in 12 days 480 ships were conveying over two million tons of food, fuel, munitions and other war-supplies from American ports while the railways, within two weeks, reported freight movements as normal. Many restrictions and regulations followed and the country was divided into 21 producing districts and 12 consuming zones while on Apr. 1st a plan for the retail distribution of coal became effective under which the consumer had to supply certain defined information to the dealer and hoarding was checked or prevented. At the same time jobbers were regulated as to business and compensation and the early buying of coal was urged upon the public.

The War evoked a new and greatly important change in American Railway management. As a result of conditions in 1917 which involved congestion, high rates, insufficient cars, shortage in labour, difficulties of all kinds, upon Steam railways of 400,000 miles owned or controlled by 2,900 Companies with outstanding bonds and stocks of $19,600,000,000, the President and Executive of the United States took over control on Jan. 1st, 1918, as a measure of War necessity. Practically, the whole of this gigantic system and business was placed under the control and operation of a new U. S. Railway Administration with headquarters at Washington and W. G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury, as DirectorGeneral, assisted by a number of experts in railways and finance and by strong working Committees on Wages, Finance, Labour and Adjustments. Amongst the specific changes made during the year was an increase in wages ranging from 43 per cent. to employees receiving lowest wages to nothing in the case of those having $250 a month; recognition of the principle of an 8-hour day and a grant of this, with time and a half for overtime, to the mechanical crafts; payment of women at same rates as men and no discrimination against negroes; an advance in freight and passenger rates based upon the higher prices of supplies and rising costs of operation; restriction of necessary railway travel and of unnecessary passenger trains, a uniform freight classification, simplification of time-tables and training of women as ticket sellers; a consolidation of terminals, standardization of freight cars and locomotives; large capital expenditures for improvements and betterments and Government advances to the Railways which totalled $203,714,050 up to July 31st, 1918; assumption of control over Pullman Car Services with lessened expenses and greater efficiency, and consolidation of the four chief Express Companies in one concern, under Federal control, with a similar result. By July 31st an improvement was shown in all branches of the new Service with the movement to date of 6,455,558 troops. On Nov. 23d Mr. McAdoo announced his retirement to take effect on Jan. 1st, 1919. The stated policy of the Board in its chief points, had been as follows:

1. The winning of the War, which includes the prompt movement of the men and material that the Government requires. To this everything else must be subordinated.

2. The maintenance and improvement of the railroad properties so that adequate transportation facilities will be provided at the lowest cost, the

object of the Government being to furnish service rather than to make money. 3. The promotion of a spirit of sympathy and a better understanding as between the administration of the Railways and their 2,000,000 employees, as well as their 100,000,000 patrons.

4. The elimination of superfluous expenditure, and the adoption of standardized equipment, improved routing of traffic along straight lines so far as possible, and intensified employment of equipment.

As

The Progress of Prohibition in 1918. Essentially an outcome of war conditions the progress of the Liquor Prohibition movement in this year was phenomenal. Apart from the action of Congress and as a result of State or local enactments spread over a number of years, 89 per cent. of the area of the United States was under Prohibition in June 1918 with 64 per cent. of the population. war conditions developed and showed the need for safe-guarding millions of soldiers President Wilson and the War Department, on July 2nd, issued stringent regulations as to dry zones around all camps and forbade the sale of alcoholic liquor in any form to soldiers within these zones-medicinal supplies being permitted to physicians and medical officers. On Aug. 19th Naval regulations were also strengthened by Mr. Secretary Daniels and similar zones were established around Naval camps and stations; on Aug. 12th the sale of liquors and intoxicants was forbidden in dining cars, restaurants and railway stations under Federal control; on Sept. 19th the President issued a Proclamation that after Dec. 1st 1918, no malt liquors should be made from any kind of foodstuffs. In the United States the soldier was strongly guarded along these lines; in France he found the gates up and many ill consequences followed in the period of reaction and through failure to understand that conditions and climate suited to the use of light wines were not suited to the drinking of bad whiskey! Meantime the Senate and House of Representatives at Washington, had approved an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and passed it on to the States for further legal action-the vote in the House on Dec. 17, 1917 being 282 to 128--as follows:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, that the following amendment to the Constitution be, and hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid as part of the Constitution when ratified by the Legislatures of the several States as provided by the Constitution:

