ABSTRACT
Urbanization touched the interests and awareness of employers and merchants in many ways. It provided both a labor force and a market, thus offering an obvious motive for support of civic promotional activities. Experience led some businessmen to see that qualitative, as well as quantitative, aspects of city life were important to them. The aspect of business which, during the Progressive years, attracted widest public attention was, of course, that of economic consolidation. Since business, especially big business, was the most visible interest group, it was most widely feared. Business was identified with the technological, economic, and organizational forces which were remolding American life. New recognition of the central role of the worker in the total process of industrial production led to reconsideration of the priorities which had customarily guided business policy. The conditions which had stimulated business interest in social problems during the reform years were augmented after 1914 by the nation's growing involvement in the First World War.
