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P OPUL1ISM Has Received Much Notice As a Political Phenomenon POPULISM IN PENNSYLVANIA, 1892-1901 By WILLIAM E. LYoNs* P OPUL1ISM has received much notice as a political phenomenon. I Most of the literature, however, is confined to a study of the movement as a Western and Southern force. Little has been written about the Northeast; none has focused on Pennsylvania. In part this situation reflects the relatively impotent and flaccid posture of the party in Pennsylvania as compared to that of Kansas or the Dakotas. Nevertheless there was a Populist or People's party in the state, and it was active in the efforts to realign and re- define the syndrome of political power in the 1890's. Beyond accounting for the existence and activities of Populism in Pennsylvania, interesting analytic comparisons can be made vis- i-vis the movement in general. In some respects, Pennsylvania Populism was a microcosm of its national counterpart. However, careful analysis of its origins, programmatic posture, and regions of support tends to refute, at least in part, some of the traditional raisons d'dtre offered to explain Populism in America. Basically historians have presented two theses relative to the rise and existence of Populism as a political movement. One em- phasizes an agrarian theme; the other visualizes a broad-based class movement of rural and urban producers. The agrarian thesis asserts that Populism grew out of the dis- content generated by the end of the frontier with its cheap land and/or the rise of farming as a commercialized business.' The former drove land prices up and added to the problem of agrarian indebtedness in a period of deflated currency. The latter implied all the incipient problems of selling perishable goods on a com- paratively free and fluctuating world market. Railroads and cur- rency were important elements in either process. *Mr Lyons is a graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University. 'The agrarian theme is stated in John D. Hicks, The Populist Revolt, A History of the Farmers' Alliances and the People's Party (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1931), pp. 1-95; Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reformn, From Bryanr to F. D. R. (New York: Vintage Books, 1960), pp. 7, 46-59. 49 50 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY If the agrarian thesis is accepted, Pennsylvania seemed ripe for Populism. Prices for wheat and corn were falling throughout the 1870's and 1880's.2 The slight increase in 1891 that raised wheat to almost $1.00 per bushel and corn to $.70 did not relieve the poor profits obtained.3 By 1895 prices were falling again. Wheat tumbled to $.70, and corn sold for $.50. Dairying was becoming barely profitable, and pork prices fell.4 Switching from cereal crops was not the boon some had expected. This general price climate paralleled continued expansion of acreage in production. The acreage increase in the 1880's was iII those areas where lunibering, coal, and oil had served as the back- bone of the economy. As these interests stagnated, agriculture be- came the alternative.' Continued movement into these less fertile areas drove land prices up, and farmers began to complain about competing with products from cheaper Western lands.e Like the Dakota farmers, Pennsylvanians pushed into marginal land and borrowed to purchase it at inflated prices. The farmers of the state also suffered from the marketing dilemma. Profits were harshly cut by railroad costs.- The tariff, which her politicians vigorously supported, was killing foreign markets for farm products. 8 Furthermore, Russia and South America were rapidly becoming wheat exporters; and completion of the Suez Canal promised to bring India into competition.2 Norman Pollack has recently rejected the purely agrarian thesis by emphasizing the Populist attempt to create a viable political force that would couple agrarian discontent with the plight of the urban laboring masses. Although he is careful not to imply great success with the plan, he does accentuate the attempt as part of his theoretical foundations of the party.' Ignatius Donnelly "Obtained from data in Pennsylvania, Reports of the State Board of Agriculture, Agriculture of Penn.sylvaoui, 1870-1889. Cited in Ralph R. Ricker, "The Greenback-Labor Movement in Pennsylvania" (unpublished doctoral dissertation. Pennsylvania State University, 1955), pp. 25-29. 'Pennsylvania, Reports of the State Board of Agriculture, Agriculture of Pennsylvania, 1891, p. 308. 'Ibid., 1895, pp. 426-427, 723. 'Ibid., 1881, p. 23. 'Ibid., 1891, p. 30. 'Agriculture of Pennsylvania, 1890, pp. 260-261. 8'Ibid., p. 262. 