Woodrow Wilson and His Policies

Woodrow Wilson and His Policies 

                Woodrow Wilson, America's 28th president and creator/initiator of many of America's progressive acts. Such as the Anti corruption law, including Anti trust, election reforms, Workmen's compensation and Regulations of the Banking system. However, despite the brilliant policies made by this man, we saw his "defeat" with his introduction of the League of Nations to the European Nations after the first World War. His policies of the existing 14 points diminished to one lasting point that the League of Nations and further, he was unable to convince the Senate to sign and pass his policies therefore excluding the United States from the League of Nations. With his policies being said, because in class we've looked at a lot of the crucial debate over his progressiveness, I believe that there could of been a direct correlation between Wilson's ideologies as a progressive and the downfall of his time.
                    Aside from his known to be stubbornness and general incorporative actions, Wilson seemed to have a lot of supporters for his progressive policies and ideas such as his influence over the many American soldiers going into World War I hoping to sacrifice and do something for the benefit of America and the whole world. However, aside from these influences, his desperate last campaign for the League of Nations policy to pass still failed. Without the United States' involvement in the League, the policy was later proven to be a fail by many history with the key cause to be the lack of involvement in the United States. To conclude, despite the extreme sickly stubbornness he faced after campaigning, and the lost of followers from African American voters and women's suffrage supporters, the key factor to his downfall was a combination of the lack of attention paid to the Republican parties and officials. As after his mid presidency election, the Republican party began to control the senate. Despite knowing this, Wilson still would not listen to the senate and acted on his own. In the end, I think this was the key factor that caused the downfall of his policies and created the huge flaw in the League of Nations. However, I do wonder, was there any other causes that could've also played a huge factor to the failed policy?

The End of WWI: What's Next?

By 1918, the war outlook was fairly bleak for the Germans and the other Central powers.  In November of that year, they formally surrendered to the Allies.  This left the world with the question: what's next?

As seen in the image below, the Russian, French, and British, were among the nations who suffered the most casualties in war.  They were also faced with billions of dollars of destruction, for which they did not have the money to repair.  For these nations, the answer was simple.  They wanted to place complete war blame on the Germans.  After all, the Germans were the ones that invaded France and technically caused all of the destruction.

As Russia, France, and Britain were the countries who fought most of the war against the Germans, they found it only fair that they should make the decisions to what would happen now that the war was over.  Of course, there would be some issues with their plan to leave Germany with all of the war blame.  This plan was called the Treaty of Versailles.  The Germans strongly felt that this treaty was unfair to them, and that the Allies were just as much to blame for the war as they were.

Across the Atlantic, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson introduced his own plan called the Fourteen Points.  It was composed of fourteen articles that Wilson believed would bring everlasting peace.  The fourteenth and most well known was that which would establish the League of Nations, an alliance consisting of all the world's countries in an attempt to end all international conflict.

In the end, Wilson was unable to convinced the world, let alone the United States of his plan.  Instead, the Treaty of Versailles was the chosen plan, and Germany was forced to suffer.  Looking back, many historians believe that the Treaty of Versailles was rather faulty, as it played a major role in setting into motion a far more massive conflict - World War II.

The Klu Klux Klan in the 1920's

 On August 8th  1925, more than 50,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan paraded through Washington, D.C. Some walked in lines as wide as 20 abreast, while others created formations of the letter K or a Christian cross. A few rode on horseback. Many held American flags. Men and women alike, the marchers carried banners emblazoned with the names of their home states or local chapters, and their procession lasted for more than three hours down a Pennsylvania Avenue lined with spectators. National leaders of the organization were resplendent in colorful satin robes and the rank and file wore white, their regalia adorned with a circular red patch containing a cross with a drop of blood at its center.With most of the KKK’s actions ending up in wearing their mask down, in Washington they kept their mask up. It was thought that it was a sign to demonstrate their newly gained power and the fact that due to their large quantities of members on the march (4 million) it didn’t too well

The Ku Klux was the most popular in the United States during the 1920s, when its reach was nationwide. Its members disproportionately middle class, and many of its very visible public activities geared toward festivities, pageants, and social gatherings. In some ways, it was the Ku Klux Klan that was the evilest. The Klan in 1920s encouraged native-born white Americans to believe that intimidation, harassment, and natural American patron. .

On Thanksgiving night, after riding with about 15 other men in a rented tour bus to a large granite formation outside of the city known as Stone Mountain, Simmons lit a wooden cross aflame and announced the rebirth of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Alice Roosevelt

Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the child Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. Two days after she was born, her mother died of Bright's disease. Roosevelt was distraught, so much he decided to move to North Dakota for two years. He left Alice in New York City to be taken care of by his sister, Anna Cowles. Roosevelt remarried to Edith Kermit Karow, but Alice always felt that her father loved her “one-sixth as much as his other children.” Alice was always a bit of a rebel, one thing which the public loved her for later on. The Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt states “Alice smoked cigarettes in public, rode unchaperoned in cars with men, (and) partied late into the night.” According to this source she also participated in some voodoo, and liked making bets with bookies. A bookie was usually someone who took (illegal) bets for horse races, fights, and games. Apparently when the family moved out of the white house, Alice even hid a voodoo doll of the new first lady, Nellie Taft. This of course managed to get her banned from those quarters. She is quite famous for being sent on the “imperial cruise” to Japan. She went with Taft, her future husband, 22 congressmen, 7 senators, and diplomats. She was photographed the entire time, and plastered on practically every newspaper back in the United states. This won her the nickname of “Princess Alice” She did end up marrying Nicholas Longworth, but the marriage was not great and Alice had a well known affair with Senator William Borah. She had a daughter, Paulina Longworth with William. After leaving the white house, Alice continued to show up on news, and stated opinions, as well as favored presidential candidates such as John F. Kennedy.

