The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-07-01

to Iame m1SnC De called a. cOhInuteI | dream come true As unknown New York lawyer shivering twice day through long winter months while he crossed the Hudson river on a ferry boat to his New Jersey home, he dreamed of a tunnel under 1 the bed of the river through which commuters might pass on trains in comfort And so, staunch was his faith in his dream that eventually he transmitted it not into one but three tunnels. Later he became Secretary of the. Treasury, Director General of Rail roads and the holder of other offices under the federal government but ever he has remained in the public mind as the man who accom- plished ] the seemingly impossible task of con structing tunnels under the Hudson river.
 MT. McAdoo was born in Marietta, Ga, Oct 31, 1863 His father was William Gibbs McAdoo, a veteran of the Mexican and Civil wars, and later a. Superior Judge and Adjunct Professor of History and English at l the University of Tennessee. His ! mother was Mary Faith Floyd, daugh- ter of a famous Indian fighter and l former member of Congress.
 When young McAdoo was about a year old, his parents fell back before l the advance of Sherman's army to 1 Mi11edgevi1le, Ga, and there his boy | hood days were spent. The war re- I duced the family to want and during | the early reconstruction period the 1 boy was handy around the family l place, doing farm chores and helping | his mother with her housework. So I adept did he become at kitchen duties that he still boasts of a surpa ssing | ability to bake biscuit and in a re- cent address to a, crowd of schooBboys he challenged any of them to l milking contest.
 When, in 1877, the elder McAdoo
 moved to Knoxville, Tenn, to accept professorship in the University Of Tennessee, the boy enrolled as a, stu l dent but he left school before he was
 graduated, to earn his own living. At i1s years old he was appointed deputy
 collector of the United States Circuit
 Court at Chattanooga, Tenn, and
 while in that position he studied law
 with Judge William M. Dewitt and at
 22 he was admitted to the bar.
 | In 1892, after practising law and
 managing a street railway line In
 Knoxville, McAdoo went to New York
 unknown and virtually penniless to begin the practice of law. Ten years
 
 construction of the tubes and from
 1902 until 1912 he was president of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Co.,, which eventually succeeded in l driving the tunnels through to the l Jersey shore.
 | McAdoo's struggle to construct the tubes brist1es with human interest In
 addition to being without means of his own to put the tubes through | 1>,r{ fox nf h he was handicapped in his efforts by - the fact that previous attempts to construct the tubes had been abject failures. McAdoo'S first step was to
 interest the capitalist who had been
 the heaviest loser by the previous
 tube failure. Once McAdoo's initial
 tube collapsed. And when it finally was driven through to the Jersey
 shore and McAdoo had been the first
 man to walk through it, there was a
 long and bitter but futile fight on the
 nroject When McAdoo left the
 presidency of the company in 1912 to l enter President Wilson's cabinet as
 secretary of the Treasury the com pany's investment represented S70,- l0O0,O0O, all raised from private l sources, and it was operating three l tunnels.
 Until 1911, when McAdoo became I row Wilson, he had taken no active l part in politics and he scarcely knew the future President. They had met
 once at Princeton while one of Me | Adoo's sons was in school there, but
 that was all McAdoo soon became 9
 staunch advocate of MT. Wilson
 however, and as a delegate to the
 Baltimore convention acted as one o1
 the Wilson managers on the floor. La 4n,- 1o Vioo r1oa iry7o 1 n
 the National Democratic committee
 and when, in 1912, Chairman Nc. Combs, retired, McAdoo took active charge of the Wilson campaign.
 The ensuing five years which Nc Adoo spent in the cabinet were bus!
 ones He became, in a word, th'
 t.handy man. of the administration
 and many heavy responsibilitie ) were placed upon him. At one tinn'
 he occupied the positions of Secre
 tary of the Treasury, Chairman Fed
 era1 Reserve Board, Chairman Earn
 Loan Board, Chairman War Financ
 Corporation, Chairman Internationa
 High Commission and Director Gen | era1 of Railroads.
 Serious financial problems aros shortly after McAdoo became Secre
 tary of the Treasury and he was call
 ed upon to make many quick an
 important decisions. Scarcely had h ] taken office when a destructive foo N swept Dayton, O., and bankers ther II te1egraphed him that fear of a run II on their institutions made them hesi II tate to open their doors McAdo telegraphed in reply that he wouE
 immediately send s2,ooo,o00 to tn
 banks and when this word becam II public the e'run'' did not materialize Il When a general panic threatened i III June, 1913, he announced that h III would make available $500,ooo,0 900 i Il government funds to all banks tha would apply for it and comply wit
 the law in obtaining a loan. Tw months later, when there was short age of money to move crops, Mo Adoo deposited $35,0O0,0O0 in Ger III tral Western and Southwestern bank