July 7, 2020 by
Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty
(Editor's Note: I usually list Teddy Roosevelt as the worst because he gave personality to the progressive movement. He laid the intellectual, emotional and psychological groundwork for the fascist policies later imposed by Woodrow Wilson, using America's unnecessary involvement in WWI as a justification, or excuse if you like.
Both Teddy and Woodrow believed the Constitution was an impediment to human progress. But it was Wilson who actually imposed and applied those fascist principles during WWI, and for that, he's the worst President in American history, hands down. RK)
I certainly don’t intend to do this for everyone who has made it
to the White House, but I have produced big-picture economic
assessments of several presidents.
Today, let’s go back farther in history and take a look at Woodrow Wilson. At the risk of understatement, he did a very bad job. Indeed, it’s
quite likely that he ranks as America’s worst president, at least when
judging economic policy. His mistakes were either huge or disgusting.
Creating the income tax – The internal revenue code began when Wilson
signed into law
an income tax on October 3, 1913. The initial tax wasn’t overly onerous
– with a top rate of just 7 percent – but it predictably evolved into
the punitive levy that currently plagues America.
Creating the Federal Reserve
– You don’t have to be a libertarian-minded advocate of competitive
currencies to conclude that the central bank – also signed into law by
Wilson in 1913 – has caused immense damage with its erratic, boom-bust
approach to monetary policy.
Segregating the federal government
– Wilson was a reprehensible racist. To make matters worse, he turned
that personal moral failing into a big policy mistake by overseeing
rampant (and costly) discrimination and segregation in the federal
government.
Those are just the highlights – though low lights would be a more accurate word to describe Wilson’s policies. The
Encyclopedia Britannica has
a description of some additional forms of intervention imposed during his tenure.
…he took up and pushed through Congress the
Progressive-sponsored Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. It
established an agency—the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—with sweeping
authority. …because his own political thinking had been moving toward a
more advanced Progressive position—Wilson struck out upon a new
political course in 1916.
He began by appointing Louis D. Brandeis, the leading critic of big
business and finance, to the Supreme Court. Then in quick succession he
obtained passage of a rural-credits measure to supply cheap long-term
credit to farmers; anti-child-labour and federal workmen’s-compensation
legislation; the Adamson Act, establishing the eight-hour day for
interstate railroad workers; and measures for federal aid to education
and highway construction.
Lawrence Reed of the Foundation for Economic Education put together
a damning indictment of Wilson.
1913…was a disastrous year that we’re still paying a
hefty, annual price for… Wilson, arguably the worst president…ordered
the segregation of all departments within the executive branch and
appointed ardent segregationists to high positions. …He locked up
political dissidents right and left as he trampled on the Constitution’s
guarantees of speech, assembly, and press freedoms.
His wartime economic controls were hideously stupid and
counterproductive. …the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was…Strongly
supported by Wilson… Subsequent legislation set the top rate at a mere 7
percent. …When Wilson left office eight years later, the top rate was
more than ten times higher. …Wilson’s signature enshrined into law the
Federal Reserve Act, creating a central bank and more economic mischief
than any other federal initiative or institution in the last 100 years.
…In American history, 1913 should go down as a year that will live in
infamy.
It’s also worth noting that Wilson was a believer in
global governance, which adds to his awful legacy. In
a review of a biography about Wilson for the
Claremont Review of Books, David Goldman mentions that unpalatable feature of his presidency.
So utterly utopian was Wilson’s vision that it is unfair
to characterize the internationalism of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush
as “Wilsonian.” Clinton and Bush threw America’s weight around after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, but they did not propose—as Wilson did—to
replace America’s sovereign decision-making with a global council. …He
wanted to compromise American sovereignty and most of the Senate did
not.
…Wilson would have liked to impose a legal obligation from a foreign
body upon the United States, but could not say so openly. …His obsession
was the creation of a supranational agency able to dictate policy to
national governments, an obsession that grew out of his lifelong
hostility to the American political system… To make sense of his grand
overreach in 1919, historians will need to give more attention to his
rancor at the U.S. Constitution… The constitution in Wilson’s reading
had become a relic of a bygone era. He proposed to jettison this
putatively archaic document in favor of a government less burdened by
checks and balances. …The same utilitarian criteria that Wilson applied
to the Constitution guided his judgment about capitalism and socialism.
…As economists Clifford Thies and Gary Pecquet have observed, “Wilson
believed that the difference between socialism and democracy was a
matter of means rather than ends.” …He eschewed mass expropriation of
industry only because he thought it inefficient. …Although Wilson’s
dudgeon came from the Deep South, his Progressivism came from Princeton
and the Social Gospel.
Wilson’s hostility to the Constitution was part of the so-called
progressive era. Unlike
America’s Founders, proponents of this approach viewed the federal government as a positive force rather than something to be constrained.
The idea that government or “the community,” has “an
absolute right to determine its own destiny and that of its members” is a
progressive one. The difference between the Founders’ and progressive’s
visions can be summarized this way: The Founders believed citizens
could best pursue happiness if government was limited to protecting the
life, liberty, and property of individuals.
