Sample Essay On President Woodrow Wilson

Introduction:

It is inherent for everybody to know the history of their own society. Reading books as well as analyzing some past political topics are very essential on that context. As for this report, the referred country is the United States. The United States has been growing its power ever since it was established as a nation. Evidently, a nation is either ruled by a President or a Prime Minister depending on the form of state they have. Regardless of which position they have come from, a president must cater to the needs of its fellowmen. He is obliged to follow the constitution and exercise the power of an executive in a lawful manner. As for this paper, this will tackle a book review titled “The New Freedom” written by President Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson is the 28th President of the United States.
The program of the President Wilson New freedom has been dubbed with two meanings. First, it has the promises of President Wilson in 1912 while running for the Presidency and second is the progressive programs implement by the Wilson Administration during his term (1913-1916). The New Freedom program was mainly focused on reforms to strengthen the welfare of American Citizens. The following are the reforms the Wilson Administration wanted; Tariff Reform, Business Reform and lastly the Banking Reform. These reforms are basically made to support the growing economy of the country. And as the President had promised in his electoral campaign, he has made concrete actions to make it possible. At first the Congress was dominated by the Democratic Party and wartime policies are not included in the new freedom. In 1981 the Republican overthrown the democrats in the election and basically the party was hostile on the said reform program. The aim of this paper is to basically understand the contents of “The New Freedom” and to understand the history behind it.

The New Freedom

As the new president was elected, their party has been very essential to their stands on matter of program reforms. President Wilson is the latest Democrat elected President at that time and has given the party the chance they could not have for about 50 years. There was a huge vote in the electoral college for the democrats and has given them the chance to suggest reforms on government policies.
With the support of the majority democrats in the congress as well as in the senate, the president has strengthened his approach on new reforms. Evidently, there is a little to no political oppositions. Right after he held office, the President made sure that all of his promises in the campaign will be brought into life. The collective term “The New Freedom” was basically referred to reforms in domestic policies such as reduction of tariff, improvement of the Sherman act as well as the strengthening of banking system. Additionally, President Wilson initiated the reformation of the Democratic Party because the lack of strong leadership. The support in reforms is mainly progressive as well as interactive.
The new president’s initial work is to revamp the previous Republican administration. President Wilson has been heavily relying on his associate and friend Col. Edward M. House. It is also noteworthy that President Wilson and Col. House have met each other in a very short span of time yet developed their friendship throughout the electoral campaign of Wilson.
Moreover the president has strategically planned his new members to have a hold on leftist Democrats and Populists. Wilson has appointed William Jennings Bryan as the Secretary of State direct to the President. The Secretary of Treasury at that time was William McAdoo that married one of the president’s daughters later on. It is also noted that other positions in the cabinet were filled by former public servants such as governors, judges, educators and reporters just to have a good fit on vacant positions.
As he has found the right person to serve as his cabinet members, the President started out his reform program just like what he promised during the electoral campaigns. The first move was made through the tariff issues on imported goods. This has been a huge issue ever since the Republican passed out the Payne Aldrich Tariff almost 10 years ago. The previous tariff law was drafted and approved on 1909. The previous tariff law was mainly approved to support the domestic businesses as well as native businessmen of the country. Foreign goods are given a tax of approximately 40% just to protect the domestic business from international competition.
In effect to this large tax imposition, the goods are priced extremely high and would definitely discourage the citizens to buy it. However, this is not the case. High tariffs on goods have protected many business men and manufacturers but has forced common people to buy expensive goods that should be cheaper in the very first place.
The moved by the president has made the congress take action so quickly and has made them produce the Underwood Act. The act reduced the tariff imposed on all imported goods. The new tax for them is only about 25%. Additionally, the tariff on some basic needs is essentially nullified. Clothing, sugar, steel and wool are one of those products exempted from the tariff.
The formation of a federal income tax was also made through the Underwood act. This has made legal through the passage of the 16th amendment to the constitution. There were many debates as to what are some deficits on the bill are. However, after several arguments and political fighting and with the power of the president the bill has made into a law in the year 1913. The approval of the said law was the first victory of President Wilson as well as the first of the new freedom reforms that is acted upon.
As the Underwood act has been pushed through and has become a law, the president then turns his head on the reform on the banking system of the country. This time the president has been experiencing difficulty in making it pass. It was evident that the banking system before the Wilson Administration is so inefficient and has been commonly tagged as a failure.
The creation of the banking system was right after the civil war however it has little to no power over the national funds. Additionally, it cannot monitor efficiently on what is happening to the financial status of the country. This refers to the central bank that has been very inefficient and could not even show power over the funds of the nation deposited in it. But the struggle was real for this reform. Even though everyone agreed to do some reform but the proposals were greatly debated by everyone in the senate. One of the most impressive moves in the banking reform is the formation of a federal bank that can control the nation’s reserved money.
This new bank can be connected to smaller banks from other states of the country that also holds a part of the national reserved fund. Debates are very existent at this time. Some Democrats disagree with plan for it has no concrete methods in running the national bank. Republicans think that the bank is a socialistic one. Some common people and Midwest agrarian would like the bank to be controlled by the people. The President supported the idea and has proposed the appointment of board of overseers to govern the federal central bank. Eventually it became the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Many smaller banks were established to support the function of the central bank to the states of the nation.
Finally, the President strengthened the Sherman act that would lead to the strengthening of the Nation’s antitrust law. However it did not make any much of an impact. Now let us refer to the book which is the main framework of these amendments.

The Book’s Impact to the American Citizen

Basically, the book has integrated the points it wanted to convey in chapters. The Changing of the old laws that are not applicable to the society anymore is the first part of the book. This would address the laws passed before and after the civil war. The emphasis on the state on the country as one of the most capable country that could emerge into a superpower in the near future was very present in the dialogues of President Wilson.
Secondly, the president wanted to define what real progress is in the next chapter. The real progress is to look upon what is lacking. The president has emphasized that the country has been lagging in terms of economic progress. The reforms needed is very evident to survive and to become one of the most powerful country existing.
The following chapter talks about the meaning of being a freeman. Being a freeman mean no guardian. You are obliged to know what is happening to your society, may it be changes in your laws or the current events that are happening to your community. The president has been very frank in telling in his book that people are very ignorant on what is happening on their surroundings and in order for them to be free is that they need to know more. Basically the president has been telling that the people of the United States know what they need and they only need to act upon it to achieve freedom. The president encourages the people to challenge those who govern them and encourage them to do better for the sake of their own country.
The next chapter “Life comes from the soil” pertains to the experiences the nation has undergone. It basically summarizes the climb of America and encourages the unity of each other to perform and contribute to the welfare of the country. There is always a constant renewal in the society and thus a small group that governs a country does not live up to the expectation of giving out a progressive country. The president suggested that the only way that the nation could strive more into progress is to let the views of others be heard, that the humility of the government could be tested on that context. The next one on the book has been referring to the unity of the nation; “The Parliament of the People”. The nation is not only composed of the senate and the executive level but all of the citizens living and contributing to the welfare of the nation. “Let there be light” refers to the transparency of the government to its people.
In conclusion, the president has challenged the norm at that time. He wanted to outgrow what is traditional and impractical. Moreover the intrinsic value of nationalism is carried out all in the book. Evidently, it is up to us every American citizen on how to make our country unified and be more progressive.