01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Revenue Act Of 1913, William Jennings Bryan, Jane Addams
18 May 2018
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Chapter 30: Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and
Abroad, 1912-1916
The “Bull Moose” Campaign
• The Democrats needed to capitalize on the Republican brawl at the
convention in Chicago
• Such a leader appeared in Woodrow Wilson, a mild conservative turned
militant progressive
• Wilson entered politics as New Jersey governor, expected to follow NJ bosses
lead
• Wilson waged a reform campaign assailing trusts and promised to turn state
gov’t to the people
• He drew forward-looking measures making NJ one of the more liberal states
• Filled with fury, zeal, eloquence, leadership, Wilson appealed to the sovereign
people
• Wilson was nominated by the Democrats in 1912 with the aid of William
Jennings Bryan
• Roosevelt was thrust to the fore as a candidate for president for the
Progressive Republicans
• Symbolizing the rising political status of women, as well as Progressive
support for the cause of social justice, settlement-house pioneer Jane Addams
placed Roosevelt’s name for nomination
• Roosevelt, nominated, boasted that he felt as strong as a bull moose
• Roosevelt and Taft, by dividing the Republican vote, virtually guaranteed a
Democratic victory
•
• The overshadowing question of the 1912 campaign was which two varieties of
progressivism would prevail—Roosevelt’s New Nationalism or Wilson’s New
Freedom
• Both advocated a more active government role in economic and social affairs
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• Roosevelt and Croly (Promise of American Life) both favored continued
consolidation of trusts and labor unions, paralleled by growth of powerful
regulatory agencies in Washington
• Wilson’s New Freedom favored small enterprise, entrepreneurship, and the
free functioning of unregulated and unmonopolized markets—Democrats
pinned economic faith on competition
• The keynote of Wilson’s campaign was fragmentation of big industrial
combines (antitrust laws)
• Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a fanatic and had to suspend campaigning
for two weeks
Woodrow Wilson: A Minority President
• Wilson won handily with 435 electoral votes; Roosevelt finished second, and
Taft, last
• Wilson with only 41 percent of the popular vote was clearly a minority
president
• Progressivism rather than Wilson was the runaway winner (Wilson and
Roosevelt votes)
• Eugene V. Debs also amassed up 900,672 votes as the Socialist candidate
• The Progressive party had no future because it had elected few candidates to
state/local offices
• In 1921 Taft became chief justice of the Supreme Court after defeat
Wilson: The Idealist in Politics
• Woodrow Wilson was the second Democratic president since 1861
• From the South, Wilson sympathized w/ Confederacy’s gallant attempt to win
its independence, a sentiment that inspired his ideal of self-determination for
people of other countries
• Wilson shared Jefferson’s faith in people and was a moving orator (sincerity
and moral appeal)
• Wilson was convinced that Congress could not function properly unless the
president led
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• Wilson lacked the common touch and could be cold and standoffish in public
• Wilson’s burning idealism—his desire to reform ever-present wickedness
(compromise difficult)
Wilson Tackles the Tariff
• Wilson called for an assault on the triple wall of privilege: the tariff, the
banks, and the trusts
• Tackling the tariff first, he summoned the Congress in 1913 and appeared in
person, presenting his appeal with eloquence and effectiveness (precedent-
shattering move, no message)
• The House passed the Underwood Tariff Bill, which provided for a substantial
reduction of rates
• The force of public opinion aroused by the president’s oratory secured final
approval
• The new Underwood Tariff substantially reduced import fees and was a
landmark in tax legislations—recently ratified Sixteenth Amendment—
graduated income tax
Wilson Battles the Bankers
• A second bastion was the antiquated and inadequate banking and currency
system
• Its most serous shortcoming, exposed by the panic of 1907, was the
inelasticity of the currency
• Banking reserves were heavily concentrated in cities and could not be
mobilized quickly
• In 1908 Congress authorized an investigation headed by senator Aldrich (R)
and three years later, the commission recommend a gigantic bank with
numerous branches (3rd Band of US?)
• Louis D. Brandeis’ Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It (1914)
• Wilson endorsed Democratic proposals for a decentralized bank in
government hands, as opposed to Republican demands for a huge private
bank with branches (June 1913)
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