Wilsonian Progressivism at Home
and Abroad
Introduction
 With the Republicans at odds with one another it was time for the
Democrats to win the White House. Their choice was
Woodrow Wilson, who was once a mild conservative now a
militant progressive. He was a brilliant lecturer and had risen to
the Presidency of Princeton University, where he achieved major
educational reforms.
 Wilson entered into politics in 1910 when New Jersey needed a
candidate for governorship. When he got into the governorship he
waged war on “trusts” and promised to return state government to
the people.
 Wilson also made New Jersey one of the most liberal states,
because once he was in the governor’s chair he pushed through
many measures in the legislature. He was now becoming a
national figure that was being mentioned for the presidency.
The Bull Moose Campaign of 1912
 When the democrats met in
Baltimore they gave Wilson a strong
progressive platform to run on.
This program was called the
New Freedom and this program
called for a stronger antitrust
legislation, banking reform, and
tariff reductions.
 Many events had been putting
Roosevelt into to the fore front as a
third party Progressive Republican
ticket. Fired-up Progressives
entered the campaign with
enthusiasm. Roosevelt boasted
and felt as strong as a Bull Moose,
and the Bull Moose took its place
with the donkey and the elephant in
the American political zoo.
The Bull Moose Campaign of 1912
 Beyond the clashing of personalities, the question of 1912 campaign was
which one of the progressives was going to come out on top, Roosevelt
or Taft. Both men favored a more active government role in economic
and social affairs, but they disagreed sharply over specific strategies.
 Roosevelt favored continued consolidation of trusts and labor unions, by
the growth of powerful agencies in Washington. Roosevelt also
campaigned for women suffrage and a broad program of social welfare,
including wage laws and socialistic insurance.
 Wilson favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the free
functioning of unregulated and un-monopolized markets. The
Democrats shunned social welfare proposals and pinned their economic
faith on competition.
 The election of 1912 offered the voters a choice not merely of policies
but of political and economic philosophies. In the heat of the campaign
cooled a bit when Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a crazy Rough
Rider.
Woodrow Wilson: A Minority President
 Wilson won handedly. Wilson with only 41 percent of the
popular vote was clearly a minority president, though his
party won the majority in Congress. As for the Republicans,
they were thrust into a minority status in Congress for the
next 6 years and were frozen out of the White House for 8
years. Taft himself became chief justice of the Supreme
Court job, which was far more happily suited than the
presidency.
Wilson: The Idealist in Politics
 Wilson was the second
democratic president since 1861.
His look was intellectual with clean
cut features; also he had pinched on
eye glasses, and a trim figure. He
was born in Virginia shortly before
the Civil War and reared in Georgia
and the Carolinas. He was the first
president since Zachery Taylor to be
from the seceded states.
 Wilson was the son of a
minister. He grew up in an
atmosphere of piety. He later used
the presidential pulpit to preach his
political sermons. Using his voice
he relied on using a persuasive
voice, no arm waving but using
sincerity and moral appeal.
Wilson: The Idealist in Politics
 A profound student of government, Wilson believed that the
chief executive should play a dynamic role. He was
convinced that Congress could not function unless the
president got out in front and provided leadership.
 Wilson’s personality was that he suffered from serious
defects of personality. He would be jovial and witty in
private, and standoffish in public. His academic background
caused him to feel most at home with scholars, although he
had to work with politicians. He also looked down his nose
at those who had lesser minds as well.
Wilson Tackles the Tariff
 Few presidents have arrived at the
White House with a clearer program
than Wilson’s or one destined to be so
completely achieved. The new
president called for an all-out
assault on what he called the triple wall
of privilege: the tariff, the banks, and
the trusts.
 He tackled the tariff first and passed the
Underwood Tariff which provided
for substantial reduction of rates. This
new bill reduced import fees. It also
was a landmark in tax legislation.
Under authority granted by the
recently ratified 16th amendment,
beginning with a levy on incomes over
3000, which is higher than the average
family’s income.
Wilson Battle the Bankers
In June 1913 the president delivered a
stirring plea for sweeping reform of the
banking system. He endorsed Democratic
proposals for a decentralized bank in
government hands, as opposed to
Republican demands for a huge private bank
with 15 branches.
 Wilson scored in 1913 he signed the Federal
Reserve Act, the most important piece of
legislation between the Civil War and the
New Deal. This Act oversaw a nationwide
system of 12 districts, each with its own
central bank. The board was also
empowered to issue paper money backed by
commercial paper, such as promissory notes
of business people.
 The Federal Reserve Act was a red letter
achievement. It carried the nation with
flying banners through the financial crisis of
the First World War.

The President Tames the Trusts
 Wilson then went after the trusts. Early in 1914 he again went
before Congress in a personal appearance that still carried drama.
Congress responded in 1914 with a Federal Trade Commission
that empowered a presidentially appointed commission to turn a
searchlight on industries engaged in interstate commerce, such as
meatpackers.
 The commissioners were expected to crush monopolies by
routing all unfair trades, false advertising, mislabeling, and bribery.
Then the know was further cut by the Clayton Anti-Trust Act
of 1914, which lengthened Sherman’s Anti-Trust act which lists
practices that were objectionable, including price discrimination,
and interlocking directorates which was achieved through holding
companies.
The President Tames the Trusts
 The Clayton Act
therefore sought to
exempt labor and
agricultural organizations
from antitrust
prosecution while
legalizing strikes and
peaceful picketing.Years’
later conservative judges
in later years continued
to clip the wings of the
union movement.
