ABSTRACT
That upper-and middle-class business groups had heavy hands in many reform schemes of the early twentieth century and sought to further their own social and economic interests under a mantle of efficiency, economy, and businesslike methods is no longer a new or surprising revelation. It has become, in fact, a prevailing historical orthodoxy. Historians differ, of course, concerning the motives of the groups and precise character of this phenomenon; but whether it be attributed to unmitigated economic self-interest, to a sweeping conservative social view along the lines of “corporate liberalism,” or to a “bureaucratic vision” of a “paradise of new-middle-class rationality,” its significance can hardly be denied. 1
