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.
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