"Wilson's arrival in the White House in 1913 was a perfect instance of Victor Hugo's saying, 'Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.' Since the Civil War, the United States had become by far the world's richest country, with an industrial economy which made all others on earth seem small, and it had done so very largely through the uncoordinated efforts of thousands of individual entrepreneurs. The feeling had grown that it was time for the community as a whole, using the resources of the United States Constitution, to impose a little order on this new giant and to dress him in suitable clothes, labeled 'The Public Interest.' Theodore Roosevelt had already laid out some of these clothes, and Wilson was happy to steal them." Paul Johnson, A History of the American People, 1997Paul Johnson, A History of the American People (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997), 634.

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