The Influence Of The Progressive Movement

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The United States experienced as a catastrophic economic collapse in 1929 known as the Great Depression. The economic crisis left many Americans out in the streets as jobs continuously became scarcer. To combat the increasing economic depression, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt implemented Keynesian Economics with the belief government interference in the economy during economic hardships could bolster spending. As Brinkley states, “the government had the ability, through public spending, ‘to put idle money and idle men to work, to increase our public wealth … and to help our system of private enterprise to function’” (Brinkley 104). The new emerging philosophy changed the manner in which the American economy changed. Government programs …show more content…

The Progressives’ moral concern as Brinkley argues leads them “ to protect individuals, individuals, communities, and the government itself from excessive corporate power… usually through some form of state intervention “ (Brinkley 9). The regulation of big business, the addition minimum wage, and the anti-trust legislation laid the path for the United States to deviate itself from a country for the wealthy, to a country for the many. With the emergence of the Great Depression in 1929, the economy became a pivotal concern, but the idea of restoring and reestablishing economic growth carried progressive ideals. The Progressive ideals remained present in the country’s social agenda, resulting in a large national push against monopolies. As Brinkley explains, “ within the realm of national policymaking, traditional anti-monopoly sentiments were associated especially closely with progressives from the West and Midwest “ ( Brinkley 59). The negative effects of monopolies alerted progressives because it only prolonged immorality by limiting others to compete in the market. Therefore, antitrust legislation emerged since both progressives and New Dealers agreed the elimination of monopolies would encourage economic growth. Limits to monopolies would allow the market to function in a more efficient manner

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