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C H A P T E R 5 The Temper of Modern Times (1929–39) Nevins took advantage of the connections he had made with journalists, academics, and publishers to find outlets for commenting on the changes taking place in the nation’s economic policy, foreign affairs, and business and industrial relations. He viewed the economic collapse of the 1930s as providing an opportunity for reevaluating the nature of government action; and, more to the point, for discarding the moral basis of Progressive-era reform and substituting in its place changes of a more structural character. The historian Richard Hofstadter commented on this distinction between Progressive and New Deal reform when he observed in The Age of Reform (1955) that the Progressive movement was a middleclass effort conducted during a period of national prosperity and focused on ensuring greater fairness and ethical behavior in the marketplace. In contrast, the New Deal, a response to economic collapse , followed for a short time a cooperative policy toward business regulation. By 1935, however, the administration began to change its approach to business regulation by undertaking an aggressive program of antitrust prosecutions aimed at undoing restraints of trade. This method had the effect in some cases (most notably, in that of the motion picture industry) of leading to a complete reorganization of industry. Recognizing that the Great Depression exposed underlying structural weaknesses in the economy, Nevins sought to call attention to the need for measures that were built on twentiethrather than nineteenth-century circumstances. Addressing the graduating class of the University of Buffalo in 1934, Nevins remarked , “We must shift to new paths; we must shake off the illusion that we can prosper as an individualistic and provincial democracy, and realize that our true ideal is the cooperative commonwealth, 89 under planned governmental leadership.” Unlike late-nineteenthcentury reform, he declared, which was based on moral values, the new reform movement must be based on brains, not good intentions , “and it should be led by the new generations of college-trained men and women.”1 I As a journalist and historian, Nevins believed he had a role to play in explaining to Americans the degree to which, as he wrote Walter Lippmann, “the world [had] changed enormously in the past fifteen years, [and Americans needed] to know some of the main interpretations and expositions of these changes. . . .”2 Being back in New York and at Columbia University provided him with the setting and resources to sustain such a role. After leaving the city and the World for Ithaca and Cornell in 1927, he was gone only a month before he began sending Lippmann ideas for editorials. By this time, he had forged a close professional relationship with Lippmann, who remained pleased that Nevins wanted to maintain his ties to the paper. Lippmann responded in kind, asking Nevins to work up material for editorials, as he did in one case that year by suggesting Nevins address the topic of Chicago politics. “It seems to me,” Lippmann wrote, “there must be some historical background which explains the present situation there, but what it is I haven’t an idea. If you think you can do this for a Sunday leader, wire me yes . . . , and then wire me the editorial by Friday noon if you haven’t the time to mail it. . . .”3 Nevins wired back that he would have the Chicago article on Lippmann’s desk by Friday morning.4 He delivered an editorial that appeared in that Sunday’s edition of the World, under the heading, “The Chicago Political Scene.” The editorial was a good example of Nevins’s effort to use history to illuminate current affairs. He traced the factionalism that was dominating the race for mayor back to the turn of the century when competing groups had sought to capture pieces of political patronage, and he suggested that this practice accounted for the current factionalism and violence plaguing the city.5 The editorial was the kind of crusading statement for which the World had become known. When Nevins returned to the World in the summer of 1928, Lippmann assigned him to cover the presidential campaign between Smith and Hoover, an assignment that put him right back into the current political scene. He also relished being back in the City. When he first arrived there in 1913 he wrote a friend that New York was “the life of every 90 Immersed in Great Affairs [3.145.74.54] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 12:38...

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