JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2414
PRESIDENT WILSON PROCLAIMS WORLD WIDE EMBARGOWashington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years ago, August 27, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation setting up a "sweeping embargo to all the world.*" According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, the embargo was "designed to give the United States absolute control of its exports" during wartime.
After August 30, 1917, "the export of all articles of commerce to enemy and neutral countries" will be "absolutely prohibited." The needs of neutrals, however, would be taken into consideration through licensed exportations.
The Presidential embargo was designed "to prevent goods from going to Germany," and along with it the United States was to assume "the burden of maintaining the blockade of Germany."
In his embargo proclamation, President Wilson said...
"The purpose and effect of this proclamation is not export prohibition, but merely export control...our own domestic needs must be adequately safeguarded..."
*The Proclamation of August 27, 1917 prohibited the export of specified commodities held to include every article of commerce to certain countries neighboring Germany & other specified commodities to the remaining countries."
"United States, Export Embargo,", International Law Documents, Naval War College 1918, Government Printing Office, 1919.
"Wilson Issues World Embargo," The Chicago Daily Tribune, August 28, 1917.
President Wilson
Harris & Ewing (1919)
Library of Congress Photo
