Woodrow Wilson
By: Gaston - Lulinski
Road to Presidency
• He was the Guvnor of New Jersey from 1910-1912
• In 1912 he represented the Democratic Party and led
the Progressive Movement
• Wilson was elected over Taft (Republican), Debs
(Socialist) and Roosevelt (Progressive/Bull moose)
•
Wilson introduced the “New Freedom” plan as a
candidate which advocated that monopolies should
not be regulated (Roosevelt's plan) rather, should be
destroyed.
The New Freedom
• This called for three different types of reform,
Banking, Business, and Tariff.
• "If America is not to have free enterprise, he can
have freedom of no sort whatever.” – Woodrow
Wilson
• New Freedom stood for political and economic
liberty from such things as monopolies.
Tariffs
• Revenue Act of 1913- re-imposed the federal income tax
following the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment
and lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.
• - reduced tariffs and introduced a graduated income tax.
- charged American manufacturers who wanted to sell
their goods overseas.
-
required banks to keep a certain level of assets on hand
to meet customer demand.
- made it more difficult for private industry to take natural
resources from public lands.
Business
• Federal Trade Commission Act established the Federal
Trade Commission. "The Federal Trade Commission is
the nation's consumer protection agency. The FTC's
Bureau of Consumer Protection works For The
Consumer to prevent fraud, deception, and unfair
business practices in the marketplace.”
• Clayton Antitrust (1916) act was followed 3 weeks later
which was stronger than the Sherman Antitrust.
However, the act was eventually made weaker by
conservatives, so Wilson let government supervision take
care of trusts.
Banking
• Creation of the Federal Reserve (1913)
-Created 12 regional banks (owned and controlled by
district banks)
-The regional banks used district bank assets to support
loans to private banks at an intrest rate that the Fed.
Reserve system set.
-Federal reserve notes (new paper currency)
-Able to shift funds quickly to troubled areas- to meet
demands for credit or to protect imperiled banks
-By the late 20s 80% of the nations banking resources
were represented in the system.
Shows Wilsons New
Freedom, and how
fast it came together
to prime the
economy
Other Laws
• Keating-Owen Act (1916) - a short lived act regulating child labor,
stopping interstate commerce between corporations who employed
children. Later deemed unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart.
• Federal Farm Loan Act (1916) - aimed at giving family farmers
more credit by creating regional farm banks and loan associations
• Seventeenth Amendment (1913)- direct election of senators
• Eighteenth Amendment prohibition
• Nineteenth Amendment (1920)- women's suffrage
• National Park Service (1916) – Organized all national parks and
monuments
View on War
• Wilson supported the pacifist movement over the
interventionists in the light of WWI.
• But as tensions grew he could not ignore the fact that war
was on the horizon and called for rapid increase in armed
forces
• He won the 1916 election against Hughes with the
famous slogan “He Kept Us Out of War” advocating him
as a peace maker.
• Eventually the US entered war and justified it as a way to
establish new progressive ideals worldwide.
Pins supporting Wilson’s
Peace Plan
Peace efforts