'Ibid., pp. 281-282. "° Norman Pollack, The Populist Response to Industrial America: M1lid- western Populist Thoulght (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962). pp. 1-12. POPULISM IN PENNSYLVANIA 51 t,)itoniized the effort when he wrote the party's famous Omaha 3atform. Declaring that the "union of labor forces of the United '-;,ates shall be permanent and perpetual," Mr. Donnelly under- .cored the identical interests of rural and "civic" (urban) labor a;nd called on them to rally around the Populist banner.11 Whatever the validity of this thesis, Pennsylvania again offered i lucrative seedbed for efforts along these lines. The level of labor agitation can be gathered from the fact that there were fifty-three stikes in 1893. Most were caused by reductions of wages, and it has been estimated that $1,395,423.75 was lost in wages that year diue to strikes.12 In 1894 a decline in the number of strikes was offset by an increase in the number of longer, more widespread. and more destructive strikes."2 The malaise facing farmers and urban laborers was pregnant with the conditions that ostensibly bred Populism. Transforming socio-economic discontent into political action is not an easy task, and constructing a third party faced serious obstacles in Pennsylvania. One of the more important of them was the fact that the Poptulist-inspired Farmers' Alliances throughout the state were organized by the Southern Alliance.': Hence the 16 county and 105 local groups that held alliance charters by 1889 were almost entirely committed to a doctrine of capturing existing 1)arties. 12 The third-party impetus that characterized the Northern Alliance and Industrial Union did not penetrate alliance activity in this state as it had in the West. The only evidence of independent party activity prior to 1892 was the appearance of three alliance candidates for the state legislature who ran and lost in Mercer County.'., The seeds of the Pennsylvania People's party xvere found in the remnants of the decadent Greenback-Labor movement. In its state convention held in Bellefonte on September 30, 1884, the name "People's party" was occasionally used to refer to the declining "The Omaha Platform of 1892 is cited in Hicks, 7 he Populist RCvolt. ,). 439-444. "'Penmsylvania, Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, iidllstrial Statistics, XXI, 1893, p. 863. `[bid., XXII, 1894, p. I-C. "Hicks, The Populist Revolt, p. 127. 'Stevenson W. Fletcher, Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life, ,'-1940 (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1955), p. 414. Thomas B. Cochran, ed., Smiun'.s Legislative Handbook aotd Manial of State of Pen1nsYMa'i~a (Harrisburg: State Printer, 1891). p. 277. 52 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY party. By 1886 most Greenbackers were shifting to the major parties or the Prohibitionists, but the party continued in Allegheny, Blair, Crawford, Indiana, and Northumberland Counties.' InI Indiana County the local Greenback press, the Indiana Na- tional, supported the revival of the party's principles under the People's party label."5 Indeed one of the county's Greenback politicians was destined to become a leading figure in the Populist movement. Robert A. Thompson, lumber mill owner and proprietor of the Indiana News, became the state chairman of the party for seven years.' 9 Many other Populist organizers had similar Green- back experience. By the time the first state convention met in Franklin on June 23, 1892, the appearance of a national platform and slate of can- didates for the Presidential race was a foregone conclusion. While the July 4, 1892, Omaha Platform is considered the first national platform of the Populist party, it was a virtual copy of the St. Louis resolutions of February, 1892. Furthermore, the declaration of intent to form a national party was pronounced in the Cincinnati Platform of May, 1891.20 Much of the impetus behind the Frank- lin meeting flowed from this national activity. In fact one of the key tasks accomplished b)y the convention was the selection of delegates and alternates to represent the state at the Omaha Convention .21 The small gathering at the convention also proceeded with a decision to run a full ticket in the 1892 election. Representatives from each Congressional district were ordered to assemble and nominate candidates for their districts. Meanwhile the convention selected George Dawson and S. P. Chase to run for the Congress- men-at-Large seats. Colonel H. B. McCombs was chosen to run for judge of the Supreme Court. 2 2 The state platform endorsed the St. Louis demands of February, 1892, pleaded for referendum, demanded that employers pay an annual fee of not less than $100.00 per capita for each alien em- " Ricker, "The Greenback-Labor Movement in Pennsylvania," pp. 158-167. "J.J T. Stewart. Indiana Comnt, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past anld Present (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 19 3), 1. 101. "Ibid., up. 708-711. "°All of the Populist national platforms are cited in Hicks, The Popiulist Rev!olt, pp. 427-444. 21 Oil City Derrick, June 23, 1892. p. 2. 2! lbid. POPULISM IN PENNSYLVANIA 53 r.yed, and sought taxation on non-real property. It advocated ,iiform public school books to be furnished by the state. Direct ction of the President, Vice-President, and all postmasters was uilged.
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