The American Pageant
Chapter 29
Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad
The “Bull Moose” Campaign
of 1912
• Democrats choose Dr. Woodrow Wilson
militant progressive
had been the president of Princeton
University
governor of New Jersey (where he
didn’t permit himself to be controlled
by the bosses)
• attacked trusts
• passed liberal measures.
The Republican
Party
&
President
William H. Taft
Keep
the
Whistle
Blowing
Taft was
determined to
defeat TR and preserve the conservative
heart of the Republican Party.
Come, Mr. President. You Can’t Have
the Stage ALL of the Time!
Republican Party Platform
High import tariffs.
Put limitations on female and child labor.
Workman’s Compensation Laws.
Against initiative, referendum, and
recall.
Against “bad” trusts.
Creation of a Federal Trade Commission.
Stay on the gold standard.
Conservation of natural resources
because they are finite.
The Progressive
Party &
Former President
Theodore
Roosevelt
People should rise
above their sectarian
interests to promote the general good.
Theodore Roosevelt at
Osawatomie, KS: New Nationalism
Big business requires big government.
The
AntiThird-Term
Principle
The
“Bull Moose”
Party:
The Latest
Arrival
at the
Political Zoo
We stand at Armageddon,
and we battle for the Lord!
ONWARD, CHRISTIAN
SOLDIERS!
Progressive Party Platform
Women’s suffrage.
Graduated income tax.
Inheritance tax for the rich.
Lower tariffs.
Limits on campaign spending.
Currency reform.
Minimum wage laws.
Social insurance.
Abolition of child labor.
Workmen’s compensation.
N
e
w
N
a
t
i
o
n
a
l
i
s
m
The Socialist Party
& Eugene V. Debs
The issue is Socialism versus
Capitalism. I am for
Socialism because I am for
humanity.
“The Working Class Candidates”
Eugene V. Debs
for President
Emil Seigel
for Vice-President
Socialist Party Platform
Government ownership of railroads
and utilities.
Guaranteed income tax.
No tariffs.
8-hour work day.
Better housing.
Government inspection of
factories.
Women’s suffrage.
The Democratic Party &
Governor Woodrow Wilson (NJ)
Could he rescue
the Democratic
Party from
“Bryanism”??
The “Bull Moose” Campaign
of 1912
• The Democratic ticket would run under a
platform called New Freedom
reduction of the tariff on imported
goods
reform of the inept national banking
system
strengthening of the Sherman Act to
combat trusts
 favored small enterprise
desired to break up all trusts—not just
the bad ones—and basically
shunned social-welfare proposals.
The “Bull Moose” Campaign
of 1912
• Progressive convention, Jane Addams put
Theodore Roosevelt’s name on the
nomination
got the Progressive nomination
entering the campaign, TR said that he
felt “as strong as a bull moose,”
• = the unofficial Progressive symbol
• Republican William Taft & TR tore into each
other
former friends now ripped every aspect of
each other’s platforms & personalities.
New Nationalism
• Theodore Roosevelt's progressive
platform in the election of 1912;
building on his presidential "square
deal"
stated that the government should
control the bad trusts, leaving the
good trusts alone & free to operate
• TR also campaigned for
female suffrage
 a broad program of social welfare,
such as minimum-wage laws &
“socialistic” social insurance.
The “Bull Moose” Campaign
of 1912
• Campaigning stopped when Roosevelt
was shot in the chest in Milwaukee
but he delivered his speech anyway
was rushed to the hospital
recovered in two weeks.
Woodrow Wilson: A Minority
President
• Republicans split
 Woodrow Wilson easily won with 435
Electoral votes
 TR had 88
 Taft only had 8
• Democrats did not receive the majority of the popular vote
(only 41%)!
• Socialist Eugene V. Debs earned 900,000+ popular votes
• combined popular totals of TR & Taft exceeded Wilson.
• TR’s participation had cost the Republicans the
election
• William Taft would later become the only U.S.
president to be appointed Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, when he was nominated in 1921.
An Actual 1912 Ballot
Election Results
By 1912, 100,000 fewer people had voted for
Wilson than had voted for Bryan in 1908.
