For example, the first census where more Americans lived in Urban areas as opposed to Rural Areas was 1920, thus sometime in the 1910s the switch occurred. More and more people had been moving from the Rural Areas to the Urban areas since 1800, but that was more then offset by immigrants who moved right into new farms opening up on the frontier. In 1890 the US Census bureau determined the Frontier no longer existed, "there was no longer a clear line of advancing settlement, and hence no longer a frontier in the continental United States".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Old_West#End_of_the_Old_WestThis "Clear line" had been the definition of the American Frontier for many decades before 1890. Prior to 1850, there had been only one line, heading west from the East Coast. Starting in 1850, a new "Frontier" line had been started from the West Coast do to the settlement of California and Oregon. By the 1880s the Frontier for all practical purposes no longer existed in the Continental US, but most Americans still lived in Rural areas.
The Civil War Debt had been paid off in 1874, the quickest the US had ever paid off a war debt. The main purpose of this was to get the US Dollar back to $20 to an ounce of Gold. Do to the amount of Gold mined in California in the 1850s (Something like 1/3 of all gold ever found was mined in the 1850s in California) the actual value of gold in real terms (i.e. what you could buy with it) had fallen all through the 1850s, leading to a massive inflationary period that kicked the US economy into high gear. This provided the industry capacity for the North to Defeat the South in the Civil War. The problem was at the end of the Civil War, California Gold Production had dropped severely, so the value of gold in real terms had been going up since the late 1850s (The US printed paper money during the Civil War to pay its was debts, thus the US Dollar dropped to $2.67 US Dollars to One Canadian Dollar by July 11, 1864, and until the 1870s the US issued just Paper Money, down to Dimes, only Cents and Nickels were minted and released into general circulation till the 1870s, and till the Nickel came out in its predecessor the Half dime, along with the "Three Cent piece" had been withdrawn from General Circulation with all the other Silver Coins).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2007/10/31/dollarjump.htmlhttp://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/Documents/dollar/Now, by 1874 the US Dollar had returned to $20 to an ounce of gold, and coin circulation resumed and the previous paper currency was withdrawn. While the price of Gold had stabilized by the 1870s, the price of Silver continued to fall. By the 1880s the value of silver in the Silver Dollar was only 55 cents (Do to the Currency reforms of 1857, the amount of Silver in a US Dollar had been just under One Dollar in value, just to point out the huge drop in the Price of Silver between 1857 and the 1880s). At the same time the desire to get the US Dollar to $20 an ounce of Gold had caused HUGE DEFLATION during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s (Causing what Economist refer today as the "Long Depression" through at that time it was called the "Great Depression" a term now reserved for the 1930-1938 Depression). This lead to a huge increase in Farmers losing their farms and a demand that the Government do something about it. The Solution agreed on was the free Minting of Silver to cause a very limited amount of Inflation to kick the economy into high gear. By calling for Free Minting of Silver the fear of the huge inflation of the Civil War Period was addressed, no one advocated the printing of Paper money, thus the Price of silver was a "check" on inflation.
When modern Economists look at the Long Depression today they see what was needed was inflation and the free minting of Silver Dollars would have provided that inflation needed to give the economy the kick it needed. The problem was Wall Street did its world wide trade based on the value of Gold and wanted US Dollars to be at $20 an ounce of Gold. Minting of Silver Dollar would have increased the number of dollars to buy an ounce of gold (In 1934 FDR saw what was happening in the Great Depression what had happened in the Long Depression and revalued the price of US Dollars to $35 an ounce, a price it stayed at till Nixon had to chose between fighting the war in Vietnam OR keeping the US Dollar at $35 an ounce, Nixon choose the war in Vietnam).
Thus the "Free Silver" movement of the 1880s was a call to end the Deflation that had been hitting America since the 1870s (and ended when inflation returned with the Gold Finds in South Africa, Australia and Alaska in the late 1890s, do to these new mines the value of gold in real terms dropped and we again saw inflation even as the Dollar stayed at $20 to a ounce of gold).
I go into the above details, for while the US had inflation from 1970s till 2008, we also saw Wall street increase its power so that when deflation hit about 2005 Wall Street still boomed. Worse most of the inflation of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s hurt the working class (Just like the deflation of the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s hurt the working class and farmers).
With Mechanization of Agriculture since WWII, other then farmers who do farming on the side, very few small farmers exist. Most "Small farmers" of today, are Working Class stiffs who own a small farm on the side. Most get to the actual employment by Automobile (Thus this also increases the US dependence on Oil). Thus my use of the term "Working Class" would include most "Small Farmers" today, through in the 1880s the term "Small Farmers" were a large subset of its own (But with huge common interests with the Working Class).
Given these difference, the call during both time periods is the same, Inflation even if it hurts Wall Street. Wall Street KNOWING it such controlled inflation would hurt them oppose the change. This call for Inflation was also connected with a call for increase regulation of Wall Street, best shown by then Former President Herbert Hoover's comment on the New Deal, Hoover called the New Deal "Bryanism without Bryan".
