Wilson

Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813, American ornithologist, b. Scotland. He came to the United States c.1794 and taught in rural New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Encouraged by William Bartram, he studied the birds of his adopted country, learned to portray them, and began his American Ornithology (9 vol., 1808-14), a work that is noted for its accuracy and sensitive draftsmanship. The last two volumes of this series of books were completed by his friend and biographer (1829), George Ord, after Wilson's death. Wilson is also known for his poems and essays on nature.

Wilson, Sir Angus, 1913-91, English novelist, b. South Africa. As a novelist, he attempted to delineate a society in which traditional values have lost their force and human relationships are corrupted by pretension and sham. After the publication of two volumes of short stories his first novel, Hemlock and After (1952), appeared. It was followed by Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956), considered to be his major achievement, The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot (1958), Late Call (1965), No Laughing Matter (1967), and Setting the World on Fire (1980). Wilson taught for many years at the Univ. of East Anglia, and was knighted in 1980. Wilson's other writings include Death Dance: 25 Stories (1969) and studies of Zola (1952), Dickens (1970), and Kipling (1977).

Wilson, August, 1945-2005, American playwright and poet, b. Pittsburgh as Frederick August Kittel. Largely self-educated, Wilson first attracted wide critical attention with his Broadway debut, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), a play set in 1927 that dramatizes the clash between the blues diva and a member of her band and the larger conflicts brought about by racist American society. Wilson's plays center on the struggles and identity of African Americans and the deleterious effect of white American institutions on black American life. His works draw heavily on Wilson's own experience growing up in the Hill district of Pittsburgh, a black ghetto where nearly all of his plays are set. His characters are ordinary people whose histories, frustrations, and aspirations Wilson astutely portrays. His cycle of ten dramas written over a period of more than 20 years include various overlapping characters and themes. In addition to Ma Rainey, it includes Jitney (1982), Fences (1987; Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990; Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1995), King Hedley II (2001), Gem of the Ocean (2003), and Radio Golf (2005). Acclaimed as landmarks in the history of black American culture, these works focus on the major issues confronting African Americans during each of the decades of the 20th cent. In 2003, Wilson starred in a production of his autobiographical one-man play How I Learned What I Learned.

Wilson, Benjamin, 1721-88, English portrait painter and electrician who opposed Benjamin Franklin's theory of positive and negative electricity. Instead, Wilson supported Newton's gravitational-optical ether, which he supposed to differ in density around bodies in accordance with their degrees of electrification. Wilson also opposed Franklin's theory of lightning rods, holding that blunt conductors performed better than pointed ones. His best experimental work was on the electrical properties of the tourmaline. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1751 and received its gold medal in 1760 for his electrical experiments.

Wilson, Charles Erwin, 1890-1961, American industrialist and cabinet officer, b. Minerva, Ohio. He was an electrical engineer with Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company from 1909 to 1919 and designed the first automobile starters made by Westinghouse. In 1919 he joined General Motors Corp., becoming (1926) president of Delco Remy Corp., a subsidiary. Vice president of General Motors from 1929 to 1939, he became executive vice president in 1939 and president in 1941. In World War II he supervised the huge war production activity in which General Motors was engaged. He is credited with formulating the cost-of-living wage formula that General Motors first inserted in its union contract in 1948. From 1953 to 1957 he was President Eisenhower's Secretary of Defense.

Wilson, Charles Thomson Rees, 1869-1959, Scottish physicist, educated at Manchester and Cambridge universities. He was Jacksonian professor of natural philosophy at Cambridge from 1925 to 1934. Noted for his studies of atmospheric electricity, he devised a method for the protection of barrage balloons from lightning during World War II. He invented the Wilson cloud chamber for studying the activity of ionized particles. For this invention he shared with A. C. Compton, a U.S. physicist, the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Wilson, Colin, 1931-, English writer, b. Leicester. Born into a working-class family and largely self-educated, Wilson in many of his books exhorts humankind to expand its powers and realize its full potential. He first gained critical attention with The Outsider (1956), the individual who realizes that life is futile and that society conceals this unpleasant truth. Wilson has written more than 100 works, both nonfiction and fiction, and has shown a considerable interest in mystery, murder, and the occult. Among his books are Beyond the Outsider (1965), The Glass Cage (1966), Bernard Shaw: A Reassessment (1969), Order of Assassins (1972), Hesse, Reich, Borges (1974), Life Force (1985), Beyond the Occult (1988), Alien Dawn (1998), and Devil's Party (2000).

Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1972, American critic and author, b. Red Bank, N.J. grad. Princeton, 1916. He is considered one of the most important American literary and social critics of the 20th cent. From 1920 to 1921 he was managing editor of Vanity Fair, and he was later on the staffs of the New Republic (1926-31) and New Yorker (1944-48). In the 1930s he was much interested in the theories of Freud and Marx, ideas that are treated in many of his works. Among his major writings are Axel's Castle (1931), a study of symbolism (see symbolists) and other imaginative modernist literatures; The Wound and the Bow (1941); The Shores of Light (1952); and Patriotic Gore (1962), on the American Civil War.

As a critic Wilson was concerned with the social, psychological, and political conditions that shape literary ideas. His social studies include To the Finland Station (1940), a history of the European revolutionary tradition that praises the Soviet Union (a position he soon reversed), and The American Earthquake (1958), a record of the Great Depression. His versatility is further revealed in his I Thought of Daisy (1929), a novel; Memoirs of Hecate County (1949), short stories; and Five Plays (1954). Wilson also edited F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished The Last Tycoon and posthumous The Crack-up (both: 1945). His later works include Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1955), A Window on Russia (1973), and The Devils and Canon Barham: 10 Essays on Poets, Novelists, and Monsters (1973). Wilson's third wife was the author Mary McCarthy.

Wilson, Edmund Beecher, 1856-1939, American zoologist, b. Geneva, Ill., grad. Yale (Ph.B., 1878), Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., 1881). He taught at Bryn Mawr (1885-91) and at Columbia (1891-1928), where he initiated research in genetics and attracted many followers. His principal work was on the function of the cell in heredity and on the role of the chromosomes (including the significance of the sex chromosome). He also studied embryology and experimental morphology. His works include The Cell in Development and Heredity (1896, 3d ed. 1925) and The Physical Basis of Life (1923).

Wilson, Edward Osborne, 1929-, American sociobiologist, b. Birmingham, Ala. Founder of sociobiology, Wilson was educated at the Univ. of Alabama and Harvard, joined the Harvard faculty in 1956, and later became a professor of zoology. His exhaustive study of ants and other social insects, on which he is the world's chief authority, led to his Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), a controversial work on the genetic factors in human behavior in which Wilson argued that all human behavior, including altruism, is genetically based and therefore "selfish." He later called for careful study of "gene-cultural co-evolution." Critics have called sociobiology a dangerously reductive determinism that could be used to defend notions of racial superiority and eugenics; others have defended Wilson's evidence and biological reasoning.

