tories were now being handed over to the government
for war work; and to them, too, great quantities of raw material had to
be sent, and the finished product removed to its destination.

A vigorous endeavor to meet the new difficulties was instituted by the
railroads themselves. They themselves named a war board, which was to
co-operate with the government and which was to have absolute authority.
But this arrangement soon proved unsatisfactory. Each government
official would do his best to obtain preference for what his department
required, and to obtain that preference a system of priority tags was
established which became a great abuse. The result was that priority
freight soon began to crowd out the freight which the railroads could
handle according to their own discretion, thus seriously interfering
with business all over the country.

Naturally, the railroad executives and the government authorities
studied the question with the greatest care, but they could not reach an
understanding among themselves, nor with the Administration. At last the
President settled the matter by announcing his decision to have the
government take over complete control of the roads. The President
derived his power from an Act of Congress dated August 29, 1916, which
reads as follows:

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 proclamation went into effect on December 28, 1917, and the
President declared that it applied to "each and every system of
transportation and the appurtenances thereof, located, wholly or in
part, within the boundaries of the Continental United States, and
consisting of railroads and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and
inland transportation, engaged in general transportation, whether
operated by steam, or by electric power, including also terminals,
terminal companies, and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars,
private cars, and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraph
and telephone lines, and all other equipment and appurtenances commonly
used upon or operated as a part of such rail