Transcript Gilded Age Politics and Reform Movements

Gilded Age Politics and Reform
Movements
APSUH Unit 6 Chapters 19 and 20
Gilded Age Politics
Factional Split in Republican Party
• Stalwarts
– Roscoe Conkling (NY)
– Yay spoils
• Half-Breeds
– James Blaine (ME)
– Kind of wanted civil service reform; really
wanted to hand out the spoils themselves
The “Gilded Age”
 Gilded Age: Name given by Mark Twain to the
post Civil War era in 1873. Shiny on the outside,
bad on the inside.
 Politics in the Gilded Age were a competitive
battle between very similar parties. Control of the
House, Senate, and White House see-sawed each
election and each election saw narrow margins.
 Strongly run parties
 Massive party loyalty that caused 80% voter turnout
with rare ticket splitting.
Two-Party Stalemate
Well-Defined Voting Blocs
Democratic
Bloc
Real differences
were in ethnicity
and culture
 Lutherans and Catholics (less
stern)
 Puritans (stern view of human
condition)
 Against gov’t effort to put a

single moral standard on society

 White southerners

(preservation of white
supremacy)

 Recent immigrants (esp. Jews)
 Urban working poor (pro-labor)
 Most farmers
Republican
Bloc
Northern whites (pro-business)
African Americans
Northern Protestants
Old WASPs (support for antiimmigrant laws)
 Most of the middle class
 Midwest and small town NE
 GAR (Union Vets)
Very Laissez Faire Federal Gov
From 1870-1900: Government did very little
domestically.
Main duties of the federal government.:
 Deliver the mail.
 Maintain a national military.
 Collect taxes & tariffs.
 Conduct a foreign policy.
 Exception: administer the annual Civil War
veterans’ pension.
The Presidency as a Symbolic Office
 Party bosses ruled.
 Presidents should
avoid offending any
factions within their
own party.
 The President just
doled out federal jobs.
Senator Roscoe Conkling
 1865  53,000 people worked for the federal
gov
 1890  166,000 people worked for the federal
gov
Gilded Age Political Terms
 Spoils System: Embraced in the Gilded Age as
supporters won government jobs, especially in the
postal system.
 Stalwart: “One who steadfastly supports an
organization or cause: party stalwarts.” Faction of the
Republicans in the 1870’s and 1880’s led by Roscoe
Conkling (Senator from NY). Who openly embraced
the spoils system.
 Half-Breed: Fought with Conklingites. Still did spoils
system but really had issues with who should give the
spoils. Led by James G. Blaine (Congressman from
Maine).
 Stalwarts and Half-Breeds deadlocked themselves and
the Republican Party.
Pageant p 534 Last two paragraphs
 Ms. Hamer will read you this amazing critique of
Gilded Age Politics
 It explains why TR ended up with his face on a
mountain … everything between Lincoln
(assassinated 1865) and Teddy Roosevelt
(became president 1901) was awful
The Party System in American Politics
1st Party System: Federalist/Republican clashes of the
1790’s- early 1800’s
2nd Party System: Jacksonian era of mass based
parties
3rd Party System: Mass voter turnout and waffling
between Republicans and Democrats from 1868-1896
4th Party System: 1896-1932 - reduced voter turnout,
weakening of party organizations, and fading of
issues like money and civil service reform
5th Party System: FDR -1980
Government Reform
Civil Service and Economic
1881 Garfield Assassinated
Charles Guiteau:
•Garfield was
besieged with
office-seekers
including mentally
ill Charles J.
Guiteau who shot
Garfield in the back
in Washington DC.
Garfield’s death did
manage to shock
the country into civil
service reform.
I Am a Stalwart, and Arthur is President now!
His attorneys used the insanity defense –
one of the first times
Pendleton (Civil Service) Act 1883
 Led by Chester A. Arthur
who became president
after Garfield died
 1883  14,000 out of
117,000 federal govt.
jobs became civil
service exam positions.
 1900  100,000 out of
200,000 federal govt. jobs
were civil service
 Caused party machines to
look towards businesses for
money
1884 Presidential Election
Grover Cleveland
* (DEM)
Former governor of NY.
Reformer. “Grover the
Good”
James Blaine
(REP)
Half-Breed Champion and
spoils-man, caused reformers
to become Mugwumps
Republican “Mugwumps”
 Reformers who were upset about corruption
with the Republicans so they switched to the
Democratic Party in 1884
 Reform to them: create a disinterested,
impartial government run by an educated
elite like themselves.
 Laissez faire government to them:
 Favoritism & the spoils system seen as
government intervention in society.
 Their target was political corruption, not
social or economic reform!
The
Mugwumps
Men may come
and men may
go, but the work
of reform shall
go on forever.
Supported Cleveland
in the 1884 election.
Regulating the Trusts
1877  Munn. v. IL
Business interests used for public good should be
regulated by state governments
1886  Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company v. IL
states cannot directly regulate interstate commerce…anti
Munn and led to ICC
1890  Sherman Antitrust Act
This forbid combinations in restraint of trade – bigness, not
badness was the sin
1895  US v. E. C. Knight Co.
Anti-Sherman. Known as the Sugar Trust Case – federal
government cannot regulate manufacturing monopolies
Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890
 Benefits:
 First real government regulation of the trusts –
would lead to more
 Problems:
 This was an all talk, no show act as it was unable
to control trusts at all until 1914.
 The one thing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was
used for was attacking and curbing the power of
labor unions that were deemed to be restricting
trade.
Depression of 1893
Depression of 1893
Lasted for approximately 4 years
Most devastating economic downturn of the
century
 First large scale depression of the urban and
industrial age
 Brought much hardship to the urban poor
 Caused by:
 Overbuilding
 Over speculation
 Labor disorders
 Agricultural depression
 Reduced American dollar because of free-silver
 Sound familiar?


