Hmmmm... What happened in 1913?
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th
president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the
Democratic Party, Wilson served as the
president of Princeton University and as the
governor of New Jersey before winning the
1912 presidential election. As President, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and led the United States into
World War I in 1917. He was the leading architect of the
League of Nations, and his progressive stance on foreign policy came to be known as
Wilsonianism.
Wilson
grew up in the
American South, mainly in
Augusta, Georgia, during the
Civil War and
Reconstruction. After earning a Ph.D. in political science from
Johns Hopkins University, Wilson taught at various colleges before becoming the president of
Princeton University and a spokesman for
Progressivism in higher education. As
governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, Wilson broke with party bosses and won the passage of several progressive reforms. To win the presidential nomination he mobilized progressives and Southerners to his cause at the
1912 Democratic National Convention. Wilson defeated incumbent
Republican William Howard Taft and third-party nominee
Theodore Roosevelt to easily win the
1912 United States presidential election, becoming the first Southerner to do so since 1848.
Wilson allowed the continuing
imposition of segregation inside the federal bureaucracy. His first term was largely devoted to pursuing passage of his progressive
New Freedom domestic agenda. His first major priority was the
Revenue Act of 1913, which lowered tariffs and began the modern
income tax. Wilson also negotiated the passage of the
Federal Reserve Act, which created the
Federal Reserve System. Two major laws, the
Federal Trade Commission Act and the
Clayton Antitrust Act, were passed to promote business competition.
www.marketwatch.com
