Executive Order 2968

by President of the United States

By virtue of the authority vested in me by ‘‘An act to define, regulate, and punish trading with the enemy, and for other purposes,’’ approved October 6, 1917, known as the ‘‘Trading with the enemy act,’’ and the amendments thereto embodied in ‘‘An act making appropriations to supply urgent deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, and prior fiscal years, on account of war expenses, and for other purposes,’’ approved March 28, 1918, and all other powers and authorities me hereto enabling, make the following determination and order:

Whereas, A. Mitchell Palmer, Alien Property Custodian, has reported to me that certain property formerly the property of A. W. Faber, a partnership heretofore doing business in the United States, with its main plant at Newark, New Jersey, and heretofore composed of Count Alexander von Faber-Castell and Countess Ottilie von Faber-Castell as copartners, was offered for sale to the highest bidder at public auction on September 17, 1918, at eleven o'clock a. m., at which sale the highest bid received for the said property was the sum of $145,000, made by Theodore Friedeburg, and that the said bid is not considered by the Alien Property Custodian an adequate price for the said property, and that he has therefore disapproved the said sale.

Now, therefore, I hereby authorize and direct the Alien Property Custodian to reject all bids received at the said sale, including the bid of the said Theodore Friedeburg, and to resell such property at public sale, as if said sale had not occurred. My reasons for the foregoing determination and order are:

That the price bid for the said property by the said Theodore Friedeburg, to wit, the sum of $145,000, is inadequate, and not the fair market value of the property.

Woodrow Wilson 

The White House,

30 September, 1918.