ABSTRACT
Every prominent interpretation of the Progressive movement now encourages us not to take the outcry against politico-business corruption too seriously. Some historians have seen progressivism as dichotomous: alongside the individualist, antibusiness strain of reform stood an equally vocal, and ultimately more successful, school that accepted industrial growth and sought even closer cooperation between business and government. Criticism of business influence in government continued to be a staple of political rhetoric throughout the Progressive era, but it ceased to have the intensity it did in. In place of the burning attack on corruption, politicans offered advanced progressive programs, including further regulation and election-law reforms. The perception that privileged businesses corrupted politics was one such ultimately unsuccessful idea of particular short-run instrumentality. Especially in the cities and states, around the middle of the first decade of the twentieth century, the discovery of such corruption precipitated crises that led to the most significant political changes of the time.
