ven inflationists had not voted for the ticket in large
number. A new phase of inflation had become more interesting than the
greenbacks, and had led to the demand for the free coinage of silver.

Among the demands of the Western farmer, whose greatest problem was the
payment of his debts, none was more often heard than that for more and
cheaper money. The Eastern farmer, though less burdened with debt, knew
that more money would make higher prices, and believed it would bring
larger profits. The Southern farmer, heavily in debt, not so much for
purposes of development and permanent improvements, as because he
regularly mortgaged his crop in advance and allowed the rural
storekeeper to finance him, was also interested in inflation as a common
remedy. Together the farmers of all sections kept pressing on the
parties for free silver after the passage of the Bland-Allison Bill in
1878. As the price of silver declined the gain which silver inflation
would bring them increased, and they were joined by another class of
producers whose profits came from mining the silver bullion.

The silver mines furnished important industries in Montana, Idaho,
Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California, and were highly valued
in most of the Western communities. As their output declined in value
after 1873, their owners turned to the United States Government for aid
and protection, not differing much from the manufacturers of the East
in their hope for aid. The restoration of silver coinage was the method
by which they desired their protection, and they asserted that Congress
could coin all the silver and yet maintain it at a parity with gold.
They were allies with the farmer inflationists so far as means of relief
were concerned, and both failed to see how incompatible were their real
aims. The miners wanted free silver in order to increase the price of
silver and their profits; the farmers wanted it to increase the volume
of money and reduce its value. If either was correct in his prophecy as
to the result of free coinage, the other was doomed to disappointment.
But the combined demand was reiterated through the eighties. While times
were good it was not serious, but any shock to the prosperity or credit
of the West was likely to stimulate the one movement in which all the
discontented concurred.

The crisis which precipitated Western discontent into politics came in
1889 when rainfall declined and crops failed. In the Arkansas Valle