The Triple Wall of Privilege was the term that Wilson used to describe the banks, the tariff and the trusts. Wilson's New Freedom vision was to support small farmers and small businessmen by Reforming Tariffs, Reforming the Banks, taking Antitrust actions and breaking up monopolies.
One of the important policies during his presidency was the New Freedom platform and his attack on the Triple Wall of Privilege. President Wilson, like his predecessors Roosevelt and Taft, was a firm supporter of the Progressive Movement and Progressive reforms. The presidential election of saw Roosevelt standing for re-election against Woodrow Wilson.
The men had different approaches to progressive reforms. Roosevelt accepted the economic power of the trusts but proposed new reforms to provide additional power to the federal government to regulate them. His actions included Reforming Tariffs, Reforming the Banks, Antitrust action and breaking up monopolies. Roosevelt stood for a program of New Nationalism favoring efficiency. Now, the adjustments necessary between individuals, between individuals and the complex institutions amidst which they live, and between those institutions and the government, are infinitely more intricate to-day than ever before.
No doubt this is a tiresome and roundabout way of saying the thing, yet perhaps it is worthwhile to get somewhat clearly in our mind what makes all the trouble to-day. Life has become complex; there are many more elements, more parts, to it than ever before. And, therefore, it is harder to keep everything adjusted,—and harder to find out where the trouble lies when the machine gets out of order.
You know that one of the interesting things that Mr. Jefferson said in those early days of simplicity which marked the beginnings of our government was that the best government consisted in as little governing as possible.
As Roosevelt gave speeches around the country, Taft naturally felt attacked and threatened. He suspected Roosevelt would try to take over again, which was true. In early , Roosevelt announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination. In doing so, he reneged on a promise not to run again. President Taft controlled much of the party machinery and won the nomination under questionable circumstances. Saying he was robbed of the nomination, Roosevelt and his supporters walked out of the convention, forming the Progressive Party.
The Progressive Party held a nominating convention in Chicago in August. This proposal in itself caused much further debate, but after much compromise, the Democrats who controlled both the House and Senate drafted and passed what became known as the Federal Reserve Act in The act created the Federal Reserve Bank, numerous branches of the central bank throughout the country, and the Federal Reserve Board, whose members were—and still are—appointed by the President.
The successful creation of the new banking system is regarded as Wilson's crowning domestic achievement. Finally, with two promises fulfilled, Wilson turned to strengthening the nation's antitrust laws. Since the days after Reconstruction, big business had boomed in the United States, unfettered and unchecked. Within only a couple of decades, many of the nation's core industries had developed into trusts, large corporations designed to create a monopoly on a specific product by eliminating competition.
By the turn of the century, scores of trusts existed to control the output and prices of many of the country's domestic goods; there was a sugar trust, a steel trust, an iron trust, and so on.
Armed with the Sherman Anti-trust Act, President Theodore Roosevelt had achieved unprecedented success in his campaign against the trusts. However, nothing of consequence had been accomplished during Taft's administration. As a result, many of the once-defeated trusts were regaining strength, and American consumers were suffering the consequence of higher prices. Progressives clamored for more reform, and Wilson answered their call. Unlike Roosevelt, however, Wilson chose to attack the trusts quietly and without fervor.
Only a few of the bills were enacted into law, and even these were heavily watered down by the time they passed through the Senate. For his efforts, Wilson was not only attacked by the pro-business Republicans, but ironically also from organized labor, which feared they might one day be considered a trust themselves.
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