ments and shipbuilding
plants, the manufacture and transportation of munitions, all put an
unprecedented pressure upon them. Everywhere there was great shortage of
cars, equipment, and materials. Possibly the railroads might have risen
to the occasion except for the fact that the enormous increase in the
cost of labor and supplies made demands upon their treasuries which they
could not meet. They repeatedly asked the Interstate Commerce Commission
for an increase in rates, but this request was repeatedly refused. The
roads were therefore helpless, and their operations became so congested
as to create a positive military danger. Under these circumstances there
was profound relief when President Wilson took over the roads and placed
them under government control, with William Gibbs McAdoo, Secretary of
the Treasury, in active charge.

McAdoo immediately took the step which the Administration, while the
railroads were under private control, had steadily refused to sanction,
and now increased the rates. These increases were so great that they
made the public fairly gasp, but, under the impulse of patriotism, there
was a good-natured acquiescence. McAdoo also increased wages by hundreds
of millions of dollars. His administration on the whole was an able one.
He ignored for the moment the prevailing organization and managed
the roads as though they constituted a single system. He instituted
economies by concentrating ticket offices, establishing uniform freight
classifications, making common the use of terminals and repair shops,
abolishing circuitous routes, standardizing equipment, increasing the
loads of cars and by introducing a multitude of other changes. All these
reforms greatly increased the usefulness of the roads, which now became
an important element in winning the war. Properly regarded, the American
railroads became as important a link in the chain of communications
reaching France as the British fleet itself. It is not too much to say
that the fate of the world in the critical year 1918 hung upon this
tremendous railroad system which the enterprise and genius of Americans
had built up in three-quarters of a century. In February, 1918, Great
Britain, France, and Italy made official representations to the American
Government, declaring that unless food deliveries could be made as they
had been promised by Hoover's food administration, Germany would win
the war. McAdoo acted immediately upon this information. He gat