Wilson's On Human Nature (1978) won the Pulitzer Prize; Biophilia (1984) suggests that human attraction to other living things is innate; Consilience (1998) urges wider integration of the sciences; and The Creation (2006) pleads for a unified effort by secular and religious thinkers to save the earth's biodiversity. Other books by Wilson are Insect Societies (1971), The Diversity of Life (1992), The Ants, with Bert Hölldobler (1990; Pulitzer Prize), The Future of Life (2002), and The Superorganism, also with Hölldobler (2008).

Wilson, Harold (James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx), 1916-95, British statesman. A graduate of Oxford, he became an economics lecturer there (1937) and a fellow of University College (1938). Wilson entered Parliament (1945) as a Labour member, and as president of the Board of Trade (1947-51) he ended many of the wartime controls on industry. In 1951 he resigned with Aneurin Bevan, opposing the introduction of changes within the National Health Service. He thus became a spokesman for the left-wing of the Labour party, later opposing party leader Hugh Gaitskell's stand against unilateral nuclear disarmament.

After Gaitskell's death (1963), Wilson won the leadership of the party and became prime minister in 1964. At first his government had only a four-seat majority in Parliament, but it was reelected with a large majority in 1966. The Labour government under Wilson sought to offset Britain's diminishing role outside Europe by increasing its role in Europe, and in 1967 it reapplied for membership in the European Community (EC). Wilson also tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with the white supremacist regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which unilaterally declared itself independent of Britain in 1965. Domestically, Wilson imposed strict controls on wages and prices, raised taxes, and devalued (1967) the pound to end the growing economic crisis. By the spring of 1970 the economy seemed to be recovering, and Wilson scheduled a June election, which resulted in an unexpected defeat for the Labour party.

In opposition, Wilson led his party to reverse its stand on entry into the EC, but a significant minority voted with the Conservative government in favor of entry. Another divisive issue arose with the party's espousal (1973) of wide-scale nationalization. Nonetheless, in the general election of Feb., 1974, held at a time of severe economic crisis, Labour was returned to power, and Wilson again became prime minister.

Despite the fact that he headed a minority government (and was therefore very vulnerable to defeat in Parliament), Wilson announced his intention of implementing the controversial policies of renegotiation of the terms of Britain's membership in the EC and nationalization. His government faced continuing economic difficulties as well as a deterioration of the situation in Northern Ireland (which required the reimposition of direct British rule). It was also obliged to mediate between Greece and Turkey in the tense crisis created by the overthrow of Archbishop Makarios III in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion of that island in July, 1974. Wilson called another election in Oct., 1974, and secured a narrow majority in Parliament. In 1975 he called and won an unprecedented referendum on Britain's membership in the EC, largely silencing left-wing Labour critics who favored withdrawal. Wilson unexpectedly resigned in 1976 and was knighted later the same year. The longest serving Labour prime minister, he retained his seat in Commons until he was created a life peer in 1983.

Wilson, Henry, 1812-75, American politician, Vice President of the United States (1873-75), b. Farmington, N.H. At 21 he legally changed his name from Jeremiah Jones Colbath, and as Henry Wilson he apprenticed himself to a cobbler at Natick, Mass. Wilson became successful as a shoe manufacturer and as a Whig politician, serving as a state legislator for most of the years from 1841 to 1852. His strong abolitionist convictions led him to leave the Whigs in 1848, when he helped organize the Free Soil party. Elected (1855) to the U.S. Senate by the Know-Nothing legislature, Wilson finally joined (1856) the Republican party because of its clear opposition to slavery. He was a leading radical Republican for the rest of his career. During the Civil War he was chairman of the Senate committee on military affairs. The "Natick cobbler," as he was called, was elected Vice President on the ticket headed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, but he died before completing his term. Wilson wrote the History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (3 vol., 1872-77), the first major history of the coming of the Civil War.

Wilson, Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron, 1881-1964, British field marshal. He served in the South African War and World War I and in 1939 became commander of the British forces in Egypt. He led the ill-fated British expedition in Greece in 1941 and served as commander in chief in the Middle East (1943-44) and as supreme Allied commander in the Mediterranean (1944-45). "Jumbo" Wilson was head of the British joint staff mission in Washington from 1945 to 1947. In 1946 he was created baron.

Wilson, Jack: see Wovoka.

Wilson, James, 1742-98, American jurist, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. near St. Andrews, Scotland. He studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and, after emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1766, taught Latin at the College of Philadelphia (now Univ. of Pennsylvania). He studied law there under John Dickinson, was later admitted to the bar in 1767, and became a successful lawyer within a few years. He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention (1774) and in the following year was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. Although he strongly disputed Parliament's authority over the colonies, he opposed independence until July, 1776. Because he vigorously opposed the extremely democratic principles of the Pennsylvania constitution of 1776, he lost (1777) his seat in Congress. He became allied with the conservative faction and argued for it in the Congress of the Confederation (1782-83, 1785-87). Wilson is especially known for his part in the Federal Convention of 1787, where he was a proponent of a strong executive. His influence in drawing up the Constitution was second only to that of James Madison. He was active in drafting the Pennsylvania constitution of 1790 and served as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789-98). He was the first professor of law (1789) at the College of Philadelphia. Wilson wrote a number of pamphlets, addresses, treatises, and lectures on law.

Wilson, James, 1836-1920, American agriculturist and cabinet officer, b. Ayrshire, Scotland. He emigrated to the United States and settled (1851) in Connecticut, later moving (1855) to Tama co., Iowa, where he became a successful farmer. A member of the Republican party, he served in the state legislature (1867-73) and in the U.S. Congress (1873-77, 1883-85). Wilson was (1891-97) director of the agricultural experiment station and professor of agriculture at Iowa State (now Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology). As Secretary of Agriculture (1897-1913) under Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft, he greatly expanded the services of the department; a number of experimental stations were set up over the country, and the aid of experts and scientists was enlisted.

Wilson, James Grant, 1832-1914, American biographer and man of letters, b. Scotland. He was brought to the United States in 1833. After journalistic work in Chicago and service in the Union army in the Civil War, he settled in New York, as a writer and editor principally concerned with biography. With John Fiske he edited Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (6 vol., 1886-89; revised with supplementary volume, 1898-99). His other works included a biography of U.S. Grant and its revisions, compilations of military biographies, and editions of the poetry of Bryant and of Fitz-Greene Halleck.

