While Roosevelt felt that the private sector, influenced by progressive ideas, could reform American society, Wilson wanted a more active role by the government and feared that the private sector, or "the combined power of high finance would be greater than the power of the government." (Wilson) on the other hand was the least radical of all the progressives discussed: Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt's idea of progressivism, discussed in the 1910 article "The New Nationalism," was a private sector that remained capitalist, but under the influence of the government. For instance, while Wilson wanted to destroy monopolies, which he felt were undermining the capitalist system, Roosevelt wanted to regulate them for "the interests of the public welfare." (Roosevelt)

During the 20th century, American society did not completely transform in the way that either Debs or Croly predicted it would, but vacillated back in forth between the progressive ideas of Wilson and...
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