LAD #23- The Populist Party Platform

Populist Party Platform
July 4, 1892

The Populist Party formed an alliance of farmers in the 1870s and 1880s in opposition to the growth of big business, and the toll they took on these people. The Party claimed the government had been corrupted by the influence of said businesses and the public opinion ignored. Lamenting their woes, they claimed to have been denied their right to organize, and that their country was reverting to European conditions. One of their goals was to put the government back into the hands of its people, rather than the businessmen.

The Party refused to stand down until its demands were met, asking that labor unions be made permanent, and that any money made by a person remain in their own possession. With the belief the government ought to own the railroads rather than the other way around, they also expanded on their ideas involving the country's financial methods, demanding national currency and a graduate income tax to name a few. One of their main goals was to have means of transportation and communication to be owned and operated in the interest of the people, along with the claim that the government should reclaim excess land owned and unneeded by the railroads to be used for settlement instead.

The Populist Party demanded a free ballot without Federal intervention, the income tax be used for the reduction of the overall taxes caused by industry and also calling for the restriction of immigration that would cost Americans' jobs. They supported the idea of workers organizing themselves into unions and at the same time declared that armed guards such as Pinkertons be removed from workplaces.

In all the main focus of the Populist Party was in favor of the interest of the people, and generally demanding that the national government deny any aid to a corporate business.