Wilson, John, pseud. Christopher North, 1785-1854, Scottish author. Among the first contributors to Blackwood's Magazine, he joined the staff in 1817 and quickly became one of its chief critical writers. His Tory sympathies gained him the chair of moral philosophy (1820-51) at the Univ. of Edinburgh. His best-known work is in the Noctes Ambrosianae, an occasional discursive feature of Blackwood's to which he contributed the majority of the articles.

Wilson, Kenneth Geddes, 1936-, American physicist, b. Waltham, Mass., Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1961. A professor at Cornell, Wilson was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing a theory of second-order phase transitions in matter that accounts for effects on neighboring molecules.

Wilson, Lanford, 1937-, American playwright, b. Lebanon, Mo. An important figure in modern drama, he is a master of realistic dialogue in which monologue, conversation, and direct address to the audience overlap. Frequent themes include decay, dissolution, loneliness, and loss, and he addresses such issues as American conformity, family conflicts, and the plight of social outcasts. Wilson settled in New York City in 1962 and soon became part of the "off-off-Broadway" movement, producing such one-act plays as So Long at the Fair (1963) and Home Free! (1964).

Wilson graduated to off-Broadway with the production of the full-length Balm in Gilead (1964) and moved to Broadway with The Gingham Dog (1968). In 1969 he cofounded the Circle Repertory Theatre in Greenwich Village, where, until its closing (1996), many of his plays were performed. Among these were the extremely successful The Hot l Baltimore (1972) and an acclaimed trilogy—Fifth of July (1978), Talley's Folly (1980, Pulitzer Prize), and A Tale Told (1981)—plays set in Wilson's hometown that span several decades. His later dramas include Angels Fall (1982), Burn This (1987), Redwood Curtain (1993), Book of Days (1998), and Rain Dance (2002).

Wilson, Pete (Peter Barton Wilson), 1933-, American politician, b. Lake Forest, Ill. A lawyer and moderate Republican, he began his career in local politics. He was a campaign aide in Richard Nixon's 1962 gubernatorial race, served in the state legislature (1967-71), and was mayor of San Diego (1971-83). He subsequently has served as U.S. senator from California (1983-91) and as governor of the state (1991-99). In 1995, Wilson mounted an unsuccessful candidacy for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.

Wilson, Richard, 1713?-1782, British landscape painter, b. Wales. He studied in London and achieved success as a portrait painter, but after a visit to Italy (c.1750-1756) he devoted himself to landscape in the classical tradition of Claude Lorrain. The exhibition of Wilson's Niobe in 1760 won him acclaim, and he was made a member and later librarian of the Royal Academy. His work did not become generally popular until after his death. Although his Italian landscapes did not depart from the classical tradition of picturesque Roman ruins and recumbent nymphs, his work shows considerable originality and breadth of treatment, especially in his many fine paintings of English country houses. He exerted a strong influence on subsequent landscape painting in England. On Hounslow Heath (National Gall., London) and Afternoon and Lake Nemi (both: Metropolitan Mus.) are well-known examples of his work.

Wilson, Robert, 1941-, dramatist, director, and designer, b. Waco, Tex. He began his arts career as a painter. A leading figure in postmodern theater since 1963, when he arrived in New York City, he has created lengthy, often controversial multimedia events that combine drama, dance, and stylized gesture with contemporary instrumental music, opera, and art. Extending the tradition of surrealism, exploring the theatrical parameters of time and space, and usually created in collaboration with other artists, his theater art pieces frequently include visually dazzling tableaux and stylized presentations of text or song.

Wilson's works include the 12-hour Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973); the five-hour Einstein on the Beach (1976, rev. 1984), a collaboration with Philip Glass and his best-known work; the day-long Civil Wars (1984), with Glass, David Byrne, and others; 1990s operatic extravaganzas (again with Glass), including White Raven and The Palace of the Arabian Nights; The Days Before: Death, Destruction, and Detroit III (1999), a collaborative multimedia meditation on the Apocalypse; and I La Galigo (2004), a three-and-a-half-hour adaptation of an ancient Indonesian epic. Working in Europe and the United States, Wilson has been a phenomenally prolific director, mounting brilliantly strange productions of various classics, including Wagner's Parsifal, Büchner's Danton's Death, Shakespeare's King Lear, and La Fontaine's Fables.

Wilson, Robert Woodrow, 1936-, American radio astronomer, b. Houston, Tex., Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1962. In 1964 he and co-researcher Arno Penzias began monitoring radio waves in the Milky Way galaxy with a radio telescope and discovered cosmic background radiation. Their discovery has been used as evidence in support of the "big bang" theory that the universe was created by a giant explosion billions of years ago (see cosmology). Penzias and Wilson shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics with Peter Kapitza.

Wilson, William Bauchop, 1862-1934, American labor leader, U.S. Secretary of Labor (1913-21), b. Blantyre, Scotland. Coming as a child to the United States in 1870, he worked in Pennsylvania coal mines after 1871 and helped organize (1890) the United Mine Workers of America. He was (1900-1908) secretary-treasurer of the labor union and, as a Democrat, served (1907-13) in the House of Representatives. As chairman (1912-13) of the House Labor Committee, he helped draft the bill creating the Dept. of Labor. The first Secretary of Labor in U.S. history, William B. Wilson organized the department and introduced machinery for mediation in labor disputes.

Wilson, William Lyne, 1843-1900, American legislator, cabinet member, and university president, b. Jefferson co., Va. (now in W.Va.). He was a private in the Confederate army in the Civil War, and after teaching (1865-71) Latin at Columbian College (now George Washington Univ.) and practicing law (1871-82) in Charles Town, W.Va., Wilson was (1882-83) president of the Univ. of West Virginia. He entered politics and served (1883-95) as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. As chairman (1893-95) of the Committee on Ways and Means, he fought for moderate tariff reform. He was active in the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and gained wide notice through the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894. Wilson had introduced a tariff bill—backed by President Cleveland—that substantially reduced rates on many raw materials and manufactured products and levied an income tax. The bill passed the House unchanged, but largely through the efforts of Arthur P. Gorman and others, it was considerably altered in the Senate, and Wilson's low-tariff principle was lost. Cleveland refused to sign the bill, which became law without his signature. In 1895 the Supreme Court declared the income tax provisions unconstitutional. As Postmaster General (1895-97), Wilson inaugurated the rural free delivery system. He served as president of Washington and Lee Univ. from 1897 to 1900.

Wilson, Woodrow (Thomas Woodrow Wilson), 1856-1924, 28th President of the United States (1913-21), b. Staunton, Va.

