n the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the states have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation or bribery ("The Omaha Platform").
Donnelly further noted ways in which the power structure was antithetical to the rights and needs of the people:
The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrate, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their labor; a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly disintegrating to European conditions ("The Omaha Platform").
The program of the People's Party included demands for a different financial structure, government ownership and operation of the railroads, land reclamation, and home rule in the territories. William Jennings Bryan was the candidate of the party in the 1896 election on a pro-silver platform. While he failed, the impetus for grass-roots populism carried over into the Twentieth Century and infused the Progressive Era. Some of the goals of the Populists were carried over to the Progressives. Progressivism was shaped around core ideas: 1) a commitment to social justice; and 2) a se
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