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Show RIDING IN THE CAB OF NO. 913 WITH ENGINEER M'ADOO En gineer McAdoo's Train Steam locomotives locomo-tives 61,267 All cars in service 2,427,227 Miles of lines operated .... 231,178 Employes 1,643,469 Passengers car- i ried in year.. 1,005, 986,416 ! Tons freight ' carried 2,418,676,023 i Eased on latest report of Bureau j of Railway Economies for railroads ! having annual operating revenues j above SI, 000, 000. ' By Charles W. Duke Washington, D. C. CLIMBING u, floor by tloor through the recesses of the Interstate Commerce Com-merce Commission Building, at Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania avenue and Eighteenth street, one arrives presently at the cab window win-dow of Engine Xo. 913, the locomotive in which rides 'William G. McAdoQ.. Engineer McA doos Train (7?- cIsbss, Steam locomo- v ' ' VfV All cars in -(. '& : mm:: :-. i-,- y?"-:; iiVs'jSS- "- ' -Iratfll service 2,427,227 fr-'QI :: """" " ' ' XOI&v--' ' ' whasetH Mes of lines l-'fp W$W . ' - 'l- lt ' Plffi operated.... 231,178 &.l'i& rA U'MtlS Employes 1,643,469 I vj -MWm . iSiillP?SM ' 81 Passengers car- f'i$: , . , ''MWjS : - ' fflS ried in year.. 1,005,986,416 1 1 a ' - &J'Z -I'll Tons freight i j f2 3 ' . " Eased on latest report of Bureau j . t " JrTTJ?" ,'5- - V-5 "''- of Railway Economies for railroads j i f t : ' - 'tp5 j VyV -. fcNSii''- fisS? having annual operating revenues j I; fcrS " Brr- "v" " .'yX- -.mitMPt ' r ' ' - V "SS ii'ttW " ' ylSfcfew'afS LIMBING u, floor by floor through f ft 3 . fi f V v 1 - V ifhMP" -t the recesses of the Interstate Com- K VV' 5t ""--- . I 'ifwJ&P T. 'iy v-! merce Commission Building, at Fenn- ' i1- , "VS- - 1 X' 17 WSKwJ- tg&sS WfcS sylvania avenue and Eighteenth street, , , J , S3. SilW?!-. on.e arrives presently at the cab win- ! jfc '4. b - V ' w- 7 if&f -s- 55" ..." S5S dow of Engine Xo. 913, the locomotive 1'! ' " . , t - f t " JMZig Tjh. , 1 N PSJ v 1 - )r':-r; --rjJw MmM Director General McAdoo at the V ,f " v '" I'-ylPV tffe 14 -throttle- of No. 913 in the I. C. C. V - . , . . - S '5 f 1 feSl ' W00 Director General of Railroads. Xo. P13 is the particular room on the ninth floor of the I. C. C. building from which "Engineer Mack" directs the ! railroad systems of the nation. It is the cab into which he climbs every afternoon after a strenuous morning at the Treasury Building, attending his manifold duties there. Steam all up. oiled and coaled, "Old 913" awaits him in the roundhouse just above the State, Army and Xavy Building. The "National Express" pulls out every afternoon somewhere between 12 and 1 o'cloc!;. when Engineer McAdoo, . "given the go" by the Grand Conductor Conduc-tor in the White House, grasps the throttle, "lets her out a notch" and flits away over the amalgamated trunk line of the Government-controlled national na-tional railway. "Old 913" is a quiet, unpretentious-looking unpretentious-looking locomotive without the shrill whistle of the Baltimore and Ohio freight locomotive or the clanging bell of the New York Central "shifter." It is just a little room, ten by ten. or something like that, "just an ordinary clerk's room." as Colonel Oscar Wilson, Wil-son, one of Mr. McAdoo's secretaries and the "fireboy of Old 913," puts it. The cab windows of No. 913 face north, west and south a comprehensive sweep of the track ahead leading far off over the Mississippi Valley and the towering Rocky Mountain peaks all the way to the Pacific coast. Driving all the time with a "clear block." Engineer En-gineer McAdoo here gets a lofty vision of the great vistas ahead and a ready Inspiration for the big job at hand. His seat at the cab window is an easy swinging swivel chair before a huge flat oaken desk, which is at one and the same time the tnrottle and the airbrake air-brake of "Old 913." One touch of an electric button and a spoken word and "Mack" can "wheel 'em along." as the Lake Shore boys say, "at sixty per" or he can "slow 'em down to yard-limit speed," as the occasion demands. de-mands. As In the case of every single railroad rail-road engineer throughout th country. Engineer Mack's siugle aim is "to get them to their destination on schedule time." When President Wilson, acting act-ing in this case as "callboy." beckoned him into the cab of Xo. 913, in midwinter. mid-winter. Engineer McAdoo found he had a real man's job on his hrtndi. The National Ennrws was snowbound in the mountain pass of Chaos. No. 913 was "slipping" sadly. Tlr old engineer, the Railroad War Board, composed of presidents of some of the large trunk lines, was "giving licr and," but all in vain. The old driving rods were pounding away and the v.heela wre revolving like mad but not a "coach was rolling." The Railroad Rail-road War Board's locomotive was not steaming right; her "throttle pa'klng was k-.