Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From April 18, 1918, Up to and Including May 17, 1918
UNITED STATES
The campaign for the Third Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 ended on May 4. The total subscription was $4,170,019,650, as announced by the Treasury Department on May 17.
On April 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation extending to women enemy aliens the restrictions imposed on men.
The Overman bill, giving the President power to consolidate and co-ordinate executive bureaus and agencies as a war emergency measure, was passed by the Senate on April 28 and by the House on May 14.
The War Trade Board announced on May 3 that a general commercial agreement with Norway had been signed. On May 12 it announced that in order to conserve materials and labor and to add tonnage to the fleet carrying men and munitions to Europe, arrangements had been made to have Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium pass upon the advisability of releasing proposed exports before granting licenses to shippers. On May 14 an agreement was reached between the United States and the allied nations providing that all imports to the United States should be forbidden unless sanctioned by the War Trade Board.
A conference report on the Sedition bill, giving the Government broad new powers to punish disloyal acts and utterances, was adopted by the Senate on May 4, and by the House of Representatives on May 7, and sent to the President for his signature.
As a result of charges of graft, inefficiency, and pro-German tendencies directed against the military aircraft administration by Gutzon Borglum, President Wilson, on May 15, asked Charles Evans Hughes to aid Attorney General Gregory in making a thorough investigation. Mr. Hughes accepted the invitation. The President also wrote a letter to Senator Martin denouncing the Chamberlain resolution for an investigation of the conduct of the war by the Committee on Military Affairs of the Senate, and on the same day the Senate Committee on Audit and Expenses, to which the resolution had been referred, ordered a favorable report on it, modifying it so as to provide for a limited inquiry.
SUBMARINE BLOCKADE
The American steamship Lake Moor was reported sunk on April 11.