In January 1911 Sen. Jonathan Bourne of Oregon became the first president of the National Progressive Republican League. In 1907 he had been the first U.S. senator to be elected by popular vote. He lost his reelection bid in 1912.

On 24 April 1913 Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan called for a permanent court of arbitration to avoid future wars.

In 1915 Carrie Chapman Catt was elected president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), a position she had previously held from 1900 to 1904. Her leadership skills helped to bring about the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

In September 1919 Gov. Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts fired striking police officers in Boston. Coolidge's assertion that "no one has the right to strike against the public safety" made the future president a national political figure.

Following the U.S. declaration of war in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Herbert...