Read the Radio Appeal for the National Recovery Act given by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933. For many years the two great barriers to a normal prosperity have been low farm prices and the creeping paralysis of unemployment. . . . First, the Farm Act: We have been producing more of some crops than we consume or can sell in a depressed world market. The cure is not to produce so much. . . . I have clearly stated that this method is in a sense experimental, but so far as we have gone we have reason to believe that it will produce good results. . . . That brings me to the final step—bringing back industry along sound lines. . . . The proposition is simply this: If all employers will act together to shorten hours and raise wages we can put people back to work. No employer will suffer, because the relative level of competitive cost will advance by the same amount for all.

The actions proposed in the excerpt represent a continuation of which trend in American history?

competition and tensions between rural and urban areas
growth in the size and scope of the federal government
reduction in the influence of labor unions
increasing rates of unemployment