Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1918 — McAdoo To Speed Up Railroads—Coal And Fuel First. [ARTICLE]

McAdoo To Speed Up Railroads— Coal And Fuel First.

Washington, Jan. 1. —Orders went to eastern railroads today from Director General McAdoo to clear up freight congestion regardless of previous government priority regulations, passenger schedules and any hampering practices under the oil competitive system, and to pay speial attention to movement of coal and food. Lines of the west and south were notified that soon they might be called on to furnish locomotives and other equipment to help lighten the traffic burden in the east, and a committee of government officials was created to work out a plan for diyerting export freight to ports south of New York. Quantities of coal actually were started moving to New England to relieve the serious shortage there and priority orders were suspended for roads east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio river to the extent necessary to clear up congestion. .At the same time the director general dissolved the railroad war board at its own request and named a tem-

porary advisory cabinet of five members. One of thes, Hale Holden, president of the Burlington and a member of the bar board, will be retained to supervise the machinery which the war board has created within the last nine months to coordinate the roads of the country. Other members of the new advisory cabinet are John Skelton Williams, comptroller of the currency, who will have charge of financial questions arising out of government operation; Henry Walters, chairman of the board of the Atlantic coast line, who will assist on operation problems; Edward Chambers, traffic director of the food administration, who will have general charge of traffic and Walker D. Hines, assistant to the director general. Other railway heads who made up the war board, Fairfax Harrison, of the Southern, who was chairman, Rea of the? 1 ' Pennsylvania, Krutt schnitt of the Southern Pacific and Elliott of the New Haven, will return to the active supervision of their roads but all the subcommittees and organization of the board will be turned over to Mr. Holden.