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this Article the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, or the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

To become a part of the Constitution the Amendment had to be ratified by three-fourths of the 48 States; to be afterwards revoked or repealed would require a similar vote by three-fourths of the

States. By the end of 1918 fifteen States had approved Prohibition.* Tremendous pressure was brought to bear by the Liquor interests against the proposal; strong feeling was aroused in many quarters which had no sympathy with these interests and believed in Temperance, in personal liberty, or in wine or beer licenses as opposed to the sale of alcohol; large financial or other interests were involved such as those of California where $200,000,000 worth of property would be rendered useless or in New York City, where everyone understood that enforcement would be extremely difficult. The Prohibition Amendment, if carried, was to come into operation on Jan. 16th, 1920 and, meanwhile, a provisional Act of Congress had established War-time Prohibition to become effective July 1st, 1919 and to last until the President should declare demobilization of the armies complete.

The Progress of United States Aviation. No issue received. greater public attention in 1917 than American pledges as to Aviation; no incident caused more disappointment abroad than the failure of expectations in this regard. The War was to be won in the air, it was everywhere said for a time, and American ingenuity, brains and industry would provide the basic elements-aircraft and airmen! There was no question as to the utility of aeroplanes and none as to the necessity. Prior to the American declaration of War there was no preparation along these lines, and S. G. Blythe in the Saturday Post of Jan. 19th described the situation as follows when it actually came: "We had no battle-planes. We had no bombing-planes. We had no high-powered engines. We had no aeroplanes equipped with the numerous devices war had developed on the other side. We had 135 aeroplanes, useful for training and so on, but of no other value whatsover. Congress was quick to recognize the importance of this new branch of the Service. and promptly passed a law giving broad powers to the Signal Corps and appropriating $640,000,000 for aircraft, personnel, equipment and the expense of an Air campaign. But we had no idea what to build. We had no standards to go by; we had no model planes; we had no drawings. We had nothing.

The United States Air Service Board was created on July 24th, 1917, but great difficulties and delays developed-in the obtaining of skilled labour, in the getting of material, especially spruce, in the ambition to have a new and unexcelled engine, in obtaining lubricant oils, acetone and linen fabrics. On Jan. 31st, 1918, it was reported to Congress that not a single machine of the exact type planned when Congress appropriated $640,000,000 in May for an Air fleet would see service in France, but that four types of machines were being manufactured-elementary training, advanced training, combatant and bombing. Contracts had been let for 5,350 of the elementary type, first used by the students, and 2,153 had been completed while contracts had been awarded for 1,400 of the advanced training type. Information about the combatant and *Note.-Early in 1919 a sufficient number voted favourably to carry the Amendment.

bombing craft was withheld. Contracts for the Service, however, were stated to exceed the $640,000,000 appropriation. Following this report the Senate Military Affairs Committee described conditions on April 10th as a "disappointing failure" and declared that the Government had "no broad plan looking to the future development of war planes." It was stated that only 15 aeroplanes had been completed and that only one of these was in France.

To a public which had been promised 22,000 aeroplanes nearly a year before, these statements were incomprehensible and even the assurance that a wonderful Liberty motor had emerged from the experimental stage, that on Dec. 31st, 1917, there were 3,900 officers and 82,120 men in the U. S. Air Service, that many training stations were in operation with 24 Flying-fields available, was not satisfying. In the press and in Congress a demand for investigation developed and it appeared that up to February the United States had been purchasing from the Allies such planes as its forces or aviators were using in France-totalling from December, 1917, to June, 1918, 2,114 planes. The first American shipment took place in the latter month and, on June 30th, it was semi-officially announced at Washington that 1,316 American aeroplanes were on the Western front, though of these only 323 were combat planes. A later official report for this date gave the number of Aviation officers as 14,230 and of men 124,767, with 18,000 flyers in or awaiting training.

