The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1918-11-29

retirement.
ST also. for the same reasons, accept
your resignation us director general OF
railroads to take effect, as you SuS-
gest, on the first of January next, or
when your successor is appointed.
sThe whole country admires. am
sure. as | do. The skill and executive
capacity with which you have handled
the great and complex problem OF the
unified administration of the railways
under the stress of war uses, and VIII
regret as do to see you leave that
post just as the crest Of its difficulty
is passed.
"FOr the distinguished, disintereSted
and altogether admirable service you
have rendered the country IN DOth
posts, and especially for the way in
which you guided the treasury through
all the perpleXities and problems or
the financing of q war which has Deen
without precedent alike in kind and In
scope, / thank you with a sense or
gratitude that comes from the very
bottom of my heart.
"Gratefully and affectionately yours
"WOODROW WILSON.
'Hon. William G. McAdoO,
Secretary Of the Treasury"
Says He Tells All Reasons.
MI. McAdoo explained to the CORE
spondent that he had absolutely no
other reasons" than those specified ID
lis letter for the retirement HE sald
he realized many varied rumors usu-
ally accompanied the resignation OF
an official, but he emphasized again
and again that he had no motive or
purpose except those mentioned.
He said he hated to quit the JoD'
Just at this time and disliked person
ally to disaSsOciate himself officially
from the president, but added that ne
cessities of providing living for his
wife and family make this imperative.
A moment later one correspondent
suggested: "Well, it is too bad, Mr..
Secretary, that rs railroad man you
could not have shared i'll the wage in
crease which you gave to every one
else"
1dQnT Looked AFOQHO iOt SN0'
Then. for the first time, Mr.. Nc
AGOO frightened and explained his re-
luctance to take the action. He said
he had not yet Cooked around for a
job, as most prudent men do before
quitting" but declared he felt like tax
ing at least Il three months rest be-
fore Cooking for work" He said he
hoped to leave Washington soon after
January 1.
Mr.. McAdoO said he had no idea
who would be his successor or sue
ceSSOrS.'
1t is entirely probable that the pres
ident may fill separately the offices OF
secretary of the treasury and director
general of railroads.
William Gibbs McAdoo was born
near Marietta, Ga, October 81, 1868,
Just as the Civil war was drawing
to a close His father fought as a
lieutenant of volunteers in the Con-
federacy. After the Civil war the
McAdoo family found themselves
financially stranded at Milledgeville,
Ca, and finally moved to Knoxville,
Tenn, where the father took a posi-
ton as professor of English and his
tory in the University of Tennessee
that he might give his children an
education.
Young McAdoo became Il student
at the university, but left in his
junior year to become deputy clerk in
the United States circuit court so that
he could study law. He was admitted
to the bar when he was twenty-one
and soon became counsel for rail
way company.
Goes to New York in 1892.
He practiced at Chattanooga, Tenn,
until 1892. and then removed to New
York.
The young lawyer found his great
opportunity in an abandoned tunnel
that had been run a few hundred feet
under the Hudson river in an effort
to connect Manhattan island with
New Jersey.
He took hold of it, raised $70000,-
600 to complete it, and by 1908 had
built four ''tubes" connecting uptown
and downtown New York with the
railways whose termini were in New
Jersey, and whose only access to New
York previously had been by ferry.
These tubes are still called the "Mc-
Ad0o tunnels
His success won him the position of
president of the Hudson & Manhattan
Railroad company, which operated the
tubes.
Mr.. McAdoo became actively inter-
ested in New York politics, and was
delegate to the Democratic national
convention that nominated President
Wilson at Baltimore in 1912. He ac-
cepted the post of vice chairman of
the Democratic national committee
when the presidential campaign
opened and to his work was credited
in large measure the Democratic