There was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing shortage. Really!

More evidence that President Woodrow Wilson was a terrible socialist who exploited World War I together with the US Congress!

"In 1918, as World War I intensified overseas, the U.S. government embarked on a radical experiment: It quietly became the nation’s largest housing developer, designing and constructing more than 80 new communities across 26 states in just two years.

These weren’t hastily erected barracks or rows of identical homes. They were thoughtfully designed neighborhoods, complete with parks, schools, shops and sewer systems.

In just two years, this federal initiative provided housing for almost 100,000 people. ...

Government mobilization

When the U.S. declared war against Germany in April 1917, federal authorities immediately realized that ship, vehicle and arms manufacturing would be at the heart of the war effort. To meet demand, there needed to be sufficient worker housing near shipyards, munitions plants and steel factories.

So on May 16, 1918, Congress authorized President Woodrow Wilson to provide housing and infrastructure for industrial workers vital to national defense. By July, it had appropriated US$100 million – approximately $2.3 billion today – for the effort, with Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson tasked with overseeing it via the U.S. Housing Corporation. ..."

Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing shortage

The U.S. Housing Corporation built nearly 300 homes in Bremerton, Wash., during World War I.

Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing crisis. Really!

Was this piece is written by a socialist professor from MIT?

One more reason to call the Progressive President Woodrow Wilson a socialist!

"In 1918, as World War I intensified overseas, the U.S. government embarked on a radical experiment: It quietly became the nation’s largest housing developer, designing and constructing more than 80 new communities across 26 states in just two years. ...

In just two years, this federal initiative provided housing for almost 100,000 people.

Few Americans are aware that such an ambitious and comprehensive public housing effort ever took place. Many of the homes are still standing today.

But as an urban planning scholar [socialist], I believe that this brief historic moment – spearheaded by a shuttered agency called the United States Housing Corporation – offers a revealing lesson on what government-led planning can achieve during a time of national need. ..."

Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing crisis

Eran Ben-Joseph, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Woodrow Wilson: American Idealist

Recommendable! I think, he was mostly an awful, progressive president!

His second wife shielded access to President Wilson after his massive stroke, which rendered im largely incapacitated. This is reminiscent of what the wife of the 46th President did many years later.

Prager University: Woodrow Wilson: The Founder of Big Government

Very recommendable! President Wilson was horrible as he introduced Big Government to the U.S.

Woodrow Wilson: The Worst Great President?

Very recommendable! Indeed a very controversial president!

How Woodrow Wilson Persecuted Hutterites Who Refused to Support His War by Lawrence Reed

Recommendable! More on why Woodrow Wilson was an awful president!

How Woodrow Wilson Persecuted Hutterites Who Refused to Support His War - Foundation for Economic Education Woodrow Wilson had no qualms about jailing people he disagreed with. His persecution of the Hutterites can attest to that.

The Disastrous Legacy of Woodrow Wilson

Recommendable! A fairly good account of the president of Princeton University that became the two term president of the U.S.



Of course, progressives still defend this lousy president!



The Disastrous Legacy of Woodrow Wilson | Mises Wire

Woodrow Wilson: This So-Called Progressive was a Dedicated Racist

Recommendable! Woodrow Wilson together with FDR and LBJ was one of the worst U.S. presidents of the 20th century!


The article is incomplete as it does e.g. not mention the infamous movie The Birth of a Nation:
"The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) ... which mythologized the founding of the first [Klu Klux] Klan ...  is a landmark of film history. It was the first 12-reel film ever made and, at three hours, also the longest up to that point. ... was by far the most complex of any movie made up to that date. It was originally shown in two parts separated by another movie innovation, an intermission, and it was the first to have a musical score for an orchestra. It pioneered close-ups, fade-outs, and a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras (another first) made to look like thousands. It came with a 13-page "Souvenir Program". It was the first American motion picture to be screened in the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson."

Woodrow Wilson: This So-Called Progressive was a Dedicated Racist - Foundation for Economic Education: The Progressives of yesteryear really were racists in the precise and proper sense of the term, and in formulating public policy they were true to their principles.

