Mary Elizabeth Lease

Mary Elizabeth Lease
Lease in the 1890s
Born	Mary Elizabeth Clyens September 11, 1850 Ridgway, Pennsylvania
Died	October 29, 1933(1933-10-29) (aged 83) Callicoon, New York
Occupation	Lecturer, editor
Political party	People's Party
Spouse(s)	Charles L. Lease (m. 1873–1902)

Mary Elizabeth Lease (September 11, 1850 – October 29, 1933) was an American lecturer, writer, and political activist. She was an advocate of the suffrage movement as well as temperance but she was best known for her work with the Populist party. She was born to Irish immigrants Joseph P. and Mary Elizabeth (Murray) Clyens, in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. In 1895, she wrote The Problem of Civilization Solved, and in 1896, she moved to New York City where she edited the democratic newspaper, World. In addition, she worked as an editor for the National Encyclopedia of American Biography. Mary Elizabeth Lease was also known as Mary Ellen Lease. She was called "Queen Mary" (after the British Queen consort, Mary of Teck), "Mother Lease" by her supporters and "Mary Yellin" by her enemies. Lease died in Callicoon, New York.

At the age of 20, she moved to Kansas to teach school in Osage Mission (St. Paul, Kansas), and three years later she married Charles L. Lease, a local pharmacist. They lost their Kingman County farm in the Panic of 1874 and moved to Denison, Texas where she studied law. The Leases and their four children later moved to Wichita, Kansas, where she took a leading role in civic and social activities.

In 1888, she began to work for the Union Labor Party and gave a speech at their state convention. She was also involved in African American suffrage. From there she became involved in the movement that would become the Populist Party. She believed that big business had made the people of America into "wage slaves", declaring, "Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street. The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master." Although she is widely believed to have exhorted Kansas farmers to "raise less corn and more hell", she later said that the admonition had been invented by reporters. Lease decided to let the quote stand because she thought "it was a right good bit of advice."