Download President Wilson and the

WILSON AND THE “NEW FREEDOM”
PROGRAM
1822 Stepanenko, Eisner, Bayankina
Thomas Woodrow Wilson
■ was born 28 December 1856, in
Staunton, Virginia
■ received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins
University
■ married Ellen Axson in June 1885
■ elected as President of the United
States in November 1912
■ «New Freedom» program (1913-1916)
■ Ellen succumbed to Bright’s Disease in July 1914
■ married Edith Bolling Galt in December 1915
■ in 1916, Wilson was elected to a second term in office, running on
the slogan “He Kept us Out of War”
World War I
■ at the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson proposed “Fourteen Points” as the
basis for the peace treaty
■ the United States never joined the League of Nations
Women’s Rights to Vote
■
In a 1918 speech before the Congress publically endorsed women’s rights to
vote
“We have made partners of the women in this war… Shall we admit them only to a
partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege
and right?”
The New Freedom
Three types of reform:
■ Tariff reform (the Underwood Tariff Act of 1913)
■ Business reform (the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914)
■ Banking reform (the Federal Reserve System of 1914; the Federal Farm Loan
Act 1916)
Social and Economic Reform
■ worked with Congress to give federal employees worker's compensation
■ Keating–Owen Act (the act was ruled unconstitutional in 1918)
■ the Adamson Act (1916)
■ the Clayton Act (1914)
■ laws providing “for at least one-half hour meal time after six continuous
hours of labor”
■ the appointment of commissioners on old age pensions and old age
Insurance
"God knows that the poor suffer enough in this country already, and a man would
hesitate to take a single step that would increase the number of the poor, or the
burdens of the poor, but we must move for the emancipation of the poor, and that
emancipation will come from our own emancipation from the errors of our minds
as to what constitutes prosperity”
Farmer
■ lend money on farm mortgages (the Federal Reserve Act)
■ The Smith–Lever Act (1914)
■ the establishment of the regional banking system and the administration of
the Comptroller of the Currency
■ The Agricultural Extension Act (1914)
Labor
■ a senatorial investigation into industrial dispute in the West Virginia coal
fields
■ The Bureau of Mines Act was extended and strengthened
■ steadier work was assured to employees of Government naval yards
■ the wages of the metal-trade mechanics employed by the Government were
increased
■ an investigation of industrial disputes in the Colorado gold fields and
Michigan copper region
■ A Child Labor Tax Law (1919)
Health and Welfare
■ An Act was passed authorizing hospital and medical services to government
employees injured at work (1916 )
■ The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (1914)
■ the first Federal grants to States for public health services were made
available (1918)
■ Congress extended “the use of the special fund and authorizing acceptance
of gifts under the Rehabilitation of Disabled Soldiers' Act”
■ The Civil Service Retirement System (1920)
Wartime measures
■ A National War Labor Board
■ The United States Housing Corporation (1918)
■ The Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act (1918)
■ Reforms on the Environment and public works have also been developed
■ A federal act established the National Park Service, bringing together the
many historical sites, monuments, and national parks into one agency