Part 1 Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter 2 takes up the story in 1913, with the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson as president. Wilson broke tradition by appearing in person before the Congress to announce his intention to reduce tariffs. His party, the Democrats, controlled both houses and lowered tariffs more than Wilson asked and passed the first progressive income tax, banking and labor reforms. In 1913 the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified, changing the way in which senators were elected, by popular vote rather than appointment by state legislatures; reformers had hoped this would make the Senate more responsive to the will of the people.

World War I helped the gates of the dam to swing shut again. The Senate reasserted itself by rejecting the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations and in the election of 1920, Senate Democrats saw to it that one of their members, Warren G. Harding...