Path of the 1893 Panic
 Began 10 days after Cleveland took office.
1.
Several major corporations went bankrupt.
Over 16,000 businesses disappeared.
Triggered a stock market crash.
Over-extended investments.
2.
Bank failures followed causing a contraction
of credit (nearly 500 banks closed)
3.
By 1895, unemployment reached 3 million.
Americans cried out for relief, but the government
continued its laissez faire policies
Here Lies Prosperity
The Government and the Panic of
1893
Under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the Treasury
had to issue notes for the silver it bought. Owners of
the paper currency would exchange it for gold. But
then the notes had to be reissued and the process
would begin again.
 The Treasury dipped below $100 million of gold – the
safe line – Congress repealed the Sherman Act
 By February of 1894, the US was on the verge of
going off the gold standard as gold reserves sank to
$41 million
 Because other currency was still being
exchanged
 Would cause an unstable economy

What could Cleveland do to stop
the flood?

Sold government bonds for more than $100
million in gold

Worked out a deal with JP Morgan for a $65
million loan




½ of the gold would be from abroad
Would take the “necessary steps” to fill the holes in
the Treasury
Paid Morgan $7 million commission
These measures reassured the economy but
freaked out the silverites and those who
thought the government was selling out
Coxey’s Army

Marched on Washington DC demanding relief for
unemployment through a federal works program
financed by $500 million in legal tender notes

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Got arrested for walking on the grass
Just like the Bonus Army of the Great Depression
African Americans in the Gilded
Age
African Americans Lose the Right to
Vote in the South
 Southerners and some westerners shot down the
Lodge Bill proposed by reform Republicans in 1890
 Would have allowed for federal oversight of
elections and would have been used to enforce
African Americans’ right to vote.
 Voting Rights of African Americans are restricted
through poll taxes and literacy tests (upheld by
Williams v. Mississippi 1898)
 This disenfranchised Southern Black voters until the
Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s
Plessy v. Ferguson (click on me for a movie link!)
 Plessy v. Ferguson was the Supreme Court case in 1896
that said that separate but equal was legal
 (7-1 majority)
 This legally supported the Jim Crow system in the
South
 Segregation that affects laws (the right to vote,
segregation in schools, etc.) is called de jure
segregation
 Segregation that occurs from the way people act
(whether or not you get hired for a job or accepted to
college) is called de facto segregation
Booker T. Washington and Education
for Blacks
 From the South
 Washington attacked racism by
attacking economic problems
 He believed that educating the
black communities and helping
them help themselves to better
work would naturally fight
against segregation
Booker T. Washington and Education
for Blacks
 Headed the normal and industrial
school at Tuskegee, Alabama in 1881
 Focused on agriculture and the
trades
 George Washington Carver began
teaching there in 1896
W.E.B. Du Bois
 Called Washington “Uncle Tom”
 Born in Massachusetts – exemplified the difference
between Northern and Southern black experiences
 PhD from Harvard
 Believed in complete social and economic equality
for the black - founded the NAACP in 1910
 Was against Washington’s gradualism and
demanded that the “talented tenth” of the black
population be given immediate full access to
American life
 Died at 95 as a self-exile in Ghana in 1963
Populists
Deflation Dooms the Debtor
 While farming was sustainable in the
decades after the Civil War, as more and
more people began farming for grain,
supply outpaces demand
 Grain prices fell in the 1880’s and 1890’s
and Western farmers are living in debt
 Example:
 If a farmer borrowed $1000 in 1855, then
they would have to grow 1000 bushels of
wheat to pay it back (not counting the
interest)
 But if they paid it back in 1890, then it
would take 2000 bushels of wheat plus
interest
Why Do Grain Prices Fall in the 1880’s
and 1890’s?
 Increased American production
of grain from Homesteaders with
new farm equipment
AND
 Increasing world production of
grain since trade now
happened on a global scale
RR
Propaganda
from 1907
Farmers Lose their Farms
 Farmers placed mortgages on their homes and
land to raise money, but soon couldn’t pay off
the high mortgage rates so many lost their
farms to foreclosure.
 By 1880 ¼ of American farms were operated by
tenant farmers
Populists and the Election of 1892
 The farmers’ movement that began
with the Grange and the Farmers’
Alliances grew into a strong political
party called the Populists
Populist platform:
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
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
Free and unlimited coinage of silver at a 16:1 ratio
Graduated income tax
Government ownership of telephone, telegraph,
and RR
Direct election of Senators
One-term limit on the Presidency
Use of initiatives and referendums
8-hour workday
Immigration restrictions

