1909 To 1914

A more conservative president succeeded Teddy Roosevelt in office in 1909: William Howard Taft. He lowered tariffs and exercised executive restraint (limiting his own power). Taft later became the Chief Justice of the United States (the leading Justice on the Supreme Court); Taft was the only person to lead one branch of government and then lead another.

Taft would have won reelection in 1912, but Teddy Roosevelt insisted on running for president himself as part of the new Progressive (Bull Moose) Party that he founded. This split the Republican vote in half, and allowed the Democratic candidate, the former governor of New Jersey and president of Princeton University, to win. An intellectual, Woodrow Wilson was a progressive who served as President from 1913 to 1921, though he was too sick to accomplish anything towards the end of his presidency. His goal was to make the world safe for democracy, and to expand democracy to foreign countries. He is also known for starting the Federal Reserve banking system that exists to this day. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which was passed soon after Wilson became president, gave our nation a central banking system for the first time since President Jackson destroyed the Bank of the United States and refused to allow it to be reinstated.

As mentioned above, President Taft slightly decreased tariff rates during his presidency (before Wilson). In 1909, the Paine-Aldrich Tariff reduced tariff rates and then, in 1913, the Underwood Tariff brought a big reduction in duty taxes on imports, the first significant reduction since the Civil War. President Wilson did not like tariffs and felt they caused conflicts with foreign countries. He wanted to replace tariffs with a "graduated" or progressive income tax that hit wealthy (primarily hard-working) people more than poor (often lazy) people.

The 16th Amendment, which was ratified in 1913 just as Wilson became president, overruled the Supreme Court's decision of Pollack v. Farmers Loan and Trust, which had declared an income tax to be unconstitutional. The 16th Amendment authorized a national income tax:

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 of enumeration.

Two other significant developments occurred just as Wilson was taking the presidency in 1913: the establishment of the Dillingham Commission to recommend limits on immigration, especially from eastern and southern Europe, and the ratification of the 17th Amendment, which required the direct election of U.S. Senators by the people rather than by state legislatures as before.

World War I

The drumbeat of war in Europe was starting in the early 1900s, and America would eventually be drawn into it. The roots of this European conflict were in the Triple Alliance, which was a secret military alliance between Italy, German and Austria-Hungary between 1882 and 1914. In the meantime, the "Triple Entente" was formed in 1907 between France, Great Britain and Russia, in which they allied themselves with each other based on several treaties. These alliances led to World War I.

The spark was the assassination in Bosnia of Archduke Ferdinand in June 1914, and war between the two alliances soon began. The secret promises among many countries to defend each other caused them to be pulled into the war, making this the first genuine world war in history.

The United States was not involved until 1915, when a German submarine sunk the Lusitania. That was a British passenger ship carrying many Americans, 128 of whom died. The American public was outraged.

Congress began to prepare for war. In 1916, it passed the National Defense Act, which was a military preparedness program that expanded the army, increased the size of the National Guard fourfold, and set up "ROTC" programs for college students to earn tuition in return for military service. It gave the president the power to mobilize the National Guard in the event of a national emergency such as war.

In 1916, another German submarine sunk an unarmed steamer called the "Sussex". Then Germans issued the "Sussex Pledge," which vowed to stop sinking unarmed boats. They could not keep their pledge, and began sinking ships again in 1917.

The American public was against becoming involved in the European war, and President Wilson ran for and was reelected based on a pledge of not injecting America into the war. In January 1917, soon after he was reelected, he addressed the Senate with his plan for "peace without victory" in order to settle the conflict without sending American troops. His plan was a total failure.

In 1917, the German foreign minister inflamed the passions of the American people by sending the "Zimmermann telegram" to Mexico. It promised return of the Southwest to Mexico if it would invade the United States. This telegram was intercepted and publicized to the American public to increase their support of entering the war in Europe on the side of England, and against Germany.

Congress prepared further for war. In 1917 it passed the Selective Service Act, which forced all males between the ages of 18 and 25 register for military service. This was the "draft" that provided the men to fight in World War I.

Debate: Was it discriminatory not to include girls and women in this draft?

Congress declared war in April 1917, and fighting lasted until 1918. Americans suffered many tragic losses in life, but because of our late entry our overall losses were much less than those suffered by the European countries.

Obviously not everyone agreed with the war or the draft. But Congress passed laws to censor dissent. It passed the Espionage Act in 1917, which imposed fines of $10,000 and jail time of 20 years for any person thought to be aiding the enemy, and authorized the U.S. Postal Service to ban any material found to be treasonable. The Sedition Act, passed in May 1918, made it illegal to speak out to discourage the purchase of war bonds.

When citizens challenged these limitations on the right of free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Congress and against the First Amendment. In Schenck v. U.S. (1919), the Court upheld the prosecution for any speech that created a "clear and present danger" to the national interest of enlisting soldiers. In Abrams v. U.S. (1919), the Court sustained convictions under the Espionage Act for leafletting against American opposition to the communist revolution in Russia. Finally, in Debs v. U.S. (1919) the Court upheld an indictment (criminal charges) against someone for speaking out against military recruitment of soldiers. (The Supreme Court's interpretation of the right to free speech under the First Amendment is stronger today than it was in 1919.)

Debate: Was it wrong for Congress and the Supreme Court to limit free speech during World War I?

Congress limited economic freedoms in the name of war also. The Lever Act of 1917, for example, authorized the president to set the price of wheat. This was used later by Hoover to combat the Great Depression. Congress also passed the Trading with the Enemy Act in 1917, which gave the president the power to stop financial transactions in wartime. It is now used to restrict travel and trade with Cuba.

Hoarding was a crime during the war. One story in the New York Times announced how a couple had been arrested and charged with the "crime" of having $1000-worth of extra food in their home. Congress did not want people to buy more than they needed.

Labor disputes in the United States during the war were handled by the National War Labor Board, which President Wilson established in April 1918. He placed former President Taft and also Frank P. Walsh in charge of this important commission, with the goal of settling labor conflicts. The Overman Act, also passed in 1918, gave the President extraordinary powers to coordinate government agencies in wartime.

In October 1917, near the end of World War I, there was the communist (Bolshevik) revolution in Russia. This would cause the United States and the world many problems later in the 20th century, and is still a problem today in some countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China and North Korea.

An armistice (an agreement to stop the fighting) with Germany to end World War I did not come until late 1918, and the peace treaty was not signed until 1919, but it was clear by January 1918 that the end was drawing near. A joint session of Congress convened then for an address by President Wilson, in which he outlined his "Fourteen Points" for peace and for the future of the world. His address, which contained ideas known as Wilson idealism, took the progressive movement's principles of democracy, self-determination and free trade and proposed imposing that on the world. He also urged against any more secret agreements by nations that started World War I. Specifically, Wilson's "Fourteen Points" included a guarantee freedom on the high seas, facilitation of international trade with few or no tariffs, a reduction in military arms, an end to colonialism, a ban on secret treaties, restoration to Russia of territory taken during the war, and a return to France of the Alsace-Lorraine territory taken by Germany.

Most of all, President Wilson proposed a "League of Nations" to govern the world in the future. The Senate refused to join the League of Nations, but later the United Nations replaced it and the United States did join that.

On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed which required the surrender of German territory, massive reparations (payments) by Germany to France and England, Allied occupation of Germany and an admission of guilt by Germany. Historians later view this treaty as having been too harsh on Germany and a major cause of the rise of Adolf Hitler and World War II.

The Treaty largely rejected Wilson's Fourteen Points but did embrace the League of Nations. But the U.S. Senate then refused to ratify the Treaty!