Woodrow Wilson Wilson Wins Financial Reforms Wilsons Background
Woodrow Wilson
Wilson Wins Financial Reforms • Wilson’s Background – Governor of New Jersey • Direct primary, worker’s compensation, regulation of public utilities and railroads
Wilson Wins Financial Reforms • Two Key Anti-Trust Measures: • Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1914 – Strengthens Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 – Prohibited corporations from acquiring the stock of another (prevent monopolies) – Labor unions/farm organization right to exist • Legalized strikes, peaceful picketing, boycotts
Wilson Wins Financial Reforms • Federal Trade Commissions Act of 1914 – Investigate possible violations of regulations statues – Regulate periodic reports from companies • 400 cease and desist orders in illegal activity
Wilson Wins Financial Reforms • New Tax System – Lower tariffs rates (first time since the Civil War) • Federal Income Tax – Graduated tax so large incomes were taxed at higher rates than smaller incomes – Incomes $4, 000 and up were taxed anywhere from 1%-6% • (Incomes over $500, 000 were taxed 6%) • Today, income tax is the main source of government revenue
Wilson Wins Financial Reforms • Federal Reserve System – Decentralized private banking system under federal control • Federal Reserve Act – Divided nation into 12 districts – Regional central bank was created
Women Win Suffrage • 1910: Women could vote in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Idaho • Local Suffrage Battles – Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government • Sought strength in poor/working class women – College Equal Suffrage League
Women Win Suffrage • Catt and the National Movement • Susan B. Anthony successor – painstaking organization – close ties between local, state, and national workers – Establish wide base of support – Cautious lobbying – Gracious, ladylike behavior
Women Win Suffrage • Radical Women’s Movement Leaders – Lucy Burns, Alice Paul • Congressional Union (today: National Women’s Party) – 1917: picket line at White House – Hunger strikes, parades
Women Win Suffrage • America’s Involvement in World War I – Overdue reward for women supporting the war effort • 19 th Amendment: August 1920 – 72 years after Seneca Falls Convention 1848
Limits of Progressivism • Wilson and Civil Rights • 1912 Election: support of NAACP – Promised Blacks equality and action against lynching
Limits of Progressivism • Instead…. (when elected President)… – Opposed anti-lynching legislation • Fell under state jurisdiction – Appointed fellow white southerners to cabinet • Strengthened/extended segregation, Plessey v Ferguson
Twilight of Progressivism • Due to World War I, progressivism came to an end
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