President Woodrow Wilson’s Public Declaration of Economic Warfare on Germany at the Start of World War I

“Our trade can be successfully and profitably conducted now, the war pushed to a victorious issue, and the needs of our own people and of the other peoples [met]…”

World War I began in 1914, long before the United States entered. By the time President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war in April 1917, there was widespread suffering and unrest in the warring nations of Europe, which in Germany included shortages of munitions, and a serious lack of food and coal for heat. Hunger and cold led to riots and looting of bakeries and markets, as well as strikes by workers. Germany meanwhile was dependent on neutral nations for supplies, some of which came either directly from the U.S. on American ships or indirectly from the U.S. carried by other neutral carriers. When the U.S. came into the war, it meant not merely that the Allies would immediately receive much-needed military and non-military assistance, but that the British blockade against Germany would be tightened and that Germany would receive much less. This would prove devastating, and definitive, to the German economy and the German people in 1917-1918.

It did not take long for the U.S. to turn its economic power against Germany, and this would prove as important, or perhaps even more important, than its military might. In May 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service Act empowering the Federal Government to draft men for the armed forces. Over four million Americans would serve, and the U.S. economy turned to producing a vast supply of food stuffs, raw materials and munitions for its war use. On June 15 Congress approved ”An act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes”. This gave the President authority over export controls, and his June 22 executive order provided that power to the newly-created War Trade Commission and the Exports Council. Wilson’s purpose was to not merely divert supplies for domestic or military use, and to aid its allies, but to prepare an embargo on exports to neutrals that might reach (and thus supply) Germany. This was followed very quickly by an embargo of corn, animal fodder, gasoline, meat, iron, steel, and fertilizer. In order to mitigate the hardship this new policy might create in neutral countries, the Exports Council could grant special licenses to obtain and transport embargoed goods, upon a satisfactory showing that they were not headed to Germany.

Wilson formed a Committee on Public Information, through which official news items were released to the public press. The head of this department was George Creel, but the news releases were handled by newsman Ames Brown. A few days after his June 22 executive order, Wilson issued a press release with its details, sending it to Brown for dissemination. In it, Wilson sought to explain how the Export Council would work, and to assuage any concerns that his economic policy would lead to a stoppage of trade, and economic loss in the United States.

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, June 25, 1917, to reporter Ames Brown, attaching the press release for media purposes. “My dear Mr. Brown, Here is a statement which I hope you will supply to all the press, to accompany the announcement of the creation of an Exports Council for to-morrow morning’s papers. You will notice that it is a signed statement. In haste, with regard, Sincerely Yours, Woodrow Wilson”.

Here is Wilson’s statement, composed and typed by himself personally on the tiny typewriter he kept in the living quarters of the White House, and as released by Brown to the press.

Typed document signed, June 25, 1917, with Wilson’s corrections in his hand.

“STATEMENT of the PRESIDENT with regard to the Policy of Export Control. It is important that the country should understand just what is intended in the control of exports which is about to be undertaken, and since the power is vested by the Congress in the President I can speak with authority concerning it. The Exports Council will be merely advisory to the President. There will, of course, be no prohibition of exports. The normal course of trade will be interfered with as little as possible, and, so far as possible, only its abnormal course directed. The whole object will be to direct exports in such as way that they will go first and by preference where they are most needed and most immediately needed, and temporarily to withhold them, if necessary, where they can best be spared. Our primary duty in the matter of foodstuffs and like necessaries is to see to it that the peoples associated with us in the war get as generous a proportion as possible of our surplus which we can spare; but it will also be our wish and purpose to supply the neutral nations whose peoples depend upon us for such supplies as nearly in proportion to their need as the amount to be divided permits. There will, thus, be little to no check put upon the volumes of exports and the prices obtained for them will not be affected by this regulation. This policy will be carried out, not by prohibitive regulations, therefore, but by a system of licensing exports which will be as to constitute no impediment to the normal flow of commerce. In brief, the free play of trade will not be arbitrarily interfered with: it will only be intelligently and systematically directed in the light of full information with regard to needs and market conditions throughout the world and the necessities of our people at home and our armies and the armies of our associates abroad. The government is taking, or has taken, steps to ascertain, for example, just what the remaining available present supply of wheat and corn is remaining from the crops of last year; to learn from each of the countries exported these foodstuffs from the United States what their purchases in this country now are, and where they are stored; and what their needs are, in order that we may adjust things so far as possible to our own needs and free stocks; and this information is in course of being rapidly supplied. The case of wheat and corn will serve as an illustration of all the rest, of supplies of all kinds. Our trade can be successfully and profitably conducted now, the war pushed to a victorious issue, and the needs of our own people and of the other peoples with whom we are still free to trade efficiently met only by systematic direction; and that is what will be attempted. Woodrow Wilson”.

An important document prepared by Wilson himself setting into motion the ultimately successful American economic war against Germany.