TRANSPORTATION AND FUEL

The war was gradually being brought home to the nation, not by tidings of American troops taking their places side by side with their Allies in Europe, but by internal changes. The Government stretched forth an expropriating arm in all directions where public and private service could be utilized for war purposes, and it duly took charge of the railroads.

As a war measure, the President's intervention in assuming control of the country's transportation systems was the most sweeping step he had taken under the extraordinary powers vested in him by Congress. The railroad authorities themselves realized its need. The war had received many designations, but analyzing its conduct down to fundamentals, it was a railroad war. So Marshal Joffre had termed it in recalling how the railroad had enabled him to win the Battle of the Marne by rushing troops and munitions where they were critically needed.

The American railroads were already overtaxed when war was declared, and lacked facilities for proper repairs and new equipment. Early in 1915 and thenceforth they became swamped by a flood of traffic in munitions, food, and other supplies from the interior to the seaboard for transshipment overseas to the Allies. They needed more locomotives and cars for this huge traffic; but the day of reasonable prices had passed, labor was costly and uncertain, and engine and car builders were absorbed in producing for the Allies. When the war drew in the United States the railroad's burdens were swollen manifold by the transportation problem incident to the mobilizing of an army of 1,500,000 men. Troop trains had to be operated by the tens and hundreds and even thousands; for every troop train there were ten, fifteen, and twenty trains of camp equipment; ore and fuel had to be carried; more and more material called for transit to the seaboard for the Allies. The traffic grew 50 per cent. above that of 1914, the year the European war started, and it was operated with little more than 3 per cent. of additional equipment. The working forces of the railroads, in addition, were depleted, not only by numerous volunteer enlistments to the regular army, but by the selective draft, and by the creation of nine full regiments of railroad engineers for service in France.

Reviewing the situation in December, 1917, the Interstate Commerce Commission recommended immediate unification of the railroads into one system, operated under government control, as the only solution of the problem of conducting the war traffic.

The President by proclamation took over the railroads on December 28, 1917. He exercised this power both under the resolutions declaring war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, wherein he was authorized to employ the resources of the Government and of the country to bring the conflict to a successful termination, and under an army appropriation bill passed on August 29, 1916 (eight months before the United States entered the war), which provided:

"The President, in time of war, is empowered, through the Secretary of War, to take possession and assume control of any system or systems of transportation, or any part thereof, and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, for the transfer or transportation of troops, war material and equipment, or for such other purposes connected with the emergency as may be needful or desirable."

The President, explaining his action in a supplementary statement, told the country:

"This is a war of resources no less than of men, perhaps even more than of men, and it is necessary for the complete mobilization of our resources that the transportation systems of the country should be organized and employed under a single authority and a simplified method of coordination which have not proved possible under private management and control.

"The Government of the United States is the only great government now engaged in the war which has not already assumed control of this sort. It was thought to be in the spirit of American institutions to attempt to do everything that was necessary through private management, and if zeal and ability and patriotic motive could have accomplished the necessary unification of administration, it would certainly have been accomplished; but no zeal or ability could overcome insuperable obstacles, and I have deemed it my duty to recognize that fact in all candor now that it is demonstrated and to use without reserve the great authority reposed in me. A great national necessity dictated the action, and I was therefore not at liberty to abstain from it."

The Government undertook to guarantee to each company such net earnings as would amount to the ascertained average of the three-year period ending with June, 1917. The rights of stockholders and bondholders and other creditors of the railroads were not to be impaired by the change in control, and the roads were to be kept in as good repair and equipment as when taken over. For their upkeep and betterment the President sought an appropriation of $500,000,000 from Congress.

The Secretary of the Treasury, William G. McAdoo, was appointed director general. His first act was to order that all terminals, ports, locomotives, rolling stock and other transportation facilities be utilized in the common cause of serving the country. By this course he ended all railroad compacts apportioning the distribution of traffic, and pooled the terminals for the common use of all carriers whose lines or cars could reach them.

