This section contains 414 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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Progressives like Brandeis were successful in breaking up the largest monopolies, such as Standard Oil, and in developing the beginnings of government regulation of business, via legislation such as the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914), and the establishment of the Federal Reserve banking system (1913). World War I, however, returned the economy to the system of '96. Government put itself at the service of big business: federal funds underwrote factory modernization, created a merchant marine that was turned over to private hands after the war, insured American investment abroad, and suspended antitrust laws for American firms operating overseas. The system of '96 became what Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover called "the American System" — a businessman's government that would unleash the power of capitalism for the benefit of all. It fell 24 October 1929. Hoover and partisans of the American System believed...
This section contains 414 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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