Not only have we been rendering the Allies a useful service by
supplying so important a portion of their necessary food and munitions
of war, but we have been for some months forwarding troops to the
battleline. No figures are given out regarding movements of troops,
but there is a significant bit of evidence in the monthly summaries
of foreign commerce which proves that the number of American fighters
abroad must be very large. As the Government has published this
evidence, there can be no harm in referring to it here.
Gum is not chewed by Europeans, but seems to be regarded as a necessary
of life in the United States, if the wagging jaws to be seen in street
cars and other public places are any indication. Well, according to
Government figures, no chewing gum whatever was exported in 1915;
but in the calendar year 1917 the value of chewing gum exported was
$1,403,888! The figures given, being at wholesale prices, represent
upward of 176,000,000 cuds! Even on the most liberal allowance; so vast
a quantity would supply a great many fighting men.
Viewed from another standpoint, these chewing-gum statistics are even
more encouraging. If the shortage of cargo space to allied ports were
as desperate as Germany's press agents would have us believe, it does
not seem reasonable to suppose that any part of it would be frittered
away on chewing gum in such formidable quantities. This conviction is
strengthened by the discovery that exports of candy have increased
one-third in the three calendar years of war, to a total of $2,108,081
in 1917.
Most gratifying of all is the fact that despite the utmost endeavors of
the submarines, and notwithstanding upward of 3,000 strikes in American
shipyards last year, the capacity and efficiency of transatlantic
shipping increases from day to day not only positively but also
negatively by the withdrawal of the heavy tonnage formerly serving
enemy countries through contiguous neutral nations.
True, exports fell off somewhat for the eight months ended Feb. 28,
1918; but Europe received 63 per cent. of the total. Now when Europe
is spoken of it means substantially England, France, and Italy. Russia
obtained very little in those eight months, and Germany's neutral
neighbors still less. The shrinkage in the volume of supplies to our
fighting partners was not so much on account of anything the submarines
could do as because of the temporary breakdown of our own system due to
extraordinarily severe weather and to other causes.
Now the weather handicap has been lifted, our industrial machine has
been geared up and more ships have been placed where they could render
the most effective service. While in February, 1918, we could send our
allies only 750,000 tons of food, which was 50,000 tons less than their
minimum requirements, in the next month this was increased to 1,100,000
tons.