It was 1892 and the American Western farmers were facing more suffering from deflation. With the railroads holding most of the good land, the farmers were forced to work the less desirable land or to buy the land from the railroads and go into debt. With no solution in sight from the government, the Populist Party formally organized and drew up the Omaha platform to outline their concerns and ideas of how to resolve not only …showed first 75 words of 1969 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1969 total…the citizens to regulate the government's increased power. In contrast, the Progressive Coalition sought to keep the people in control of businesses but give the government more power to regulate those businesses. While the Populist Party and the Progressive Coalition both sought reforms for the same type of problems; the Populists were really only able to get their ideas out there, it was the Progressive Coalition that took those problems and really brought about change.