5. The Powers That Be

Source: American Nonconformist (Winfield, KS), April 12, 1888

The American farmers' share of the gross domestic product dropped from 38% in the 1870s to 24% by the 1890s.  By 1890, the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas had more farm mortgages than farm families.  Between 1889 and 1893 creditors foreclosed on more than 10,000 Kansas farms.  Many lost their status as independent operators and either became tenants to were driven completely off the land and had to become urban wage earners.

As with all good caricaturists, Populist cartoonists particularly enjoyed throwing the enemy's most indiscrete statements back in their face.  Populists argued that the result of the widening gap between rich and poor would be the proletarianization of common people.   "The powers that be" would become so powerful that they would permanently establish their positions of privilege and become a traditional aristocracy in the European fashion.

This cartoon from 1888 actually predates the People's Party.  There were several forerunner third parties connected to the Populist party in leadership and programs.  The cartoonist and newspaper involved with this cartoon supported the Union Labor Party in 1888 and the Populist Party in the 1890s.

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