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policy established free trade between the United States and China in 1900 and attempted to induce European nations and Japan to recognize the territorial integrity of China. The Open Door policy toward China and possession of the Philippine Islands shaped American actions in the Far East.Congress refused to arm the Philippines, and the islands were vulnerable to the growing power of Japan. Roosevelt wanted to balance Russian and Japanese power, and he was not unhappy at first when war broke out between them in 1904. As Japan won victory aft er victory, however, Roosevelt grew worried. Acting on a request from Japan, he offered to mediate the conflict, and both Russia and Japan accepted: Russia because it was losing, and Japan because it was financially drained.Japanese-American relations improved, and in 1908 the two nations, in an exchange of diplomatic notes, reached the comprehensive Root-Takahira Agreement in which they promised to maintain the status quo in the Pacific, uphold the Open Door, and support Chinese independence. Wilson immediately proclaimed neutrality and asked Americans to remain"impartial in thought as well as in action."The war, he said, was one "with which we have nothing to do, whose causes cannot touch us."In private, Wilson was stunned. A man who loved peace, he had long admired the British parliamentary system, and he respected the leaders of the British Liberal party, who supported social programs akin to his own. "Everything I love most in the world, he said, is at stake."In general Americans accepted neutrality, they saw no need to enter the conflict. America resisted involvement in other countries' problems, with the notable exception of Latin America, and had a tradition of freedom from foreign entanglements. Economically in our best interest, war great for economy Focus on problems at home .War, they thought, violated the very spirit of progressive reform. Why demand safer factories in which people could work and then kill them by the millions in war? To many progressives, moreover, England represented international finance,an institution they detested. Germany, on the other hand, had pioneered some of their favorite social reforms. furthermore, progressives and others tended to put the blame for war on the greed of munition manufacturers, stockbrokers, and bond dealers" eager for wartime profits. "Do you want to know the cause of the war?" Henry Ford, who was no progressive, asked.It is capitalism,greed, the dirty hunger for dollars. Above all, progressives were sure that war would end reform. It consumed money and attention; it inflamed emotions.As a result, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Frederic C. Howe,Lillian Wald, and other progressives fought to keep the United States out of war. In late 1915, they formed the American Union Against Militarism, to throw, they said, a monkey wrench into the machinery of war. Througout 1915 and 1916, La Follette's
Magazine , the voice of the progressive leader, railed against the Morgans, Rockefellers, Du Ponts, and "the thirty-eight corporations most benefited by war orders." The "preparedness" issue pitted antiwar groups against those who wanted to prepare for war. Roosevelt led the preparedness campaign. He called Wilson "yellow" for not pressing germany harder and scoffed at a popular song "I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier", which he compared to singing "I didn't raise my girl to be a mother."Defending the military's state of readiness, Wilson refused to be stampeded just because "some amongst us are nervous and excited." In fact, when government revenue dropped in 1915, he cut military appropriations. Wilson's position was attacked from both sides as preparedness advocates charged cowardice, while pacifists denounced any attempt at military readiness. The difficulty of his situation, plus the growing U-boat crisis, soon changed Wilson's mind. In mid-1915, he asked the War Department to increase military planning, and he quietly notified congressional leaders of a switch in policy. Later that year, Wilson approved large increases in the army and navy, a move that upset many peace-minded progressives. In January 1916, he toured the country to promote preparedness, and in June, with an American flag draped over his shoulder, he marched in a giant preparedness parade in Washington. Wilson named John J Pershing, leader of the Mexican campaign, to head the American Expeditionary Force. Pershing inherited an army unready for war. In April 1917, it had 200,000 officers and men, equipped with 300,000 old rifles, 1500 machine guns, 55 out-of-date airplanes, and 2 field radio sets. Germany was prepared to deliver a knock-out blow, US was race against time, planned major offensive on land, unleashed power of Germany submarines between 1917 and 1920, more than 100,000 Mexicans migrated into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.Tens of thousands of Mexican Americans moved to Chicago, St. Louis, Omaha, and other northern cities to take wartime jobs. often scorned and insecure, they created urban. Looking for more people to fill wartime jobs, corporations found another major source among southern blacks. the laborers traveled to the south promising high wages, free transportation. The move northward: more than 450000 african americans left the Old South for the booming industrial cities of St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. most newcomers were young, unmarried, and skilled or semiskilled jobs: factories, railroad yards, steel mills, packinghouses, coal mines women: restaurants,textile factories, department stores more racial freedom racial tensions increased - competition for housing and jobs the night on his way back to Washington from speeches, Wilson felt ill,returned to
Washington,and on October 2, Mrs. Wilson found him lying unconscious on the floor of the White House, the victim of a stroke that paralyzed his left side. Aft er the stroke, Wilson could not work more than an hour or two at a time. No one was allowed to see him except family members, his secretary, and his physician. For more than seven months, he did not meet with the cabinet. Secretary of State Lansing convened cabinet meetings, but when Wilson learned of them, he ordered
Lansing to stop and then cruelly forced Lansing to resign. Focusing his remaining energy on the fight over the treaty, Wilson lost touch with other issues, and critics charged that his wife, Edith Bolling
Wilson, ran the government.On November 6, 1919, while Wilson convalesced, Lodge finally reported the treaty out of committee, along with "Fourteen
Reservations," one for each of Wilson's points. 