of water transportation under their control. This step
seemed to be imperatively necessary in the interest of the public
welfare, in the presence of the great tasks of war with which we are now
dealing. As our own experience develops difficulties and makes it clear
what they are, I have deemed it my duty to remove those difficulties
wherever I have the legal power to do so. To assume control of the vast
railway systems of the country is, I realize, a very great
responsibility, but to fail to do so in the existing circumstances would
have been a much greater. I assumed the less responsibility rather than
the weightier.

I am sure that I am speaking the mind of all thoughtful Americans when I
say that it is our duty as the representatives of the nation to do
everything that it is necessary to do to secure the complete
mobilization of the whole resources of America by as rapid and effective
means as can be found. Transportation supplies all the arteries of,
mobilization. Unless it be under a single and unified direction, the
whole process of the nation's action is embarrassed.

It was in the true spirit of America, and it was right, that we should
first try to effect the necessary unification under the voluntary action
of those who were in charge of the great railway properties; and we did
try it. The directors of the railways responded to the need promptly and
generously. The group of railway executives who were charged with the
task of actual cooerdination and general direction performed their
difficult duties with patriotic zeal and marked ability, as was to have
been expected, and did, I believe, everything that it was possible for
them to do in the circumstances. If I have taken the task out of their
hands, it has not been because of any dereliction or failure on their
part but only because there were some things which the Government can do
and private management cannot. We shall continue to value most highly
the advice and assistance of these gentlemen and I am sure we shall not
find them withholding it.

It had become unmistakably plain that only under government
administration can the entire equipment of the several systems of
transportation be fully and unreservedly thrown into a common service
without injurious discrimination against particular properties. Only
under government administration can an absolutely unrestricted and
unembarrassed common use be made of all tracks, terminals, terminal
facilities and