enators, and the short ballot. It favored a program of
social legislation, including the prohibition of child labor and minimum
wages for women. It approved the regulation, rather than the
dissolution, of the trusts. Like apostles in a new and lofty cause, the
Progressives entered a vigorous campaign for the election of their
distinguished leader.

=Woodrow Wilson and the Election of 1912.=--With the Republicans
divided, victory loomed up before the Democrats. Naturally, a terrific
contest over the nomination occurred at their convention in Baltimore.
Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Governor
Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, were the chief contestants. After tossing
to and fro for seven long, hot days, and taking forty-six ballots, the
delegates, powerfully influenced by Mr. Bryan, finally decided in favor
of the governor. As a professor, a writer on historical and political
subjects, and the president of Princeton University, Mr. Wilson had
become widely known in public life. As the governor of New Jersey he had
attracted the support of the progressives in both parties. With grim
determination he had "waged war on the bosses," and pushed through the
legislature measures establishing direct primaries, regulating public
utilities, and creating a system of workmen's compensation in
industries. During the presidential campaign that followed Governor
Wilson toured the country and aroused great enthusiasm by a series of
addresses later published under the title of _The New Freedom_. He
declared that "the government of the United States is at present the
foster child of the special interests." He proposed to free the country
by breaking the dominance of "the big bankers, the big manufacturers,
the big masters of commerce, the heads of railroad corporations and of
steamship corporations."

In the election Governor Wilson easily secured a majority of the
electoral votes, and his party, while retaining possession of the House
of Representatives, captured the Senate as well. The popular verdict,
however, indicated a state of confusion in the country. The combined
Progressive and Republican vote exceeded that of the Democrats by
1,300,000. The Socialists, with Eugene V. Debs as their candidate again,
polled about 900,000 votes, more than double the number received four
years before. Thus, as the result of an extraordinary upheaval the
Republicans, after holding the office of President for sixteen years,
pa