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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 5: Woodrow Wilson Wins 15104 Views
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Description:
Woodrow may have had a silly name, but it's because of him that children aren't working on the railroad all the livelong day. He also brought about the federal reserve system, and women's right to vote. It's fair to say he wasn't holding office just to pass the time away.
Transcript
- 00:03
Teddy's bull moose shenanigans in 1912 were a big deal by splitting the [political cartoon]
- 00:09
Republican vote between he and Taft TR paved the way for Woodrow Wilson a
- 00:15
Democratic president in a time where Republicans had been a dominant force
- 00:19
well the Republicans were probably like thanks a lot Toby we can tell you where [Teddy in office with elephant]
- 00:24
to stick the bull moose but the Democrats well they were over the moon [donkey jumps over the moon]
Full Transcript
- 00:28
Wilson differed from both Taft and Roosevelt in specific ways but it was
- 00:32
Wilson's new freedom platform that made him stand out the most [old newspaper about Wilson]
- 00:35
Woodrow wanted to change existing laws regarding tariffs banks and trusts and
- 00:41
he put his money where his mouth was by passing the first child labor law and [political cartoon]
- 00:45
establishing the eight-hour workday for railroad workers because yeah sleepy [Child Labor, 8-Hour Workday acts of 1916]
- 00:50
train engineers are just a bad idea Wilson also remixed the existing banking [train wreck]
- 00:56
structure to allow for more flexibility well how to do it by establishing the
- 01:00
Federal Reserve Bank which moved reserve funds from a centralized location and
- 01:05
distributed them into 12 locations across the u.s. because putting all your
- 01:10
eggs in one basket makes for a mess that's not quite how that expression [eggs flying through basketball hoop]
- 01:15
goes is it well it's true what made the Federal Reserve Bank system so important [eggs getting fried]
- 01:19
was that if banks needed to get cash quickly there was always a piled nearby [political cartoon in newspaper]
- 01:23
it was kind of like having a ginormous piggy bank buried in the backyard [piggy bank rising out of lawn]
- 01:27
so we recommend against it if one's yard is prone to sieving moles don't laugh
- 01:32
they're a threat Wilson also lowered the tariff that Taft had kept high and he
- 01:37
established the Federal Trade Commission while Wilson was an office Congress
- 01:41
passed two constitutional amendments and ratified two others well the first to
- 01:44
pass was the eighteenth Amendment which started prohibition Wilson vetoed that [congress paper]
- 01:49
amendment but Congress had enough votes to override his veto to which Wilson [congress paper veto'd]
- 01:53
probably said something like alright fine let's see how that works out well
- 01:58
the 19th amendment which granted women's suffrage also passed under Wilson's
- 02:02
watch though he wasn't a big fan at first but it still was a big deal [women's suffragettes]
- 02:06
Wilson was also in office when the 16th and 17th amendments were ratified yeah
- 02:11
geez what's with all this amending sounds like the Constitution was
- 02:14
starting to get too filled with red ink there right okay it makes sense that so
- 02:18
many amendments were supported during the Progressive Era and especially
- 02:22
during Wilson's administration Wilson was cool with founding fathers and
- 02:26
thought they'd done a bang-up job on the Constitution but they also designed it
- 02:31
so that we could change it just at the time like imagine if men were still
- 02:35
forced to wear powdered wigs and hose actually that might not be too far away
- 02:40
who knows what hipsters will do neck [wig-wearing hipsters in coffee shop]
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