How Did The Progressive Movement Influence The Government

Throughout 1900-1939 the progressive movement influenced the government, however, the great depression was another major thing that influenced the government at that time. The progressive movement was a reaction to political corruption, economic instability, and social concerns. Due to these previous issues, the government was strongly influenced to make a change and fix those problems.
During the 1896 election of Bryans vs Mckinley, Bryans made a speech called the Cross of Gold which spoke about the farmers. Bryans believed that the farmers were the backbone of the country and deserved to be treated that way and that was because of debt. He said the main issue was the government backed up their money with only gold and if they would introduce silver it would solve the debt issues by creating inflation. However Mckinley was fighting for the wealthy, now the debate became who was the government for, the wealthy or the backbone. This was the start of the government having to start doing more things before they were in a laissez-faire capitalist mode where they were not involved in anything. Now they are starting to be brought up into the conversation and will have to act upon pressing matters.
President Roosevelt created antitrust laws that would stop the idea of not having competition in a certain field, now there must be competition. Roosevelt was successful in breaking up almost 40 trusts and Taft was also able to break up around 90 trusts. Woodrow Wilson also created the federal reserve which was used to regulate the economy after all of the monopolists controlled the money, now the government would be able to control the money. This showed that the government was starting to get involved in the economy and would not let only the rich control