The 1912 election marked the apogee of the
Socialist movement in America.
Wilson: The Idealist in
Politics
• Woodrow Wilson =
a sympathizer w/ the South
fine orator
a sincere and morally appealing politician
a very intelligent man.
cold personality-wise, austere, intolerant
of stupidity
very idealistic.
Wilson Tackles the Tariff
• Wilson stepped into the presidency ready to
tackle the “triple wall of privilege”:
the tariff, the banks, & the trusts.
• Tackling the tariff:
Wilson successfully helped in the passing
of the Underwood Tariff of 1913
• substantially reduced import fees
• Wilson worked to enact a graduated
income tax (under the approval of the
recent 16th Amendment).
Wilson Battles the Bankers
• Background:
nation’s financial structure, as created
under the Civil War National Banking
Act had proven to be glaringly
ineffective, as shown by the Panic of
1907
• Wilson had Congress authorize an
investigation to fix this
Wilson Battles the Bankers
• June 1913: Wilson appeared before a special
joint session of
 pleaded for a sweeping reform of the
banking system
 Result=the 1913 Federal Reserve Act
• Created the new Federal Reserve Board
– oversaw a nationwide system of 12
regional reserve districts, each with its
own central bank
» had the power to issue paper
money (“Federal Reserve Notes”)
The President Tames the
Trusts
• 1914, Congress passed the Federal
Trade Commission Act
empowered a president-appointed
position to investigate the activities
of trusts
• Could stop unfair trade practices
such as:
–unlawful competition
–false advertising
–Mislabeling
–Adulteration
–bribery
The President Tames the
Trusts
• 1914 Clayton Anti-Trust Act
lengthened the Sherman Anti-Trust
Act’s list of practices that were
objectionable
exempted labor unions from being
called trusts (as they had been called
by the Supreme Court under the
Sherman Act)
legalized strikes & peaceful picketing
by labor union members.
Wilsonian Progressivism at
High Tide
• The 1916 Adamson Act
established an eight-hour workday
with overtime pay
New Directions in Foreign
Policy
• didn’t pursue an aggressive foreign
policy:
stopped “dollar diplomacy,”
persuaded Congress to repeal the
Panama Canal Tolls Act of 1912
(which let American shippers not pay
tolls for using the canal)
even led to American bankers’ pulling
out of a 6-nation, Taft-engineered
loan to China.
New Directions in Foreign
Policy
• Wilson signed the Jones Act in 1916,
granted full territorial status to the
Philippines
promised independence as soon as a
stable government could be
established
Filipinos finally got their
independence on July 4, 1946.
New Directions in Foreign
Policy
• California banned Japanese ownership
of land
Wilson sent Secretary of State William
Jennings Bryan to plead with
legislators, & tensions cooled.
• Disorder broke out in Haiti in 1915,
Wilson sent American Marines
• in 1916, he sent Marines to quell
violence in the Dominican Republic.
• In 1917, Wilson bought the Virgin
Islands from Denmark.
Moralistic Diplomacy in
Mexico
• Background:
 Mexico had been exploited for decades by
U.S. investors in
• oil
railroads
• Mines
 Mexican people = tremendously poor and in
1913, they revolted
• installed full-blooded Indian General
Victoriano Huerta to the presidency.
• led to a massive immigration of Mexicans
to America
– mostly to the Southwest.
Moralistic Diplomacy in
Mexico
• rebels = very violent & threatened
Americans living in Mexico
• Woodrow Wilson
would not intervene to protect
American lives
would not recognize Huerta’s regime
• other countries did
let American munitions flow to
Huerta’s rivals, Venustiano
Carranza and Francisco “Pancho”
Villa.
Moralistic Diplomacy in
Mexico
• small party of American sailors were
arrested in Tampico, Mexico, in 1914,
Wilson threatened to use force
• Ordered navy to take over Vera Cruz
• Huerta/Carranza protest
• Finally, the ABC powers Argentina,
Brazil, and Chile—mediated the
situation
• Huerta fell from power
• Carranza now in power
– resented Wilson’s acts.
