The Populist Movement's Failure

The Populist Movement ultimately failed to survive because of their desire for inflation and the support for the coinage of silver, as well as the fact that they merged with the Democratic Party to combat the Republicans. The 1896 election undermined agrarian insurgency, and a period of rapidly rising farm prices helped to bring about the dissolution of the Populist Party. Another important factor in the failure of the party was its inability to affect a genuine urban-rural coalition; its program had little appeal for wage earners of the industrial east. Although the populists were not outright socialists, many conservative interests saw the Populists as a threat to the basic economic system of the United States. The Populists’ agenda was to help the poor farmers of the midwest, west and south with their money problem and bring them back up onto their feet. The agrarian midwest, west and southern plans conflicted with the eastern and northeastern region of the country; their proposals only favored a select region of the country while the others would remain unaffected or negatively affected. The Populist Movement would ultimately shift the country into a backward reform bringing the country back to its agrarian based economy.
During the late 1800s the agricultural industry was beginning to get weak and farmers were starting to have a tough time with their money and the agricultural prices. In response to these problems alliances such as the National Farmers Alliance (NFA) had sprung up. They had met up with the Industrial Union (IU) in order to converse about all the issues affecting the people. Both the NFA and the IU had united to form the Southern Alliance, which had included both the combined goals of the NFA and IU. Most of the issues that the Alliance worked to amend were the issues pertaining to the agricultural industry. In December 1890 in Ocala, Florida the Southern Alliance had brought to the attention of the United States government twelve demands