Educator

He graduated from Princeton in 1879 and studied law at the Univ. of Virginia. Admitted (1882) to the bar, he practiced in Atlanta, Ga., for a year before going to Johns Hopkins to study political science and jurisprudence. In 1885, he published Congressional Government, a significant work. After receiving (1886) his Ph.D. degree, he taught history and political economy at Bryn Mawr (1885-88) and Wesleyan Univ. (1888-90).

In 1890 he became professor of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton and gained a reputation for his eloquent orations. Popular with the student body, Wilson, a descendant of Presbyterian ministers on both sides of his family, was elected (1902) president of Princeton, becoming its first nonclerical head. He strove to raise academic standards, reorganized the curriculum, and introduced the preceptorial system of instruction, which provided for more individualized education.

His attempt to change the social and living facilities by eliminating the elite eating clubs for upperclassmen and introducing the quadrangle system, where students from all of the classes would live and eat together, was less successful. It aroused great hostility, which reached a climax in his bitter struggle with the group headed by Dean Andrew F. West. Wilson lost, but with prompting from George B. M. Harvey, a New York publisher with strong connections in the Democratic party, he ran for governor of New Jersey in 1910 soon after resigning his post at Princeton.

Governor of New Jersey

With the aid of the New Jersey Democratic machine, Wilson secured the gubernatorial nomination and, breaking with the machine to espouse progressive policies, went on to win the election. Despite much resistance from the regular Democrats, Wilson forced through the New Jersey legislature such reforms as an employer's liability act, the direct primary, a corrupt-practices act, and revitalization of the state public utilities commission.

Presidency

Wilson's gubernatorial record brought him to the forefront of national politics. Although Champ Clark was the leading contender for the presidential nomination at the Democratic convention in 1912, he could not muster the necessary two-thirds vote, and after he had exhausted his strength, Wilson won on the 46th ballot. He was helped by the switch to his side of William Jennings Bryan (prompted by Edward M. House). The split in the Republican party, which divided into the regular Republicans supporting William Howard Taft and the Progressive party backing Theodore Roosevelt, gained the election for Wilson, who captured 435 electoral votes.

Domestic Policy

Wilson revived the custom, abandoned in 1801, of addressing Congress in person and immediately called for a series of reforms, which he had called the "New Freedom" in his presidential campaign. During his administration the tariff was drastically decreased (1913; see Underwood, Oscar Wilder); the Federal Reserve System was instituted (1913); the La Follette Seamen's Act, regulating labor conditions aboard ship, became law (1915); the Adamson Act, establishing an eight-hour day for railroad employees, was enacted (1916); and the Federal Farm Loan Act, providing for loans to cooperative farm associations, was passed (1916). Wilson continued the policy of curbing monopoly by creating (1914) the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and expose unfair practices of corporations, pushed the passage (1914) of the Clayton Antitrust Act, and instituted antitrust proceedings in 92 cases. The Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the direct popular election of U.S. Senators, the Eighteenth Amendment, which instituted prohibition, and the Nineteenth Amendment, by which women received the vote, were all launched while Wilson was President.

Foreign Policy

In foreign affairs the Wilson administration was faced with mounting difficulties. In Mexico, a revolution brought (Feb., 1913) Victoriano Huerta to the presidency. Wilson refused to recognize Huerta on the grounds that he had gained power by assassinating his predecessor, and instead resorted to a policy of "watchful waiting." In 1914, this policy ended when U.S. marines landed in Veracruz in retaliation for the arrest of U.S. sailors in Tampico. Mediation by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile prevented war but failed to settle the aggravated situation. After Huerta was driven from power, new troubles arose from the internal situation in Mexico. The raid of Francisco ("Pancho") Villa across the U.S. border resulted in the punitive expedition (1916) into Mexico led by John J. Pershing. Border incidents continued, and relations between the two countries remained unfriendly. During this period, Wilson also sent U.S. troops to Haiti (1915), the Dominican Republic (1916), and Cuba (1917), and established protectorates over the first two. In his East Asian policy, notably his refusal (1913) to support loans to China by American bankers, Wilson openly rejected "dollar diplomacy."

World War I

The outbreak of World War I in Europe overshadowed all other problems. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who scrupulously favored neutrality, resigned (1915) and was succeeded by Robert Lansing, who tended to favor intervention on the side of the Allies. Wilson during his first term nevertheless sought by all diplomatic means to maintain an impartial neutrality. American public opinion, however, increasingly mounted against Germany, and the sinking (May 7, 1915) of the Lusitania by a German submarine aroused a storm of protest. After the sinking (Mar. 24, 1916) of the American vessel Sussex, Wilson issued an ultimatum to which Germany responded with a pledge to cease its unrestricted submarine attacks. Trouble over shipping also occurred with Great Britain in its effort to enforce the blockade of Germany. In the 1916 election, the Democratic campaign slogan, "He kept us out of war," helped return Wilson to the White House; Charles Evans Hughes was defeated by a very close margin. Wilson immediately attempted to mediate between the warring nations, but without success. Relations with Germany became more and more tense, especially after the announcement (Jan. 31, 1917) by Germany of a renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare.

On Feb. 3, Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany. Several more U.S. vessels were sunk, and on Apr. 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. In his war message Wilson stated that "the world must be made safe for democracy" and that the United States would wage war for liberty and peace. War was declared Apr. 6. Wilson's speeches, elaborating his war aims, did much to consolidate U.S. opinion behind his policies as the country mobilized. In addition to the establishment of a fighting force, war industries were placed under government control and the President was given wide powers over the production and distribution of food and fuel. Late in Dec., 1917, Wilson put the railroads under government operation. The Committee on Public Information was established to propagandize for the war.

The Fourteen Points and the Peace Conference

In Jan., 1918, prompted by the publication by the Bolshevik revolutionary government in Russia of secret treaties that revealed the imperialistic war aims of the Allies, Wilson presented the Fourteen Points to Congress; these outlined the basic provisions that he believed the peace settlement must cover. As the war drew to a close and preparations were begun for a peace conference, Wilson was generally looked upon in Europe as the savior of the future. In the United States, however, he suffered an electoral setback in Nov., 1918, after appealing for the return of a Democratic Congress as an endorsement of his foreign policy; the Republicans captured both houses of Congress.

Shortly afterward (December) Wilson set sail for Europe as head of the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Conference; his attendance broke all American precedents. Angry at Republican criticism, Wilson did not include any active Republican, or any Senator, on the peace commission. Wilson was received in Europe with warm ovations and set about trying to create a new world society, which would be governed by the "self-determination of peoples," which would be free from secret diplomacy and wars, and, most important, which would have an association of nations to maintain international justice.

