Ocala Demands
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The Ocala Demands was a platform for economic and political reform that was later adopted by the People's Party. In December, 1890, the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, more commonly known as the Southern Farmers' Alliance, its affiliate the Colored Farmers' Alliance, and the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association met jointly in the Marion Opera House in Ocala, Florida, where they adopted the Ocala Demands. The Ocala convention was part of a trend in the Farmers' movement of moving from its fraternal and mutual benefit roots towards an increasingly political and radical position. Earlier in the year the Farmers' Alliance had successfully backed a number of candidates for state and Federal office, and the convention delegates hoped that future political gains would lead to major economic and political reforms.
The "Demands" adopted by the Ocala convention called for the abolition of national banks; the establishment of sub-treasuries or depositories in every state, which would make low interest direct loans to farmers and property owners; the increase of money in circulation to not less than $50 per capita; the abolishment futures of all agricultural and mechanical productions; the introduction of free silver; the prohibition of alien ownership of land, the reclamation of all lands held by railroads and other corporations in excess of what was actually used and needed by them, held for actual settlers only; legislation to insure that one industry was not be built up at the expense of another; removal of the tariff tax on necessities of life; a graduated income tax; the limitation of all national and state revenues to the necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly administered; strict regulation or ownership of the means of public communication and transportation; and an amendment of the United States Constitution providing for the direct election of United States Senators.
By 1892 most of the program of the Farmers' Alliance, including the Ocala Demands, was taken up by the People's Party, and the Farmer's Alliance faded away.
References
- [Marion Block Building, Location of Alliance convention] - URL retrieved June 19 2006
- [Text of Ocala Demands at MSU] - URL retrieved June 19 2006
- [Text of Ocala Demands at SCDS] - URL retrieved June 19 2006
- [History of Farmer's Alliance] - URL retrieved June 19 2006
- [The Rise and Fall of Populism in the South] - URL retrieved June 19 2006
- [The People's Party] - URL retrieved June 19 2006
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