this came the problems of neutrality and American business. Suffering,
due to the stoppage of the export trade, particularly that of cotton,
brought wide depression throughout the United States. A new law for the
transfer of foreign-built vessels to American registry, and another for
federal insurance against war risks, were hurriedly passed, and the
question of a public-owned line of merchant ships was discussed. All
these problems were distracting the attention of the United States when
Congress brought to an end its prolonged labors, and adjourned.

The congressional election of 1914 was profoundly affected by the
European war. Early in the year it appeared that conservative opposition
to the Democratic program was growing, and that the Democratic majority
was likely to be cut down. The Progressive party appeared to be
weakening, and the control of the Republican party was settling back
among those Republicans against whom the Insurgents had made their
protest. But President Wilson's precise neutrality won the confidence of
all parties, and although conservatives like Cannon, of Illinois, and
Penrose, of Pennsylvania, won over Democrats and Progressives alike in a
few cases, he retained for the Sixty-fourth Congress a working majority
in the House and an enlarged majority in the Senate. His election in
1912 had been, in part, due to the dispersion of Republican strength
caused by the Progressive schism; in 1914, the influence of the
Progressives was negligible and the Democrats retained their power in
the face of the whole Republican attack.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Between 1909 and 1914, the _Outlook_, to which Theodore Roosevelt had
been an occasional contributor, and which had been a strong supporter of
Republican policies since 1898, was the regular organ through which Mr.
Roosevelt addressed the public, over his signature as Contributing
Editor. In a similar way William J. Bryan reached his followers through
the _Commoner_ (1900-), and Robert M. LaFollette through his
_LaFollette's Weekly_ (1909-). _Collier's Weekly_ became a center of the
adverse criticism of President Taft. All of these, as well as the more
general periodicals, are indispensable sources for the period, but are
so highly partisan as to need constant correction for prejudice. The
election of 1908 is treated in Stanwood's _History of the Presidency
from 1897 to 1909_, while that of 1912 is excellently described in the
_New International Year B