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Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)US president. Born on 28 December 1856 in Staunton, Virginia, the son of Presbyterian minister, he was educated at Princeton and received a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He returned to Princeton in 1890 as a professor of jurisprudence. In 1902, he was made president of the university, and was responsible for major changes in its educational and social organisation. Then, in 1910, he was elected governor of New Jersey. After carrying through more reforms, he became the Democratic candidate for president and was elected 28th president in 1912. Wilson began to put into effect a programme of reforms called New Freedom, which aimed at stimulating economic competition by reducing the power of big corporations, promoting equal opportunity and stopping corruption. He also introduced income tax and set up the Federal Reserve banks in 1913. When World War I broke out, he tried to keep the United States neutral, but soon became convinced that Germany was a threat to democracy. When a German submarine sunk the British liner Lusitania in 1915, with the loss of 128 American lives, he protested strongly, and, having been re-elected president in 1916, finally led the United States into war in April 1917. His religious background and respect for legal tradition made him favour an international settlement at the end of the war in 1918. But his ideas about setting up a League of Nations, set out in the 'Fourteen Points' speech of 1918, were not popular within the US. Nevertheless, Wilson worked hard to secure a sound postwar settlement at the Paris Peace Conference, although the US Senate refused to ratify the resulting Treaty of Versailles. Nevertheless he was awarded the Nobel peace prize. The strain of conflict with the Senate over its isolationism brought on a severe stroke in September 1919, and Wilson never fully recovered. For the last year of his presidency, his wife, the redoubtable second Mrs Wilson, made all the important decisions. He died on 3 February 1924. |
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