| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
In this study, placing a focus as a case-study on Marion County, located on the eastern edge of central Kansas which was the hotbed of Populism in the late nineteenth century, I have tried to investigate three points ; first, the relationship between propertyless people like tenant farmers or farm laborers and Populism ; second, the response of the newly arrived immigrants groups like Mennonites to the Populist movement ; third, the nature of the Populist movement in the context of rural-urban relationship in the Mid-west.
Depending upon the analysis of original sources collected through my research there, I have reached the following conclusions tentatively. First, tenant farmers, most of them under the so-called Scully-Land System, excepting a few who were renters as well as owning farmers simultaneously, were comparatively less enthusiastic about the Populist movement as they turned out poorly for Populists. Second, most of the Mennonites were not only unsympathetic for Populists, also they adhered to Republican Party through the influence of some Republican politicians like Edward W.Hoch. Finally, in small towns like Marion City, there appeared "small town Populists" like Frank Doster or Riddle brothers (Tylor and Leon). They indulged too much in the speculation in real estate in the late 1880's. After the collapse of the boom in 1887, they struggled to escape from the unbearable heavy burden of mortgage. As one way out of it, they turned to Populism, which story was told in Leon H.Riddle's diary I showed in the printed report of this research.
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