Woodrow Wilson Emerges as a Leader

• Once mildly conservative, now militantly progressive

• Professor from Princeton

• Elected governor of New Jersey in 1910

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”

Roosevelt’s New Nationalism vs. Wilson’s New Freedom

• Consolidation of trusts and labor unions

• women’s 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

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

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• didn’t relate well to the public • Idealism and sense of moral righteousness made

him incredibly stubborn in negotiating. 

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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