Why there is no Kurdish nation

Very recommendable! Covers many of the complexities involving this question of why about 40 million Kurds spread over 4 countries still do not have their own state!

"From 1920, the new Turkish Army [under charismatic and highly revered, but controversial leader Mustafa Kemal Attaturk]  occupied what was to become the little Kurdistan, and the Allies had no will to challenge them."

Horrible Big Government President Wilson failed here too! Not only did he break his promise to stay neutral and not to get involved in World War I, he also failed the Kurds!

Why there is no Kurdish nation: Despite many attempts, the Kurds have never won and kept their own nation -- though, after World War I, they came close.

On Woodrow Wilson's Leaders Of Men

Posted: 6/4/2016

Introduction

I find Woodrow Wilson to be among the worst Big Government (authoritarian) U.S. presidents of the 20th century right next to Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. We The People stiff suffer from many of their awful policies.

The early text by Woodrow Wilson is very revealing. His opinion about masses and individual citizens is as bad as in Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Wilson clearly appears to be an elitist and believer in the “Great Man of history” nonsense.

I contacted the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library to find a better source of the original text, but the person from the library who responded was of very little help to put it mildly. The text is apparently not available website of the library.

Sources & Attribution

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/leaders-of-men/

June 17, 1890: Commencement address ("Leaders of Men") University of Tennessee, Knoxville

https://www.questia.com/library/115768/leaders-of-men (confirmation of this text)

Wikiquote is here of little help as the excerpts found there are rather trivial and few.

Excerpts & Comments

Emphasis added.

1. “Here, unquestionably, we come upon the heart of the perennial misunderstanding between the men who write and the men who act. The men who write love proportion; the men who act must strike out practicable lines of action, and neglect proportion.”
   [Exactly what President Wilson did, neglect proportion.]
2. “This [see previous quote] would seem to explain the well-nigh universal repugnance felt by literary men towards Democracy.”
   [I suppose, WW writes about himself.]
3. “Only a very gross substance of concrete conception can make any impression on the minds of the masses; they must get their ideas very absolutely put, and are much readier to receive a half-truth which they can promptly understand than a whole truth which has too many sides to be seen all at once.”
4. “No popular leader could write fiction. He could not write fiction.”
   [What an absurd nonsense!]
5. “One of the most interesting and suggestive criticisms made upon Mr. Gladstone’s leadership during the life of his ministries was that he was not decisive in the House of Commons as Palmerston and Peel had been before him. He could not help seeing two sides of a question: the force of objections evidently told upon him. His conclusions seemed the nice result of a balancing of considerations, not the commands of an unhesitating conviction.”
   [This is what Wilson had to say about one of the greatest,  classical liberal British prime ministers.]
6. “The competent leader of men cares little for the interior niceties of other people’s characters: he cares much-everything for the external uses to which they may be put. His will seeks the lines of least resistance; but the whole question with him is a question of the application of force. There are men to be moved: how shall he move them? He supplies the power; others supply only the materials upon which that power operates. The power will fail if it be misapplied; it will be misapplied if it be not suitable both in kind and method to the nature of the materials upon which it is spent; but that nature is, after all, only its means. It is the power which dictates, dominates: the materials yield. Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader.”
   [No authoritarian leader of the 20th century (of which there were many) could have said it better!]
7. “Men in the mass differ from men as individuals. A man who knows, and keenly knows, every man in town may yet fail to understand a mob or a mass-meeting of his fellow-townsmen. ”
   [Wilson’s obsession with mobs!]
8. “Men want the wisdom which they are expected to apply to be obvious, and to be conveniently limited in amount.”
   [Wilson’s awful understanding of individual citizens!]
9. “Persuasion is a force, but not information; and persuasion is accomplished by creeping into the confidence of those you would lead. Their confidence is not gained by preaching new thoughts to them. It is gained by qualities which they can recognize at first sight by arguments which they can assimilate at once: by the things which find easy and intermediate entrance into their minds, and which are easily transmitted to the palms of their hands or to the ends of their walking-sticks in the shape of applause.”
   [Creepy language indeed by Wilson!]
10. “Leadership, for the statesman, is interpretation. He must read the common thought: he must test and calculate very circumspectly the preparation of the nation for the next move in the progress of politics. If he fairly hit the popular thought, when we have missed it, are we to say that he is a demagogue? The nice point is to distinguish the firm and progressive popular thought from the momentary and whimsical popular mood, the transitory or mistaken popular passion. But it is fatally easy to blame or misunderstand the statesman.”
    [Here speaks the eternal authoritarian again.]
11. “Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse.”
    [Presumably, one of Wilson’s more popular quotes. Wilson here resorts to stigmatizing. Uncompromising is not bad per se.]
12. “’Poetic justice’ we recognize as being quite out of the common run of experience.”
    [Really!]
13. “I do not believe that any man can lead who does not act, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, under the impulse of a profound sympathy with those whom he leads, -a sympathy which is insight, - an insight which is of the heart rather than of the intellect. The law unto every such leader as these whom we now have in mind is the law of love.”
    [From the heart rather than the intellect or by the law of love. This is where Wilson becomes incoherent compared to the rest of this text.]
14. “I do not conceive the leader a trimmer, weak to yield what clamour claims, but the deeply human man, quick to know and to do the things that the hour and his people need.”
    [Wilson as a busybody knowing what the people need.]

