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Starting in the 1870s you started to have a lot of industrial strife, as business wanted to keep its costs down by keeping labor down, and labor fighting back (The Coal Strikes of the 1870s and the General Strike of 1877). The 1880s saw this extended to the farmers and the raise of "Free Silver" and other progressive parties of the time period (The Famous "Raise less corn and more Hell" comment of a Farm leader of the time period). Labor again became the head with the strikes of the 1890s (Which lead to the imprisonment of Eugene Debs and his conversion to Communism/Socialism). This tension increased throughout the 1890-1912 period and the Democrats slowly increased their percentage of votes during this time period till in 1912 the Democrats won the Presidency. Once the Democrats were in some reforms were introduced (Direct Election of Senators, Women's right to vote, Progressive Income Tax, strengthen the Anti-Trust Acts and the exception of Labor from Anti-Trust Acts) but caused mostly by an acute labor shortage which caused the price of labor to go up (The immediate caused of the "Labor" Shortage was WWI which prevented new immigrates from Europe at the same time increased demand for American goods).
The 1920s is always called a "good time period" but only for about 1/2 of the population, labor and farmers suffered during the 1920s but people who could afford to buy a car prospered. Surprisingly while this period of prosperity happened in American, Europe was suffering through a post-war recession during the 1920s. Thus when the Depression hit it hit America first and hard and only than did the Depression spread to Europe (Which lead to the raising Fascist movement throughout Europe in the early 1930s).
In the USA the internal clashes (Labor vs Big Business, Farmers vs Argi-Business) continued during this period (early 1930s). American's resolution of the problem was to pass various reform packages that have been proposed for decades (For example the National Labor Relations Act, the Security and Exchange Commission act, The Public Utility Holding Company act, etc i.e. the "New Deal").
During this whole period you had a fight between the Left and Right. While the Right painted the left as Communists, the Left was much broader than the Marxist including Small Farmers, Small Businessmen, and other people advocating Reforms. On the Right business pushed Government to protect Business from those "Radicals" on the Left. This lead to the introduction of Troops during the Labor Problems of the 1870s, 1890s and 1930s. The invention of the Modern State Police Force (The Pennsylvania State Police was the First State Police formed, being founded in 1903, the Texas Rangers claim to be older but today's Rangers are more the product of the 20th Century than its name sake of the 19th). And lets don't Forget the Palmer raids of 1919 AND the West Virginia Coal War of the same year (Which was suppressed by the Army and the first time, and so far the only time in America, that "Rioter" were bombed from planes).
Not to be content with leaving the suppression of labor to the Government and the Army, Business went into its own labor control system, including "Yellow Dog Contracts" (employment Contract forbidding a worker to join a union), spying on unions, hiring their own police officers, with full police powers granted by the state (These "Coal and Iron Police" have been called the only truly American Terrorist group), organizing and paying for private "Militias" to protect "The American Way of Life", making sure all of the major news outlets (in the 1870-1930 period that meant newspapers and later radio) gave nothing but pro-business news (In regards to Radio this one sided argument lead to the "Fairness" Doctrine in the reforms of the 1930s). In the early 1930s the Business community went so far as to advocate taking over the Government to prevent a "Communist" takeover of the Government.
Yes, it sounds like today, unions are declining, business is claiming it has to cut labor cost to be competitive, right wing militia are being formed and the police are more and more being used in "riot" control situation as opposed to going after criminals.
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