The purpose of this article is to examine the characteristics of
reform liberalism during the Progressive Era in America. The nation at
the turn of the twentieth century was getting highly industrialized and
big business was getting more greedy. On the other hand, the restless
labor was unionized and caused social unrest by periodic strikes. Under
the circumstance, the NCF found the third way to achieve industrial
peace through mediation by piecing together of all interested parties.
The NCF attempted to develop a new political economy order that
based upon moderate liberalism which was neither the left nor the
right.
But the NCF had to struggle against two strong competing notions
of liberalism. The NCF’s fight against the socialists’ statism and the
NAM’s unreconstructed laissez-faire liberalism grew from its belief in the
efficiency of capitalism. The NCF relied on the methodologies of the
social science to refute the claims and accusations advanced by
socialists and the NAM. In this regard, the NCF’s liberalism sought to
promote in response to dramatic economic and social change reforms that called for increased government involvement in the nation’s
business and social affairs.
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