-i.klng" and lif-r "cylinders f.how'jd signs of rra-'king." pssen- gei's in trie stalled coaches were clamoring: clam-oring: to " ret goni rN: and thousands upon thousands ot persons in thousands thou-sands or cities. to ns and vihases were sadly in need of freight, express, parcel post and g-eneral basrpage. At this juncture "Old 913" was backed into the picture, coupled up quickly one night and, presto! in the morning the great "ational Express was on her way again. Here is the first order promulgated by Engineer McAdoo after he assumed charge of the cab of No. &13, reproduced verbatim ver-batim from the original as I found it in the I. C. C. roundhouse: ''The Government now being: in control con-trol of the railroad?, t lie officers and cmployr-s of the various companies no longer serve a private interest. Ail now .-e rve the Government and the public invrept only. I want the oPirers; and employes to get the spirit of this new era. Kupremo devotion to country, a:i invincible, determination to perform the imperative duties of the hour, while the life of the nation is imperiled by war. must obliterate old enmities and make friends and comrades com-rades of us all. There must be cooperation, co-operation, not antagonism ; confidence, not suspicion; mutual helpfulness, not grudging performance: just consideration, consider-ation, not arbitrary disregard of each other's ric.ii ts and feelings: a fine discipline dis-cipline based on mutual respect and sympathy, and an earnest desire to serve the great public faithfully and efficiently. This is the new spirit, the spirit that must pervade every part and branch of the national railroad service." Versatile Engineer "With such a pronunriamento. Engineer En-gineer "Mack" climbed up into the cab and "pulled her wide open." It was my privilege not long ago to take a ride in the cab of Xo 913, with her Tennessee pilot, and watch him "hitting "hit-ting up the levels" and "slowing her off on the curves." Let it be known, first of all, that the engineer of No. 013 is a very busy man. In the morning. morn-ing. IWote he comes Into the T. C. C. roundhouse to mount his sted on the ninth floor, he holds the nation's pocketbook, Secretary of the Treasury b.t:ig one of his many jobs. His morning procram thore inrludes the bo? sing of some such Jobs as the Federal Fed-eral Reserve Board, the Federal Farm Loan Board, the Interna Revenue Department, De-partment, the Liberty Loans, the war savinr-s stamps and kindred othr organizations or-ganizations I ha t ha e bfnn grouped undf-r the TYc;jHury Depart mmit. Every morning Swrrtn ry McAdoo rrrr j von a report from the Director of the Mint, the ('oinpirollrr ,,f tn Currency and every other financial png linuten-ant. linuten-ant. Warrants 'ailing for millions of dollars are cashv casu illy ns a part of - .' '.r -ttJB. j: . , v. . " " " ' ' i - tr-' the perfunctory procedure of a day's calendar. Xo one could get away with such a titanic job unless be had a thorough thor-ough urga nidation: and that is exactly what the Secretary of the Treasury Treas-ury has to the completest detail. Why, even Eleanor Wilson McAdoo. his wife, supervises a Red Cross booth in the Treasury Building and helps in the sale of Liberty Bonds and war-savings stamps. Everyhody in Washington helps; the D. of C. written after the name of the capital city means District Dis-trict of Co-operation. . Since the development of the railway rail-way tangle and the herculean effort to smooth out traffic Xo. M3 has had the "right of way." By this time Congress Con-gress may or may not have settled the problem of Xo. fll.Ts "run," whether it is to be one year or two years aftu the war; at any rate, the new engine and her retinue of rolling stock are "'wheeling them along" in line shape. This is possible because of the remarkable re-markable organization behind Enci-nccr Enci-nccr McAdoo. When he arrives nt the L C. C. roundhouse "Pilot Mack" knows intimately within a few minutes min-utes the exact situation from Canada Can-ada to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His conductor, brakeman and flagman are the three regional directors A. H. Smith, president of the Xew York Central, in charge of the operation of eastern railroads; R. H. Aishton. president of the Chicago and Xorthwestprn. in charge of western railroads, and C. H. Markham. president presi-dent of the Illinois Central, in charge of southern railroads. Every day, as lie climbs Into the cab of Xo. 913. Mr. IcAdoo gets a report from the various members of his train crew. From Commissioner MoChord. of the Interstate Commerce Commission, ho gets a complete report re-port of car movements. From Frank McManamy, manager of the locomotive locomo-tive section of the division of transportation, trans-portation, lie gets a report of the number num-ber of locomotives In service, how many arc In shops undergoing repairs how many nerd re pa Irs, how ma n new engi nos have been added to the .