(the last two were to attract labor votes)
1892 Presidential Election
James Weaver
Greenback / Populist
Grover Cleveland
again! * (DEM)
Benjamin Harrison
(REP)
Price Indexes for Consumer and Farm
Products 1865-1913
Election of 1892
Results of 1892

Cleveland won again – the only person to be
RE-elected after defeat

Populists got over a million votes (22 electoral)
from the Midwest and west.



Only 3rd party to be a MAJOR player
Didn’t get poor white vote in the South because
the Populists were trying to woo black farmers
Major blow to black voters in the South as this
was the year that the final Jim Crow nail was
put into black voting

Oddly enough the Populists became more racist
after this
Election of 1896: William McKinley
 From the president
creating state of Ohio
 Author of that terrible tariff
of 1890
 Minor Civil War record
 Major Congressional
Record
 Republican
 Supported by super-rich
Marc Hanna from Ohio
Election of 1896: William Jennings
Bryan
 On the Democratic ticket instead of
Cleveland AND on the Populist ticket
 Good speaker, young
 Made Cross of Gold speech at the
Democratic convention
 Unlimited coinage of silver at 16:1
though it was worth 32:1
 Idea of both a gold and silver
standard known as bimetallism
 Scared away hard money
Democrats
Bryant’s Cross of Gold Speech
You shall not press
down upon the
brow of labor this
crown of thorns;
you shall not
crucify mankind
upon a cross of
gold!
Bi-Metallism Cartoon
Campaign Politics in 1896
 Bryan traveled 18,000 miles making speeches
 Became almost a religious messiah to those
wanting inflation
 Scared big business
 Hanna played up the fear to get tons of money
out of big business for McKinley
 Raised money at a 16:1 ration with the
Democrats!
 Caused workers to worry about reduced value
of wages because of inflation
Bryan: The Farmers Friend
18,000 miles of campaign “whistle stops.”
The Seasoned
Politician vs.
The
Newcomer
1896 Election Results
•Victory for big business, big cities, “middle-class values” and
financial conservatism
•The 1896 Election introduced a run of Republican leadership that
wouldn’t take a real hit until the 1932 election
Gold Standard Act
 1900  Gold
Standard Act
 Confirmed the
nation’s
commitment to
the gold standard.
 A victory for the
forces of
conservatism.
Pinnacle of Western Populism
Why did Populism Decline?
1.
The economy experienced rapid change.
2.
The era of small producers and farmers was
fading away.
3.
Race divided the Populist Party, especially in the
South.
4.
The Populists were not able to break
existing party loyalties.
5.
Most of their agenda was co-opted by
the Democratic Party.
New South / “Solid South”
The South in the Gilded Age suffered from economic inequity with
the North and overbearing, racist Democratic leadership
Gilded Age Southern Industry
• By 1900 the South was producing a smaller % of
the nation’s manufactured goods than before the
war
• The only thing that helped southern agriculture
was the machine made cigarette
• South faced unfairness in pricing from railroads
– Treated South like a 3rd world nation from which
the North would get raw materials and send
manufactured goods
• Pittsburgh Plus pricing system made it cost even
more to ship Birmingham Steel
Gilded Age Southern Industry
• The South did begin to build textile mills to
process their own cotton
– This fed off of impoverished Southerners who
were cheap labor willing to be paid 1/2 of
the wages of their northern counterparts
The “Solid South”
 When the Populists tried to gain African American farmer
votes, the white Democrats in the South realized that
African Americans had political power with their votes
 The right to vote was then taken from African Americans
in the South and solidified with white Democrats
 Racist whites in the South began to increase violence
against Blacks (lynching – Ida B. Wells wrote about this) and
the Jim Crow system was strengthened
 Part of this saw a large number of African American men
jailed for non-crimes such as vagrancy and then convicts in
the South were forced to work - the money went to the
prison director, county, and state
 This was known as convict leasing and later chain gangs
Social Changes in the Gilded
Age
Most often brought by rapid industrialization
Relative Share of World
Manufacturing
Impact of the Second Industrial
Revolution on America
• Great change occurred in America at this
time:
–
–
–
–
Increased standard of living
More physical comforts
Urbanization
Leisure time (though not much if you were a
factory worker!)
