USA HISTORY

WESTWARD EXPANSION INDUSTRIALIZATION URBANIZATION 1870 1900

ROBBER BARONS

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Woodrow Wilson’s policy of a New Freedom mostly was concerned with ____
A
allowing business a free hand in creating jobs.
B
breaking up controlling trusts and promoting competition.
C
destroying all monopolies and creating government run companies.
D
hiring former robber barons to oversee government agencies.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Influenced by Louis Brandeis’s warnings about the “curse of bigness, ” Wilson offered a progressive vision calling for the use of government power to break up monopolies, curb corporate power in politics, promote economic competition, and restore a vibrant economy where small businesses and workers could thrive.

Detailed explanation-2: -Wilson argued that changing economic conditions demanded new and aggressive government policies–he called his political program “the New Freedom”– to preserve traditional American liberties.

Detailed explanation-3: -As president, Wilson changed the nation’s economic policies and led the United States into World War I in 1917. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, and his progressive stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism.

Detailed explanation-4: -Wilson focused first on tariff reform, pushing through Congress the Underwood-Simmons Act, which achieved the most significant reductions in rates since the Civil War. He argued that high tariffs created monopolies and hurt consumers, and his lower tariffs were especially popular in the South and West.

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