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Progressivism to the Roaring 20s: The Myth of Laissez-Faire Economics in American History, Part III

© Michael J. Swogger

In 1890 an author named Jacob Riis published an exposé on life in the tenements of New York City. Aimed at sparking an awareness and outrage at the poverty that permeated immigrant and poor American neighborhoods, Riis' book describes the living conditions, working atmospheres, emerging sweatshops, and life on the streets. Other authors would soon follow Riis' book with works of their own: Lincoln Steffens' "The Shame of America's Cities" published in McClure's, The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair, Jack London's The Iron Heel (1906), Ida Tarbell's exposé of Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company in McClure's in 1904. The ranks of these muckrakers, as Theodore Roosevelt called them, also included Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Helen Keller, and to some extent, Mark Twain. And three magazines - McClure's, Everybody's, and Collier's - published some 1,000 articles covering topics on race prejudice and discrimination, inner-city living conditions, child labor, overpricing.¹

The influential power of these muckrakers should not be understated. This style of journalism provoked a new awareness within both the public and the government. As a result, over a period of about 20 years the federal government would undergo a re-creation of itself into a true nation-state, imposing new regulations on business practices, product inspection, and currency. To the advocates of this new government, the states' rights arguments which so dominated political discourse for over a hundred years would seem more "an excuse for parochialism, an impediment to a renewed sense of national purpose." Laissez-faire would be seen, according to social scientist Horace Kallen, as an "anathema among lovers of liberty." And the negative social conditions actualized by capitalism could only be rectified by an "energetic government."² Thus, a new historical period was ushered in by the early 1900s: the Progressive Era.

Until the Progressive Era, laissez-faire ideology had been inconsistent in its application. The history of the United States, from its beginnings to the 1890s, shows a powerful dedication to laissez-faire in the social realm of American life, as well as in regards to the economic well-being of American workers. This dogma was not as closely followed, however, when the economic assistance to railroad corporations and other private companies came into play. And when it came to labor strikes, government intervention was almost exclusively one-sided. In other words, the United States had two principles by which to adhere: Laissez-faire for the poor, an activist state for the wealthy. But the Progressive Era would have a powerful hand in coming closer to balancing the scales.

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