Wilson (1944)

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s last birthday (he passed away in February, 1924).

When I was a kid, and into my young adulthood, historians traditionally ranked Wilson very high among the Presidents, somewhere around slot #6. Given his slide in those standings over the last couple of decades (he’s generally rated somewhere between 13th or 15th now), the existence of the 1944 movie Wilson may seem perplexing to you. I understand why he has slid in popular esteem, but first let’s talk about why he was formerly much closer to the top. 1) Wilson was a Progressive. Some of TR’s domestic policy ideas came from Wilson, from his years as an academic at Princeton and Governor of New Jersey. When he became Chief Executive, Wilson maintained and expanded the new Presidential role established by Roosevelt, that the government would now play a part in protecting citizens and consumers from the murderous greed of corporations. 2) Wilson was the first President to actively and vociferously make world peace and an international order his personal ambition. He championed the League of Nations. And while he was famously devoted to keeping the U.S. out of the World War, his brave decision to reverse his position ended the conflict far more rapidly than otherwise would have been the case, earning him the Nobel Peace Prize. 3) More divisively perhaps, he established the Federal Reserve and instituted the income tax, both arguable bulwarks of national economic strength and stability. 4) As we mentioned, Wilson was an academic, an actual author and scholar, certainly up there with Jefferson, Lincoln, and TR among the most brilliant men ever to hold Presidential office. While, it was common to compare Obama to Lincoln during his administration, there were ways he reminded me of Wilson. I know that’s ironic and we’ll return to that.

Woody Guthrie was named after Woodrow Wilson (his full name was Woodrow Wilson Guthrie). Will Rogers performed for Wilson in 1916 in what is believed to have been the first instance of an American comedian teasing an American President in real time, directly to his face. Because in a Democracy you can do that. FDRwas a Wilson man, and arguably modeled his own Presidency after Wilson’s. I think it doubtful that there ever would have been a New Deal if Wilson hadn’t first put forth The New Freedom. The timing of the bio-pic (1944) surely has something to do with the FDR-Wilson connection, and the fact that the nation was now in its Second World War. The movie came out of the same spirit that inspired Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). But that’s where the similarity ends. Obviously, this one is not full of singing and dancing, although we are thankful that Eddie Foy Jr makes a brief appearance as his famous dad.

One reason you may not have ever heard of the movie Wilson is that the man cast as the lead in the film was a minor supporting actor named Alexander Knox, cast apparently for his resemblance to the subject. Knox was nominated for an Oscar, but that was really just (as the expression goes) so much politics. It’s a rather dreary performance in an equally dreary movie, Technicolor notwithstanding. Its 154 minute running time (two and a half hours) is undoubtedly another reason the film is rarely screened. I mean, it really is cinematic spinach. Like all such “important” movies, it is however stuffed with excellent supporting players like Geraldine Fitzgerald (as First Lady Edith Wilson), Charles Coburn, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price,Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and Sidney Blackmer. Still, it’s one of those movies that’s all about men talking with worried expressions on their faces, signing papers, and giving speeches. What a waste of Technicolor — though the flags and bunting are very beautiful.

To its credit, the movie does not shy away from the awkward detail of Wilson’s last year, when he suffered a stroke and his wife Edith became “the first female President”, and so many of his dreams slipped through his hands. To my mind, there’s your real movie. I think if anyone chose to treat the Wilson story cinematically at all nowadays, it ought to focus entirely on that period, which was a genuine (through secret) Constitutional crisis.

This of course is one of the reasons why Wilson’s Presidency has slipped in its ranking among historians. The responsible thing to do by Wilson and his advisers would have been to pass the baton to the Vice President, Thomas R. Marshall. After all, that was what a Vice President is for. No one elected Mrs. Wilson or the cabinet. Wilson’s judgment was impaired during those last few months, a scary thing in any President. And worse for the country and the world, the fact that Wilson was weakened meant that America did not join the League of Nations (he lacked the strength to push it through the isolationist Congress).

There are several other black marks against him. The peace terms at the end of World War One were lousy and led directly to World War Two. So much for the War to End All Wars. Many would argue that the creation of the Fed and the income tax fed the bubble that resulted in the Great Depression. Then there’s the fact that as a purported man of peace, his domestic security measures were repressive to put it mildly. Public figures like Eugene Debs and Emma Goldman were jailed for their political views.

And the biggest mark against him (nowadays) is that Wilson was, to be blunt, a racist Dixiecrat. Hailing from Virginia and Georgia, he was America’s first Southern President since John Tyler, whose Presidency had ended in 1845. He was born in the middle of the Civil War, and grew up during the Reconstruction Era when racist mutterings against Federal policies must have filled his ears morning, noon, and night. Wilson famously screened The Birth of a Nation (1915) in the White House and spoke of it approvingly (“history written with lightning” he called it). With regard to racial policy, Wilson was an active segregationist — a stark contrast with Teddy Roosevelt, who had invited Booker T. Washington to dinner. Wilson was a literal Jim Crow President.

And so was the later Dixiecrat Lyndon Johnson, though Johnson later had a come-to-Jesus moment and passed the Voting Rights Act. So Johnson has now passed Wilson on most Presidential popularity polls, as have JFK, Reagan, Obama, Eisenhower, and Truman, most of which I find pretty outrageous. Sure, Truman integrated the armed services. Great! He also dropped atomic bombs! Eisenhower and Reagan backed right wing coups! Johnson destroyed Vietnam! And if we’re demoting for racism, a dozen US Presidents owned slaves, including the still top-ranking Washington and Jefferson and high-ranking Madison and Monroe. Nearly all U.S. Presidents have been racists if it comes to that. Even Abraham Lincoln was not for full racial equality. Of all the Presidents, who was NOT a racist by modern standards? Just Obama! (Sorry Clinton-lovers, that “Three Strikes Law” disproportionately harmed communities of color.) ALL of the Presidents have been racists! And so have nearly all the entertainers (if you’ve read this blog carefully) and nearly everyone else in this country and on the planet throughout history.

This isn’t to condone the racism, it’s to point out the inconsistency of the standard when it comes to this particular case, if we’re drawing up balance sheets. To this day, the idea of fostering democracy (as opposed to autocracy) around the globe is known as “Wilsonian” foreign policy. So what’s peace and democracy, chopped liver?