Until the United States entered the war with Germany it had never been realized that an enormous share of the economic wealth of the country was under German control. Attorney-General Palmer, in an address at Detroit, estimated this share to be about two billion dollars in money value, with an economic and political value far greater: "Furthermore, this structure was 'designed so to hold American industry as to frustrate the organization of our resources in case of war.' With two hundred American corporations controlled by the financial and military power in Germany, we had a situation that 'might easily have been fatal in America had it not been discovered in time.' When the war began in 1914 the structure 'had become so large and powerful and was so firmly entrenched in the industrial life of our country that its real commanders in Germany cherished the hope that it would prove the make-weight which would keep America out of the war, or, failing in that, constitute a powerful ally of the German cause in our very midst.'" Mr. Palmer added: "'During the last twenty-five or thirty years Germany had built up upon American soil a structure reaching into every part of the country and stretching its arms across the seas to fasten upon Porto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Congress has declared that all these enemy properties shall be managed and administered by the Alien Property Custodian with all the powers of a common law trustee, the proceeds to be distributed after the war in such manner as the Congress may determine. This means that the final disposition of the properties or the funds realized from their sale will be a topic for discussion and a subject for settlement at the council table of the nations at which permanent peace shall be restored to the world. "'This being so, it seems to me to be an important part of our work to capture the army which Germany skilfully and craftily planted midst the busy wheels of American industry, and to break, never to be again repaired, the industrial and commercial chain which Germany has stretched across the American continent and our insular possessions. I would let Germany understand now that her plan has dismally failed. I would let her understand now that no matter how long she fights, or what sacrifice she makes, or what price she pays, however much territory she may occupy, or whatever worlds she may conquer, there is one place which she will never soil again with the tramp of the marching legions of her industrial army. That is the United States of America. I would divorce utterly and forever all German capital from American industry'." II--WARTIME FOOD AND PRICE PROBLEMS