Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (English: Thomas Woodrow Wilson, December 28, 1856 - February 3, 1924) was an American politician and the 28th President of the United States. As a leader of the Progressive Era, his ideas were called Wilsonianism by later generations. In the 1912 U.S. presidential election, due to the competition between former President Theodore Roosevelt and then-President William Taft, which divided Republican votes, he was eventually elected as a Democrat with 40% of the popular vote and the electoral votes of 40 states, becoming the only Democratic president from 1897 to 1933. Previously, he served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey. To date, he is the only U.S. president to hold the title of Doctor of Philosophy (other than the title of Doctor of Laws), and the only U.S. president to have held public office in New Jersey before becoming president. During Wilson's first term, he supported the Democratic-controlled Congress in passing the Federal Reserve Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act, the new Revenue Act to impose an income tax at the federal level, and the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission. But at the same time, he supported segregation in federal government agencies, which led to the dismissal of a large number of black employees and was criticized by civil rights groups at the time. After barely winning the 1916 U.S. presidential election, the central issue of Wilson's second term was World War I. Although he campaigned on the slogan "he kept us out of the war," America's policy of neutrality did not last. Germany sent a telegram to Mexico via Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, stating that if the two countries formed an alliance, Germany would help Mexico regain several northern states occupied by the United States. In addition, Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare prompted Wilson to warn Germany many times and finally asked Congress to declare war in April 1917. However, Wilson mainly focused on the diplomatic and financial aspects of participating in the war, and left the combat tasks to the military department. On the home front, he launched the first effective conscription in American history in 1917, raised billions of war funds through the establishment of Liberty Bonds, and established the War Industries Commission.