istration of the same date fixing priority in respect to the securing of fuel oil. On August 7, 1918, the President, acting under the power conferred upon him by the Overman Act, transferred to the Fuel Administration the duty of preparing and adopting standardized specifications for the supply of petroleum and its products to all Government departments and agencies, and for this purpose directed the creation of a committee representing the more important war agencies and the Bureaus of Mines and of Standards for the preparation of such specifications. A final step in bringing under Government control practically all classes of fuel except wood was taken through the issue on September 16, 1918, of a proclamation requiring the licensing by the Fuel Administration of all importers, producers, manufacturers, transporters (except those specifically exempted by the Food and Fuel Control Act), and all retailers (except those whose sales did not amount to $100,000 a year) of crude oil, fuel oil, gas oil, kerosene, gasoline, and natural gas. The Fuel Administrator was at the same time authorized to establish and enforce such regulations in respect to the issuance or cancellation of such licenses as in his opinion were necessary to carry into effect the purposes of the Food and Fuel Control Act.

Almost immediately upon the signing of the armistice action was taken to remove restrictions upon the transportation and consumption of coal as rapidly as possible.

At the outset the cancellation of orders related to minor matters. On February 1, 1919, however, practically all restrictions on the prices of coke and of coal and the zone regulations governing the movement of these fuels by rail were removed. The provision that shipments of coal to tidewater should go through the

Tide-Water Coal Exchange was, however, continued in order to avoid congestion at the ports, but this provision in turn was cancelled on February 28. On May 15, 1919, all regulations governing licensees engaged in the business of importing, manufacturing, distributing and transporting crude oil, fuel oil, natural gas, etc., or in the production or sale of these commodities, were revoked. In general terms it may be said that with this order the Fuel Administration surrendered its active control over the fuel industry of the country. The Administration, however, continued its existence in order to render assistance in meeting problems that might arise in its field during the period of reconstruction and also to be available should circumstances render it advisable that governmental control over the fuel industry be revived.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CONTROL OF ENEMY ALIENS AND SUPPORTERS

Enemy sympathizers and their activities-Existing statutes and special legislation for their control - Elements in the problem - Seditious utterances-Trading with the enemy Registration and restriction of enemy aliens Enemy insurance, patents, and copyrights - Sequestration of enemy propertyCreation of the Alien Property Custodian His powers and functions under the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act Organization of his office-His procedure and operations- His disclosures of German methods of economic penetration.

One of the special problems that had to be met by the United States in the prosecution of the war arose from the residence within our midst of large numbers of persons who were citizens of the countries with which we were at war or of countries allied with them, or who, although citizens of the United States, sympathized with the enemy because of the fact that they had been born in the enemy country or were descendants of persons so born. Overwhelming evidence accumulated during the period intervening between the outbreak of the war in Europe and our entrance into it that many of these enemy aliens or sympathizers, acting under the encouragement and direct support of the diplomatic and consular representatives of the Central Powers in the United States, were prepared to go to almost any length to promote the interests of the enemy and to injure those of the country whose hospitality they had been and were enjoying.

To meet this situation the most stringent measures of precaution had to be taken and the powers of the Government greatly enlarged by appropriate legislation.

Among the laws thus enacted the most important were the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, the amendment to that Act of May 6, 1918, the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act of October 2, 1917, and the Sabotage Act of April 20, 1918. There was already on the statute books the exceedingly important Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes, which read as follows:

Whenever there is declared a war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes proclamation of the event, all nations, citizens, denizens or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed, on the part of the United States towards the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject, and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises for the public safety.

This section was amended by an Act of April 12, 1918, extending its provisions to women as well as men.

It is impracticable in the present work to attempt anything like a complete account of all the action taken by the Government under these Acts to restrain the activities of enemy aliens and sympathizers. Such action, however, may be summarized under the following heads: (1) the control of utterances or publications of

a treasonable or seditious character or of a nature calculated to give aid and comfort to the enemy or to embarrass the Government in its war activities; (2) the prohibition or control of trading with the enemy, enemy sympathizers, or persons having trading relations with the enemy; (3) the control of the entry or departure of enemy aliens from the United States; (4) the registration of alien enemies; (5) the fixing of zones or districts within which enemy aliens should not reside or enter; (6) the control of the business of insurance as carried on by enemy corporations within the United States; (7) the regulation of the granting of patents or copyrights to enemy aliens and the use by citizens of the United States of patents owned or controlled by enemy aliens; (8), and the seizure and sequestration of property in the United States owned by enemy aliens.

An account of the action taken under the first two heads has already been given in our consideration of the topics of the mobilization of publicity agencies and of foreign trade. To the Department of Justice was entrusted the general work of controlling enemy aliens and enemy-alien activities in the United States. This work was performed through the creation and operation, under its Bureau of Investigation, of an elaborate secretservice organization, with the duty of detecting all acts of a hostile character by aliens or others and of bringing their perpetrators to justice, and through the putting into effect of orders of the President calling for the registration of all enemy aliens in the country. To the Federal Trade Commission was entrusted the enforcement of the provisions of the alien-enemy laws relative to the business of insurance, patents, and copyrights.1

1 For a description of the administration of this function see, in this series, Louis E. Van Norman, War Time Control of Commerce.