Moralistic Diplomacy in
Mexico
• Meanwhile:
 “Pancho” Villa, (combination
bandit/freedom fighter)
• murdered 16 Americans in January of
1916 in Mexico
• Then killed 19 more a month later in New
Mexico.
• Wilson sent General John J. Pershing to
capture Villa
– He penetrated deep into Mexico,
– clashed w/Carranza’s & Villa’s
different forces
– didn’t take Villa
Thunder Across the Sea
• In 1914
 Serbian nationalist killed the Austro-Hungarian heir
to the throne (Archduke Franz Ferdinand)
• domino-effect began
– Austria declared war on Serbia
– Serbia had been supported by Russia
– Russia had declared war on Austria-Hungary
– Germany, which declared war on Russia and
France
» invaded neutral Belgium
» pulled Britain into the war & igniting WWI
• Americans were thankful that the Atlantic Ocean
separated the warring Europeans from the U.S.
A Precarious Neutrality
• Wilson
wife recently died
issued a neutrality proclamation
was wooed by both the Allies & the
German & Austro-Hungarian powers.
• Germans & Austro-Hungarians counted
on their relatives in America for support
• U.S. = mostly anti-German from the
outset
Kaiser Wilhem II made for a perfect
autocrat to hate.
A Precarious Neutrality
• German & Austro-Hungarian agents in
America further tarnished the
Central Powers’ image
they resorted to violence in American
factories & ports
when one agent left his briefcase in a
New York elevator
• the contents of which were found
to contain plans for sabotage
America Earns Blood Money
• Background:
 Just as WWI began, America was in a business
recession
 American trade was fiercely protested by the
Central Powers
• technically Central Powers were free to trade
with the U.S.,
• but were prohibited from doing
so by the British navy
– controlled the sea lanes. The
 Allies & Wall Street’s financing of the war by J.P.
Morgan et al, pulled the U.S. out of the recession
Conflict on the High Seas
• British imposed a naval blockade:
 So? prevented neutral nations, including the U.S., from
trading with Germany & its Allies
 And? created a trade imbalance bringing the U.S. to
closer economic ties with the Allies
• Trade imbalance
 Trade w/ GB and FR grew from $824 million in 1914 to
$3.2 billion in 1916
 By 1917, American banks had lent the Allies $2.5
billion
 Germany trade and loans totaled only $29 million and
$27 million respectively
• Therefore our trade interests were bringing us to the
Allied side
America Earns Blood Money
• UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE
WARFARE:
Germany announced its use of submarine
warfare around the
British Isles
• warning the U.S. that it would try not
to attack neutral ships
• Said that mistakes would probably
occur
• Wilson thus warned that Germany
would be held to “strict accountability”
for any attacks on American ships.
America Earns Blood Money
• Sinking of the Lusitania
German subs, or U-boats, sank many
ships
Sank the Lusitania a British passenger
liner that was carrying arms & munitions
as well
attack killed 1,198 lives, including 128
Americans.
Germans had issued fliers prior to the
Lusitania setting sail that warned
Americans the ship might be torpedoed.
America Earns Blood Money
• Many Americans wanted to go to war after the
Lusitania
 Wilson kept the U.S. out of it by use of a
series of strong notes to the German
warlords
 William Jennings Bryan (Sec. of State),
resigned rather than go to war.
• Germans sank the Arabic in August 1915
 killing 2 Americans and numerous other
passengers
 Germany finally agreed not to sink
unarmed ships without warning.
America Earns Blood Money
• “Sussex pledge,”
Germany agreed not to sink
passenger ships or merchant vessels
without warning, so long as the U.S.
could get the British to stop their
blockade
• Wilson couldn’t do this, so his victory
was a precarious one.
Wilson Wins Reelection in
1916
• Election of 1916
 Republicans chose Charles Evans Hughes
• made different pledges and said different
things depending on where he was,
leading to
his being nicknamed “Charles Evasive
Hughes.”
• Democratic = Wilson
 went under the slogan “He kept us out of
war,”
 warned that electing Hughes would be
leading America into World War I
• Ironically, Wilson would lead America into war
in 1917.