merican ship, though, as
later developed, she had been chartered by a German agent in New York,
Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, in order to bring the Anglo-American dispute to a
head.

How far the interference with our trade by the British might have
embittered relations, if other issues had not seemed more pressing, no one
can say. Precisely at the moment when business men were beginning to call
upon Wilson for a sturdier defense of American commercial rights, a
controversy with Germany eclipsed, at least from the eye of the general
public, all other foreign questions. From the moment when the defeat on
the Marne showed the Germans that victory was not likely to come quickly
to their arms, the Berlin Government realized the importance of preventing
the export of American munitions. Since the allies held control of the
seas an embargo on such export would be entirely to German advantage, and
the head of German propaganda in this country, a former Colonial
Secretary, Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, attempted to mobilize German-American
sentiment and to bring pressure upon Congressmen through their
constituents in favor of such an embargo. It was easy to allege that the
export of arms, since they went to the allied camp alone, was on its face,
unneutral. Several Senators approved the embargo, among them the chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, William J. Stone of Missouri.
Against the proposed embargo Wilson set his face steadfastly. He perceived
the fallacy of the German argument and insisted that to prevent the export
of arms would be itself unneutral. The inability of the Central Powers to
import arms from the United States resulted from their inferiority on the
high seas; the Government would be departing from its position of
impartiality if it failed to keep American markets open to every nation of
the world, belligerent or neutral. The United States could not change the
rules in the middle of the game for the advantage of one side. The perfect
legality of Wilson's decision has been frankly recognized since the war by
the German Ambassador.

But the execution of German military plans demanded that the allied
shortage in munitions, upon which the Teutons counted for success in the
spring campaigns, should not be replenished from American sources.
Failing to budge Wilson on the proposal of an embargo, they launched
themselves upon a more reckless course. On February 4, 1915, the German
Admiralty issued a proclamation to