-A A - .--.,; rv ,r'h V --..t--r- ' ' sr.'r'iri''i'l' -;-''"'". rolling stock, etc. The complex problem prob-lem of managing the various units of the national railroad that move over approximately 230.000 miles of track-au-e, with something like 2.500.000 cars drawn by some 'ki.OhO locomotives. Is made so simple that at a moment's notice Engineer McAdoo knows the exact situation at any one traffic terminal ter-minal in the country. For instance, here is an excerpt from one of Commissioner Com-missioner McChord's daily reports, an illustration picked at random and showing how perfectly the system works out up in the cab of Xo. !13: "Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Hi n ton. Wt st Virginia. During the twenty-four hour period ending 12.01 a. m. (date inserted, T'JS cars were received re-ceived for the east and 714 were received re-ceived for the wo.'-t ; 770 cars were forwarded for-warded ca st and S 1 3 were1 forwarded west. There remained on hand for the east 12S cars and for the west forty-three forty-three cars." Xo. i'A is no subway locomotive. Everything is rutin out on the surface. Every general order is an open book to the public. You can climb right up into the cab and -view the business of running the national railroad at close range. Attached to Xo. 913 is a little private car; a tiny anteroom leading Into the engineer's cab. In this car ride the presidents of the various railroads, the chairmen of the boards of directory and other railway officials M .''vV--'r..: f&& V , ' -T.TV-':'T3av ty:. ' tVw;- - ,- .-: ! ,: v. .'-,-.' :"-.,'--.-rx;v V v'.Ci' ' ,;; :-' - ". .;. ;;i::::'.- f. - ' ' S.-JV; ,'.-;" .."V .i?V'..-.-v-?-V-,: when they come to Washington to seo the Director General. Democracy is the keynote in the cab of 913, Just as it is In the library of the White House special, where the President of tho Foiled States ticks off his messages to the world. Every railroad president is ushered inM the little private car and travels along in turn until his time comes to see the engineer. Envoys En-voys from foreign Governments travel in the same car. Some minister, almost with tears running down his face, rushes aboard only to announce, when at last he meets the potentate at the threttle. that his country is starving and he must pet the food to the ships at once. Whereupon the Director General calls in to his fire-boy. fire-boy. "Keep 300 cars cf meat moving eastward to such and such a point until this situation is relieved." In Mr. McAdoo's private office in the Treasury Building you find, among other adornments of the office, the pictures of Alexander Hamilton, the "Father of American Finance"; Chief Justice Taney, of Dred Scott fame, and Albert Gallatin, who as Treasurer inaugurated the "pay-as-you-po" policy of finance. It is to be presumed that Mr. McAdoo. as Secretary of the Treasury, Treas-ury, finds inspiration for his arduous tasks from the fa es of the three famous Americans. Over in the cab of Xo. 013, however, there is not a sign of a picture of any kind. The two dominant tilings that I noted in the ro.om were a calendar upon the wall and a clock upon a high mantel. This clock had a pronouncedly audible lick that re erhod throughout the room like the steady drive of a Mallet locomotive loco-motive coming up out of the recesses of a mountain pass a tick that seemed to reiterate over and over a refrain like "git-there, git-there, git-there." git-there." And the calendar was printed in very large numerals that stood out prominently. It was evident that the attention of the engineer was distracted distract-ed by nothinc other than the thought of "time and speed" the twin essentials essen-tials of the modern locomotive engineer. engi-neer. "Well. boys, what do you think of so-and-so?" Mr. McAdoo has a fashion of saying when the newspaper boys crawl up In the cab to get the very latest in the way of national railway information. For Engineer McAdoo Is a great friend of the newspaper fraternity fra-ternity and takes them right into his confidence. He will ask them what the general public is thinking of such and such a measure. whether it sanctions the way the Government is running the railroads nnd what it says about things in general. This engineer en-gineer is thinking all the time about the safety of his more than 100.000.000 passenser and wants thorn to know all about the conduct of affairs In Xo. ?13. The newspaperman who is touching touch-ing constantly all the high points of national life is expected to be free and frank with the engineer, and if he says the public regards such and such n measure as too drastic or too moderate Mr. McAdoo likes to hear about