May 7, 2016 3:19PM 

# Progressives Fought for High Tax Rates in the 1920s Too (They Lost) 

By [Alan Reynolds](https://www.cato.org/people/alan-reynolds) 

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“A deeper reason for the failure of progressives to unite ideologically in the 1920’s was what might be called a substantial paralysis of the progressive mind.…\[They\] fought so hard all through the 1920’s against Andrew Mellon’s proposals to abolish the inheritance tax and to make drastic reductions in the taxes on large incomes. \[Yet\] the progressives were hard pressed to justify the continuation of nearly confiscatory tax levels.”

–Arthur S. Link, “What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920s?” *American Historical Review* 64 (1959): 851–883. [http://​www​.jstor​.org/​s​t​a​b​l​e​/​1​9​05118](http://www.jstor.org/stable/1905118)

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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