DBQ Angry farmers
... The fact of the matter was that the farmers did have valid reasons to be discontent. Trusts deliberately took advantage of the farmers in order to achieve their economic goals leaving the farmer out in the cold. ... Farmers were forced to buy supplies and equipment from the various trusts like the harvester trust, the barbed-wire trust, and the fertilizer trust. Seeing that the trusts were the farmers only way of purchasing supplies from anyone, they boosted prices up to unfair levels, which put many farmers in severe debt. The railroads that spanned over most of the country by now practiced similar unfair business with the farmers. Like the trusts, the railroads saw that they were the only way farmers could transport their produce to different parts of the country in order to make money. ... Railroads would use intimidation tactics like threatening to let produce rot on the train for the particularly pugnacious farmers. ... They raised prices deliberately in response to the farmers dire need and desperation. For this reason, the farmers did have a reason to be angry.