In a speech to business leaders Tuesday, Bush vowed to get tough on corporate executives he said were ruining the American economy.

Ball State history professor James Connolly said Bush's comments were similar to those made by several American presidents from the last century.

Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson attempted to break up large corporate "trusts" in the early 1900s and Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to counter "economic royalists" he blamed for creating the Great Depression.

Earlier attempts at reform reined in some corporate abuses, but did little to limit the power of large, multinational companies, Connolly said.

"The first wave (of reform) came in the early 1900s when the great fear was bigness," he said. "Most people today find massive, multinational corporations at least tolerable. Then, those vast corporations were alarming to people."

Connolly said (Theodore) Roosevelt and Wilson were able to break up the large corporations into small entities, creating a significant regulatory role for the federal government.

"The ultimate result was the acceptance of big business as a presence in American political and business life with the popular assumption that the government would police corporations to prevent abuses," he said.

A second wave of anti-corporate fervor occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930s. (Franklin) Roosevelt attempted to bolster the American economy through modest reforms as part of his "New Deal" programs.

Connolly said current concern over the actions of executives of major corporations has not reached the breaking point with the American public as it did last century.

"Right now it is directed mostly at the dishonesty of specific businessmen and companies," he said. "If it does broaden out to a more general antipathy for corporate power - perhaps merging with the anti-globalization movement - then we may see demand for more aggressive government action."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Connolly at jconnolly@bsu.edu or (765) 285-8773.)