On The Bisbee Deportation Of 1917

Posted: 12/13/2015

Introduction

Recently, we visited Bisbee, Arizona for the first time. Inside the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum I discovered fairly comprehensive information about this infamous event of July 12, 1917. I also met an older gentlemen inside the museum who appeared to be a volunteer at the museum and with whom I had a long conversation. He was very knowledgeable about many things & details that I really thought he was perhaps a retired professor, but he was a self-taught small business owner.

Again, I do not have the time to research this topic in more depth. This story is not complete or finished! This is the caveat! E.g. I did not manage to read the important official, federal investigation into this event, i.e. the Report on the Bisbee Deportations. Made by the President's Mediation Commission to the President of the United States. Bisbee, Arizona. November 6, 1917. The counselor to this commission was none other than Felix Frankfurter, later U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Significance Of The Event

From reading about this event in the past, it was my impression that this event was one of those major events of the labor movement in the U.S. where according to the prevailing narrative poor labor was very unfairly treated by ruthless business owners. In brief, a labor/leftist/ biased view of this event seems to dominate.

Just look at the Arizona State University webpage of this event here (Source 1). The quote at the top of the page reads “How it could have happened in a civilized country I'll never know. ...” from the account of a deportee.

Notes

1. The event happened without much violence or very few death or serious injuries! Just this fact alone deserves more attention. This was probably no coincidence, but more a deliberate achievement. Therefore, this event is also quite different from other major labor strife events in the U.S.
2. It was a militant and extreme labor union, i.e. the Industrial Workers of the World, with communist affiliations and which also carried out acts of sabotage against employers  that tried to organize labor unrest etc. at the Bisbee mines. This fact is often conveniently omitted.
3. The U.S. entered World War I  on April 4, 1917, just three months before the deportation. Bisbee, at the time, was a major source of copper ore for weapons used in that war.
4. Germany asked Mexico in the Zimmermann Note to join a military alliance in January of 1917 and Germany offered to help Mexico to reconquer lost territory in the U.S. (e.g. Arizona). The U.S. learnt about this plot in February of 1917 and President Wilson released it to the media in late February of 1917.  Bisbee is only about 11 miles away from the Mexican border. Many of the miners in Bisbee were from Mexico. Mexican rebel bands had made incursions into the U.S.. Mexico was mired in coups and revolution for years.
5. At the time, the governor of Arizona (Arizona only became a state in 1912)  was a progressive, which made things certainly not easier for the mine management. If I remember correctly, the governor even refused to defuse the situation in Bisbee when the sheriff of Bisbee asked for help.
6. “A group of miners loyal to the mining companies also formed the Workman's Loyalty League.” (Source 1). Unfortunately, we do not learn how many workers were loyal to the company or even opposed to unionization.
7. “Tensions heightened when rumors spread asserting that the unions had been infiltrated by pro-Germans [Yes, there were significant numbers of pro-German Americans at the time]. Another rumor suggested that weapons and dynamite were cached around Bisbee for sabotage.” (Source 1)
8. “The vigilantes rounded up over 1,000 men, many of whom were not strikers -- or even miners -- and marched them two miles to the Warren Ballpark. There they were surrounded by armed Loyalty Leaguers and urged to quit the strike. Anyone willing to put on a white armband was released. At 11:00 a. m. a train arrived, and 1,186 men were loaded aboard boxcars inches deep in manure. Also boarding were 186 armed guards; a machine gun was mounted on the top of the train. The train traveled from Bisbee to Columbus, New Mexico, where it was turned back because there were no accommodations for so many men. On its return trip the train stopped at Hermanas, New Mexico, where the men were abandoned. A later train brought water and food rations, but the men were left without shelter until July 14th when U. S. troops arrived. The troops escorted the men to facilities in Columbus. Many were detained for several months.” (Source 1)
   So it was actually the U.S. government, which aggravated the deportation by detaining the mining workers for several month in New Mexico.
9. How many deported workers returned to Bisbee over time again to actually work for the mining company? These miners may have changed their identity to do that. I believe, it was the older gentlemen who told me about that.

