If any further evidence of America's great part in the war,
irrespective of participation by American troops in the fighting, is
needed it can be found in statistics of exports of foodstuffs to the
Allies, who have been obliged to depend more and more upon this country
for the necessaries of life.
Exports of wheat flour to France in the calendar year 1915 were
2,392,952 barrels; in 1916, 2,263,990 barrels; in 1917, 2,659,328
barrels. Italy called for 148,999 barrels of American wheat flour in
1915 and 1,494,816 barrels in 1917, while Great Britain's requirements
were 3,269,262 barrels in the former year and 4,808,141 barrels in the
latter.
Our total exports of fresh beef to all the world in 1913 were only
6,580,123 pounds. In 1915 we sent Great Britain, France, and Italy
256,198,283 pounds. In 1916 exports to these three countries fell off
to 160,879,642 pounds, but rose again to 172,940,833 pounds, in spite
of von Tirpitz's unrestricted destructiveness.
In 1913 France took only 716,266 pounds of American bacon; but in
1915 the demand jumped to 52,044,475 pounds, increasing still further
to 60,606,802 pounds in 1916 and to 73,195,974 pounds in 1917. Great
Britain, which got along with 145,269,456 pounds of American bacon in
1913, needed 284,783,009 pounds in 1916 and 341,674,452 pounds in 1917.
In the same period exports of hams and shoulders to France increased
more than twelvefold and to Great Britain more than a third.
Exports of lard to France, Italy, and Great Britain increased from a
total of 200,490,003 pounds in 1913 to 210,139,760 pounds in 1915 and
224,683,383 pounds in 1916. In 1917 exports to these three countries
fell to 189,024,889 pounds. It is an interesting coincidence that
Holland, whose appetite for American lard was fully satiated by
38,313,677 pounds in 1913, and which was able to skimp along with a
trifle more than 20,000,000 pounds a year during the first two years of
the world war, required 64,888,545 pounds in 1917, when Germany's need
for fats grew desperate.
Exports of sugar have gone forward to the Allies on the same vast
scale. In 1913 our entire export trade absorbed only 14,995,232 pounds
of sugar. In 1915 we sent to Great Britain, France, and Italy alone
860,456,311 pounds; in 1916, 1,126,022,067 pounds; in 1917, 519,881,377
pounds. No wonder the sugar bowl disappeared from the American
restaurant table last Fall and still remains in strict seclusion!