Ignoring your idea of Wilson being a 'so-called progressive', since when was Henry Ford ever considered a political progressive? Sure, he supported the NAACP, but his violence towards organised labour must make him a conservative Midwest Democrat.
But then I'm asking you why you think he's in the same category that normally includes Bryan, Wilson and TR, so I guess I'm asking you to chase your tail, farwalker.
I studied this stuff at uni just a decade ago. Has there been such a huge shift in the historiography since then?
LATE EDIT: At best Ford strikes me as a being a conservative who had some credentials as a reformer, like Newton Baker, Wilson's secretary of war and former good governance mayor of Cleveland.
Sorry for the late reply, busy weekend.
Ford is considered a progressive by many historians, because of his decision to pay workers a living wage in order that they may afford the products they were producing. I would whole-heartedly dissagree but I'm only an amateur historian
I admit studies go back to the mid-nineties so I may not be up to date on the latest revisions to "what has always been".
On another note, I find it interesting how a discussion on the relative merits of an american president some 90yrs ago devolved into a argument about which European tribal society was right to commit mass-murder on the other. Oh well....