§ 842]

BRYAN AND WILSON

697

machinery of the National Convention. The credentials committee "threw out" many Roosevelt delegations from States where there were "contests," and Taft won the nomination. Roosevelt declared the nomination "a barefaced steal," asserted that no honest man could vote for a ticket "based on dishonor," and called a mass meeting of progressives to organize a new party.

842. Meantime, the Democratic Convention, in session for nine days at Baltimore, made significant history. In this party, too, the preceding campaign had been a bitter contest between open progressives and more or less secret reactionaries. When the Convention met, the old bosses were in control of a majority of votes. They made plain their intention to organize the meeting in their interest by putting forward for the temporary chairmanship Judge Alton B. Parker (§ 831). Mr. Bryan had declined to be a candidate for the presidency again, and he now stepped forward as a courageous and skillful champion of the progressive element, waging a contest that finally wrested control from the bosses and turned his party over to the real democracy.

a man

Bryan first appealed to the candidates for the presidential nomination to oppose the bosses' choice for chairman, "conspicuously identified, in the eyes of the public, with the reactionary element." Woodrow Wilson alone stood this "acid test." Other candidates evaded, or pleaded for harmony, to avoid offending possible supporters. Wilson frankly and cordially approved Bryan's purpose. Thus the issue was drawn, and Wilson was marked, even more clearly than before, as the true candidate of the progressives. The bosses seated their man for chairman, but the Democratic masses throughout the country shouted approval of Bryan and Wilson.

Next Mr. Bryan startled the convention and the country by a daring resolution-declaring the convention opposed to the nomination of any candidate "who is the representative of, or under obligations to, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas F. Ryan, August Belmont, or any other member of the privi

lege-hunting and favor-seeking class." Two of the gentlemen named sat in the Convention. In the debate Mr. Bryan said:

"Extraordinary conditions need extraordinary remedies. . . . There is not a delegate who does not know that an effort is being made right now to sell the Democratic party into bondage to the predatory interests of the country. It is the most brazen, the most insolent, the most impudent attempt that has been made in the history.of American politics to dominate a convention, stifle the honest sentiment of a people, and make the nominee the bond slave of the men who exploit this country. ... No sense of politeness to such men will keep me from protecting my party from the disgrace they inflict upon it."

Few delegates dared vote against the resolution.

In the balloting Champ Clark of Missouri at one time had a majority of the delegates, but the Democratic rule requires a two-thirds majority. As the balloting proceeded slowly day after day, Wilson gained steadily, mainly because of thousands of telegrams from "the people at home," threatening, urging, imploring their representatives to support Bryan's leadership and Wilson's candidacy. On the forty-sixth ballot Wilson was nominated. The progressive element, which had failed in the Republican Convention, had conquered in the Democratic.

843. Soon another progressive ticket was in the field. Roosevelt's friends proceeded with their new organization, took the name the Progressive party, and nominated Roosevelt upon an admirable radical platform which included Woman Suffrage. Many ardent reformers rallied to this long-desired opportunity for a new alignment in politics (ef. § 392); but a large number of their old associates felt that the movement was too much dominated by one man's ambition, and that it was ill-timed at best when the Baltimore nomination had offered so admirable an opportunity to progressives.

844. Wilson was elected by the largest electoral plurality in our history, the vote standing,- Wilson, 435; Roosevelt, 88; Taft, 8. Wilson's popular vote exceeded that of Roosevelt by over two million; and Roosevelt's was nearly 700,000 more than

§ 845]

WOODROW WILSON

699

Taft's. At the same time, it was plain that the result was due to the split in the Republican party. Mr. Wilson was far from getting a popular majority indeed he had fewer votes than the defeated Bryan got four years before.

845. Mr. Wilson's first two years (1913–1914) saw a remarkable record of political promises fulfilled. He called Congress at once in a special session, and kept it at work continuously for almost the whole twenty-four months. The three great problems were the Tariff, the Currency, and the Trusts. Each was dealt with fully, after careful consideration.

The Underwood Tariff was a genuine "revision downward," and its making was at least less influenced by great "special interests" than that of any tariff since the Civil War. Business had wailed "Ruin "; but no ruin came, and business quickly accepted the new situation. How far this condition was due to the artificial "protection" afforded by the European War, it is impossible as yet to say.

The Federal Reserve Act revised the banking laws, made the currency of the country more elastic, and checked the possibility of its being controlled by the "money trust." A few months later (July, 1914) the unexpected outbreak of the European war closed the great money centers of the world without warning; but in this country no bank felt obliged to call its loans. Admirers of the law claim that it has made the oldfashioned"panic" almost impossible; and certainly many of the great banks which had cried "Ruin" at the prospect of the law soon became its warm supporters.

A Federal Trade Commission was created, to investigate complaints of unfair dealing by large concerns toward smaller competitors and to provide helpful information and advice when appealed to by legitimate business. This new beneficent branch of the government holds a place in the field of trade much like that of the great Interstate Commerce Commission in the field of transportation. At the same time the Clayton Anti-Trust Act sought to check the evil of " interlocking directorates " (§ 791) and it certainly gave the courts clear rules

for dealing with Trust offenses in place of the troublesome vagueness of the old Sherman law.

In addition to meeting so the three pressing problems, the administration secured a law for a graduated income tax shifting the burden of government in part from the poor to the very rich. Quite as important was a new and needed protection given to labor unions. The courts had begun to threaten unions with punishment for strikes, under the provision of the Sherman law forbidding "conspiracies in restraint of trade." The Clayton Act expressly exempted labor combinations from such prosecution. "The labor of a human being," runs this noble provision, "is not an article of commerce." Equally pleasing to Labor was another law checking the tendency to "government by injunction " (§ 811).

President Wilson had long been known as a leading American scholar, a brilliant writer, and a great teacher and university president; but his warmest admirers had hardly hoped for such efficient leadership from "the schoolmaster in politics." This splendid constructive record was his work. Much of the legislation he planned in detail; all of it he helped plan; and he carried it all to victory by a party long unused to union and with large elements ready to rebel if they dared. He won his victory, too, not by abusing his power of patronage to keep Congressmen in line, but by sheer skill and force of character, aided by the general consciousness that the nation was rallying to his program.

846. The second half of this first term was darkened and confused by terrible foreign complications (§ 847 ff.); but these years, too, saw sound progress in domestic reform. A Good Roads law offered national aid to the States in building roads, so as to bring the farmer's market nearer to him. The SmithLever Agricultural Education Act offered coöperation with the States in teaching the farmer how to use the soil more profitably. And the Rural Credits' law made the first attempt in our history to get for the farmer the credit and the low interest commonly enjoyed by other business interests. The Railroad

§ 846]

RECORD LEGISLATION

701

Eight-Hour law, hastily as it was enacted (§ 814), saved the country from unspeakable calamity and once more proved the President's sympathy with labor. A Workman's Compensation law (§ 813 e), of the most advanced character, was made to

BUILDING THE 66 PACIFIC HIGHWAY" THROUGH OREGON.
From a photograph.

apply to all Federal employees. And the Child-Labor law (§ 813 b) began to free the children of the South from crushing labor in factories and mines.

The last two of these bills had passed the House, but were being still held up in the Senate in August of 1916. The end of the session was near. President Wilson made one of his quiet visits to the Senate wing of the Capitol, met the Democratic leaders there, and demanded that they pass both bills before adjournment. The bills were passed. Said a hostile periodical - "That is 'politics' but it is politics in a high and statesmanlike sense of the word."