The American Economy and the End of Laissez-Faire: 1870 to World War II

9. The Progressive Era?

Tags: Political Theory, U.S. History

01/19/2010 Murray N. Rothbard

Progressive movement came in in 1900 to eliminate political parties. Technocrats and bureaucrats take over political power. Rural versus urban. Eliminate mayors, eliminate voting altogether, have appointed bureaucrats only. Nationalize public school system so costs could be socialized, like getting the public schools to teach Spanish. Children can all be part of a collective, without parental influence. Control shifted from ethnic working class small communities to upper class WASPS.

Only synthetic drugs remained legal in medicine. Rockefeller Institute backed it. Homeopathy was outlawed. Hospitals overused fancy equipment and cared about just the doctors not the patients. The Progressive party was created by JP Morgan interests.

Lecture 9 of 13 presented in Fall of 1986 at the New York Polytechnic University.

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Become a Member