On December 28, 1917 US President Woodrow Wilson used the Federal Possession and Control Act to take possession of "each and every system of transportation...within the boundaries of the United States." This created the U.S. Railroad Administration. I guess 90 years is ancient history but still...

I've always been fascinated by this action. How was it this occurred? Did the country just collectively forget the right against seizure of property except for "public purpose" and then only for just compensation? Certainly one could say WW1 was a "publc purpose", but where was the just compensation? Did RR stockholders get anything for the imposition of federal control?

No. The precedence for such federal action was laid well before that during the Civil War. It was a basis of necessity for the defense of the nation that allowed Lincoln and Wilson to do what they did. Lincoln's United States Military Railroad did not have any routes of it's own but took control of railroads in the vicinity of the front or necessary for the expedient movement of men and supplies from the rear to the front. The USMRR operated the lines only as long as necessary, returning control of them back to their rightful owners as soon as practical.

One must also recognize that prior to WWI, the American railroads were not in what one might describe as top condition. There were many improvements to right of way and equipment that tend to be overlooked. Federal intervention also kept a lid on organized labor for the duration. Many rail lines that were deemed of necessity received improvements that they themselves would have been hard pressed to finance on their own.

USRA control was also notoriously destructive. Many lines were left in far worse shape than pre-war. Investment? Many lines had deferred maintenance throughout USRA control. The SSW, for example, was a mess when they received it back in the early '20s.

Which brings up another point, the USRA did not cease in 1918 when the war ended, but continued to operate into the early '20s. All the while, politicians debated nationalizing the entire railroad system, albeit not with much success.

Perhaps someone can fill us in on the historical significance of the railroad standards groups. My terms are USRA so often applied to car design, ARA and AAR. We have a large number of "original" ARA drawings for both freight and passenger car equipment at IRM's Pullman Library. Sometimes there is more than one of these, one of them dirty and worn from a lot of use and the other much fresher. They are definitely prints on linen, 30" x 60". The freight equipment drawings are numbered in the 1000's - 2000's plus starting with 1001 and the passenger drawings are numbered in the 10,000's plus. Some of our railroad manufacturer equipment drawings (from elsewhere in the library collections) around 1918 have in the lower left hand corner "copied from ARA drawing xxxx (number of ARA drawing = xxxx)". Can anyone fill me in on the significance of these drawings to the perservation, historical, and modeling communities? Some of them can be found grestly reduced in the railway cyclopedia's.

I do not know much about the effects of the USRA on other railroads but from what I can learn the USRA control of the Aberdeen and Rockfish probably came closeer to putting us out of bussiness than any other event in the history of the railroad, including the depression. With the new Army camp established in Fayetteville the war traffic swamped the A&R and the USRA would not allow material or money for repairs to the railroad. When control ended the railroad was on the verge of being inoperable and had no money for repairs.

Before the war the A&R had constructed a branch line to Wagram mainly to foil the efforts of another railroad to reach Raeford. The ploy worked and the new interchage was in Wagram.

After control was released by the USRA and with no money from the government to repair the railroad forthcomming, A&R was forced to sell the line to Wagram to their competitor. Money from the sale was used to finance repairs on the rest of the railroad. The effects of this sale may still be being felt by the A&R. It is possible we lost 600 cars per year of traffic last year in part because we no longer own the railroad to Wagram.

I wonder what other possible effects may still be felt by todays railroads as a result of the control of the USRA?

John Bohon

At least two railroads abandoned operations during the USRA era. These were the Colorado Midland and the Las Vegas & Tonopah. They were left to hang out and dry by the USRA.

I recall hearing that initially the Colorado Midland was used as part of the system. But it felt that it was overloaded with business and could not cope with all the volume. It complained and had its through (interchange) business diverted elsewhere. Without the bridge traffic it went broke and quite. Part of the road was taken over by the Midland Terminal.

The Las Vegas & Tonopah did not have any heavy repair facilities, but relied upon the Salt Lake Route divisional shops in Las Vegas for various locomotive repairs. The USRA terminated this agreement and diverted traffic -- the USRA is said to have seen the LV&T as redundant for the available traffic. The road tried to continue on; even its other connections and competitors tried to help it out by taking in its loco work. But it failed to survive.

Adding to the operational woes, was the "Excess Profits Tax" enacted during each of the three wars (WWI, WWII, and Korean):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_profit_tax

If the USRA was intended to be federally administered medicine to a railroad industry patient sick with an inability to respond to wartime needs-the "doctor" was treating the illness he caused (iatrogenic).

From its creation in 1887, the ICC was given greater and greater powers. The ascent of Teddy Roosevelt to the presidency assured that nation of a Chief Executive unafraid to advance his own fortunes by marshalling popular resentment of railroads into punitive and foolish legislation.

Albro Martin, in his book "Enterprise Denied origins of the decline of american railroads, 1897-1917", persuasively makes the case that rate-making powers granted the ICC by the passage of the Hepburn Act in enhanced rate regulation caused capital flight and denied the railroad industry the economic nutrition it needed.

Although out of print, this book should be on everybody's bookshelf. You can get it for 3 bucks and change used on Amazon.com It shows how great "statesman" are often ignorant opportunists without the slightest concern as to the unpleasant side-effects of their meddling. It would be good to remember just how little politicians understand in a year when we will be treated to endless declarations by mercenerary candidates peddling "solutions" to crises, real and maufactured.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-5014238-1078857?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=enterprise+denied&x=18&y=22