One of the beliefs of the populist party was

The central belief of the Populist party was producer-ism. Basically you should be paid a fair amount for the work you do. If you were a farmer and sold crops, you should profit enough from the sale to pay for the cost of production as well as enough money to live and feed your family. They were against the monopolization of companies and argued that smaller, more family owned businesses produced more competitive sales prices, benefiting the consumer more.