4. Millionaires and Tramps

Source: Anthony Weekly Bulletin (KS), May 4, 1894

The 1892 Omaha Platform of the Populist Party charged that the nation was "rapidly degenerating into European Conditions . . . (from which) we breed two great classes -- tramps and millionaires."  The widening gulf between rich and poor that appeared in late nineteenth century America symbolized Europe's more static and unfair social system.  Millionaires, they charged, obtained their wealth through illegitimate manipulation of the political system, which included protective tariffs, railroad land grants, and corporate charters.  This, in turn, impoverished those who actually built the nation through their labor.  In other words, the laws that created millionaires likewise created tramps out of those not favored by such legislation.

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