nated V. Everit Macy, President of the National Civic Federation, as his representative and as Chairman of the Board. L. A. Coolidge was designated by the Emergency Fleet Corporation as its appointee, and A. J. Berres was similarly designated by Mr. Gompers, acting as President of the American Federation of Labor. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was the representative of the Navy Department when participation on the part of the Navy was necessary.

The execution of this agreement had the immediate result of preventing the outbreak of a strike of all the shipyard employees on the Pacific Coast and a strike of shipyard employees at New York City, strikes which, if they had occurred, would have been little short of a disaster. Since its creation the Board has issued a number of orders fixing the wages to be paid shipyard employees and other conditions of labor. Among these mention may be made of its orders fixing wage rates in shipyards on the North Atlantic Coast and the Hudson River and in shipyards about the Great Lakes, announcements of which were made in the Official Bulletin of April 10 and 26, 1918.

In the same way as provision had been made for the determination of labor conditions in shipyards, so it was equally imperative that labor conditions in respect to the loading and discharge of vessels in service should be fixed. To meet this need an agreement was reached early in August, 1917, between the Secretary of War, the Secretary of Labor, the United States Shipping Board, Mr. Gompers, as representing the American Federation of Labor, the International Longshoremen's Association, and the chief shipping operators for the creation of a commission to be known as the National Adjustment Commission which should have the function of fixing the

wages and other conditions of labor employed in loading and unloading ships. It was provided that this Commission should be composed of one member appointed by the Secretary of War, one by the Shipping Board, one by the Longshoremen's Association, and one by the Committee on Shipping of the Council of National Defense.

This Commission was constituted on August 8, 1917, with R. B. Stevens, Vice-Chairman of the Shipping Board as representative of that service and chairman of the Commission; Walter Lippman, Assistant to the Secretary of War, as representative of the War Department; T. V. O'Connor of Buffalo, as representative of the Longshoremen's Association; and P. A. S. Franklin, as representative of the Committee on Shipping of the Council of National Defense in all cases involving foreign trade, and H. H. Ramon, in all cases involving coastwise traffic. In accordance with the terms of the agreement local adjustment commissions were also created at the most important shipping ports.

Still a third class of labor whose conditions of employment had to be determined was the men engaged in the operation of vessels. In August, 1917, the matters here involved were threshed out in a series of conferences between the Department of Commerce, the Department of Labor, the Shipping Board, and representatives of the ship owners and operators and mariners' associations of the United States. These conferences resulted in the formation of a committee to represent all parties with power to determine employment conditions for all classes of labor engaged in the operation of vessels constituting the American merchant marine. This committee at once reached an agreement relative to the wages to be paid certain classes of labor. In May, 1918, a large conference, which was designated the National

Marine Conference, was held in Washington at which rules were adopted governing chiefly the matter of the wage schedules of marine engineers.

Still another matter of great importance demanding the attention of the Shipping Board was that of increasing the port facilities of the country and of taking steps for the more effective utilization of such facilities as existed. In a statement given to the public on September 21, 1918, the Board stated that a doubling or trebling of the docks, piers, marine railways, and terminal facilities generally of the United States would be required to handle the business of the swiftly increasing American merchant marine. The Board consequently created a Port and Harbors Facilities Commission to consider this whole matter. This Commission at once entered upon a complete inventory of the port facilities of the country. Every port used by ocean-going traffic was requested to forward to it detailed data concerning its docks, marine railways, terminal arrangements, repair plants, and the movement of trade during the past five years. In addition every dock and repair plant was called upon for similar data. A matter to which it gave special attention was that of the diversion of traffic from one port to another in order to prevent the congestion that was taking place at certain ports and especially at New York. In this work it acted in close coöperation with the Railroad Administration. It is hardly necessary to point out the importance of this work from the standpoint of both the efficient operation of our merchant marine and the railroad system of the country.

The foregoing enumeration of some of the specific tasks of the Shipping Board and its administrative

agency, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, gives but an inadequate idea of the scope or character of the work done by this body. Actually it was empowered to take over the entire marine shipping industry of the country and to operate it as a unit to almost, if not quite, the extent to which similar powers in respect to steam railroads were conferred upon the Railroad Administration. There is scarcely a feature of the shipping industry, from the building of plants in which to build ships to the actual operation of the ships, with which the Board did not concern itself. When ships were not directly operated by it, it controlled charters, voyages, freight rates, conditions of labor and service generally, down to almost the last detail. The function of approving charters was performed through the Chartering Committee with offices in New York. It issued and enforced rules regarding the camouflaging of vessels and the precautions to be taken by vessels in passing through danger zones. It organized a service by which it had knowledge at any moment of where each ocean-going vessel of the United States was and by cable or wireless directed its movement in much the same way as a train dispatcher controls the movement of trains.

As in the case of the railroads, the return of peace presents the great problem as to whether this system with its manifold advantages will be broken up. In some respects this problem is a more difficult one than that in respect to the railroads on account of the international features that are involved in it. It is extremely likely that other countries will adopt the policy of Government control over shipping engaged in foreign trade to a far greater extent than in the past. It may well be that the United States may be forced by such action to follow suit.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MOBILIZATION OF INLAND TRANSPORTATION AND

COMMUNICATION

Situation of the railroads at the outbreak of the war

- Necessity for a unified transportation_system― Reversal of Government policy Committee on Transportation and Communication of the Council of National Defense - The Railroads' War Board- -Its important services through voluntary cooperation Considerations leading to the proclamation of Government control and operation - Creation of the Railroad Administration The Railroad Control Act of March 21, 1918 Compensation of the railroads under Government operation - The Revolving Fund and capital expenditures Powers of the President to initiate rates, regulations, and practices-Organization of operation under the Railroad Administration-Federal control of inland and coastwise water transportation, express service, and the Pullman Company The labor problem The Adamson Act and the eight-hour day - The Railroad Wage Commission and its recommended wage increases - Board of Railway Wages and Working Conditions Railway Boards of Adjustment Results of Government control of the railroads - Financial difficulties Government control and operation of the telegraph, telephone, and cable systems under the Post Office Department - The movement for Government ownership of communication facilities.

The industry of inland transportation is like that of coal in that it constitutes one of the vital links in our entire industrial system. Any interruption in its due functioning produces immediate disaster. It was exceedingly unfortunate that our entrance into the war found this link in a condition in which it was ill fitted to bear the increased strain that was put upon it. For some years past the railroads, largely because of their inability to secure the new capital required, had failed to make their facilities in the form of trackage, terminals, motive power, and cars keep pace with the development of the