tform of the People's Party was based on calamity. "We meet in
the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and
material ruin," it declared. "Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the
legislature, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The
people are demoralized.... The newspapers are largely subsidized or
muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrated; our homes
covered with mortgages; labor impoverished; and the land concentrating
in the hands of the capitalists."

The greatest of the evils in sight was "the vast conspiracy against
mankind," which had demonetized silver, added to the purchasing power of
gold, and abridged the supply of money "to fatten usurers." To correct
the financial evils the platform demanded "the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one," and an
issue of legal-tender currency until the circulation should reach an
average of fifty dollars per capita. Postal savings banks, a graduated
income tax, and economy in government were the subsidiary demands.

No demand of the Populists attracted so much attention as this for free
silver, but its platform touched reform at every angle. In the field of
transportation it asked for government ownership of railroads,
telegraphs, and telephones. It asked that land monopolies be prevented,
that the public lands be in part regained, and that alien ownership be
forbidden. It wanted the Australian ballot, liberal pensions,
restriction of immigration, an eight-hour day, a single term for
President and Vice-President, direct election of United States Senators,
abolition of the Pinkerton detectives, and was curious about the
initiative and referendum. It was in many respects a prophecy as to the
workings of reform for the next twenty years.

The People's Party entered the campaign of 1892 with this platform and
with the support of advanced reformers, with a considerable following
in the West and South, and with James B. Weaver and James G. Field as
candidates. Few of the workers for its ticket were politicians of known
standing, and its voters had a preponderance of youth. In several
Western States the Democratic party supported it with fusion tickets. In
the South it often cooperated with the Republicans. From the first the
third party found it harder to stand alone than to unite with the weaker
local party.

The disrupting force of hard times was increased by the acts of the
Repub