Transcript Chapter 29 - Wilsonian Progressivism

Chapter 29 Wilsonian
Progressivism at Home and
Abroad
ELECTION OF 1912 WOODROW WILSON
DEMOCRATS

Background:
 Progressive Governor of
New Jersey
 President of Princeton
University
 Reformer , Idealist , Elitist?
 stubborn when believed was
correct
ELECTION OF 1912: DEMOCRATS

Woodrow Wilson

Platform: “New
Freedom”




Anti-Trust Legislation
Banking reform
Tariff reductions
Shunned social-welfare
proposals
ELECTION OF 1912:
PROGRESSIVES OR “BULL MOOSERS”

Theodore Roosevelt

Platform: “New
Nationalism”





Trusts and Labor unions
controlled by regulatory
agencies
Program of social welfare
Women’s suffrage
Minimum wage
Social insurance
ELECTION OF 1912: REPUBLICANS

William H. Taft

Platform:

To continue moderate
Progressivism
ELECTION OF 1912:
RESULTS


Winner: Woodrow Wilson
Wilson was a “minority”
President…no “mandate”
from the people
 Why?



Taft and Roosevelt split the
vote
Taft became Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court
Socialist Debs got almost a
million votes
“TRIPLE WALL OF PRIVILEGE”

“Triple Wall” Wilson wanted to attack:
The Tariff
• The Banks
• The Trusts
•

Underwood Tariff
•

Substantially reduced the
tariff rates
The 16th Amendment
•
Graduated Income Tax
RESEARCHING BANKING REFORM


The 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, so Wilson had
Congress authorize an
investigation to fix this.
The investigation,
headed by Senator
Aldrich, in effect
recommended a third
Bank of the United
States.


Democrats heeded the
findings of a House
committee chaired by
Congressman Arsene
Pujo, which traced the
tentacles of the “money
monster” into the
hidden vaults of
American banking and
business.
Louis D Brandeis’s
Other People’s Money
and How the
Bankers Use It (1914)
furthermore showed the
problems of American
finances at the time.
THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT

Created Federal
Reserve Board
12 regional banks
that issued Federal
Reserve notes
 Allowed for flexible
money system

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT



Presidential
Commission examined
interstate commerce
laws
Root out unfair trade
practices , such as
false advertising and
bribery
Root out unlawful
competition
CLAYTON ANTI-TRUST ACT OF 1914


Outlawed interlocking
directories and pure
discrimination
“Magna Carta” of the
labor movement
Exempted labor unions
from Anti-Trust laws
(as had been called by
Supreme Court’s
interpretation of
Sherman Act)
• Legalized strikes and
peaceful picketing
•
WILSONIAN PROGRESSIVE ACTS

Federal Farm Loan Act


Warehouse Act of 1916


Living wage for merchant ships
Workingman’s Compensation Act of 1916


Government loans on the security of staple crops
La Follette Seaman’s Act of 1915


Federal Government credit for farmers at low
interest rates
Disability insurance for civil service employees
Adamson Act

8 hour work day for federal employees
“BLACK PROGRESSIVISM”/ LOUIS
BRANDEIS

Wilson did not do well
with “Black
Progressivism”


He was born in the
South
Louis Brandeis

First Jewish
Supreme Court
Justice
NEW DIRECTIONS IN FOREIGN POLICY


Wilson did not
embrace the “Dollar
Diplomacy” and “Big
Stick”
Jones Act
•
Made Philippines a
territory, promoted
independence as soon
as Philippines had
stable government,
July 4th 1946
WILSON DID ACT AS AN “AGGRESSOR” A
COUPLE OF TIMES



When California banned
Japanese ownership of
land, Wilson sent
Secretary of State William
Jennings Bryan to plead
with legislators and
tensions cooled.
When disorder broke out
in Haiti in 1915, Wilson
sent American Marines,
and 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
In 1913 Mexican rebels
overthrew a government
friendly to the United
States and placed
Victoriano Huerta and
Carranza and Pancho
Villa in positions of
power in Mexico.
President Wilson refused
to recognize the new
Mexican government.
Moralistic Diplomacy in
Mexico
Wilson ordered Marines to take
Vera Cruz because
Mexicans affronted
Americans. Carranza and
Huerto protested bitterly. It
was finally mediated by the
A.B.C. Powers. Shortly after
Huerto collapsed and was
replaced by Carranza whom
President Wilson reluctantly
supported.
MORALISTIC DIPLOMACY IN MEXICO

Meanwhile, “Pancho”
Villa, combination
bandit/freedom
fighter, murdered 16
Americans in January of
1916 in Mexico and then
killed 19 more a month
later in New Mexico.
Wilson sent General John J.
Pershing to capture Villa,
and he penetrated deep into
Mexico, clashed with
Carranza’s and Villa’s
different forces, but didn’t
take Villa.
 World War I was starting in
Europe