– Disappearance of Jeffersonian ideals
– Disappearance of truly free enterprise
– Time became important - work schedules
Impact of the Second Industrial
Revolution on America
• Women were the most affected group
– White collar jobs opened up because of
inventions
• Typewriter: stenographer and secretary
• Telephone: operators “hello girls”
– Realities of work for women
• Later marriages
• Smaller families
• Most worked the same long hard hours as
men for less pay for the same work
• Ideas of the new
woman: The Gibson
Girl
– Athletic and healthy
– Refined yet feisty
– Educated and fulfilled
• But not a suffragette!
Impact of the Second Industrial
Revolution on America
 Class division
 2/3 of all workers
depended on wages by
1900
 By 1900 10% of the people
controlled 90% of the
wealth
 The nouveau riche also
flaunted their wealth
which was a source of
both envy and disgust
to the working people
Progressivism
The Social Gospel Movement
 Causes:
 The Protestant Church was suffering as it lost
membership and moral clout during
urbanization.
 As materialism became the morality of the
moment, the church was losing sway (Trinity
Episcopal in NYC actually owned some of the
worst slums in the city)
 Catholic and Jewish faiths were gaining
members as members of their faiths were
immigrating rapidly.
The Social Gospel Movement
 This of course led to a new urban religious revival
 Dwight Lyman Moody
 Gospel of kindness and forgiveness
 1870’s-1880’s
 Known as the Social Gospel Movement
 Use the “helping others” part of Christianity to assist the
urban poor and needy
 Feeds into Progressivism
 By 1890 there were 150 denominations in America
 including the new Salvation Army and the Church of
Christ, Scientist
 YMCA and YWCA merged exercise and religious
learning in new urban centers
Progressivism


Progressivism is a huge term used to explain
the era of social reform at the turn of the
century.
Most Progressives shared in at least one of
the following goals:
 Protecting social welfare
 Promoting moral improvement
 Creating economic reform
 Fostering efficiency (usually in
government)
Who Belonged to the
Progressive Movement?
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Populists
Muckrakers
Suffragettes
Prohibitionists
Trust-busters
Labor Unions
Most people during this time period felt an
affinity to at least one of the Progressive
Goals.
Where did the Progressive Movement
Come From?




A reaction to the urban crisis
A reaction to increasing immigration
Women found that activism was an
“acceptable” place for them in society
 Many of the newly educated women who
went to college devoted their lives to
service
Led my mainly urban middle class reformers
Major Progressive Undertakings
 Urban sanitation and the City Beautiful movement
 Fighting Prostitution
 Suffrage
 Settlement Houses
 Temperance turns to Prohibition
 Food and Drug Health
 Worker protection and fair wages
 Women and Child Labor
 Early Civil Rights
 Democracy and Government Reform
Women’s Suffrage
 NAWSA formed in 1890
 Segregated
 Ida B. Wells fought for black women’s rights
 Formed the National Association of Colored
Women in 1896
 Changed movement to suggest that voting
would better help women to carry out their
housewife duties
Settlement Houses
 After finally being granted the
right to a college education,
many of the first wealthy women
to go to college graduated and
entered a life of social service.
 Jane Addams was one of these
women. She had traveled to
Europe and seen “settlement
houses” where educated
people lived and worked in
inner-city neighborhoods to help
those in need.
Jane Addams
Settlement Houses
Hull House in 1898
 She then took this idea back
to Chicago where she and
others like her began Hull
House.
 Hull House provided
important services for poor
immigrant families:
 classes in literacy and
citizenship
 sport clubs
 daycare for small children
of working mothers
 health clinics
 lending libraries
 theater productions
 and more.
Prohibition
 Some reformers believed that
morality, not economics, was
at the root of urban problems.
Many of these people felt that
alcohol was at the heart of
these moral issues.
 Therefore, these reformers
worked for Prohibition, or the
legal banning of alcohol.
 The National Prohibition Party
in 1869, the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union in1874,
and the Anti-Saloon League in
1893 were all founded to
crusade for prohibition.
The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
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

