For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher. The Subtreasury Plan was among the leading political issues of the s in North Carolina and other states. The plan sought to revolutionize credit and marketing arrangements for staple crops, particularly cotton.
At harvest, farmers could deposit crops in the warehouses and receive negotiable federal notes for up to 80 percent of the value of the crops. The farmer had one year to sell the crop and then satisfy the notes and a 1 percent per year interest charge. A fee for storage would also be charged.
Unsold crops could be liquidated at auction. The Subtreasury Plan was radical because agricultural credit in North Carolina in the s was generally provided by merchants and landlords. Credit from these sources, which was necessary to see a farmer through the growing season, was always expensive and often extortionate. Consequently, the Subtreasury Plan sought to revolutionize rural credit by transferring its burdens and profits from local private lenders to the national government.
The political force behind the Subtreasury Plan was the Farmers' Alliance. The national Alliance, influenced by the failure of its marketing and purchasing cooperatives, endorsed the scheme at its meeting in St. Historians have disagreed about the origins of the Subtreasury Plan. Some have credited it to Charles W. Macune , a leading member of the Farmers' Alliance in Texas, who presented the plan to delegates in St. Others have stressed the contribution of Harry Skinner , a Greenville lawyer.
Skinner, who would later become a Populist congressman from North Carolina, wrote articles in and supporting a government warehouse and note scheme. North Carolinian Leonidas L. Polk, a member of the committee led by Macune that presented the Subtreasury Plan in St. Louis, was aware of Skinner's proposal.
The Subtreasury Plan became the leading political issue among North Carolina Alliance members in The principal figures in the ensuing contest were Polk, president of the national Farmers' Alliance, and North Carolina's Democratic U.
In early Vance agreed to introduce the Subtreasury Plan in the Senate, but he expressed his personal opposition to the proposal. In a rematch of the election, the Democrats again nominated Grover Cleveland, while Republicans went with Benjamin Harrison.
Despite the presence of a third-party challenger, Cleveland won another close popular vote to become the first U. Although he finished a distant third, Populist candidate Weaver polled a respectable one million votes. Rather than being disappointed, several Populists applauded their showing—especially for a third party with barely two years of national political experience under its belt.
They anxiously awaited the election, believing that if the rest of the country, in particular industrial workers, experienced hardships similar to those that farmers already faced, a powerful alliance among the two groups could carry the Populists to victory. Uneven responses from state governments had many farmers seeking an alternative solution to their problems. Ultimately, the alliances were unable to initiate widespread change for their benefit.
Still, drawing from the cohesion of purpose, farmers sought to create change from the inside: through politics. They hoped the creation of the Populist Party in would lead to a president who put the people—and in particular the farmers—first. Women were able to play key roles in the alliance movement. In the end, nearly , women joined the movement.
Student View. Preview Copy. Save Please log in to save materials. Show More Show Less. Course Alignments. Political Map U. This North Dakota sod hut, built by a homesteading farmer for his family, was photographed in , two years after it was built. While the country was quickly industrializing, many farmers still lived in rough, rural conditions.
This print from the early s, with scenes of farm life, was a promotional poster for the Grangers, one of the earliest farmer reform groups.
Show Hint Hint: A. Which of the following contributed directly to the plight of farmers? Show Hint Hint: C. Show Hint Hint: Women were able to play key roles in the alliance movement. Forgot password?
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