Wilsonian Progressivism At High Tide
 Wilson knew that he had to be re-elected in 1916, he needed
to identify himself clearly as the candidate of progressivism.
He appeased business people by making conservative
appointments to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal
trade commission, but he devoted most of his energy to more
progressive support.
 Wilson’s election in 1912 had been a fluke, owing largely to
the Taft-Roosevelt split in the Republican ranks. To remain in
the White House, the president would have to woo the Bull
Moose voters into the Democratic fold.
New Directions in Foreign Policy
 In one important area, Wilson chose not to answer the call of
the bull mousers'. In contrast to Roosevelt and even Taft,
Wilson recoiled from an aggressive foreign policy. Hating
imperialism he was repelled by TR’s big stickism.
 In 1914, Wilson persuaded Congress to repeal the Panama
Canal Tolls Act of 1912, which had exempted American
coastwise shipping from tolls and provoked protests from
Britain. He also signed the Jones Act which granted the
Philippines territorial status and promised independence as
soon as a stable government could be established. Not until
30 years later did this happen.
New Directions in Foreign Policy
 Political turmoil in Haiti soon forced Wilson to eat some of
his anti-imperialistic words. Disorder came in 1914-1915
when an outraged Haitian population tore through the
president. In 1915 Wilson dispatched marines to protect
American lives and property.
 They remained there for 19 years, making Haiti American
protectorate. In this instance he stole a page from Roosevelt
and his Monroe Doctrine. In 1917, Wilson purchased from
Denmark the Virgin Islands, in the West Indies as well. The
Caribbean Sea, to now the Panama Canal, was taking on the
earmarks of an American preserve.
Thunder Across the Sea
 Europe blew up in the summer of 1914, when a Serb patriot killed the
heir to the throne of Austria-Hungry in Sarajevo. An outraged Vienna
government, backed by Germany presented an ultimatum in Serbia.
 A huge chain reaction followed, tiny Serbia backed by Russia refused
to bend. The Russian tsar began to mobilize his war machine, menacing
Germany on the east, even as ally France confronted Germany on the
west. The Germans struck at France through Belgium. Their main focus
was to knock out their enemy so that it would free them up to knock
out Russia. Great Britain was sucked in on the side of France.
 Overnight most of Europe was locked in a fight to the death. On
one side the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungry, and later
Turkey and Bulgaria. On the other side the Allied Powers: France,
Great Britain, and Russia, and later Japan and Italy. America felt at this
point, felt strong, snug, smug, and secure- but not for long.
A Precarious Neutrality
 President Wilson’s grief at the outbreak of war was compounded by the
recent death of his wife. He called on Americans to be neutral, and
this is going to be proven difficult.
 Both sides wanted the United States to be on their side. The British
enjoyed the close cultural, economic ties with America and had the
added advantage of controlling most of the transatlantic cables.
 The Germans counted on the natural sympathies of their transplanted
countrymen in America. Including persons with at least one foreign
born parent, people with blood ties to the Central Powers numbered
some 11 million in 1914.
 Most Americans were anti-German form the outset. Kaiser Wilhelm
II seemed the embodiment of arrogant autocracy, an impression
strengthened by Germany’s ruthless strike at neutral Belgium. German
and Austrian powers further tarnished their image when they resorted to
violence in American factories and ports. Yet the majority of Americans
at this point wanted to stay out of the war.
America Earns Blood Money
 When Europe was in flames in 1914, the United States was
bogged down with a business recession. British and French
war orders soon pulled American industry out of the hard times
and onto a peak of war-born prosperity. Immense trade happened
during this time, and brought in 2.3 million into America.
 Germany wanted to trade with America, but what stopped them
was the British navy. The British at this point was now controlling
the sea, and after much protest and forcing American vessels off
the high seas and into their ports. This harassment of American
shipping proved highly effective, as trade between Germany
and the United States virtually ceased.
America Earns Blood Money
 Germany in retaliation for the blockade announced a submarine war
area surrounded the British Isles. The submarine was a weapon so new
that existing international law could not be made to fit it. The old rule
that a warship must stop and board a merchantman could hardly apply
to submarines which could be rammed or sunk if they surfaced.
 The German submarines known as U-boats began their deadly work. In
the first months they sank about 90 ships in the war zone. Then the
submarine issue became an issue when Lithuania was torpedoed and
sank of the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, with the loss of 1,198 lives,
which included 128 Americans.
 With many other ships being destroyed, Wilson informed the
Germans that unless they renounced the inhuman practice of sinking
merchant ships without warning, he would break diplomatic relations-an
almost certain prelude to war.
Wilson Wins Re-Election in 1916
 The presidential election of 1916 was looming and progressives
nominated Roosevelt, which at this time they were calling him Teddy.
Wilson was nominated by the Democrats in St. Louis, and his
campaign slogan was: “He kept us out of War”. But on Election Day a
dark horse name Hughes swept through the east and it looked as though
he was the surefire winner. Wilson went to bed that night prepared to
accept defeat, while the New York newspapers displayed huge portraits
of Hughes as the new president elect.
 The rest of the country turned the tide and most of the Westerners and
Mid-Westerners loved Wilson’s progressive reforms and antiwar
policies. The final result was hinged on California. Wilson
barely came through with a final vote of 277 to 254 in the
Electoral College. Wilson had not expected that his promise to keep
America out of war, but it was enough that it ensured him his victory.
Their hopeful expectations were soon rudely shattered.