Woodrow Wilson and The Presidency Essays

In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream. These two people, although they had different principles in mind, had one goal: to make changes to the nation for the better of the people and the country. Setting out to reach this goal, Roosevelt came to be a president of the common man while

Thus his policy was known as "New Freedom." Under the New Freedom he sought to restore power to competition among small corporations rather that regulate large monopolies. Roosevelt's Square Deal and Wilson's New Freedom were policies that they used to help improve American economy, society and politics. However Roosevelt tried to reform many areas, Wilson's focus of reform was mostly economic. (Gould, 97-100) (Auchincloss, 62,81,91,116, & 127) (Whitelaw, 104,11-120,135,138,145-146, & 162)

Beginning with the tariff, Wilson personally addressed Congress concerning the tariff and the Underwood Tariff Act was established and passed by 1913, which lowered the tariff and graduated an income tax. Following with the bank, Woodrow implemented the Federal Reserve Act, which established a new Federal Reserve and created twelve central banks in twelve banking districts and also, gave them the power to produce currency or “federal reserve notes.” The Federal Trade Commission Act went after the trusts and created a board to investigate trusts and stop unfair trade practices such as, unlawful competition, bribery, false advertising, mislabeling, and adulteration. Finally, in 1914, there was the Clayton Antitrust Act, which made monopolies unlawful and exempted labor unions from being labelled as trusts and legalized striking and peaceful picketing (Document

President Wilson was worried too much about the war and then he had a heart attack. That was why problems after war were solved badly. The prosperity economy began going down significantly. The candidates of the Republic party were Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge that they easily defeated the candidates of the Democrat party who were James M. Cox and Franklin d. Roosevelt. After the law and the United States government had changed, that was the first time that women could join in voting for American president. In entire 1920’s, personal businesses were given many encourages from the United States government, included loan for building, exchanging post agreements, and grant. For example, transportation law 1920 said that personal business

President Theodore Roosevelt, a leader of progressivism was highly in favor for a reform at a national level. He believed it was the governments duty to regulated businesses and improve the life's of the people. While the second industrial revolution brought major industrial achievement it also gave corporate bosses excessive amount of power, which they used to bend political parties to their favor and progressives such as president Wilson hoped to rectify this(Document 2). During this progressive movement many Americans focused on reform the country in ways that would creating a limitation on major business, such as Rockefeller Standard Oil, that used a unfair monopoly system to build their empire, which was damaging the economy. Roosevelt being the first to take signification action on trust-busting, such as passing the Hepburn Act which was enacted in 1906 set a precedent for the power of the federal government. The Hepburn Act set a maximum price for the freight rates on the railroads and it extended the reach of the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulation of pipelines, freight companies, sleeping-car companies, bridges and ferries. During this period the federal government passed an incredible amount of legislation that mainly regulated the problems in the society to provide a greater sense of regulation and protection for the people. Problems such as overbearing freight prices, vile food preparation and inconsistent economic status were issues that needed to be amended. Roosevelt also focused of the conservation of natural resources to help further developed the nation land and it's usefulness(Document 6). Anti-trust acts, Federal Reserve Acts were also established to break trusts to help improve market rates and improve the quality of life for the working class through more regulations on businesses by the federal government. Roosevelt trust-busting helped

Roosevelt's first task upon taking office was to alleviate the panic that was threatening to create chaos in the financial system. He did so in part by force of personality and in part by constructing very rapidly an ambitious and diverse program of legislation.

Both era’s had also decided to create a new banking system in order to help the economy and thus the public. Wilson created the Federal Reserve Act/Board which appointed twelve regional reserve districts each with its own central bank. The board was able to create paper money backed by commercial paper in order to make sure the amount of money in circulation could be increased as needed. Franklin Roosevelt similarly established the Glass Steagal Banking Reform Act which spawned the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which insured that there were individual deposits up to $5000. The act had ended the bank failures and saved the money of many unemployed. The two era’s had always attempted to assist the farmers. Wilson made credit available to farmers at low rates of interest with the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, as well as authorized loans on the security of staple crops with the Warehouse Act of 1916. The New Deal had created the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 which made millions of dollars available to help farmers meet their

