Answer:
Farmers as a group did not share in the general prosperity of the latter nineteenth century, and believed that they had been marked out as special victims of the new industrial system. Beginning in the 1870s, they attempted in a number of ways to mount an effective political campaign to rectify what they saw as the corruption of government and economic power, which they attributed to big businesses and railroads. In fact, much of the farmers' plight was due to factors unrelated to industrialization, such as fluctuations in international markets for corn and wheat. But perceptions are often more important than reality, and American farmers believed that the democratic system of their forebears was being subverted.
The most successful of the agrarian political movements was the People's Party, or the Populist Party, which after the 1892 presidential campaign appeared to have the strength to become a potent force in American politics. Its strength lay primarily in the southern and midwestern states, the agricultural heartland of the nation, although its leaders tried to reach out and attract eastern workers.
The People's Party platform of 1896 is notable for several reasons. First, it summed up two decades of resentment by farmers against a system that they believed ignored their needs and mercilessly exploited them. But it was not just big business to which they objected. The Populists worried that the alliance between business and government would destroy American democracy, and the various proposals they put forward had two aims. The goal was not just to relieve economic pressure on agriculture, but also to restore democracy by eliminating what the Populists saw as the corrupt and corrupting alliance between business and government.
Although considered radical at the time, many of these proposals, such as the direct election of senators and the income tax, would move into the political mainstream and be adopted over the next few decades. The platform in many ways set the reform agenda of the country during the years prior to World War I.
Step-by-step explanation: