1. Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad
Chapter 29:
Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad

2. BULL MOOSE CAMPAIGN OF 1912 ―Bull Moose‖ he is a Progressive
 Democrats nominate (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson – Progressive Idealist
 New Jersey governor
 Past president of Princeton
 Born in the South
 Believed the President should
play a dynamic role
 Republicans nominate William H. Taft (again) a mild Progressive
 Theodore Roosevelt bolts the Republican Party & joins with the Progressive Party – AKA
―Bull Moose‖ he is a Progressive

4. ELECTION OF 1912
 Roosevelt & Taft had been friends – now bitter enemies
 Bull Moose Party = Roosevelt will win 88 EV most successful 3rd Party ever.
 Wilson wins the election with fewer votes than Bryan in any of his 3 attempts
 435 EV, 6 million Pop.
 Republican Party is split but combine for 7 Million popular votes

5. WILSON THE IDEALIST
 Born in Virginia and raised in Georgia – first Southern president in 64 years
 Believed south should have had the right to secede – promotes self-determination
 Son of Presbyterian minister – against evil
 Somewhat cold in public –he was self-assured and superior especially toward politicians and journalists
 He found compromise difficult

6. TRIPLE WALL OF PRIVILEGE
 Tariff
 Banks
 Trusts
 All hurting the public in some way or another and therefore Wilson’s program was to solve them

7. WILSON AND THE TARIFF
 Calls Congress into special session – he delivered his presidential message to a joint session of Congress in person (had not been done since Adams)
 Underwood Tariff Bill down to 27%
 16th Amendment = Income tax (over $3,000)

8. WILSON AND THE BANKS Federal Reserve Act 1913
 Most important economic legislation between Civil War and New Deal
 Establishes a Federal Reserve System
 Restricted private control of money and banks
 12 regional reserve districts and a central bank
 Banks are for bankers
 Issue Federal Reserve Notes

9. LOUIS D. BRANDEIS  Muller v Oregon, 1908:
 Brandeis convinced the Supreme Court to use sociological & statistical evidence upholding an Oregon law that regulated the working conditions of women (10 hour day)
 Significance: first such evidence acknowledged by law in the US
 1916 is appointed to the Supreme Court
 Wilson nomination
 First person of Jewish faith to serve on Supreme Court

11. WILSON AND THE TRUSTS Unfair trade practices Unlawful competition
 Federal Trade Commission of 1914
 Crush monopolies by eliminating
Unfair trade practices
Unlawful competition
False advertising
Bribery
Has investigative powers

12. WILSON AND THE TRUSTS Clayton Anti-Trust Act 1914 labor‖
 Attacks price discrimination and interlocking directorates (same individuals were on the boards of competing firms)
 Labor and agriculture both exempted from anti-trust action
 Allowed strikes and peaceful picketing
 Samuel Gompers called it the ―Magna Carta of
labor‖

13. WILSON PROGRESSIVISM AT HIGH TIDE
 Federal Farm Loan Act,
1916
 Credit to farmers at low % rates
 Warehouse Act 1916
 Loans available (to farmers) based on security of staple (cash) crops
 Highway construction & help to agricultural state colleges
 La Follette Seamen’s Act,
1915
 Required decent treatment
 A living wage
 unexpected result—crippled US Merchant Marine with higher freight costs
 Workingmen’s Compensation
Act, 1916
 Assistance given to disabled federal employees

14. WILSON AND FOREIGN POLICY
 He hated imperialism and Dollar Diplomacy
 Government no longer offer special support to American investors in Latin America and China
 Repealed the Panama Tolls Act (no tolls on US coast-wide shipping)
 Philippines gains territorial status – promised self-rule
 Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan persuades the California legislature to renege on a law that would not allow Japanese to own land –eases relations with Japan

15. WILSON AND FOREIGN POLICY
 Haiti
 Revolution ( )
 Forces Wilson to send in troops
 Marines– to protect US lives and property
 Stay 19 years
 Dominican Republic (1916)
 Similar to Haiti—debt problems
 Marines stay 8 years
 Virgin Islands (1917)
 Purchased from Denmark for $25 Million to stop Germany

16. WILSON AND MEXICO Pancho Villa power  US investments =$1 Billion
 Revolutions
 Porfirio Diaz overthrown
 General Victoriano Huerta in
power
 Wilson sent arms to rivals Venustiano Carranza and Francisco ―Pancho‖ Villa
 William Randolph Hearst
 Has a Rhode Island sized ranch in Mexico
 Begs for US intervention but Wilson promotes human rights over property rights
Pancho Villa

17. WILSON AND MEXICO engineers in Mexico, and 19 in Columbus, New Mexico
 Tampico, April 1914 –
 US sailors arrested
 Mexico releases them and apologizes but Wilson demands a 21-gun salute
 When Mexico will not grant this Wilson orders the Navy to take Vera Cruz
 Mexican leaders, Huerta & Carranza protest
 ABC Powers intervene for the US (Argentina, Brazil, Chile)
 Harms US-Mexican relations, and then…
 General John ―Blackjack‖ Pershing
 Sent into Mexico
 Pursue ―Pancho‖ Villa who has killed 16 US
engineers in Mexico, and 19 in Columbus, New Mexico
 No success: US had conflicts with Mexican troops &
finally withdrew as conflict in Europe threatens
The Brancho-Buster: President Wilson: “I wonder what I do next?”