At the peace conference he became involved in long and bitter wrangles with Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, and the other representatives of European powers. The resulting treaty (see Versailles, Treaty of) was far from being the fulfillment of his dream, although he did secure the adoption of the covenant establishing the League of Nations. Wilson accepted the treaty as being the best obtainable.

Disillusionment and Death

At home, opposition to the League had been growing, and when Wilson returned (July, 1919) with the signed treaty, his accomplishments at Paris were received with mixed feelings. In the Senate, quarrels over the ratification of the treaty and the proposed amendments broke out immediately. In the group that emerged as opponents of the League, Henry Cabot Lodge was outstanding. Nevertheless, despite the agitation of a handful of "irreconcilables," the Senate would probably have ratified the treaty if certain reservations protecting U.S. sovereignty had been added. Wilson, however, refused to compromise and sought popular support by making a speaking tour of the United States. He was on his way east from the Pacific coast when fatigue and strain brought on a sudden physical breakdown in Sept., 1919, and forced him to cancel his trip.

On Oct. 2, 1919, the President suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him for several months. He never entirely recovered, and for the remainder of his second term, Wilson, bitterly disillusioned, was virtually detached from the political scene. It has been postulated that he was so ill that his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, made virtually all his political decisions for him. He continued to be uncompromising in his refusal to accept reservations on the League. Three years after the expiration of his term he died. His character and policies have been the subject of acrimonious debate, but even those who have doubted his wisdom have recognized him as one of the pivotal figures of American and world history. In 1920 he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his Fourteen Points and for securing the adoption of the Convenant of the League of Nations as part of the Treaty of Versailles.

Writings

Wilson's writings on history and jurisprudence include Division and Reunion, 1829-1889 (1893), George Washington (1896), A History of the American People (5 vol., 1902), and Constitutional Government in the United States (1908). These books are distinguished by a wide knowledge of constitutional law and by the severe and polished literary style that also characterizes An Old Master and Other Political Essays (1893) and Mere Literature and Other Essays (1893). Wilson's addresses, messages, and speeches, considered among the finest by an American, have been published and republished in various collections; see L. S. Turnbull, Woodrow Wilson: A Selected Bibliography of His Published Writings, Addresses, and Public Papers (1948, repr. 1971). To date, 46 volumes of the definitive edition of the Wilson papers, under the editorship of Arthur S. Link, have been published (1966-84).

Wilson, city (1990 pop. 36,930), seat of Wilson co., E N.C., in a rich agricultural region; inc. 1849. It is a commercial and industrial center with a large tobacco market. There is tobacco and food processing and the manufacture of metal, paper, plastic, glass, fiberglass, and electrical products; chemicals; and apparel. Barton College is there.

Wilson, Mount, peak, 5,710 ft (1,740 m) high, S Calif., in the San Gabriel Mts., NE of Pasadena. It is the site of Mt. Wilson Observatory (est. 1904), one of the Hale Observatories. A 100-in. (254-cm) reflecting telescope there, no longer in use, was once the world's largest.

(born Dec. 28, 1856, Staunton, Va., U.S.—died Feb. 3, 1924, Washington, D.C.) 28th president of the U.S. (1913–21). He earned a law degree and later received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He taught political science at Princeton University (1890–1902). As its president (1902–10), he introduced various reforms. With the support of progressives, he was elected governor of New Jersey. His reform measures attracted national attention, and he became the Democratic Party presidential nominee in 1912. His campaign emphasized his progressive New Freedom policy, and he defeated Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft to win the presidency. As president, he approved legislation that lowered tariffs, created the Federal Reserve System, established the Federal Trade Commission, and strengthened labour unions. In foreign affairs he promoted self-government for the Philippines and sought to contain the Mexican civil war. From 1914 he maintained U.S. neutrality in World War I, offering to mediate a settlement and initiate peace negotiations. After the sinking of the Lusitania (1915) and other unarmed ships, he obtained a pledge from Germany to stop its submarine campaign. Campaigning on the theme that he had “kept us out of war,” he was narrowly reelected in 1916, defeating Charles Evans Hughes. Germany's renewed submarine attacks on unarmed passenger ships caused Wilson to ask for a declaration of war in April 1917. In a continuing effort to negotiate a peace agreement, he presented the Fourteen Points (1918). He led the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. The Treaty of Versailles faced opposition in the Senate from the Republican majority led by Henry Cabot Lodge. In search of popular support for the treaty and its provision creating the League of Nations, Wilson began a cross-country speaking tour, during which he collapsed. He returned to Washington, D.C. (September 1919), where he suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed. In the months that followed, his wife Edith controlled access to him, made some decisions by default, and engineered a cover-up of his condition. He rejected any attempts to compromise his version of the League of Nations and urged his Senate followers to vote against ratification of the treaty, which was defeated in 1920. He was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for Peace.

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(born Jan. 10, 1936, Houston, Texas, U.S.) U.S. radio astronomer. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1963 and headed its Radio Physics Research Department (1976–94). With his colleague Arno Penzias, he detected the cosmic background radiation, a discovery for which the two men shared a 1978 Nobel Prize (with Pyotr Kapitsa [1894–1984], who was honoured for research unrelated to theirs).

Learn more about Wilson, Robert W(oodrow) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 1, 1714, Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, Wales—died May 15, 1782, Llanberis, Carnarvonshire) Welsh landscape painter. He worked as a portraitist for many years, but after a lengthy stay in Italy (1750–57) he worked almost exclusively in landscape, except for numerous drawings of Roman sites and buildings that he used in composing Italianate landscapes. A set of drawings made for Lord Dartmouth (dated 1754) show that he tempered his delicate observation of light and distance with the discipline of such 17th-century Classicists as Nicolas Poussin. The landscapes he produced after his return to Britain influenced J.M.W. Turner and John Constable.

Learn more about Wilson, Richard with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 13, 1937, Lebanon, Mo., U.S.) U.S. playwright. He began writing plays in 1962 and became cofounder and director of the Circle Repertory Company (1969–95), a regional theatre in New York City. His plays, which are known for their experimental staging, simultaneous dialogue, and deferred character exposition, include Lemon Sky (1970), the long-running hit The Hot l Baltimore (1973), The Mound Builders (1975), Talley's Folly (1979, Pulitzer Prize), Burn This (1987), and By the Sea (1996).

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(born Sept. 14, 1742, Fife, Scot.—died Aug. 21, 1798, Edenton, N.C., U.S.) American colonial lawyer, politician, and jurist. Immigrating to North America in 1765, he taught Greek and rhetoric in the College of Philadelphia and then studied law under John Dickinson. In 1774 he published a widely read treatise proposing a commonwealth of British colonies. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, a delegate to the Continental Congress (1775–77), and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He helped draft the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania state constitution and delivered lectures that became landmarks in American jurisprudence. He served on the U.S. Supreme Court (1789–98).

