Woodrow Wilson
The White House, Washington, D.C., October 9, 1917
Wilson War-Dated TLS Re: "tak[ing] back the foreign-built ships commandeered by the Shipping Board"
TLS

A 1p typed letter signed by 28th U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), as "Woodrow Wilson" near center right. Washington, D.C., October 9, 1917. Typed in blue ink on watermarked stationery with "The White House / Washington" letterhead embossed on the first page. Hand-stamped "File" in the upper right corner. Expected wear including flattened folds, isolated clerical holes at top, and pagination in pencil at bottom. The stationery was once bifold, as indicated by the slightly abraded left edge. Else near fine. 6.875" x 8.875."

President Wilson wrote this letter to Edward Nash Hurley (1864-1933), Chairman of the U.S. Shipping Board (U.S.S.B.), thanking him for his report of what had been discussed at a spirited U.S.S.B. meeting a few days earlier, on October 4, 1917.

Wilson wrote in part:

"Thank you for your letter about Mr. Stevens' proposal to establish American corporations, foreign owned, to take back the foreign-built ships commandeered by the Shipping Board. I find myself in entire agreement with your memorandum on the subject?"

At the October 4, 1917 board meeting, Raymond B. Stevens (1874-1942), Vice-Chairman of the U.S.S.B., had advanced an unpopular proposal which the other three commissioners (Hurley, John Donald, and Bainbridge Colby) had categorically rejected. Stevens' plan was to allow foreign-owned shipping contracts to be fulfilled in U.S. shipyards if the foreign entities agreed to form American corporations, a technicality which would then enable the prompt delivery of that shipping to the foreign interests. Stevens, as the U.S. representative to the Allied Maritime Transport Council, was sensitive to the needs of the other Allied countries and neutral nations; Great Britain, France, and Norway especially had clamored for this loophole. Wilson approved of Hurley and the other two commissioners' veto, as we can see by our letter. Ultimately, it was too risky for Americans to relinquish shipping in their possession, even if it was foreign-owned.

On August 3, 1917, U.S.S.B., Chairman Hurley had issued a controversial requisition order commandeering ship hulls, steel parts, and shipbuilding contracts for ships exceeding 2,500 deadweight tons currently in U.S. shipyards. The shipbuilding contracts were both foreign and domestic. In such a wartime emergency, it was imperative that each and every resource was reserved for the American war machine. Ultimately, Hurley's U.S.S.B. and the Emergency Fleet Corporation commandeered 431 ships--built, partially built, or unbuilt--which was the equivalent of over 3 million deadweight tons.

Hurley succinctly stated the objectives of this August 3, 1917 order in Chapter IV, "The Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation" of his memoirs, "The Bridge to France" (Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1927). Hurley wrote: "Our general purpose was to secure control of the yards so as to be able to assist them in financing and in delivering materials; to prevent the use of the yards, sorely needed for our own purpose, by foreigners, some of whom were our allies but most of whom were neutrals; to permit the simplification of the ships so that they might be more speedily completed and more thoroughly adapted to our own war uses; and generally to permit the Fleet Corporation to place additional direct contracts with the same yards without interfering with any of their other work."

The British were piqued that the requisition order also affected them, and they unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Americans that, since they were allies, the British should still retain ownership of their commandeered ships even if they were controlled and directly overseen by the Americans. Hurley was not convinced, writing in "The Bridge to France": "I came to the conclusion that there was only one safe course to pursue: We must control all ships built in the United States, and to control them they must fly the American flag?I laid this correspondence before President Wilson, so that he might be fully informed of the conclusions that had been reached. He sent me an expression of his approval, saying that he thought the necessities and policy of the case could not have been better stated."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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6.875" x 8.875"