Wilsonian Progressivis

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The Election of 1912 had several candidates:

Taft

Wilson

TR

Eugene Debs

Taft: Republican Party Platform

Taft: Republican Party PlatformHigh import tariffs.High import tariffs.

Put limitations on female and child Put limitations on female and child labor.labor.

Workman’s Compensation Laws.Workman’s Compensation Laws.

Against initiative, referendum, and Against initiative, referendum, and recall.recall.

Against “bad” trusts.Against “bad” trusts.

Creation of a Federal Trade Creation of a Federal Trade Commission.Commission.

Stay on the gold standard.Stay on the gold standard.

Conservation of natural resources Conservation of natural resources because they are finite.because they are finite.

T.R. “Bull Moose” Progressive Party Platform

T.R. “Bull Moose” Progressive Party Platform

Women’s suffrage.Women’s suffrage.

Graduated income tax.Graduated income tax.

Inheritance tax for the rich.Inheritance tax for the rich.

Lower tariffs.Lower tariffs.

Limits on campaign Limits on campaign spending.spending.

Currency reform.Currency reform.

Minimum wage laws.Minimum wage laws.

Social insurance.Social insurance.

Abolition of child labor.Abolition of child labor.

Workmen’s compensation.Workmen’s compensation.

Eugene Debbs: The Socialist Party Platform

““The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for am for Socialism because I am for

humanity.”humanity.”

Eugene Debbs: The Socialist Party Platform

““The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for am for Socialism because I am for

humanity.”humanity.”Government ownership of Government ownership of railroads and utilities.railroads and utilities.

Guaranteed income tax.Guaranteed income tax.

No tariffs.No tariffs.

8-hour work day.8-hour work day.

Better housing.Better housing.

Government inspection of Government inspection of factories.factories.

Women’s suffrage.Women’s suffrage.

Woodrow Wilson: Democratic Party Platform

Woodrow Wilson: Democratic Party PlatformGovernment control of the Government control of the

monopolies monopolies trusts in general were bad trusts in general were bad eliminate them!! eliminate them!!

Tariff reduction.Tariff reduction.

One-term President.One-term President.

Direct election of Senators.Direct election of Senators.

Create a Department of Labor.Create a Department of Labor.

Strengthen the Sherman Anti-Strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.Trust Act.

Did NOT support women’s Did NOT support women’s suffrage.suffrage.

Opposed to a central bank.Opposed to a central bank.

Election ResultsElection Results

Wilson was a minority president, with Wilson was a minority president, with only 41% of the popular votes.only 41% of the popular votes.

The 1912 election marked the peak of the The 1912 election marked the peak of the Socialist movement in America: the Socialist movement in America: the Socialists elected over 1,000 to state and Socialists elected over 1,000 to state and local offices. local offices.

Wilson became the first Southerner (Virginia) to be elected president since the Civil War. After his election, the moralistic, self-righteous Wilson told the chairman of the Democratic Party: "Remember that God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States.” Wilson sympathized with the Confederate’s attempt to win its independence, and his foreign policy was based on “self-determination.”

Foreign Policy

Wilson began as something of an isolationist in foreign policy. He apologized to Colombia for the U.S. role in Panama's independence; and he appointed the pacifistic William Jennings Bryan as secretary of state. But he would later vow to teach Latin Americans lessons in democracy. This was Wilson’s “moral diplomacy”: Wilson would deal only with those leaders he thought were democratically elected or otherwise supported American interests.

Only a week after taking office in 1913, Wilson called upon Mexico's president, Huerta, who had seized power after the constitutional president was murdered, to step aside when elections were held. When Huerta refused, Wilson used minor incidents--including the arrest of some American sailors in Tampico and the arrival of a German merchant ship carrying supplies for Huerta--as a pretext for occupying the Mexico port of Veracruz. Within weeks, Huerta was forced to leave his country.