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(born 1858?, Utah Territory, U.S.—died October 1932, Walker River Indian Reservation, Nev.) Paiute religious leader. In 1889 Wovoka announced that during a trance God had told him that his people's ancestors would rise from the dead, buffalo would return to the Plains, and the white man would vanish if the people would perform a ritual dance. This vision was the basis for the Ghost Dance, a millenarian cult that arose and quickly spread to other tribes, notably the militant Sioux. For a period of time, Wovoka was worshiped as a new messiah. After the Wounded Knee massacre, Wovoka's following dissipated and the movement contracted.

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(born June 10, 1929, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.) U.S. biologist. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he taught from 1956. Recognized as the world's leading authority on ants, he discovered their use of pheromone for communication. His The Insect Societies (1971) was the definitive treatment of the subject. In 1975 he published Sociobiology, a highly controversial and influential study of the genetic basis of social behaviour in which he claimed that even a characteristic such as unselfish generosity may be genetically based and may have evolved through natural selection, that preservation of the gene rather than the individual is the focus of evolutionary strategy, and that the essentially biological principles on which animal societies are based apply also to human social behaviour. In On Human Nature (1978, Pulitzer Prize) he explored sociobiology's implications in regard to human aggression, sexuality, and ethics. With Bert Hölldobler he wrote the major study The Ants (1990, Pulitzer Prize). In The Diversity of Life (1992) he examined how the world's species became diverse and the massive extinctions caused by 20th-century human activities. In Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) he proposed that all of existence can be organized and understood in accordance with a few fundamental natural laws.

Learn more about Wilson, Edward O(sborne) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 19, 1856, Geneva, Ill., U.S.—died March 3, 1939, New York, N.Y.) U.S. cell biologist. He joined the Columbia University faculty in 1891, where he became established as a pioneer in work on cell lineage (tracing the formation of different kinds of tissues from individual cells). His interests later extended to internal cellular organization and the problem of sex determination, leading to a series of papers (1905) on the role of chromosomes. Recognizing the importance of Gregor Mendel's findings, he realized that the role of chromosomes went far beyond the determination of sex and envisioned their function as important components in heredity as a whole, ideas that were a powerful force in shaping future genetic research.

Learn more about Wilson, Edmund B(eecher) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 8, 1895, Red Bank, N.J., U.S.—died June 12, 1972, Talcottville, N.Y.) U.S. critic and essayist. He attended Princeton University and initially worked as a reporter and magazine editor. Much of his writing, in which he probed diverse subjects with scholarship and common sense in clear and precise prose, was published in The New Republic and The New Yorker. Among his influential critical works are Axel's Castle (1931), a survey of the Symbolist poets; To the Finland Station (1940), a study of the thinkers who set the stage for the Russian Revolution; and Patriotic Gore (1962), analyzing American Civil War literature. His other writings include plays, poetry, the short-story collection Memoirs of Hecate County (1946), and five volumes of posthumously published journals. He was widely regarded as the leading critic of his time.

Learn more about Wilson, Edmund with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 14, 1869, Glencorse, Midlothian, Scot.—died Nov. 15, 1959, Carlops, Peeblesshire) Scottish physicist. His invention of the Wilson cloud chamber, a device that became widely used in the study of radioactivity, X rays, cosmic rays, and other particle phenomena, also led to the later development of the bubble chamber. He shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics with Arthur Compton.

Learn more about Wilson, C(harles) T(homson) R(ees) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 2, 2005, Seattle, Wash.) U.S. playwright. He was largely self-educated. A participant in the black aesthetic movement, he cofounded and directed Pittsburgh's Black Horizons Theatre (1968), published poetry in African American journals, and produced several plays, including Jitney (1982), before his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened on Broadway in 1984. Inspired by the colloquial language, music, folklore, and storytelling tradition of African Americans, he continued his cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, with Fences (1986, Pulitzer Prize), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1996), Gem of the Ocean (first produced 2003), King Hedley II (2005), and Radio Golf (first produced 2005).

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(born July 6, 1766, Paisley, Renfrew, Scot.—died Aug. 23, 1813, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. ornithologist. In Scotland he wrote poetry while working as a weaver and peddler; in 1792 his satiric works led to a fine and imprisonment. Impoverished, in 1794 he immigrated to the U.S., where he became a teacher. Influenced by William Bartram, he decided circa 1804 to write on North American birds, and he began studying art and ornithology in his leisure time. His pioneering work American Ornithology (9 vol., 1808–14) established him as a founder of the field. After publication of its first volume, he spent much of his time selling subscriptions for the expensive work and collecting specimens for the remaining volumes.

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or hepatolenticular degeneration

Recessive hereditary defect (see recessiveness) that impairs one's ability to metabolize copper. In affected persons, copper accumulates in the basal ganglia (see ganglion) of the brain (involved in control of movement), causing progressive degeneration; forms a brownish ring at the margin of the cornea of the eye; and is deposited in the liver, gradually leading to cirrhosis. Other symptoms include tremor, lack of coordination, and personality changes. The disease usually appears in the person's teen years or twenties. Early diagnosis and treatment with a high-protein, low-copper diet and a substance to chelate copper can reverse the effects and prevent permanent brain and liver damage.

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(born Nov. 5, 1805, Providence, R.I., U.S.—died Dec. 27, 1854, Providence) U.S. politician. From 1834 he served in the Rhode Island legislature, where he tried to introduce constitutional reform to expand white manhood suffrage. In 1841 he organized the People's Party, which held elections and installed Dorr as governor in 1842. The existing government refused to recognize his authority, labeling the action “Dorr's Rebellion.” The state had two governments until 1844, when Dorr was tried for treason; though given a life sentence, he was released in 1845.

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(born Oct. 31, 1828, Sunderland, Durham, Eng.—died May 27, 1914, Warlingham, Surrey) English physicist and chemist. By 1871 he had invented the dry photographic plate, an important improvement in photography. He had already produced an early electric lightbulb (1860), and in 1880, independently of Thomas Alva Edison, he produced a carbon-filament incandescent electric lamp. He also patented a process for squeezing nitrocellulose through holes to form fibres, a process that became widely employed in the textile industry.

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(born Oct. 31, 1828, Sunderland, Durham, Eng.—died May 27, 1914, Warlingham, Surrey) English physicist and chemist. By 1871 he had invented the dry photographic plate, an important improvement in photography. He had already produced an early electric lightbulb (1860), and in 1880, independently of Thomas Alva Edison, he produced a carbon-filament incandescent electric lamp. He also patented a process for squeezing nitrocellulose through holes to form fibres, a process that became widely employed in the textile industry.

