ABSTRACT
L. Dumenil pointed out that, by the end of World War I, business was well-positioned to assert itself as a powerful force: progressivism was in eclipse while anti-statism was ascendant. The failure of laissez-faire capitalism, and the resultant economic and social upheaval, helped propel Democratic candidate Roosevelt into the presidency in the 1932 national elections. National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), a pro-industry trade group founded in 1895, did not come to the effort naturally; for decades the association saw itself as primarily dedicated to thwarting unionism, with no need for a concomitant high-visibility, public role. Accompanying NAM’s assertions of consonance with individual values and the beneficence it brought to Americans was an urgent appeal: the people needed to join with industry in holding fast to free enterprise. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration believed in the power of government to facilitate a harmony of interests; it pursued legislation that created work projects, established new labor laws, and raised taxes on industry.
