President Wilson’s Vision For Post-War America

American Doughboys began to flood into France in the first half of 1918, and the German command determined to make a major push to gain an advantage in the war before the Americans could make their presence felt. Their offensive did not go well, and in early August a counter-attack by the Allies placed the Germans on the defensive for the balance of the war. So by late August 1918, it was clear that the war would be won, and moreover would end in the forseeable future. As victories piled up throughout September, the President was concentrating on negotiations to end the war and the on the need to reorder world affairs along the lines of his famous 14-points. However, he was also thinking deeply about the domestic scene and beginning to consider the shape of post-war America.

Wilson started his political career as governor of New Jersey and as such was leader of that state’s Democratic Party. He left Washington just a few times during World War I, believing that his personal presence was important to the war effort. In this spirit, he declined, probably with real regret, an invitation to speak at a banquet being held by Democrats in New Jersey in the lead-up to the 1918 election. Instead, he sent this striking message to his old colleagues, one likely to be read to the group. It constitutes his definitive view of how America would need to change as a result of the war.

Typed Document Signed as President on White House letterhead, 3 pages, Washington, circa September 1918, to the Toastmaster of the Democratic Reorganization Banquet. Wilson started with a summation of his progressive accomplishments as Governor of New Jersey. “I sincerely regret that matters of pressing importance will prevent my taking part…At the same time…I cannot overlook my responsibility as leader of a great party…It is my privilege to point out what I believe to be the duty of the Democrats in New Jersey, now and in the months to come, in order that the exigency of a great hour of crisis may be properly met. During the months that I had the privilege of serving the people of New Jersey in the office of Governor, we sought to accomplish this definite purpose, namely, to open the processes of government to the access and inspection of every citizen, in order that the people might feel that the Government of New Jersey represented their hopes, their impulses, and their sympathies. It was with this great purpose in mind that we succeeded in establishing electoral machinery which took away from selfish political leaders the power to hold the mass of the party voters of the state in subjection to themselves…In every act of legislation we cut a clear pathway of public service and achieved a record remarkable for its variety and humanity, in every way comprehensive in character and touching no vital interest in the state with a spirit of injustice or demagogy. We gave the people after many tedious and discouraging years of waiting a government which they could feel was their own, free and unhampered by special privilege.”

Wilson continued with a statement about how the war and world situation were bringing dislocation and uncertainty, and would inevitably result in alteration of the national and international landscapes. He saw an urgent and vaguely discomfitting mood among the electorate in the coming post-war era, especially among returning soldiers, who would demand a more democratic and sincere government. “A time of grave crisis has come in the life of the Democratic party…Every sign of these terrible days of war and revolutionary change, when economic and social forces are being released upon the world whose effect no political seer dare venture to conjecture, bids us search our hearts through and through and make them ready for the birth of a new day, a day we hope and believe of greater opportunity and greater prosperity for the average mass of struggling men and women, and of greater safety and opportunity for children. The old party slogans have lost their significance and will mean nothing to the voter of the future, for the war is certain to change the mind of Europe as well as the mind of America. Men everywhere are searching democratic principles to their hearts in order to determine their soundness, their sincerity, their adaptability to the real needs of their life, and every man with any vision must see that the real test of justice and right action is presently to come as it never came before. The men in the trenches, who have been freed from the economic serfdom to which some of them had been accustomed, will, it is likely, return to their homes with a new view and a new impatience of all mere political phrases and will demand real thinking and sincere action.”

Wilson finished with his prediction that the future would belong to those leaders who understood and responded to the needs of the people, and promoted justice and transparency in government. “Let the Democratic party in New Jersey, therefore, forget everything but the new service which they are to be called upon to render. The days of political and economic reconstruction which are ahead of us…every program must be shot through and through with utter disinterestedness, that no party must try to serve itself but every party must try to serve humanity, and that the task is a very practical one, meaning that every program, every measure in every program, must be tested by this question and this question only: Is it just, is it for the benefit of the average man, without influence or privilege; does it embody in real fact the highest conception of social justice and of right dealing, without respect of person or class or particular interest? This is a high test. It can be met only by those who have genuine sympathy with the mass of men and real insight into their needs and opportunities and a purpose which is purged alike of selfish and of partisan intention. The party which rises to this test will receive the support of the people, because it deserves it.”

While Wilson peered into the future and saw a league of nations, a more democratic electorate and a more responsive government, it was his Republican opponents who had the clearest focus on the 1918 elections that were virtually imminent. And in those elections, they were successful in retaking both houses of Congress and thereafter stymying the President’s programs. The upcoming dozen years would belong to their visions, not Wilson’s. In time, however, the view of the future he articulated here would prevail and most of his predictions would come true. From the Forbes Collection.