The limits of 'enlightened self -interest:' Business power in Indianapolis, 1900--1977

This dissertation explores the limits of business's "enlightened self-interest" in Indianapolis from 1900 to 1977. By focusing on four selected issues---the labor movement, patriotism during and following World War I, race relations, and governmental reform---I test the commitment of selected groups and classes to the conservative political agenda of the business elite in the Hoosier capital. I argue that in the early twentieth century the narrow concerns of business, its laissez-faire conservatism, eventually gave way to a form of "enlightened self-interest" by 1977.;For much of the time of this study, the concerns of the business elite dominated the political agenda of Indianapolis, but I postulate that the power of the business elite did not go uncontested in Indianapolis. Citizens generally tested the manifestations of that power, however, rather than the power itself. Thus, we find labor donning a mantle of conservatism as capital tried to enforce the open shop concept in Indianapolis. Further, we find the Ku Klux Klan embracing Americanism while it contested the symbolic powers of the business class over communal affairs. Too, African Americans in Indianapolis used legal redress through the court system and through appeals to the federal government for intercession when confronted with disinterest at the local level.;The evolution of ideals and relationships within the Hoosier capital reveal the extent to which business concerns came to realize the concept of enlightened self-interest. During the period of this study, groups and classes exhibited varying commitments to the conservatism of the business class even as they embraced its appellation. Indeed, conservatism's longevity as the defining spirit of Indianapolis was due less to a uniformity of meaning for all groups and classes and due more to the fact that it allowed diverse groups and classes to define themselves as conservative. Conservatism has endured in Indianapolis due, in no small measure, not to its absolute rigidity but to its adaptability.