Woodrow Wilson and the Explosive Growth of Presidential Power III

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: As America’s involvement in World War I escalated in 1917, Wilson began a grand escalation of government control over the means of production and distribution; to bring those parts of the economy into support for the war effort. The President, however, was not content to simply subordinate the marketplace to his schemes. It was not just military or foreign affairs over which Wilson desired control. He went after American’s minds as well. He said, “There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life. Such creatures…must be crushed out.”