The Populist movement represented a viable plan for the future, which although failed as a third-party movement, it made thousands aware of the needs for reform. The abuses of monopolistic capitalism were spreading across the US leaving behind a trail of poverty. The call for an unlimited coinage of silver and gold at a ratio of 16 to 1 would enable farmers to pay their debts more easily as well as put an end to deflation. Furthermore, …showed first 75 words of 580 total…

…showed last 75 words of 580 total…that 1 percent of the United Sates population – the corporate magnates and their families – owned seven-eighths of the country's wealth" (96). A graduated income tax, therefore, would help achieve a more equitable distribution of the costs of government. For those who earned a greater income than the mean, "such rates tore no holes in the pockets of the rich" (Norton 651). Works Cited The Omaha Platform of the Populist Party (1892) Source: http://longman.awl.com/history/primarysource_17_4.htm