Upton Sinclair wrote the socialist novel, The Jungle, in
1906.
While his goal was to inform the public about the
horrible conditions for the workers, he really just grossed
them out.
 Roosevelt is said to have exclaimed “I’ve been
pizened”
TR passed the Meat Inspection Act in 1906 so federal
inspectors could inspect any meat sold over interstate
lines from moo-cow to hamburger
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was also passed to
prevent the “adulteration and mislabeling of foods and
pharmaceuticals”
Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire March 25, 1911
 Women (and men) working in the Triangle
Shirtwaist Co. were trapped in the building when it
caught on fire.
 146 people died
 After this, NYC passed many reforms:
 NYC created a Bureau of Fire Prevention.
 New strict building codes were passed.
 Tougher fire inspection of sweatshops.
 Nationwide there was growing momentum of
support for women’s suffrage and labor unions
Typical NYC Sweatshop 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop 1910
Typical NYC Sweatshop 1910
After the Fire
Crumpled Fire Escape
10th Floor After the Fire
Many People Jumped Rather than
Die in the Fire
Muller v. Oregon
 Muller v Oregon (1908) gave protective laws to
women in the workforce because they were
weaker than men.
 Does this help women or hurt them?
Women Organize Against Child
Labor
 Mary Harris Jones, known as
Mother Jones was a
prominent woman in labor
organizing. She organized for
the United Mine workers of
America and was jailed with
the coal miners.
 In 1903, she led 80 children
that worked in mills, many of
which had terrible injuries, to
the home of President
Theodore Roosevelt. This
action helped influence the
passage of child labor laws
Wisconsin and Robert La Follette
 Wisconsin was
called a “laboratory
of democracy” by
TR
 Wisconsin idea:
larger government
specifically
designed to help
people by advice
from progressive
economists
Bringing More Democracy to
America
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Initiative and Referendum
Recall
Direct Election of Senators
 17th Amendment passed in 1913
Limits on campaign spending and contributions
More efficiency with the City Manager System

Hire experts to run the city instead of those
who benefitted from political spoils
Teddy Roosevelt
President 1901-1909
Took over when McKinley was killed
TR’s Square Deal


Roosevelt was worried that even though the
public was concerned - nothing was
happening.
He promised a Square Deal and focused on
the 3 C’s:
 Control of Corporations
 Consumer Protection
 Conservation of Natural Resources
Square Deal for Labor


TR began by helping with the coal miner strike
in 1902
 Coal miners were demanding an increase in
pay and shorter hours
Roosevelt threatened to use federal forces to
achieve LABOR’S demands by operating the
mines with federal forces until negotiations
were complete –
 COMPLETE TURNAROUND from previous
federal union policy
Changing the Government to Help
Labor


TR Created the Departments of
Commerce and Labor
The Bureau of Corporations was created
to investigate businesses that were
involved in interstate commerce
Trust-Busting


Elkins Act of 1903: Heavy fines now
faced both RR’s that offered and
businesses that accepted REBATES
Hepburn Act of 1906: Restrictions on free
passes and ICC expanded

