Wilson, Woodrow 2 in United States

Wilson, Woodrow 2

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• Wilson, Woodrow
• Wilson, Woodrow 3
• Wilson, Woodrow 4

This work at Princeton had made Wilson widely known in the United States as an educator. Before it took its final turn in 1910, Col. George Harvey, representing the conservative wing of the Democratic party and editor of Harper’s Weekly, inaugurated a movement to bring about Wilson’s nomination for President by the Democratic party in 1912. Harvey enlisted newspaper editors and political party leaders of the type of James Smith, Jr., of New Jersey in the cause. The country was growing restless at the conduct of the Republican party. Wilson was a progressive Democrat; Harvey and his friends were reactionary Democrats. The presidential election was then two years off and the situation in the Democratic party was one of great uncertainty. The efforts of Wilson’s friends, however, had resulted in making him a prominent political figure and there arose a popular demand in his home State for his nomination as a candidate for governor. His nomination followed in September 1910, and in October the presidency of Princeton was given up. The campaign that Wilson conducted that autumn in a stalwart Republican State attracted the attention of the country. The election of Wilson by a majority of 49,000 made him a real candidate for the Presidency which his administration as governor further advanced. He could not fulfil the hopes of the conservative Democrats as governor and broke with Smith. Later he broke with Harvey. When the conservatives abandoned him and endeavored to give all their influence to other candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination, the more progressive elements of the Democratic party turned to Wilson. Of greater moment was the break-up of the Republican party in June 1912. Colonel Roosevelt endeavored to prevent the renomination of his former friend, Taft, and, failing to do so, led a revolt from the convention. It was plain that a new convention, composed of the Roosevelt men, already announced in Chicago, would nominate the colonel. These events focussed the national attention upon the Democratic party when it assembled in convention at Baltimore 25 June 1912. No such convention had ever been held in American political history. It lasted until 2 July and was marked from the beginning by intense bitterness between the conservative and progressive elements of the party. In addition to Mr. Wilson the leading candidates were Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri, Judson Harmon of Ohio and Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama. Mr. Wilson won on the 46th ballot, largely through the support thrown to him by William Jennings Bryan.

Wilson made an active campaign and was elected by a vote of 435 in the electoral colleges against 88 for Colonel Roosevelt and eight for Mr. Taft, the regular Republican candidate. The popular vote for Wilson, however, totaled only 6,293,019 as against 7,604,463 votes cast for Roosevelt and Taft. But the Democrats won large majorities in both houses of Congress and Wilson entered the Presidency in March 1913, with every branch of the government at his command. He summoned Congress in extra session in April. All the great committees were headed by Democrats, if not by his friends. He urged at once some of the greatest reforms that have ever been effected in the history of the country. Acting on his recommendations Congress reduced the tariff from a general level of 45 to 25 per cent and greatly enlarged the free list. Many economists alleged that for the first time in half a century the tariff was written in the interest of the masses and not in that of the manufacturers. Of even greater importance was the reform of the national currency system in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, by which the control of the money of the country was taken from private hands and placed in the Treasury Department. The country was divided into 12 banking districts and the reserves of those districts were placed in certain reserve cities in order that the needs of the country as a whole might the better be served and what had been called financial panics, produced by the nervous financial state of mind of New York, the reserve centre under the old system, might be averted. This measure was immediately successful. These reforms of 1913 were followed by the Clayton Anti-trust and the Federal Income Tax laws of 1914, the former of which definitely settled an old issue, while the latter subjected the incomes of the country to a graduated tax that quickly proved to be of revolutionary character.

Although the Democratic party was not in entire accord with Wilson, and the Republicans as a whole resisted him with all their might, he held Congress in session almost continuously till the great European War brought another series of problems before the country. But already the Wilson foreign policy was shown in his refusal to allow the army and navy to be used on behalf of money lenders or investors in Mexico and South America. He even went so far as to say at Mobile, in October 1913, that the United States would never again annex a foot of land against the will of those most concerned. This attitude bewildered European diplomats and it angered important elements in the United States. Wilson had an excellent opportunity to illustrate his foreign policy in Mexico where General Huerta rose to the presidency through the assassination of Madero early in 1913. Huerta was favorably disposed toward American investors in Mexico. Wilson refused to recognize Huerta and by his attitude compelled the overthrow of that leader, only to find that the two Mexican generals who had together fought Diaz and Huerta now fell to fighting each other. Wilson gave his support to Carranza, but the months and years that passed did not suffice to pacify the distracted country; and in 1916 Wilson was compelled to send expeditions into the country to compel respect for American law and international rights. The Mexican difficulty, however, soon paled into insignificance in comparison with the difficulties produced by the European War which began on 1 Aug. 1914. While the President was preparing for his first taking of the sense of the country on the policies he had put into practice, this great upheaval set men’s thoughts upon other subjects. The election of 1914 resulted in a return to Congress of a majority of Democrats, most of whom were pledged to support the administration.

Meanwhile, on 18 August, Wilson declared in a proclamation to the country that all men must maintain a strict neutrality as between the warring powers. Leading public men and newspapers, regardless of party alignments, gave him hearty support; but as the war continued and cast its shadow over the whole world, the different elements of the composite country took sides. A particular source of irritation was occasioned by German propandists who did their utmost to break the country’s neutrality; others of the same group tried to affect the course of the war by attempting the destruction of bridges and canals and by inciting strikes in munition plants from which the Allies derived a considerable portion of their supplies. Wilson took every possible occasion to press upon the country the necessity of national unity, of devotion to the ideals for which the United States had been established and of refraining from deeds that might commit the Country to either side. He went so far even as to say that “there was such a thing as being too proud to fight.” He endeavored to bring about peace in Europe by the offer of his services as a mediator. On 7 May 1915, a German submarine commander deliberately sunk the great British liner, the Lusitania, sending 1,154 persons to their death, of whom 114 were American citizens. The country was intensely excited; but Wilson felt that he could not then go to war. He demanded apology and reparation and gave Germany solemn warning. Other ships were sunk during the year and other American lives were lost; but confronted with a national election in 1916, neither Wilson nor the Republican national convention of that year proposed war as a remedy. Nor did the Progressive convention, which Colonel Roosevelt dominated, suggest war. The leaders did not know what the people thought. The Republicans finally nominated Mr. Justice Hughes as their candidate and the Progressives confirmed him as their choice. The platforms dealt with domestic problems insisting on foreign affairs only in the commercial rights of the country.