In July a Senate Committee reviewed and enquired into Aeroplane conditions and the cause of the delays and reported on Aug. 22nd that the original Aircraft appropriation of $640,000,000 had been "practically wasted" and that not a single American-made offensive aeroplane was yet on the battle-front; that there had been failure to adopt proved foreign planes and motors, together with unsystematic and ineffective organization; that domination of the Air programme by automobile manufacturers had been allowed while various plans had been partly carried out and then abandoned; that there had been undue delays in perfecting the Liberty motor, incompetence in the highly-paid inspection service and supervision, and failure to encourage aeroplane producers. The Committee deplored the refusal to use the Rolls-Royce motor or to accept French plans and criticized the various futile efforts of inexperienced men to produce superior types. There were many trails of graft indicated. Meantime President Wilson had received in March a confidential report on the situation from Gutzon Borglum and on May 13th appointed the Attorney General, T. W. Gregory, and Charles E. Hughes of New York as a Committee of Inquiry. The Commissioners spent 5 months upon the investigation and reported at great length and in much detail on Nov. 6th. A brief summary of conclusions may be given as follows:

1. The defective organization of the work of Aircraft production and the serious lack of competent direction of that work by the responsible officers

of the Signal Corps, to which the delays and waste were chiefly due, were matters for Administrative correction.

2. The evidence disclosed conduct, which, although of a reprehensible character, could not be regarded as affording a sufficient basis for charges under existing statutes, but there were certain acts shown, not only highly improper in themselves, but of especial significance, which should lead to disciplinary measures. In this connection several officials were named.

3. The absence of proper appreciation of the obvious impropriety of transactions by Government officers and agents with firms or corporations in which they were interested, compelled the conclusion that public policy demands that the statutory provisions bearing upon this conduct should be strictly enforced: "It is therefore recommended that the officers found to have had transactions on behalf of the Government with corporations, in the pecuniary profits of which they had an interest, should be prosecuted.

Late in December the annual Report of the War Secretary included one from Major-Gen. W. L. Kenley, Director of Military Aeronautics, which dealt with the failure in the first year as based upon poor organization and described in general terms the progress made after the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps had been reorganized in April, 1918, into the Bureau of Aircraft Production and the Division of Military Aeronautics. John D. Ryan, Director of the Bureau, also reported in December that the total shipments of Liberty motor engines to June 30th was 12,635, that the total battle-planes produced to that date were 541 and training planes 5,524; that the spruce shipped for Aeroplane construction was 65,124,586 feet while fir shipments totalled 25,397,490 feet; that the appropriations to date were $682,646,067 and the cash expenditures $373,318,388 but that the total of all obligations in production, acquisition of plants, building-construction, training and maintenance was $751,750,640.

Administration of President

Wilson: U.S. Diplomacy and Politics

Woodrow Wilson was a world figure in 1918, and held a position in the councils of the nations and in the conduct of the World War which was fully as important as the position of his country, in its combination of national strength and fresh resources, at a great crisis in history. By this time his skill as an American politician and leader, the literary excellence and ability of his written documents, his capacity for using phrases and words which became the core of international discussion, his personal and arbitrary exercise of power in controlling American legislation and administration, were known everywhere. On Jan. 8th, 1918, he made one of his important speeches and presented to Congress the 14 points for Peace negotiation which were afterwards discussed in all the combatant countries and seized upon by Germany, in particular, as a basis for negotiation and hoped-for security: "We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world. secured, once for all, against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that

*Note. See Pages 95-96 of this volume.