ICC could now set maximum railroad rates
Trust-Busting

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
While TR as a trust-buster is more myth
than reality because he differentiated
between good and bad trusts, TR did
manage to do some damage to trusts.
Northern Securities Co that had a RR
monopoly in the NW and was led by JP
Morgan and James J Hill
TR really wanted to regulate the
industries not just break them all up
Taft the Trustbuster
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Busted more than twice the Trusts as TR
Dissolved Standard Oil
Went after US Steel in 1911 even though
TR approved of them
TR Helps the Environment
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Newlands Act of
1902
 The sale of
Western Lands
would help pay
for irrigation
projects
Set aside 125
million acres
Multiple Use
resource
management
TR at
Yosemite
in 1903
Election of 1912
What is the Deal in 1912?!
 Teddy was so excited when he won on his own in
1904 that he exclaimed he would not run again
 So he hand-picked Taft to be his successor and left
the country for 2 years on hunting excursions
 When he returned, Teddy felt that Taft was not
Progressive enough AND Taft had fired Gifford
Pinchot, beloved environmental protector so Teddy
decided to run against him
The Candidates
The
Republican
Party and
President
William Taft
Keep the Whistle Blowing
 Taft was determined
to defeat TR and
preserve the
conservative heart
of the Republican
Party.
Come, Mr. President. You Can’t
Have the Stage ALL of the Time!
 La Follette and Taft
at the Republican
National
Convention
Republican Party Platform
 High import tariffs.
 Put limitations on female and child labor.
 Workman’s Compensation Laws.
 Against initiative, referendum, and recall.
 Against “bad” trusts.
 Creation of a Federal Trade Commission.
 Stay on the gold standard.
 Conservation of natural resources because
they are finite.
The GOP After
the Circus
 TR: The Republican
Party must stand for
the rights of
humanity, or else it
must stand for
special privilege.
The Progressive
Party (Bull Moose)
& Former President
Theodore
Roosevelt
People should rise above their
sectarian interests to promote the
general good.
The “Bull
Moose”
Party: The
Latest Arrival
at the
Political Zoo
Progressive Party Platform
 Women’s suffrage.
 Graduated income tax.
 Inheritance tax for the rich.
 Lower tariffs.
 Limits on campaign spending.
 Currency reform.
 Minimum wage laws.
 Social insurance.
 Abolition of child labor.
 Workmen’s compensation.
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The Socialist Party &
Eugene V. Debs
The issue is Socialism versus
Capitalism. I am for Socialism
because I am for humanity.
“The Working Class Candidates”
Eugene V. Debs
Emil Seigel
for President
for Vice-President
Growth of the Socialist Vote
Year
Socialist
Party
Socialist
Labor Party
Total
1888
2,068
2,068
1890
13,704
13,704
1892
21,512
21,512
1894
30,020
30,020
1896
36,275
36,274
1898
82,204
82,204
1900
96,931
33,405
130,336
1902
223,494
53,763
277,257
1904
408,230
33,546
441,776
1906
331,043
20,265
351,308
1908
424,488
14,021
438,509
1910
607,674
34,115
641,789
1912
901,873
The Industrial Workers of the World: IWW
 The first American
labor group to open
its membership to all
wage-earning
workers, regardless
of skill, nationality,
race, sex, or
gender.
Socialist Party Platform
 Government ownership of railroads and utilities.
 Guaranteed income tax.
 No tariffs.
 8-hour work day.
 Better housing.
 Government inspection of factories.
 Women’s suffrage
The Democratic Party &
Governor Woodrow Wilson (NJ)
Could he rescue
the Democratic
Party from
“Bryanism”??
The Reform
Governor of
NJ: It Takes
Time to
Remove the
Grime
Which
Way to
Jump?
Democratic Party Platform
 Government control of the monopolies
 trusts in general were bad - eliminate
them!!
 Tariff reduction.
 One-term President.
 Direct election of Senators.
 Create a Department of Labor.
 Strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
 Did NOT support women’s suffrage.
 Opposed to a central bank.
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The “Seas” (of Opportunity) Open Up
for the Democrats
The Results
An Actual 1912 Ballott
Election of 1912
 By 1912, 100,000 fewer people had voted for Wilson than had
voted for Bryan in 1908.
 The 1912 election marked the apogee of the Socialist
movement in America.
GOP Divided by Bull Moose Equals
Democratic Victory!
The GOP:
An Extinct
Animal?
Wilson and the New Freedom
Wilson as President


Mission was to reform tariff, banks, and
trusts
Went to speak before Congress to ask
for laws – unheard of!
Wilson and the Banks

Signed the Federal Reserve Law into
effect in 1913
 Regional banks controlled by the
national Federal Reserve Board
 Made money supply more elastic
 Regional banks were still private, but
now had some government control
Trust Busting Reform

Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914
Presidentially appointed commission
could investigate companies engaged
in interstate commerce
Clayton Anti Trust Act of 1914



Increased list of unacceptable business
practices from the Sherman Anti Trust Act
 Price discrimination
 Interlocking directorates
Exempted labor and agricultural
associations (protesters) from having this
law applied to them
Great victory for labor