What was "Bryanism"? IT was the basic demand of the left wing of the Democratic Party from 1896 till the 1960s for economic reforms, including regulation of the Banks and Wall Street, to make sure neither the Banks nor Wall Street are able to use the Government to make sure they get most of the benefits of the economy, even as the rest of the economy goes to hell (I.e. Small Farmers in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s), people earning less then twice the Median Income (About $80,000, Median Income is about $45,000). This included government support for Unionization so that people can get together and bargain with somewhat nearer equal power then as individuals vs Corporation.
Bryan was hated by the GOP and Wall Street. He not only wanted Economic Reforms, he was the SYMBOL of that reform (He was this called the "Great Commoner" during the 1890s till his death in 1925). Anything he said, and any position he took was taken to cartoonish extreme to make him look bad..
The best example of the attack on Byran is reflected in most people's opinion of Bryan which is in turned based on the Play and Movie based on the Scoope's Monkey Trial, Inherit the Wind. The problem is the fact in the movie and the actual case vary drastically from each other. For example, in the mover Scooped is jailed for teaching evolution, in real life Scoopes had been asked by the local Chamber of Commerce to said that he did so they can have the trial in their town and reap the benefit of all the people coming in to see the trial (Yes, he only accepted the job for he was the local winning high school Football coach thus was popular in town). In the Movie Scoopes was arrested and jailed, in real life he was arrested and then set free on bond (The Bond was paid by the Chamber of Commerce as part of the deal for Scoopes to say he talk human evolution). In the Movie the Bryan Character is treated with High Respect while Scoopes attorney is hated. In real life BOTH Byran and Darrow were given dinners by the Chamber of Commerce (Two different dates) to make sure both sides were treated the same (And Scoope attended BOTH dinners, in the dinner with Bryan, Bryan walked up to him, they talked and Bryan asked if Scoopes had the money to pay the fine and if Scoopes did not Bryan would do so, Scoopes replied that had been taken care of). At the tend of the trial the Byran Character takes a fit when the Judge just fines Scoopes, in real life no such thing occurred, in fact Bryan made a good speech part of which is by byline below. Bryan problems with Evolution had nothing to do with Science or even Religion (The bible used in the Actual Trial was introduced by Darrow, Bryan supplied the Court with his copy of Darwin's books on evolution, books Bryan had read and wrote about over the previous 20 years, but a book Darrow admitted he never was able to get past the first 50 or so pages).
Yes, Bryan is portrayed as a bigoted religious nut case in the Movie "Inherit the Wind" when the actual case shows a person concerned about how Science can be used to do more harm then good UNLESS you have some controls to make sure it does more good then harm (In many ways Bryan's position in the Scoope's Monkey Trial anticipated the German Scientific Tests done on twins in the Death Camps in WWII, Bryan opposed seeing people as mere animals to be subject to testing like any other living item, the position the Nazis took as to the Jews in the Death Camps, but something to be value. Bryan used Religious terminology to justify his position, but such terminology can be avoided (Which Bryan did when he testified at the Trial). Religion was brought into the Trial by Darrow, Bryan's side avoided it for they position was the will of the people should be followed and if the People find something in science that is harmful to society, the people, as the people paying the taxes for public education, should be able to ban what they perceive to be harmful. Please note Bryan did NOT oppose the teaching of Evolution, nor did the law in question ban the teaching of evolution, the law just banned teaching HUMAN EVOLUTION, which at that time (and in some ways continued to this case) is tied in with Social Darwinism (Which Bryan opposed not only on religious grounds but economic grounds for it justified screwing the poor and working class).
Yes, this is a lot of details on Bryan, but I bring it up to show how hated he was and he was hated more for his view on economics then his religious beliefs. His opponents just used his view on religion as one means to attack him and people who followed him (Which included Darrow). It also shows how the Right Wing divides the left, Bryan wanted a discussion of teaching evolution in Public Schools and saw the Trial as the first step in such a national debate. The GOP saw it as an opportunity to divide the left by showing much of the left that their prime leader was an extremist.
My favorite story of the Trial was when a reported saw another reporter typing away his report on the trial as the trial just began. When he asked the other reported why he was typing before anyone testified, the second reported retorted "I know what my editor wants". The Right wing saw the Scoopes trial at one more attempt to attack Bryan and the American Left, and did so.
I bring this all up for what we see in economics in the late 1800s we are seeing again. Attacks on any electable leftie for anything (Religion, lack of religion, comments on oil and Peak Oil, anything). No debate on any subject, even when the other side is setting the stage for a debate. Divide the left on whatever issues you can. Thus Bryan call for a debate on evolution was ignored, for it was to useful to the right as a way to divide the left, a debate would have lead to a common understanding on how to treat something (in the 1920s evolution, today abortion).
The right position in the late 1800s and today is the same, attack anyone who tries to protect the 99% of the population from the 1% using every available means. Attack those people who can organize the left (As Bryan could in the 1890s-1920s) while giving the poor nothing.
Just a warning from the past, support a popular leftie even if you do NOT agree with him or her 100%, but go with a radical but electable leftie. Right now, beside Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean and John Edwards I can NOT think of a true electable leftie (Yes, I know Edwards did while his wife was dying, I an thinking of terms of his position as to economics NOT who he sleeps with). We have to rally around someone, like the Democratic Left of 1896-1925 rallied around Bryan. We have no one like Bryan today, but one of these three MAY get to that level (my money is on Howard Dean).