…Unlike the framers of the Constitution, progressives believed
that…“communities” have rights, those rights are more important than the
personal liberty of any one individual in that community. …they
believed…government-sponsored programs and policies as well as economic
redistribution of goods from the rich to the poor. …Wilson, who served
as president from 1913-1919, advocated what we today call the living
Constitution, or the idea that its interpretation should adapt to the
times. …Wilson oversaw the implementation of progressive policies such
as the introduction of the income tax and the creation of the Federal
Reserve System to attempt to manage the economy.
Bre Payton, in
an article for the
Federalist, opined about Wilson and the changes during the progressive era.
…to understand The New Deal and how American life and
government changed in the twentieth century and beyond, it is vital to
understand the Progressive Era… FDR
cited progressive-minded presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow
Wilson as his intellectual inspirations. …Progressives believed
restricting government to only protecting citizens’ life, liberty, and
ability to pursue happiness was simplistic. …Thus people should not fear
the ever-expanding role of government… Wilson went on to say that
modern European thinkers had declared that men were defined not by their
individuality, but by their society. And one’s rights come from
government.
Hostility to the Constitution and limited government was just one problem with the progressives.
Their views of minorities also were very troubling. In a column for
National Review, Paul Rahe
documented not only Wilson’s racism, but also his use of government power to harm the economic prospects for black Americans.
Wilson, our first professorial president, was…the very
model of a modern Progressive…he shared the conviction, dominant among
his brethren, that African-Americans were racially inferior to whites.
…Prior to the segregation of the civil service in 1913, appointments had
been made solely on merit as indicated by the candidate’s performance
on the civil-service examination.
Thereafter, racial discrimination became the norm. …The existing work
force was segregated. Many African-Americans were dismissed. …Jim Crow
had not been the norm before 1890, even in the deep South. …it became
the norm there only when it received sanction from the racist
Progressives in the North. …For similar reasons, Wilson was hostile to
the constitutional provisions intended as a guarantee of limited
government. The separation of powers, the balances and checks, and the
distribution of authority between nation and state distinguishing the
American constitution he regarded as an obstacle.
This
article from the
New Republic covers the same ground, starting with his time as head of Princeton University, but from a left-wing perspective.
Wilson not only refused to admit any black
students, he erased the earlier admissions of black students from the
university’s history. …Elected president in 1912, …Wilson
appeared to be the quintessential Progressive Era leader. …the
progressive ideology of the era was in many ways quite racist.
…it quickly became known that the Wilson administration was instituting
a major modification in the treatment of black workers throughout the
federal government from what had been the case under postwar presidents.
…the Civil Service began demanding photographs to accompany employment
applications for the first time. It was widely understood that the only
purpose of this requirement was to weed out black applicants. …He
insisted that the segregation policy was for the comfort and best
interests of both blacks and whites.
There’s more bad news about Wilson. In
a column for the
Washington Post, Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, writes about his authoritarianism as well as his racism.
His most disgraceful flaw was his racism. …Wilson
especially stood out in his white supremacy. He was not a man of his
time but a throwback. …Wilson, who preened as a civil libertarian,
persuaded Congress to pass the Espionage Act,
giving him extraordinary power to retaliate against Americans who
opposed him and his wartime behavior. That same law today enables
presidents to harass their political adversaries. Wilson’s Justice
Department also convicted almost a thousand people for using “disloyal,
profane, scurrilous or abusive language” against the government, the
military or the flag. Wilson is an excellent example of how presidents
can exploit wars to increase authoritarian power and restrict freedom.
All things considered, definitely one of America’s worst chief executives.
This tweet is an apt summary of Wilson’s presidency.
For readers who are interested in the quirks of history, Lawrence Reed of the Foundation for Economic Education
bemoans the fact that an untimely death in 1899 probably led to the unfortunate election of Wilson.
Garret Augustus Hobart—known to his friends as “Gus”—was America’s 24th
vice president. He served under William McKinley for two years and
eight months until his death in office in November 1899 at the age of
55. With Hobart’s untimely passing, President William McKinley had to
find a new running mate for the election of 1900. That man turned out to
be Theodore Roosevelt, who became president upon McKinley’s
assassination only six months into his second term.
…Teddy…enter the presidential race in 1912 as a third-party nominee.
That split the Republican vote and handed the presidency to Democrat
Woodrow Wilson. Wilson won with just 42% of the popular tally and went
on to become arguably the very worst of our 45 chief executives. …I
greatly lament the sad fact that Gus Hobart wasn’t around to run again
with McKinley in 1900. If he had lived, he instead of Teddy would have
become our 26th President when McKinley died. And if there
had been no Teddy Roosevelt presidency, there might never have been a
philandering, racist, “progressive” Wilson in the White House to royally
screw up the country with an income tax, a Federal Reserve, entry into
World War I, and other mischievous adventures in statism.
In keeping with my traditional practice, here’s a visual depiction of the good and bad policies of the Wilson Administration.
And although it’s hard to measure, Wilson belongs in the presidential
Hall of Shame because his administration was a turning point in
America’s
tragic evolution from Madisonian constitutionalism to modern statism. For instance, Wilson almost surely paved the way for
FDR’s ill-fated New Deal.
P.S. Now readers will hopefully understand why
I wrote that Obama (who largely had
a forgettable legacy) wasn’t nearly as bad at Wilson.
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