it. He flgutvs their rpeilence enables them to cct the viewpoint of a sub- Some McAdoo Jobs Secretary of the Treasury Chairman Federal Farrri Loan Bureau. Chairman Federal Reserve Board. Chairman United States Section International High Commission. Director General of Rail, roads. Director Liberty Loan sales. Director War Saving Stamp sales. Son-in-law of the President Presi-dent of the United States. P6tential presidential possibility pos-sibility for 1920. ject from all sides and to reflect unbiased un-biased public sentiment. On the point of McAdoo nemocrar-y "fc, one of the stories told in Washington '- 1 is that several months ago a Liberty Loan moving picture was being taken on the steps of the Treasury Bulldin?. Fur-coated, Mr. McAdoo rushed into the group of young men and women and, grabbing up an American fla, started waving it excitedly. All a-, once, as the camera man began wird-lng wird-lng up the picture, he stopped, pulled off the fur coat and tossed it aside. "I'm just one of the crowd selling Liberty Bonds," he remarked, with a deft kick at the big fur coat. "Every railroad officer and employe em-ploye is now, in effect, in the service of the United States, and every office: and employe is just as important a factor in winning the war as the men in uniform who are fighting in the trenches." says Engineer McAdoo. And on this ground he appeals to then "to apply yourselves with new devotion devo-tion and energy to your work, to keep trains moving on schedule time and to meet the demands upon the transportation trans-portation lines, so that our soldiers and sailors may want for nothing which will enable Uiem to fight the enemy to a standstill and win a glorious glori-ous victory for united America." Having emerged from the tangle s'. an unprecedented winter. Engineer McAdoo is giving his attention no directly to the problem of improve-ments improve-ments during the summer months.-! would seem from the measures already instituted that the chances of a repe- tition of last winter's traffic tie-up will be virtually eliminated before another ( winter sets in. Early this month, a. U a i-'i triiuii i lai cicv in niu uiicuv Director General McAdoo took stets to utilize every available piece of roiling roil-ing stock in the country. To every railroad president in the country he addressed a questionnaire, asking a report on the number of locomotives and cars owned by the road, the condition, con-dition, type and complete description of each. Best of all. however, amor.c the evidences of a determination a put the railroads in tiptop shape during the summer was the very recent re-cent appointment of Judge F.obert S. Lovett as director of the division oi betterments and additions of the railroad rail-road administration. Judge Love", who resigned as chairman of the boar: of directors of the Union Pacific Railway Rail-way to take up the new job. will supervise super-vise the big program of improveme-.:! contemplated for the summer. The extensions will take up in particular new terminal constructions. "I Sleep Eight Hours'' When you ask for concrete evidences evi-dences of the success of the r.ariorra: railroad, ngineer McAdoo's aides will give you figures to show how No. !li has been "wheeling tbem along" the last few months. For instance, in the last two weeks of February the railroads rail-roads transported approximately 000.000 bushels of grain more th" was handled in the same period list year, and this is declared to be the A greatest movement of grain in the his" tory of the United States. It coverf-? enly wheat, corn and oats ar.d reVe-sented reVe-sented a movement of nearly !.0vv.?rl bushels a day. "How do you get away with so rear.' jobs?" is the question one invar:s? asks after seeing Mr. McAdoo in s-" tion, first at the Treasury Bui'.d'i'S-with Bui'.d'i'S-with his multitudinous " cares thr nnd then in the cab of No. 913. His answer is. first cf all. '-' broad smile. "I have very able sa assisting roe in all these things." H says. "And." he adds, with a tw:sV of the eye. "I am able to sleep hours every night." And while business of handling the r. pocketbook is a big. serious problem itself. Engineer McAdoo takes the -'" road question as a great vital Issue " which depends the future of ' United States. "America's safety, America ' Lie1 America's rights are at stake." he f "Pemocr.icy and liberty throughout !v world depend upon America's vn' America's strength. America's r'' lng power. We can win and save ' world from despotism nr.d bondage '. we pull together. We cannot r-apart r-apart without ditching the train- lf' us go forward with unshakable V'- pose to do our part superlatpf Thru we shall save America, re '''' peace to a dist: acted wot Id ;1 for (Mirselv es the coveted dis.'ir'::' 1 nnd just reward of patriotic ,-r noblv done." |