To summarize, this was certainly a much more complicated situation as we are made to believe by the prevalent narrative of injustice against labor:

1. Given all the above circumstances, the management of the mining companies and the city officials of Bisbee were not seriously unjustified for their decision at the time.
2. The miners selected for deportation were asked before deportation to quit the strike and those who quit were let go. At that time this was quite an act of humanity!
3. A later train was sent to provide the deported with water and food rations. At that time this was quite another act of humanity!

President Obama Is An Embarrassment

History Will Be The Judge

For me, he is already the worst President since FDR, who presumably surpassed President Wilson and President Teddy Roosevelt. He is the greatest flip-flopper known to this generation.

President Obama To Assad In 2011: Step Aside

In mid August 2011 President Obama declared in a statement (emphasis added):

“The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people, …We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. … For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside."

His then Secretary of State apparently echoed this as well.

Abyss Syria

The President of the USA, the leader of the free world, did not draw a red line or did he?

The President of the USA is unwilling or incapable of deciding by himself whether to use military force in response to the heinous crimes against humanity by a bloody dictator. Thanks to international conventions to which a majority of countries or significant of world powers agreed to following the horrible poisonous gas attacks during World War I, the use of chemical weapons was until recently very infrequent and its use has been widely condemned since WW I.

The President of the USA then seeks authorization from the U.S. Congress for the use of military force. This is an act of meekness or calculation with regard to the coming mid-term election.

Then, somebody proposes to disarm the Syrian dictator and murderer of his chemical weapons. How does the POTUS respond? He asks Congress to postpone the authorization to use force. Is this man nuts? I would have continued to seek the authorization nevertheless. To try to disarm a mass murderer of one of his weapons, who even denies he used this weapon, is pointless. This is a red herring or a delaying technique.

Highly unusual, the President of Russia responds with an op-ed in the New York Times. In Putin’s op-ed we read to our surprise that that Putin criticizes President Obama for his use of American exceptionalism in his recent address to the American nation. Putin, you are a little devil! J This is more than ironic! Did not President Obama make strenuously effort to deny any American exceptionalism?

Too Many Bad Deals For Americans Or Socialism Made In The US

The Past 113 Years

The more I study the history of the United States Of America, the more I realize how close the so called Country of the Free have come over the past 113 years to exceed the former Soviet Union in implementing a command and control economy and to reduce the liberties of its citizen not by violent revolution and dictatorship, but by sly gradual Socialism imposed by a strong central/federal government.

Best of all, both leading parties of the US are to blame for this development. The federal courts from bottom to top played along raising the question how independent is the judiciary from the rest of government or why did the constitutional checks and balances fail so miserably.

The Square Deal, The New Deal, The Fair Deal And More

Then there was the New Nationalism, New Freedom, Congressional Government, and later the Great Society. President Obama is the current torch bearer of this sad development.

Anyone who researches the above terms will come away that the so called Progressivism comes pretty close to Socialism and that it reigned for most part of the past 113 years of US history.

I am afraid, too many Americans live in ignorance of this because of public education.