Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad

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Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad

• 1912-1916

2
Woodrow Wilson Emerges as a Leader

• Once mildly conservative, now militantly
  progressive
• Professor from Princeton
• Elected governor of New Jersey in 1910

3
The Campaign of 1912

• Woodrow Wilson
• Democrat
• Help from Bryan
• New Freedom
• William Howard Taft
• Republican incumbent
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Progressive Bull Moose party
• New Nationalism
• We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the
  Lord!
• Called Taft a fathead with the brain of a
  guinea pig

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Roosevelts New Nationalism vs. Wilsons New
Freedom

• Consolidation of trusts and labor unions
• womens suffrage
• social welfare
• Minimum wage laws
• Social insurance
• Precursor to the New Deal

• small enterprise
• Entrepreneurship
• Free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized
  markets
• Competition was key
• Enforcement of antitrust laws

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Election of 1912Electoral and Popular Vote
Results
Candidate Party Electoral Votes States Carried Popular Vote Percentage
Woodrow Wilson Democrat 435 40 6,296,284 41.8
Theodore Roosevelt Progressive 88 6 4,122,721 27.4
William Howard Taft Republican 8 2 3,486,242 23.2
Eugene Debs Socialist 0 0 901,551 6
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Wilson The Idealist

• 2nd Democratic president since 1861
• Born in Virginia
• A Jeffersonian Democrat
• Mass democracy, as long as they were informed
• Great speaker and believed in strong leadership
• Intelligent, but sometimes looked down upon those
  who were less so
• didnt relate well to the public
• Idealism and sense of moral righteousness made
  him incredibly stubborn in negotiating.
•  

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Wilson Tackles the Tariff

• Attacked "the triple wall of privilege"  the
  tariff, the banks, and the trusts
• helped pass the Underwood Tariff Bill (reduced
  tariffs) 
• 16th Amendment graduated income tax

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Wilson Battles the Bankers

• Problem Banking reserves were located in New
  York and a handful of other large cities and
  could not be mobilized in times of financial
  stress into areas that needed money.
• Federal Reserve Act
• Federal Reserve Board appointed by the president
• oversaw a nationwide system of 12 regional
  Federal Reserve banks 
• issued paper money (Federal Reserve Notes)
• money in circulation could be increased as needed
  for the requirements of business

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The President Tames the Trusts

• Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914
• oversees industries engaged in interstate
  commerce 
• eliminate monopolies
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914
• strengthened Sherman Antitrust Act
• exempted labor and agricultural organizations
  from anti-trust prosecution
• legalized strikes and peaceful picketing

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Wilsonian Progressivism at High Tide

• Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 made loans
  available to farmers at low rates of interest
• Workingmen's Compensation Act of 1916 gave
  assistance to federal civil-service employees
  during periods of disability 
• child labor restricted on products shipped
  between states
• Wilson nominated for the Supreme Court reformer
  Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jew to be a Supreme
  Court justice.

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New Directions in Foreign Policy

• Anti-imperialist
• Jones Act (1916) granted the Philippines
  territorial status and promised independence as
  soon as a stable government could be established
• Haiti (1915) sent Marines to protect American
  lives and property
• 1916 signed a treaty with Haiti providing for
  U.S. supervision of finances and the police.
• 1917 purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark

13
Moralistic Diplomacy in Mexico

• Mexican revolution (1913) The president was
  murdered and replaced by General Victoriano
  Huerta.  Because of the chaos in Mexico, millions
  of Spanish-speaking immigrants came to America.
• President Wilson initially refused to intervene.
  But after a small party of American sailors was
  accidentally captured by the Mexicans, Wilson
  ordered the navy to seize the Mexican port of
  Vera Cruz.
• Argentina, Brazil, and Chile intervened and
  pressured Huerta to step down.
• Venustiano Carranza became the president of
  Mexico. 
• Francisco Villa, rival to President Carranza,
  attempted to provoke a war between Mexico and the
  U.S by killing Americans. 
• Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to break
  up Villa's influence. 
• The invading American army was withdrawn from
  Mexico in 1917 as the threat of war with Germany
  loomed.

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World War I Breaks Out

• Central Powers Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey,
  and Bulgaria
• Allies consisted of France, Britain, Russia,
  Japan, and Italy.
• Wilson issued a neutrality proclamation

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The United States Earned Blood Money

• American industry prospered off trade with the
  Allies
• Germany and the Central Powers protested American
  trading with the Allies
• Germany was free to trade with the U.S., but
  Britain prevented this trade by controlling the
  Atlantic Ocean.
• Unrestricted submarine warfare began

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Wilson Wins the Reelection in 1916

• Progressives nominated Theodore Roosevelt, but
  he refused to run.
• Republicans Supreme Court justice Charles Evans
  Hughes
• condemned the Democratic tariff, assaults on the
  trusts, and Wilson's dealings with Mexico and
  Germany
• Democrats Woodrow Wilson
• anti-war campaign 
• He kept us out of war.
• Wilson re-elected

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