10 10 11 Wilson and World War One 1 The Election of 1912 AMH Notes for Exam 2 i The 1912 election comprised of Wilson and Taft who represented the 2 major parties while Eugene Debs ran as a socialist and Roosevelt headed the Progressive party Wilson wins the election a Woodrow Wilson a Wilson was originally the president of Princeton born in Virginia and raised in Georgia during the Civil War and Reconstruction b Elected as governor of New Jersey and was seen as a strong leader which led to his candidacy for president c Critical of big business organized labor socialism and agrarian radicalism d Ran as a Democrat a Ran as a socialist during the election b Founder of the Industrial Workers of the World A major labor union c In 1908 Debs attracted over 400 000 votes representing the intensity of working class unrest d Only received 6 percent of the votes in the 1912 election which was a record high b Eugene Debs for the socialist party c William Howard Taft a Won the election of 1908 due to the fact that Roosevelt who was the current president was very successful Taft was Roosevelt s secretary of war and Roosevelt expressed his desire for Taft as president b Taft graduated from Yale was a tax collector judge in Ohio federal judge governor c of the Philippine and then secretary of war before president In 1910 Roosevelt expressed anger towards the Taft administration and Roosevelt entered the election of 1912 representing the progressive party a Entered the election of 1912 as leader of the progressive party in anger towards d Theodore Roosevelt Taft i He was originally on a safari in Africa and a tour of Europe when he decided to return to the U S to enter the running for president b Roosevelt s candidacy almost ended when he was shot in Milwaukee on the way to a speech He insisted on going to the speech regardless of his wound and when he arrived he showed the audience his bloody shirt and stated It takes more than this to kill a bull moose Hence the Bull Moose Party e New Nationalism v New Freedom a The election of 1912 came down to the competing ideologies of Roosevelt and Wilson i Roosevelt s New Nationalism was focused on the idea that Progressives must give up Jeffersonian prejudices against big government and use the power of government to achieve democratic ends in the public interest 1 This enabled government to promote social justice and enact such reforms as graduated income and inheritance taxes workers compensation regulation of child and women labor and a stronger bureau of corporations ii Wilsons New Freedom believed that the federal government should restore competition rather than regulate monopolies 1 This required eliminating all trusts lowering tariffs and breaking the concentration of financial power on Wall Street 2 The Wilson Administration a National Legislative Victories i Wilson believed that corporations to suppress foreign competition and keep consumer prices high were abusing tariffs 1 The Wilson administration lowered tariff rates but raised revenues with the first federal income tax levied under the newly ratified 16th amendment 2 16th amendment the congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived without apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or enumeration ii From 1830 1913 the country had been without a central bank and instead the country s money supply was provided by hundreds of private banks This was seen as instable and inefficient Wilson told Congress that a federal banking system was needed because banks shouldn t run businesses and individual enterprise 1 The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created a new national banking system with 12 regional Federal Reserve banks each owned by member banks in its district 2 Each bank had to subscribe 6 percent of its capital to the Feral reserve which made it possible to expand both the money supply and bank credit in times of high business activity or as the level of borrowing increased i In the 19th century the United States geographical distance separated them from the wars throughout Europe During the 20th century expanding world trade and the development of steam powered ships and submarines took the security of isolation away ii The assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist Austria Hungary s determination to punish Serbia and Russia military mobilization in sympathy with the Slavic Serbia triggered a conflict between the two major European systems of alliances 1 The Triple Alliance or Central Powers Germany Austria Hungary and Italy 2 The Triple Entente or Allied Powers France Great Britain and Russia iii As the trench war along Belgium and France stalemated the casualties soared and pressure for the U S intervention increased President Wilson urged Americans to remain neutral iv Wilson tried to mediate an end to the European War but neither side was willing to negotiate This caused German military leaders to provoke American anger in hope of scoring a quick knockout b World War One c Liberal Internationalism v Germany proclaimed a war zone around the British Isles and any enemy ship in those waters was liable to sinking by submarines The US viewed this as a violation of neutral rights and would hold Germany accountable for any destruction of American lives or property On May 7 1915 a German U boat torpedoed the passenger ship Lusitania and killed 1198 people This angered Americans In March 1917 German submarines sunk 5 American merchant vessels and on March 20th Wilson s cabinet endorsed a declaration of war Wilson signed the measure to declare war on April 6th 1917 vi 1 The goal of liberal internationalism is to achieve global structures within the international system that promote a liberal world order This means global free trade liberal economics liberal political systems and the encouragement of democracy globally ii Democratic Peace Theory 1 The theory that democracies rarely or even never go to war with one another This is because democratic leaders must answer to the voters for war and therefore have incentive to seek alternatives and such statesmen have practice settling manners by discussion not war iii Immanuel Kant 1 Spoke of the Democratic Peace Theory in his essay Perpetual Peace in 1795 He believed the majority of people would never vote to go to war unless in self defense iv Fourteen Points Speech 1 President Wilsons 1918 plan for peace after World War 1 at the Versailles
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