Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/919

Rh sufficient number of Democrats to reduce the Democratic vote below the winning point. He was hopeful as to some of the southern states in which he had many warm friends and supporters.

The result in Nov. showed that the voters in the main stood by their regular candidates. The total popular Democratic vote, more than six and a quarter million, was only about 120,000 less than in 1908. The total Taft and Roosevelt vote combined was almost exactly the same as that of the Republicans in 1900. Roosevelt polled about four million popular votes to two and one half millions for Taft; but he carried only six states with 88 electoral votes against 40 states and 435 votes for Wilson. The only Taft states were Utah and Vermont with a total of eight electoral votes. Notwithstanding the ignominious defeat of their candidate, the Republican party was still intact with its “stand-pat” leaders, its “organization,” and its control of state and local politics. On the other hand, Roosevelt had built up what seemed to be a new national party controlling four million votes, and he hoped for a continuation of that party as a power in the individual states and in national politics.

Woodrow Wilson.—The centre and soul of the Progressive movement was Theodore Roosevelt because of his ardent habit of mind; he felt intensely; he spoke with tremendous energy and deep conviction; he was accused by his critics of “inventing the Ten Commandments”; he was not only the head of a party, he was the head of a political cult (see ). In that respect he was closely paralleled by Woodrow Wilson, who, on March 4 1913, was inaugurated as President. Wilson's life had been much less adventurous and varied than that of Roosevelt. Born in Staunton, Va., in 1856, of Scotch Presbyterian ancestry, son of a minister, he graduated from Princeton in 1879, essayed the practice of law in which he made no success, then studied political science and was a professor in several colleges, finally returning to Princeton. From 1902 to 1910, he was president of that university. In 1885 he published his first and most remarkable book, Congressional Government, which was a searching criticism of the weaknesses of the American legislative committee system and the separation of executive officials from legislation. He was an easy and attractive speaker, and had a remarkable literary style shown in several books on government and in an elaborate history of the United States. He moved much about the world, and mixed freely with people in and out of his profession, in which he was a leading figure. As administrator of a great university he chafed against the conservatism of his colleagues, and found he could not bring himself to share the responsibilities of direction with others (see ). In 1910, a favourable year for the Democratic party, of which he had always been a member, he was put forward for the governorship of New Jersey by friends who looked farther than that office, particularly the journalist, George Harvey. New Jersey went Democratic, and during 1911 and 1912 Gov. Wilson had opportunity to show his skill as a party leader and his interest in reform. He made himself responsible for the “seven sisters,” a group of measures dealing with direct primaries, corrupt practices, workmen's protection and control of trusts, and especially public service corporations, somewhat on the plan of the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission.

In 1912 when the Democratic party was looking for a candidate, Woodrow Wilson was put forward against Champ Clark, the experienced political chieftain. He was taken up by Bryan who saw in him first of all, an exponent of the political principles for which Bryan had stood for many years. He was wise enough to see that the party needed a leader and a President who could meet the Progressives on their own ground. He persuaded the Democratic Convention to nominate Wilson, who had a special advantage in his southern birth but was little known among the ranks of the party. Bryan also aided him by drafting a platform hardly less progressive than that of the Progressive party. The split in the Republican party rendered Wilson's election inevitable. On the eve of his inauguration he published a collection of his speeches, chiefly delivered in the preceding campaign, under the title of The New Freedom. It was in effect a confession of political faith, a forecast of what the President intended, a summing

up of the fundamentals of American government. He protests against the political conditions and methods of the time, finds economic conditions even worse, and points out the baleful influence of corporations and trusts on parties and Governments. The book advocates publicity and action by popular vote as the remedy for the ills which the writer so clearly sees.

On entering office the first duty of the President was to select his Cabinet. It was only reasonable that Bryan, the most prominent man in the party, who had been three times its candidate for presidency, should enter it; but not that he should be made Secretary of State, an office for which he had little training and as little adaptation. A new Cabinet office had just been created by Congress, the secretaryship of the Department of Labor, to which was appointed W.B. Wilson, a former member of Congress and a strict labour organization man. Lindley M. Garrison, Secretary of War, and Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, were strong men. Albert S. Burleson, Postmaster-General, and Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, had no adequate training for their duties. David F. Houston of Missouri was made Secretary of Agriculture, William G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury, and James C. McReynolds, Attorney-General. Most of the members of the Cabinet were men who could be trusted to follow the President's lead. One remarkable figure, not included in this list, was Col. E. M. House of Texas, who for six years was the President's most trusted counsellor and political friend without holding any political office. The President's judicial appointments were good, including one man, Louis D. Brandeis, as justice of the Supreme Court, against whom a propaganda was raised because he was supposed to be unduly radical and favourable to labour. In the minor civil service Wilson carried out his principles by enlarging the classified list of posts which could be entered only by competitive examinations.

Although a genial man, who could be a delightful companion, full of experience and of Scotch Presbyterian humour, President Wilson from his first day in the White House cut himself off from most of his countrymen. There were none of those receptions open to all, which had delighted President Roosevelt; none of those sessions with newspaper correspondents that Taft had thought not beneath his dignity. The President's theory was that he must husband his time so as to consider his views upon public questions; nor did he expect the members of his Cabinet to act as antennae for him, to test the currents of public sentiment. He gauged the public mind for himself. He had a powerful mind, an amazing skill of expression, and an intense belief in the power of ideals to arouse and inspire a people. Furthermore, he stood by the political programme indicated in his book The New Freedom. He thought he had no need of conferences, of feeling the public pulse, of mixing with members of Congress and party leaders, of personally greeting the average voter who so much appreciates a word from the President.

Finance and Tariff.—The election of 1912 carried with it a safe Democratic majority in the Senate and a two-to-one majority in the House, so that the responsibility for legislation was clear. Champ Clark again had the empty honour of the Speakership. April 8 1913, the President created a surprise by appearing in person to address the two Houses of Congress jointly at the opening of a special session, instead of sending the written message which had been invariable since 1800. This practice he followed throughout his administration, with great effect. It was part of his conception of the presidency. He was not only chief magistrate of the nation, but head of the Democratic party, and practically the premier of the Government from whom ought to proceed plans for important legislation. May 26 1913 he publicly denounced the lobbyists in Congress who he declared, were endeavouring to control tariff legislation; and Congress accepted the rebuke. He disdained the arts of Jefferson or McKinley in soothing individual congressmen; he revived and enlarged Roosevelt's practice of telling the country what Congress ought to do. Furthermore, he had in his mind a sheaf of statutes which he believed the country needed.

The special session was called particularly to frame a tariff Act, the outline of which was contained in his first address.