is all this information used by White to respond to what was going on at the time, and try to influence the population of Kansas that the Populists were not the way to go? W.A. White, a Republican by choice as well as a journalist during the time of the Farmer's Populist Movement had much power being in a position to get his word out to a vast majority of people. When he took over the Emporia Gazette in 1895, he suddenly had the means to voice his opinions without having to hide behind a facade or lie about what he believed to be the best way to go, neutralism on his part was over, partisanship enter stage right. How much influence could one man have though?

It is true that W.A. White was only one man, he could hardly be much more than that, and there is no way of truly knowing how much impact he did have on the turn-out of the Populist Movement in Kansas, partly because it was such a big movement and so many factors went into the outcome, it is hard to imagine how much one man could sway the results. However, all those deterrents aside, William Allen White had the ambition in him, the means to write, and his belief that he could do something about it, which is all that was needed and he was intent on doing it. When William began his own paper, he had made friends with numerous people on all three of the political party tickets, but once he was through attending conventions, conferences or meetings and was solely writing for his own personal newspaper, he had the freedom of speech on his side and was able to speak what was on his mind. William never, however, exploited the friends that he made while working as a Topeka correspondent, he did, however, keep things true to himself; if that meant making comments about those of the opposing party he did, but not in the way of attacking another man's character, merely their politics. He kept it professional this way, and for that reason when readers would examine an article or column of his, their respect for his opinions was more secure.

He needed his readers to stand behind him if he were to have any influence what so ever on the matters at hand, and to keep things professional was the way to do that. If he were to have taken things to a personal level then instead of respect, readers would think him immature and spiteful, not awarding traits for a journalist. Although White had an intense interest in politics, he lacked the hard-driving, manipulative nature that is characteristic of some politicians. He started many brisk controversies through his editorials, but he always maintained the objectivity of the country editor.

White began his rise to national prominence soon after his purchase of the Emporia Gazette in 1895. It was before the campaign for presidency in 1896 that William entered the campaign, as a journalist, with more fervor and cleverness than he had before, "It seemed to me that rude hands were trying to tear down the tabernacle of our national life, to taint our currency with fiat" (White 279). In 1896, William had an angry encounter with a group of 15 local Populist farmers, they were upset with some of his editorial utterances that he had made, it didn't help matters that these farmers were out of work and money, while William was walking the street with a clean suit and heading to the post-office to retrieve his mail. Just after this incident, William was so enraged that he went back to his office and sat down to write his famous editorial, 'What's the Matter with Kansas?' His derisive attack on Populism was reprinted and quoted in scores of nationally known publications, and in the process he was vaulted to a fame that endured for the remaining 48 years of his life. Let us take a closer look at this infamous editorial (all following quotations are from his editorial "What's the Matter with Kansas", and see what can be deciphered. "Take up the Government Blue Book and you will see Kansas is virtually off the map.

Two or three little scrubby consular places in yellow-fever-stricken communities that do not aggregate ten thousand dollars a year is all the recognition that Kansas has". What could possibly be happening in these towns? Well, conflict between the farmers and the railway companies has heightened and farmers decided to no longer give their support of money to these companies because they drive the prices down of the farmers. "The newspaper columns and magazines once devoted to praise of her, to facts and startling figures concerning her resources, are now filled with cartoons, jibes and Pefferian speeches. Kansas just naturally isn't in it. She has traded with Arkansas and Timbuctoo".

He is telling the populace of Kansas to open their eyes and realize what this Populist movement of the Farmers was doing to their state. At the beginning it may have brought a band of people together to feel better about their present situation but in the long run it drove out the business, and along with the business families and money left as well. This was not good for the economy, droughts had happened before and things pulled through and farmer's were fine, but to pool together in their frustration behind a fad political party was absolutely not the answer White was saying. He goes on to ask the populace to take a step back from what they believe is good and right in their eyes, and take a good hard look at who they have elected as their officials... ". We have an old mossback Jacksonian who snorts and howls because there is a bathtub in the state house; we are running that old jay for Governor.

We have another shabby, wild-eyed, rattle-brained fanatic who has said openly in a dozen speeches that 'the rights of the user are paramount to the rights of the owner'; we are running him for Chief Justice, so that capital will come tumbling over itself to get into the state. We have raked the old ash heap of failure in the state and found an old human hoop-skirt who has failed as a businessman, who has failed as an editor, who has failed as a preacher, and we are going to run him for Congressman-at-Large... we have discovered a kid without a law practice and have decided to run him for Attorney General. Then, for fear some hint that the state had become respectable might percolate through the civilized portions of the nation, we have decided to send three or four harpies out lecturing, telling the people that Kansas is raising hell and letting the corn go to weeds". By this time, he begins, rightfully so, to mock the people of the Populist party and jeer at them for altering the state of Kansas into a lowly place for people to want to come back to. He is trying to get across to the people that the Kansas is in need of more people with non-rural jobs and white-collar salaries to balance out all the farmer's in the state, and because the Populist party was able to gain control for just a little while with their fad agenda and driven out just those people that keeps Kansas a balanced and sound state is their reason for their lowly position in life now. Yet they, the farmers, feel that individuals, like White, have come in and ruined their chance to make a comeback and bargain for "equal" rights for all men".

Oh, yes, Kansas is a great state. Here are people fleeing from it by the score every day, capital going out of the state by the hundreds of dollars; and every industry but farming paralyzed, and that crippled, because its products have to go across the ocean before they can find a laboring man at work who can afford to buy them. Let's don't stop this year. Let's drive all the decent, self-respecting men out of the state. Let's keep the old clodhoppers who know it all". Did William Allen White have an affect on the notions and beliefs of his readers?

He must have done something right, because almost overnight he was a success and his editorial had made him famous across the nation. The Republican national committee reprinted it as a circular, letters came, although some were abusive, that goes without saying, but most were congratulatory and some even inquired about extra copies. His basic motivation was to get people to think, it wasn't his action of writing that was so impressive, but how he just wanted people to take a moment and think things through, it was this affect that he had on people that made his editorial groundbreaking. So, his role in the 1896 presidential campaign came down to this.

However credible or not, he arouse the senses and got the blood boiling of the people, first of Emporia, then of the nation. The affect that this had was important, it is only when someone speaks frankly and possibly even out of context that people will listen to what it is that you have to say, especially if it is against the common thread of beliefs. Like many heroes of history, it wasn't until after the election had passed and the results were in that William became notorious among Republicans though. "It was then, in their national victory, that the Republicans of our town rallied to me. As a national figure, I had their respect... ".

(White 286).

Bibliography

1- Diggs, Annie L. The Story of Jerry Simpson. Wichita: Hobson Printing, 1908.
2- White, William Allen. The Autobiography of William Allen White. New York: Macmillan, 1946.
3- Peffer, William A. Populism, Its Rise and Fall. Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas, 1992.
4- Argersinger, Peter H. The Limits of Agrarian Radicalism. Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas, 1995.