Members of the House of Representatives are chosen by an electoral college, and several hundred of these colleges are selected at each election. Though taxpayers vote for the electors, all the votes do not have the same relative value. The taxpayers whose combined taxes represent one-third of the whole amount of taxes in an electoral district choose one-third of the members from that district to the House. Those who pay the next one-third of the taxes choose another third of the electors, and the remaining body of voters choose the last third.
CHAPTER XXVI.
UNCLE SAM AND THE NEUTRALS.
President Wilson Puts Embargo on Food Shipments—Scandinavian Countries Furnishing Supplies to Germany Inspires Order—The Difficult Position of Norway, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland.
When America first declared its intentions there were in the United States thousands who held to the theory that "America in War" simply meant that we should shut ourselves within our borders, perhaps furnish supplies to the Allied forces, lend money to England, France, Belgium and Russia, use our navy to protect our merchant shipping and go about our business, leaving the fighting to the forces joined in conflict against Germany.
They were disabused when the English and French Commission and the representatives of Belgium and Russia made it apparent that it would be necessary for America to actually raise a fighting army and General Pershing was sent to France. But they learned, too, that mobilizing the forces of the country and waging warfare were not simple matters. The truth was brought home that the whole nation must fight; that it must use its brains, its money, its resources of every sort, its whole power, both in an offensive and in a defensive way.
Not only must its soldiers and sailors face the guns of the Teutons, but the machinery of government must be used to bring the arrogant Hohenzollerns to their knees. Some startling things were discovered, and the brains of the diplomatic force of the government were put to the test. International problems arose which were never before encountered in the history of nations.
England, with its blockade against Germany, and Germany with its submarine warfare against British and neutral shipping, developed problems which had to be solved relative to keeping Germany from getting supplies which would enable her to withstand the siege, and also as to the sending of supplies to England, Belgium, France and Russia, and particularly to our own forces fighting with the Allies in France.