During the conflict, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa had made a number of raids into U.S. territory near the Mexican border. Wilson responded by ordering Gen. John J. (Black Jack) Pershing to cross into Mexico.As president, Wilson also sent American troops to occupy Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916. A year later, the United States bought the Virgin Islands, thereby gaining control of every major Caribbean island except British Jamaica. He engaged in more military interventions abroad than any other American president.

Economic PolicyThe Underwood Simmons Tariff (1913), which substantially lowered taxes on imports for the first time since the Civil War.

The Federal Reserve Act (1913), which established a Federal Reserve Board and 12 regional Federal Reserve banks to supervise the banking system, setting interest rates on loans to private banks and controlling the supply of money in circulation.The Federal Trade Commission Act (1914), which established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC sought to preserve competition by preventing businesses from engaging in unfair business practices.

Clayton Act Anti-Trust Act (1914), which limited the ownership of stock in one corporation by another, implemented non-competitive pricing policies, and forbade interlocking directorship for certain banking and business corporations. It also recognized the right of labor to strike and picket and barred the use of anti-trust statutes against labor unions.

Interlocking directorship: the practice of members of a corporate board of directors serving on the boards of multiple corporations.

The Child Labor Act (1916), which forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor; and

The Farm Loan Act (1916), which made it easier for farmers to get loans.

The Adamson Act (1916), which established an eight-hour workday for railroad workers.

The Workingmen's Compensation Act (1916), which provided financial assistance to federal employees injured on the job.

Civil Rights

Wilson’s record on race relations was not very good. During his first term in office, the House passed a law making racial intermarriage a felony in the District of Columbia. His new Postmaster General also ordered that his Washington offices be segregated, with the Treasury and Navy soon doing the same. Suddenly, photographs were required of all applicants for federal jobs. When pressed by black leaders, Wilson replied, "The purpose of these measures was to reduce the friction. It is as far as possible from being a movement against the Negroes. I sincerely believe it to be in their interest."

When Wilson allowed his cabinet members to segregate government offices, William Monroe Trotter, a civil rights leader, led a delegation to meet with the president and protest this discriminatory policy. Wilson's explanation, that "segregation was caused by friction between the colored and white clerks, and not done to injure or humiliate the colored clerks, but to avoid friction," infuriated Trotter. After the shouting match that followed, Trotter was ordered out of the White House. Trotter then did what Wilson considered unforgivable. Standing on the White House grounds, he held a press conference and detailed what had just happened. A Wilson supporter in 1912, Du Bois now sided with Trotter. In Du Bois' view, Wilson "was by birth . . . unfitted for largesse of view or depth of feeling about racial injustice."

World War I

At the outbreak of the war, the official foreign policy was neutrality, and the isolationist Americans felt, “snug, smug, and secure,” but not for long.

In 1914, America was in an economic recession, but during American “neutrality,” but JP Morgan advanced the Allies 2.3 billion dollars, and America attempted to trade with both sides.

British ships began forcing American vessels into their ports to prevent trade with Germany.

Germany retaliated with a U-boat war off the British Isles.

The Lusitania, a passenger ship sailing from New York to London, was sunk off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915. Almost 1200 lives were lost, including 128 Americans.

The Lusitania was carrying 4200 cases of small arms ammunition, and the Germans had given a warning that they would sink the ship.

Wilson refused to engage Germany in war, but in 1916, when a French ship, the Sussex, was sank, Wilson gave an ultimatum: sink another ship and face America in war.

Re-Election

The Progressives wanted TR to run again, but he thought he would split the ticket and so did not run, killing the Progressive Party.

The Republicans ran Charles Evans Hughes, Supreme Court justice and former governor of New York.

The Republicans criticized the progressive reforms of Wilson and his foreign policy.

Wilson’s campaign slogan was, “He kept us out of war.”

The East voted for Hughes, but the rest of the country carried Wilson: 277 to 254 electoral votes.