Nearing an end in a war

Nearing the end of wars in general, people usually think of one stereotypical thing: that a particular country will win and another will suffer a loss, usually a bigger loss than they thought they could repay. However, this isn't necessarily the only perspective that we should look into when talking about wars. So what exactly makes up wars? Country disagreements, weapons, cannons, bombs, large amount of casualties (sometimes even more, like a couple millions), soldiers, generals, and definitely a whole bunch of PTSD's (which stands for post traumatic stress disorder) after the war is over, whether from the winning or losing side. It all starts with a country either being unreasonable or wanting to fight for their values, which probably offends some other country and they would start gathering up their military and weaponry, train the soldiers (and in some cases, put up signs around the neighborhood for young men who want to help the country, for the adventure, expectations of the family, and other reasons), and etc.

One of these examples come from the film we finished watching last week, "The Doughboys". In the film, a couple veterans from WWI talked about their experiences during and after the war. Being a soldier, the veterans had all mentioned, was basically putting your life on the line for the freedom of the country, even when knowing there's a possible chance that they might not succeed. Seeing hundreds of their comrades die each day forced them into the mindset of living each day as if it was their last. While during the war itself, the majority of the soldiers had no time to react or use their emotions to dictate their actions, even if it meant heavy consequences or such. They had to kill the enemy like killing an object, in another word, dehumanize the enemy, even if that person might be a father, husband, a son, or etc. After the war ends, the rush of guilt comes back to haunt these soldiers that lived on to tell the tale with full force, with varying degrees of it. Some have nightmares about killing a man who was only trying to plead for help rather than cause harm or accidentally killing one of their own friends in battle. Others constantly feel the guilt of not being able to save their friends when they were just a couple steps away, and etc. At the end of the film, many veterans who were speakers concluded altogether that going to war was a really dumb thing to do, losing so many lives and families just to prove a point, and the results sometimes isn't even what we hoped for in the first place. "War is hell" they had spoken.

Pre-WWI - WWI Country Relation Effects

At the beginning of World War I, the US traded with Britsh and French because these countries allowed the US to trade with them. The British stopped any ship that was headed toward Germany because they didn't want to let Germany access any trade. The US supported democracies like GB and France which meant that the US was happy trading with them. Americans didn't like the way that submarines affected neutral rights and said the Germans couldn't sink their boats. After the US said this, the Germans blew up the British cruise liner the Lusitania. 1,198 people and also 128 Americans died. This event enraged the US because it harmed Americans. Woodrow Wilson wanted to follow the Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (USW) because of these events.

During the middle of WWI, Great Britain and France, or the Allies, needed more troops for their war effort. The US was considering entering the war to help. One main factor that led to the US people that wanted to fight was the advertising that America was receiving about the war. The US only received information that portrayed Great Britain and France as the "good guys." Also, Great Britain and France portrayed war as heroic and fun which led Americans to think that it would be fulfilling to fight in the war. When the war started, the US claimed to be neutral but they sent materials to the Allies. Because of this, the Germans didn't see the US as neutral. The Germans resorted to going into USW. Germans said they would sink all ships around Great Britain which made Great Britain and countries that traded with Great Britain very unhappy and unsettled. In the end, was the decision of the US to go into war smart for the result of the war and for the well-being of the US.

WWI: Affecting those at Home

              All across Europe during WWI, entire towns and countrysides were burned or decimated by constant fighting. An ocean away, the United States was saved from most of the destruction and saw losses only in troop numbers and resources. This does not mean though that things did not change. World War I was one of the first times America mobilized the entire nation in order to contribute to an effort on this scale. New branches of the federal government were created to manage resources, thousands of men enlisted, and propaganda was able to create an overwhelming American pride despite initial reluctance to war.
              With a national draft set up and 2 million men serving in Europe by the war's end, there was a shortage of men for employment. This lead to two things. The first being the establishment of women as a prominent power in the workforce, with women taking jobs that used to only be open to men. Even if many of these positions would revert when the war ended, it proved women to be capable of taking on such positions. Secondly, many African Americans in the south came north to fill these positions as well, creating bigger black communities in large northern cities. While some blacks might have had positions working towards helping the war effort, this does not mean all African Americans were in favor of war. Some believed that war could be a chance for African Americans to increase equality between themselves and whites, but still others disagreed saying America shouldn't be fighting for democracy in Europe when there is still injustice happening at home with segregation and Jim Crow laws threatening the freedoms of African Americans.
              To pay for the huge expenses of going to war, the United States needed to make a lot of changes. To start, the income tax was raised and the lowest taxable income was lowered so that a greater population was being taxed. This only paid for about a quarter of the money needed though, so American bonds were sold to pay for the rest. The War Industries Board was created by Woodrow Wilson in 1917 to promote the buying of bonds, conservation, and other practices to help in wartime. The board also tried to settle union disputes and set wages and hours in order to increase productivity and limit conflict, increasing jobs and boosting the economy. Materials and metal were scarce and many schools and communities held drives and encouraged conservation. Food was scarce with Allied soldiers and civilians all across Europe in desperate need of help. People at home were encouraged to conserve as much as possible, crop prices were raised, and many people planted gardens of their own. Nationalism peaked with the Espionage Act passed in 1917 and the Sedition Act passed in 1918 which made it easy for people to get punished for acts seen as hindering the war effort or speaking badly of the government. Many argued that these laws were unjustly limiting the freedoms of Americans, and one case came before the Supreme Court in 1919 defending free speech. Do some liberties need to be given up in order to protect a 'greater good?' Should we prioritize the liberties of certain people or only the liberties themselves?


Corinne McCabe