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(born Feb. 6, 1911, Tampico, Ill., U.S.—died June 5, 2004, Los Angeles, Calif.) 40th president of the U.S. (1981–89). He attended Eureka College and worked as a radio sports announcer before going to Hollywood in 1937. In his career as a movie actor, he appeared in more than 50 films and was twice president of the Screen Actors Guild (1947–52, 1959–60). In the mid-1950s he became a spokesman for the General Electric Co.; he hosted its television theatre program from 1954 to 1962. Having gradually changed his political affiliation from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican, he was elected governor of California in 1966 and served two terms. In 1980 he defeated incumbent Pres. Jimmy Carter to become president. Shortly after taking office, he was wounded in an assassination attempt. His administration adopted policies based on supply-side economics in an effort to promote rapid economic growth and reduce the federal deficit. Congress approved many of his proposals (1981), which succeeded in lowering inflation but doubled the national debt by 1986. He began the largest peacetime military buildup in U.S. history; in 1983 he proposed construction of the Strategic Defense Initiative. His administration concluded a treaty with the Soviet Union to restrict intermediate-range nuclear weapons, conducted a proxy war against Nicaragua through its support of the Contras, and invaded Grenada ostensibly to prevent the island nation from becoming a Soviet outpost. He was reelected by a large margin in 1984. Beginning in 1986, the Iran-Contra Affair temporarily weakened his presidency. Though his intellectual capacity for governing was often disparaged by his critics, his affability and artful communication skills enabled him to pursue numerous conservative policies with conspicuous success, and his tough stance toward the Soviet Union is often credited with contributing to the demise of Soviet communism. In 1994 he revealed that he had Alzheimer disease.

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(born Jan. 10, 1936, Houston, Texas, U.S.) U.S. radio astronomer. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1963 and headed its Radio Physics Research Department (1976–94). With his colleague Arno Penzias, he detected the cosmic background radiation, a discovery for which the two men shared a 1978 Nobel Prize (with Pyotr Kapitsa [1894–1984], who was honoured for research unrelated to theirs).

Learn more about Wilson, Robert W(oodrow) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 1, 1714, Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, Wales—died May 15, 1782, Llanberis, Carnarvonshire) Welsh landscape painter. He worked as a portraitist for many years, but after a lengthy stay in Italy (1750–57) he worked almost exclusively in landscape, except for numerous drawings of Roman sites and buildings that he used in composing Italianate landscapes. A set of drawings made for Lord Dartmouth (dated 1754) show that he tempered his delicate observation of light and distance with the discipline of such 17th-century Classicists as Nicolas Poussin. The landscapes he produced after his return to Britain influenced J.M.W. Turner and John Constable.

Learn more about Wilson, Richard with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 6, 1911, Tampico, Ill., U.S.—died June 5, 2004, Los Angeles, Calif.) 40th president of the U.S. (1981–89). He attended Eureka College and worked as a radio sports announcer before going to Hollywood in 1937. In his career as a movie actor, he appeared in more than 50 films and was twice president of the Screen Actors Guild (1947–52, 1959–60). In the mid-1950s he became a spokesman for the General Electric Co.; he hosted its television theatre program from 1954 to 1962. Having gradually changed his political affiliation from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican, he was elected governor of California in 1966 and served two terms. In 1980 he defeated incumbent Pres. Jimmy Carter to become president. Shortly after taking office, he was wounded in an assassination attempt. His administration adopted policies based on supply-side economics in an effort to promote rapid economic growth and reduce the federal deficit. Congress approved many of his proposals (1981), which succeeded in lowering inflation but doubled the national debt by 1986. He began the largest peacetime military buildup in U.S. history; in 1983 he proposed construction of the Strategic Defense Initiative. His administration concluded a treaty with the Soviet Union to restrict intermediate-range nuclear weapons, conducted a proxy war against Nicaragua through its support of the Contras, and invaded Grenada ostensibly to prevent the island nation from becoming a Soviet outpost. He was reelected by a large margin in 1984. Beginning in 1986, the Iran-Contra Affair temporarily weakened his presidency. Though his intellectual capacity for governing was often disparaged by his critics, his affability and artful communication skills enabled him to pursue numerous conservative policies with conspicuous success, and his tough stance toward the Soviet Union is often credited with contributing to the demise of Soviet communism. In 1994 he revealed that he had Alzheimer disease.

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Astronomical observatory located atop Mount Wilson, near Pasadena, California, U.S. Founded in 1904 by George Ellery Hale (1868–1938), it was operated jointly with Palomar Observatory as Hale Observatories (1948–80). Its largest optical telescope, with a diameter of 100 in. (2.5 m), enabled Edwin Hubble and his associates to discover evidence of an expanding universe and to estimate its size.

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(born April 13, 1937, Lebanon, Mo., U.S.) U.S. playwright. He began writing plays in 1962 and became cofounder and director of the Circle Repertory Company (1969–95), a regional theatre in New York City. His plays, which are known for their experimental staging, simultaneous dialogue, and deferred character exposition, include Lemon Sky (1970), the long-running hit The Hot l Baltimore (1973), The Mound Builders (1975), Talley's Folly (1979, Pulitzer Prize), Burn This (1987), and By the Sea (1996).

Learn more about Wilson, Lanford (Eugene) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 14, 1742, Fife, Scot.—died Aug. 21, 1798, Edenton, N.C., U.S.) American colonial lawyer, politician, and jurist. Immigrating to North America in 1765, he taught Greek and rhetoric in the College of Philadelphia and then studied law under John Dickinson. In 1774 he published a widely read treatise proposing a commonwealth of British colonies. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, a delegate to the Continental Congress (1775–77), and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He helped draft the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania state constitution and delivered lectures that became landmarks in American jurisprudence. He served on the U.S. Supreme Court (1789–98).

Learn more about Wilson, James with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 10, 1929, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.) U.S. biologist. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he taught from 1956. Recognized as the world's leading authority on ants, he discovered their use of pheromone for communication. His The Insect Societies (1971) was the definitive treatment of the subject. In 1975 he published Sociobiology, a highly controversial and influential study of the genetic basis of social behaviour in which he claimed that even a characteristic such as unselfish generosity may be genetically based and may have evolved through natural selection, that preservation of the gene rather than the individual is the focus of evolutionary strategy, and that the essentially biological principles on which animal societies are based apply also to human social behaviour. In On Human Nature (1978, Pulitzer Prize) he explored sociobiology's implications in regard to human aggression, sexuality, and ethics. With Bert Hölldobler he wrote the major study The Ants (1990, Pulitzer Prize). In The Diversity of Life (1992) he examined how the world's species became diverse and the massive extinctions caused by 20th-century human activities. In Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) he proposed that all of existence can be organized and understood in accordance with a few fundamental natural laws.

