Political Groups and their Backers

From 1879 to the end of the century a constant agitation for the expansion of the money stock raged in the USA. Political parties like the Inflationnist Party were founded whose sole purpose was to make, by one mean or another, the total money supply rise. Some favored the issue of paper money, like the extremist Greenbackers, some the return to the Bimetallic Standard. Farmers were the most cruelly struck of all by the deflation. In rural areas, as the wholesale price of agricultural commodities fell at at a greater rate of about 3 % a year. As many farmers, especially in the West, were deeply indebted, this meant that the real value of their debts increased every year. Sellers of goods whose price fall have a stronger political influence than buyers of rising prices commodities, because they are concentrated in an industry. Farmers were thus powerful backers of Bryan and the inflationnist cause. (more on this)

Silver producers, of course, advocated a silver or bimetallic standard, "for the good of the country". Furthermore, the silver producing states had a overrepresentation in the US Senate in term of population. Farmers being generally net monetary debtors, the real burden of their debts was rising with deflation.

The country was split in two before the Presidential elections of 1896, with about one half backing Bryan and his progressive platform (with the free coinage of silver as its main tenet), and the other for the Republican Mc Kinley, who advocated a Gold Standard. The will show you in a simple way what were the characteristics of both parties, platforms, arguments and backers.

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