In Roosevelt’s inaugural address he declared war on the Depression and asks for an expansion on his powers. When Roosevelt took over the office he summoned Congress to work out his recovery plan. This is a period called the First Hundred Days and contained a program called the First new Deal. Roosevelt started by putting poorly managed banks under control of the Treasury Department and set standards required for someone to start up a bank. This helped people to trust the banking system and caused people to put money into the banking system. Roosevelt also created the FDIC, which guaranteed bank deposits. Roosevelt later started many agencies known as the “alphabet agencies”. Some of which are the AAA, NIRA, PWA, CCC, TVA, SEC. All of the agencies were created to provide government jobs or help out the situation of the low prices of farm product. Roosevelt believed in the idea of experimentation. He thought that the government should always be doing something, and if an idea doesn’t work than it should be replaced with something else. Roosevelt was able to get the American people on his side by informing them what

Theodore Roosevelt may be one of the most powerful presidents that attacked Trusts1 and corporations to make them just so that everyone could prosper. Thayer, a friend of Roosevelt wrote, ". . .he took the deepest personal satisfaction in fighting the rich and the soulless corporations. . ." (Thayer). This led into the 1920's a prosperous decade in which people received "new money." Theodore Roosevelt stressed more for people to be responsible than to be autonomous, or, in other words, to help others besides helping yourself. He was able to bring two separate groups together to make a better America. He brought the Trusts that wanted the government to stay away and then the other side

A true idealist, his crusades against these evils were truly heartfelt and in his mind, the best action to take for the nation. Beginning with the Underwood Tariff of 1913, it was the first lowering of taxes since the Civil War and stood against the protectionist lobbying. Next, he introduced the Federal Trade Act, which set up the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and halt unfair and illegal business practices. Also, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act deemed certain businesses illegal (trusts and horizontal mergers), declared unions legal, and also strikes, boycotts, picketing and the collection of strike benefit funds were ruled legal. The, a landmark legislation, the Federal Reserve Act in 12 districts would print and coin money as well as set interest rates. In this way the "Fed," as it was called, could control the money supply and effect the value of currency. The more money in circulation, the lower the value and inflation went up. In effect, the less money in circulation, the greater the value and this would lower inflation. Theodore’s true successor, Wilson finished Roosevelt’s job on the trusts and branched out towards the other deleterious aspects of the nation as well. He gave the surging mainstream progressive movement an innocent morality he naturally possessed.

Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt were two of America’s great presidents. This is why I feel that both men were equally important in what they did and said they would do. Both in their own ways have added a little of what makes this country what it is today. Both had their own beliefs of how reform, empowerment of the people and foreign policy should be accomplished. As president, the main goal was to do what they felt best for the American people. In doing so, how different could they really be?

Two great men, two great presidents, led our nations to excellency and great success. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were hard working, intelligent men who were very familiar, but were also different in many aspects. Through their dedication to our country and their passion of politics they have made our country better.

Furthermore, economics also played a key role in describing whether liberalism or conservatism triumphed in this era. President William Howard Taft encouraged a policy known as "Dollar Diplomacy" where the United States invested in foreign countries in order to gain power. This dollar diplomacy would make money for as well strengthen the US. Later Taft went on to become more of a trust buster than Roosevelt. His most noteworthy bust was the Standard Oil Company, one of the largest trusts of the time, which was ordered to be broken into smaller companies in 1911. He then went on to attack another one of the largest trusts, The US Steel company which Roosevelt had allowed to survive since he deemed it as a good trust. Roosevelt became furious as Taft when he heard of this. Taft then passed the Payne-Aldrich bill which he unwisely named "the best bill that the Republican Party ever passed" which split the Republican Party into old school/more

During the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, America saw three new presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. This period of time is known as the Progressive Era due to the political and social changes made to move away from a laissez-faire government to a more active government by the administrations of these presidents. Prior to this period, Americans had to suffer through poor working conditions, low wages, social and class inequality and become victims to large corporations that took advantage of the people. In particular, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson established the key principles and ideas of economic reform and social reform, which would end up returning the power from the manipulative corporations back to the government, establishing a model for a more active role for the federal government, and improve the lives of Americans. However, even though Roosevelt and Wilson had similar intentions of reforming America, they both had different means of achieving it.

Woodrow Wilson’s new world order was known as being the progressivism era to reform the United States and make it a better place for mankind. Wilsons ideal inspired various Americans and shaped the United States foreign policy. Woodrow Wilson left an enduring legacy while in the white house. The positive attributes that Woodrow Wilson inquired with the new world order, Wilson turned the American foreign policy from isolation to internationalism. Congress then became to enact banking reforms under the Federal Reserve System, tariff reduction, federal regulation of business, support for labor and collective bargaining and federal aid to education and agriculture. These programs were enforced to better the United States to insure that Americans