ilson votes
that would otherwise have gone to Taft. Taft received only eight
electoral votes in November, and ran far behind both his rivals in the
popular count. More than four million votes were polled by the new third
party in an independent movement that was without precedent. The
Socialist vote for Debs rose from 420,000 in 1908 to 895,000 in 1912.

The last year of the administration of President Taft was overshadowed
by the party war, and reduced in effectiveness by the Democratic control
of the House. The prosecutions of the trusts were continued, a parcel
post was established as a postal savings bank had been, the income tax
amendment became part of the Constitution, and an amendment for the
direct election of Senators made progress.

When Woodrow Wilson succeeded to the Presidency he formed a cabinet
headed by William J. Bryan as Secretary of State, and including only
Democrats of progressive antecedents. He called Congress in April, 1913,
to revise the tariff once more, and overturned a precedent of a century
by delivering to it his message in person. With almost no breathing
space for eighteen months, he kept Congress at its task of fulfilling
his party's pledges as he interpreted them.

Tariff, currency, and trust control were the main topics upon which the
Democrats had avowed positive convictions, and upon which the great mass
of progressive citizens, regardless of party affiliation, demanded
legislation. One by one these were taken up, the President revealing
powers of coercive leadership hitherto unseen in his office. Only the
fact that non-partisan opinion was generally with him made possible the
mass of constructive legislation that was placed upon the books. The
tariff, which became a law on October 3, 1913, was a revision whose
downward tendency was beyond dispute. The Federal Reserve Act, revising
the banking laws in the interest of flexibility and decentralization,
was signed on December 23 of the same year. In January, 1914, President
Wilson laid before Congress his plan of trust control, advocating a
commission with powers over trade coordinate with those of the
Interstate Commerce Commission, and an elaboration of the anti-trust
laws to deal with unfair practices and interlocking directorates. The
Federal Trade Commission and Clayton Anti-Trust bills fulfilled these
recommendations in the autumn of 1914. The Panama Canal Act of 1912 had
meanwhile been revised so as to eliminate a preference i