Woodrow Wilson

Andy J. Santiago
Prof. Hewitt
POS 2041
02/28/2012
Woodrow Wilson
The United States of America has had 44 presidents so far. Many of them have been remembered by their success in office, others by their failures. Woodrow Wilson should be considered though as one of those whose presidency was a good one and a success. He was elected the 28th president of the United States of America as aDemocrat in the 1912 election. He was also the only president with a PhD which was in history and political science, and he obtained it from Johns Hopkins University. In his two terms as president, from 1913 to 1921, he was an excellent one on both foreign and domestic policy, earning him his rightful place in history as one of the best presidents. Woodrow Wilson’s agenda was that of progressivereform and laid the foundation of the modern activist presidency.
Wilson followed the example of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt. However, his presidency change the model and nature of the executive branch, from the caretaker model an equal or less partner with congress, to its superior, the dominant branch of government. An article from the Miller Center of the University of Virginia describingWoodrow Wilson’s intentions for the executive branch said, “He intended to lead his party and the nation much as the prime minister of England leads Parliament” (1). In April 1913, at the opening of a special session of Congress called by the President to consider tariff reform, Wilson appeared personally before a joint session of the House and Senate to explain his program. This was a major eventsince no other president had addressed Congress personally since John Adams. This decision he made of giving the speech in front of Congress showed how Wilson intended to play a major and dominant role in policy making. The policies Wilson tried to push forward had the intention of expanding economic opportunity for people at the bottom of society and eliminating special privileges enjoyed by therichest and most powerful members of society.
One of the acts that Wilson tried to pass was the Underwood-Simmons Act. This act re-imposed the federal income tax and lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%. It was the first successful downward revision of the tariff since the Civil War. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act enacted an across-the-board reduction in tariffs, making manufacturersmore efficient and providing consumers with competitive pricing. Another one of Wilson’s greatest accomplishments was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. This act established twelve regional reserve banks controlled by the Federal Reserve Board, a new federal agency whose members were appointed by the President. This new federal system could adjust interest rates and the nation's money supply. Becauseit was authorized to issue currency based on government securities and "commercial paper" (the loans made to businesses by banks), the amount of money in circulation would expand or contract with the business cycle. Also, the Federal Reserve had the power to adjust interest rates, or the discount rate, charged to its member banks for money deposited in the branch reserve banks, which wouldindirectly control the interest rates that banks charged their borrowers. The Federal Reserve could also set the amount of money banks would have to hold as an offset against deposits, establishing a reserve fund for times of economic crisis. Wilson also made his mark in the judicial mark and the Constitution.
Woodrow Wilson appointed a total of three Justices to the Supreme Court. He appointed JamesClark McReynolds in 1914 that served for more than twenty six years. Another appointed Justice was Louis Dembitz Brandeis in 1916 that served almost twenty three years and was denoted because of his writing of landmark opinions in cases respecting free speech and the right to privacy. The last Justice was John Hessin Clark appointed in 1916; he just served six years before resigning. During...