Learn more about Wilson, Edward O(sborne) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 8, 1895, Red Bank, N.J., U.S.—died June 12, 1972, Talcottville, N.Y.) U.S. critic and essayist. He attended Princeton University and initially worked as a reporter and magazine editor. Much of his writing, in which he probed diverse subjects with scholarship and common sense in clear and precise prose, was published in The New Republic and The New Yorker. Among his influential critical works are Axel's Castle (1931), a survey of the Symbolist poets; To the Finland Station (1940), a study of the thinkers who set the stage for the Russian Revolution; and Patriotic Gore (1962), analyzing American Civil War literature. His other writings include plays, poetry, the short-story collection Memoirs of Hecate County (1946), and five volumes of posthumously published journals. He was widely regarded as the leading critic of his time.

Learn more about Wilson, Edmund with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 19, 1856, Geneva, Ill., U.S.—died March 3, 1939, New York, N.Y.) U.S. cell biologist. He joined the Columbia University faculty in 1891, where he became established as a pioneer in work on cell lineage (tracing the formation of different kinds of tissues from individual cells). His interests later extended to internal cellular organization and the problem of sex determination, leading to a series of papers (1905) on the role of chromosomes. Recognizing the importance of Gregor Mendel's findings, he realized that the role of chromosomes went far beyond the determination of sex and envisioned their function as important components in heredity as a whole, ideas that were a powerful force in shaping future genetic research.

Learn more about Wilson, Edmund B(eecher) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Nov. 5, 1805, Providence, R.I., U.S.—died Dec. 27, 1854, Providence) U.S. politician. From 1834 he served in the Rhode Island legislature, where he tried to introduce constitutional reform to expand white manhood suffrage. In 1841 he organized the People's Party, which held elections and installed Dorr as governor in 1842. The existing government refused to recognize his authority, labeling the action “Dorr's Rebellion.” The state had two governments until 1844, when Dorr was tried for treason; though given a life sentence, he was released in 1845.

Learn more about Dorr, Thomas Wilson with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Feb. 14, 1869, Glencorse, Midlothian, Scot.—died Nov. 15, 1959, Carlops, Peeblesshire) Scottish physicist. His invention of the Wilson cloud chamber, a device that became widely used in the study of radioactivity, X rays, cosmic rays, and other particle phenomena, also led to the later development of the bubble chamber. He shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics with Arthur Compton.

Learn more about Wilson, C(harles) T(homson) R(ees) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 2, 2005, Seattle, Wash.) U.S. playwright. He was largely self-educated. A participant in the black aesthetic movement, he cofounded and directed Pittsburgh's Black Horizons Theatre (1968), published poetry in African American journals, and produced several plays, including Jitney (1982), before his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened on Broadway in 1984. Inspired by the colloquial language, music, folklore, and storytelling tradition of African Americans, he continued his cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, with Fences (1986, Pulitzer Prize), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1996), Gem of the Ocean (first produced 2003), King Hedley II (2005), and Radio Golf (first produced 2005).

Learn more about Wilson, August with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 6, 1766, Paisley, Renfrew, Scot.—died Aug. 23, 1813, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. ornithologist. In Scotland he wrote poetry while working as a weaver and peddler; in 1792 his satiric works led to a fine and imprisonment. Impoverished, in 1794 he immigrated to the U.S., where he became a teacher. Influenced by William Bartram, he decided circa 1804 to write on North American birds, and he began studying art and ornithology in his leisure time. His pioneering work American Ornithology (9 vol., 1808–14) established him as a founder of the field. After publication of its first volume, he spent much of his time selling subscriptions for the expensive work and collecting specimens for the remaining volumes.

Learn more about Wilson, Alexander with a free trial on Britannica.com.

The Revenue Act or Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 (ch. 349, §73, , August 27, 1894) slightly reduced the United States tariff rates from the numbers set in the 1890 McKinley tariff and imposed a 2% income tax. It is named for William L. Wilson Representative from West Virginia, chair of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, and Senator Arthur P. Gorman of Maryland, both Democrats.

Supported by the Democrats, this attempt at tariff reform was important because it imposed the first peacetime income tax (2% on income over $4000, which meant fewer than 10% of households would pay any). The purpose of the income tax was to make up for revenue that would be lost by tariff reductions.

The bill introduced by Wilson and passed by the House significant lowered tariff rates, in accord with Democratic platform promises. And dropped the tariff to zero on iron ore, coal, lumber and wool, which angered American producers. With Senator Gorman operating behind the scenes, protectionists in the Senate added more than 600 amendments that nullified most of the reforms and raised rates again. The "Sugar Trust" in particular made changes that favored itself at the expense of the consumer.

President Grover Cleveland, who had campaigned on lowering the tariff and supported Wilson's version of the bill, was devastated that his program had been ruined. He denounced the revised measure as a disgraceful product of "party perfidy and party dishonor," but still allowed it to become law without his signature, believing that it was better than nothing and was at the least an improvement over the McKinley tariff.

Income Tax Amendment

The New York Times reported that many Democrats in the East, "prefer to take the income tax, odious as it is, and unpopular as it is bound to be with their constituents," than to defeat the Wilson tariff bill. Democratic Representative Johnson of Ohio supported the income tax as the lesser of two evils: "he was for an income tax as against a tariff tax; but he believed, that it was un-Democratic, inquisitorial, and wrong in principle.

Legacy

The income tax provision was struck down in 1895 by the U.S. Supreme Court case Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., . In 1913, the 16th Amendment permitted a federal income tax.

The tariff provisions of Wilson-Gorman were superseded by the Dingley Tariff of 1897.

References

Further reading

• (1895). "The Income Tax of 1894". Quarterly Journal of Economics 9 (2): 223–234.
• Dunbar, Charles F. (1894). "The New Income Tax". Quarterly Journal of Economics 9 (1): 26–46.
• Lambert, John R. (1953). Arthur Pue Gorman. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
• Rhodes, James Ford (1967). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press.
• Summers, Festus P. (1953). William L. Wilson and Tariff Reform: A Biography. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
• Taussig, F. W. (1894). "The Tariff Act of 1894". Political Science Quarterly 9 (4): 585–609.
• Williams, John Alexander (1973). "The Bituminous Coal Lobby and the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894". Maryland Historical Magazine 68 (3): 273–287.

External links

• Harper's Weekly