Liberals, utopians and socialists

By the end of the nineteenth century, the air was filled with protest. It was mostly directed at the government and its biased relationship with big business. The anti-monopolists viewed the whole affair as corrupt and claimed that the country had fallen into unsociable hands. The trusts and the "robber barons" were accused of not only having taken over control of the American economy, but its political system as well. The expansion of corruption, and the appearance of new wealth, combined with the rapid growth of big business during the latter years of the nineteenth century, gave many middle-class Americans the uneasy feeling that they had somehow lost out on the American dream and its new-found wealth. The feeling was pervasive and many resented being made subservient to the wills of "big government" and "big business." To some, it seemed that the very foundations of American society and the promises which it contained had been subverted for some alien cause. A glance at American foreign policy during this era indeed shows that a resolute change in long-term policy did come about. For example, American troops were sent to the Somoan Islands. Korea was forced to open its doors to American capital and claim was laid to Pearl Harbor and the Hawaiian Islands. In the 1890s American troops intervened in Venezuela and Brazil, and by 1899 the US had control over Cuba and the Philippines. In 1900 five thousand American soldiers secured the "right to equal opportunities" in China.

It is no wonder then that many critical observers of this period felt that America had embarked upon a new and dangerous path, down the road to monopoly and military adventurism. The pessimists saw the new order as reflecting

...a concentration that will not be humane, but of the military and imperialistic type peculiar to epochs of decadence...the only law that can decide which nation or which individual is to expand vitally and unrestrained is the law of cunning or the law of force.

Meanwhile, some members of the American middle class identified with the newly emerging working class. Utopian socialists, influenced by the writings of John Stuart Mill, supported the growing influence of unions and workers' parties. And it is no wonder! As the numbers of workers increased, so did worker demands for better conditions, such as the fight for the 8-hour day. The great depression of 1877 led to the formation of the American Socialist Labor Party and the Farmers Alliance. The Knights of Labor, the first universal trade union which admitted blacks, was formed in 1878. One of the most influential writers among the so-called utopian socialists of the era was Edward Bellamy, who stated his conviction, which contrasted with Babbit's and, to some extent, with Twain's, that human nature would eventually be triumphant. According to Bellamy, we must simply "...let the cancers of society merely be exposed to the light...and they will be cured, for human nature is basically good and will not tolerate corruption, when once it is brought to view.

In 1893, shortly before Marconi invented the radio, the worst economic depression of all time hit the US and many liberals yearned for a return to the days of free enterprise. V. L. Parrington describes the latter part of the nineteenth century as a period in which "greater wealth...lay handicaps on lesser wealth." However, like most liberals, Parrington feared and hated the rise of monopoly capitalism, not because of a utopian belief in socialism, but because of its threat to the free enterprise system. Monopoly, it was assumed, would result in a long, "silent drift toward plutocracy." Like many liberals, he lamented the "transition from agrarianism to capitalism," and, typical of subsequent attitudes among liberals today, he regarded with suspicion "the machine...the technologist and the industrialist." Progressives complained more and more about the state of the nation which, they argued, had fallen, in the name of progress, into alien hands. Like Bellamy, and many other middle-class socialists and liberals, Parrington believed that Americans were simply blind to the evils of society, and, with time, information and education, would correct those evils.

Copyright (c) 1999 Brett Dellinger. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Brett Dellinger is prohibited. Please cite your source! Adapted and exerpted from: Finnish Views of CNN Television News: A Critical Cross-Cultural Analysis of the American Commercial Discourse Style by Brett Dellinger. Acta Wasaensia (publisher) No. 43, 337 p. [ISBN 951-683-567-8].