Meantime a coal famine, due to freight congestion of unexampled proportions, had been gradually developing. At the beginning of December the country, except in the northwest, faced a serious shortage of fuel, not through lack of coal, but through lack of means to transport it. Dr. H. A. Garfield, the Federal Fuel Administrator, took steps to have coal and coke given the right of way over general freight, which in turn was subordinate to the transit of actual war supplies. Traffic priority of coal shipments was the remedy sought to loosen the congestion of coal cars at mines and terminals. But sufficient coal did not reach the various points of distribution for normal winter use, nor, what was as serious, for war purposes. It was solely a transportation problem, involving a general freight problem, and its solution would also solve the fuel problem. The navy and factories alone required 100,000,000 tons more than they needed before, and could get little above half that quantity. There came an imperative call for fuel economy from Dr. Garfield, who warned the country that unless it could save 50,000,000 tons by retrenchment, the Government would have to stop the operation of nonessential industries where coal was a big factor in order to apply the use of fuel so saved for essential war industries.

In the end Dr. Garfield resorted to heroic measures. Without prior notice he issued a closing order to the industries east of the Mississippi, which were thus made to feel the full force of the coal famine. The operation of all factories, except those engaged in the manufacture of foodstuffs, was suspended for five days (from January 18 to January 22, 1918), and they were also to close every Monday from January 28 to March 25 inclusive. Coal merchants were required in selling fuel to give preference to railroads, domestic, and public service consumers, ships for bunker purposes, Government departments, national and local, and manufacturers of perishable food. On the five days named and on the succeeding Mondays, no fuel was to be delivered to any other person or corporation for any purpose except for plants which must be operated seven days a week to avoid injury to their equipment, and printing establishments. The curtailment of the use of fuel was further prescribed on the Mondays named to an extent that virtually made them holidays. All private, business, and professional offices, except those of banks and trust companies, physicians and dentists, were forbidden to be heated or lighted at all except to avert the danger of damage from frozen apparatus. Wholesale and retail stores (except those selling food), business buildings, saloons, theaters, dance halls and all other places of amusement came under this ban.

The country was startled by the sweeping order. Protests poured into the White House; Congress was in a ferment; the Senate passed a resolution urging a postponement of such a drastic step. But Dr. Garfield remained firm. He insisted that the inadequacy of the coal supply and transportation facilities to meet the enormous war demands, coupled with unprecedented adverse weather, had made immediate restrictive measures imperative. The order, with a few modifications, was enforced in the face of a rising storm of indignation from a multitude of objectors who saw nothing but industrial chaos in its operation.

The protests subsided as quickly as they arose. Industry had received a violent shock; confusion and uncertainty followed; but the order was obeyed. It fell with stunning effect upon an unprepared public opinion which in some directions exploded with symptoms of a panic-stricken hysteria. But presently it began to dawn on the public mind that if a cessation of business for a few days helped the railroads to move coal and war freight, whereby ships could get fuel and cargoes to depart to Europe, and also removed the tantalizing spectacle (one of many like situations elsewhere) of a coalless New York while 350,000 tons were traffic-bound a few miles away, the fuel-curtailment order would be remembered as marking a decision of great courage and statesmanship. The congestion of the railroads and their terminals had produced a condition bordering on transportation immobility. The arteries of commerce, as it were, had become frozen. Factories and plants piled their daily output in railroad yards and near the docks in rising quantities. The accumulations of undelivered freight grew and grew and the panting railroads, working beyond the limits of what their traffic would bear, could only reduce the incubus piecemeal. The tardy recognition came that, even had there been no coal shortage, which was the primary cause of the shutdown, a temporary cessation of manufacture was necessary to clear the loaded tracks and empty the groaning storehouses before they were burdened with further accretions from the hives of industry.

The antagonism provoked by the closing order soon gave way to a cordial spirit of cooperation, and many industries affected undertook to assume in large part the financial burdens incident to enforced idleness. Manufacturing was halted and further merchandise was kept from cluttering the crowded railroads. Improved transportation conditions followed, due largely to milder weather. The way was rapidly cleared for a steady movement of coal to tidewater for bunkering ships loaded with supplies for the American oversea forces and for the Allies, as well as for supplying domestic fuel needs.