event their reselling such supplies at a profit to Germany. The
position of the government was made plain in the statement of President
Wilson, who said:

DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN NEEDS.

"It is obviously the duty of the United States in liberating any surplus
products over and above our own domestic needs to consider first the
necessities of all the nations engaged in war against the central
empires. As to neutral nations, however, we also recognize our duty. The
government does not wish to hamper them. On the contrary, it wishes and
intends, by all fair and equitable means, to co-operate with them in
their difficult task of adding from our available surpluses to their own
domestic supply and of meeting their pressing necessities or deficits.
In considering the deficits of food supplies, the government means only
to fulfill its obvious obligation to assure itself that neutrals are
husbanding their own resources, and that our supplies will not become
available, either directly or indirectly, to feed the enemy."

While the conservation of our resources had a great deal to do with the
issuing of the embargo, the action was partly taken as the result of
information lodged by England that Holland, Sweden and Norway had been
supplying Germany and her allies with food, despite the latter's hostile
action in sinking ships owned by the neutrals. The government made an
investigation and discovered that the shipment to these neutral
countries had become abnormally large. It was reported, particularly,
that many Holland business men had become fabulously wealthy by trading
in the supplies which came from America, and which they resold to
Germany.

The embargo became operative under a method of license procedure, so
that all shipments could be watched by the government authorities. The
order compelled all persons seeking to export goods to make application
for a license to the Secretary of Commerce, or bureaus designated in
various parts of the country.

In support of the contentions that the neutral countries were supplying
Germany, Great Britain furnished the Government with the following table
as representing the minimum of food exports from Scandinavia and Holland
to Germany in 1916: Butter, 82,600 metric tons; meat, 115,800 tons; pork
products, 68,800 tons; condensed milk, 70,000 tons; fish, 407 tons;
cheese, 80,500 tons; eggs, 46,400 tons; potato meal, 179,500 tons;
coffee, 58,500 tons; fruit, 74,000 tons; sugar, 12,000 to