1910

  

__________ 

A “money monopoly” controls the nation. 

Woodrow Wilson

__________

Marie Radziwill by Boldini

 

U.S. population increases by 21% in the previous decade, rising to 92,228,496 in the 1910 census. Cleveland is the sixth largest city in the country, with 560,663 residents. (Today, the city has fewer people.)

 

*

 

Still claiming the divine right of kings.

Wilhelm II explains his claim to the royal crown; it was “granted by God’s Grace alone and not by parliaments, popular assemblies, and popular decision…Considering myself an instrument of the Lord, I go my way.”

 

(The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; p. 95)

Coal mining was highly dangerous in 1910.

 

* 

April: Woodrow Wilson goes to Pittsburgh to speak. Walworth explains how his words struck a chord:

 

The “children of Israel” – the God-fearing, hard-working marrow of America – were crying out for a prophet, a responsible leader, someone who could tell them what it all meant, who could either justify or curb the vast power that sheer money had gained. Their hope for a revival of the old, rosy spirit of the frontier lay in the appearance of a political messiah – a prophet who would utter wisdom and give justice. (10/133)

 

Wilson himself warned:

 

I feel it my duty to say that they – at least the Protestant churches – are serving the classes and not the masses of the people. They have more regard for pew rents than for men’s souls. They are depressing the level of Christian endeavor … the American people will tolerate nothing that savours of exclusiveness. Their political parties are going to pieces. (10/138)

 

Walworth explains,

 

In unmasking deep personal feelings the speaker had touched sensitive chords in millions of his fellows who identified themselves with the “masses of men upon whose blood and energy” a “handful of conspicuous men” were “subsisting.” Woodrow Wilson had played – by ear – the music that lures votes. (10/139)

 

Convinced he should run for governor, he explained:

 

The future is not for parties “playing politics” but for measures conceived in the largest spirit, pushed by parties whose leaders are statesman not demagogues, who love, not their offices but their duty and their opportunity for service. We are witnessing a renaissance of public spirit, a reawakening of sober public opinion, a revival of the power of the people, the beginning of an age of thoughtful reconstruction that makes our thought heart back to the great age in which democracy was set up in America. With the new age we shall show a new spirit… (10/158)

 

Wilson once referred to “the cold bath of public opinion.” (10/177) 

He spoke of a “money monopoly.” (10/211) 

He once referred to the Bible as “the ‘Magna Carta’ of the human soul.” (10/205)