Describe the fall of the populist movement.

The populist movement ended for two main reasons. It wasn't able to get enough support.  It was never able to expand its base past the farm communities of the South and West.  It was also never able to make inroads among the workers and among the middle class.  Second, the populist movement was absorbed into the Progressive movement.  The Progressives were able to take populist ideas and integrate them into a bigger movement.  The Progressives had a much bigger agenda and were able to appeal to workers and to the middle class.  Therefore, they were better than the populists at achieving populist goals.  This helped them to be successful and made the populists irrelevant.