KAY GALLANT: LaFollette's Progressive Party died following the nineteen twenty-four election. Most of his supporters later joined the Democrats. But the reform spirit of their movement remained alive through the next four years.
They were difficult years for Progressives. Conservatives in Congress passed laws reducing taxes for corporations and richer Americans.
HARRY MONROE: Progressives fought for reforms in national agriculture policies. Most farmers did not share in the general economic growth of the nineteen twenties. Instead, their costs increased while the price of their products fell. Many farmers lost their farms.
Farmers and progressives wanted the federal government to create a system to control prices and the total supply of food produced. They said the government should buy and keep any extra food that farmers produced. And they called for officials to help them export food.
Coolidge and most Republicans rejected these ideas. They said it was not the business of a free government to fix farm prices. And they feared the high costs of creating a major new government department and developing export markets.
Coolidge vetoed three major farm reform bills following his election.
KAY GALLANT: The debate over farm policy was, in many ways, like the debate over taxes or public controls on power companies. There was a basic difference of opinion about the proper actions of government.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25