Laissez faire
Upon entering the late 19th century the circumstances that the country was developing under began to have an effect on how the government would be controlled. The second industrial revolution was sweeping the country during this time, the growth of steel, petroleum, electric power, and machinery were extremely high and became an important factor for the production of other goods. The rise of big business and a much higher upper class along with the increasing gap between the middle-class and upper class began to change the countries attitudes on government regulation. It became important to many of the middle-class as well as many of the farmers that there would be little government involvement in business—many of the congress members were among the elite group and would impose the ideas of big business upon these middle-class people. The idea of laissez faire struck the country, however although the government tried to support the lower classes throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century they were sometimes unsuccessful in advocating minimal governmental intervention in railroad land grants, control of interstate commerce, and antitrust activates.
The federal governments from 1865 to 1900 did violate the principles of laissez faire to and extent. Although they destroyed the Sherman Antitrust acts original purpose the federal government also created a major business through the spread of the railroads. The railroad created a major opportunity for jobs in multiple areas. With the Interstate Commerce Act and Commission it gave the states somewhat of a voice in the fight for faire railroad fairs. The federal government did advocate a great deal of energy and intervention into the economy during this time period in dealing with railroad land grants, control of interstate commerce, and antitrust activities. The antirust movement started with the middle-class’s fear of trusts’ unchecked power. Once again failing to reform on the state level, they turned to Congress who to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act. It prohibited any verbal contract and declared them illegal. The act was not clear enough to stop the development of trusts. Through a Supreme Court Case the United States vs. E.C. Knight Co ruled that Sherman Antitrust Act could only be applied to commerce not manufacturing (Doc. P). The bill was later used to de
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Approximate Word count = 798
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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