One of the most pungent cartoons of him in that period showed a dozen men of similar aspect, each tagged with the name of a particular war activity, trudging up a street, and captioned, "Mr. McAdoo Goes to Work." Of similar half-jocular tribute was the bit of doggerel which Franklin K. Lane discovered in a current weekly and forwarded to its inspiration:

"Poor Mister McAdoo!

Think of the jobs he's hitched up to!-
The Treasury, the Railroad crew,

The Income Tax, and then a few.

Each week they hand him something new
To tax his time and temper, too.
He has to know when loans are due,
What source to get his billions through,
What fund to pass each dollar to,

Which tax is what, and who is who;
What bonds to sell, and what renew,

Which 'trust' to coax, and which to sue.

He stretches out each day to two

To do the things he has to do.

The job would flounder me or you-
But it's a cinch for McAdoo!"

On the fifth of June, 1918, answering the President's letter asking for a statement of the Treasury's war activities, he summarized the Customs Service, with its greatly augmented war tasks; the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, both marine and human; the Bureau of Internal Revenue, tremendously enlarged not only for the raising of taxes but for the enforcement of certain prohibition measures; the Supervising Architect; the Section of Surety Bonds; the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, running without cessation for the printing of all Treasury paper; the United States Public. Health Service, the only agency authorized by law

to provide for the care and treatment of sick and disabled seamen of the American Merchant Marine, to regulate quarantine of vessels, to prevent the importation and spreading of epidemics; the Federal Reserve Board; the Federal Farm Loan Board; the War Savings Committee; the Division of Loans and Currency; the Division of Public Moneys; the Secret Service; the Comptroller of the Treasury; the Auditors for the Treasury, Navy, War, State, Interior and other departments; the Comptroller of the Currency; the Director of the Mint; the Treasurer of the United States; the War Finance Corporation; the Capital Issues Committee; the International High Commission, and a score of less important sections and divisions. His success, however, was not in the multiplicity of his tasks but in his grasp of them and in his fearlessness in undertaking new ones which he considered essential to the country's speedy success in winning the war.

Explanation of the deeper currents which carried him through his public life is to be found, strangely enough, in a letter which he sent to his erstwhile political opponent, Elihu Root, congratulating the latter upon his seventy-third birthday, and thanking him for his solicitude and advice about his health, which was already breaking in that time (February, 1918) under the strain.

"What heartens and inspires me most," he wrote, "and gives me really an access of strength is the deep interest which all of these great tasks possess for me. This lightens the load immeasurably, as you have, of course, discovered in your own experience. I am so eager to do these tasks for the good of the country and without desire for political or other kind of reward

-and I know you will believe me when I say this— that I do appreciate the confidence of my fellow-citizens and the help of such distinguished and patriotic men as yourself who are also serving so unselfishly in this great time. If I can only retain a sufficient measure of public confidence to enable me to serve the public interest in the highest degree while I am here, I shall be a very happy man, and I shall want nothing more. How can any man who genuinely loves his country, and especially when he has contributed three sons to the service, feel otherwise?"

CHAPTER IV

THE WAR RISK INSURANCE ACT

N the early days of the nineteenth century a strug

gling New York lawyer, doing volunteer service for pension aid for the widows and orphans of SpanishAmerican War veterans, found in the clumsy, cumbersome system one of the worst features of a Governmental attitude toward war. Out of his sympathy for the sufferers from the method he carried through a score of years deep belief in the inadequacy of the system; and out of that belief on a Monday morning in June, two months after the United States had gone into war with Germany, the Secretary of the Treasury brought into his office the rough draft of a plan for a better, more humane way of dealing with the question of caring for war's sufferers, be they widowed, orphaned, or disabled.

Almost simultaneously the President forwarded to him the letter of one of the largest private insurance companies in the country, making an offer to provide insurance for the men in the service. In answer he set down a suggestion of the policy he had already formulated:

"Dear Mr. President:

"June 23, 1917.

"I have been laid up for a few days and therefore have been unable to answer sooner your letter in reference to the suggestion of the Insurance

Company about insurance upon the lives of our soldiers and sailors. I regard this as a most important matter and I think insurance upon the lives of our soldiers, and sailors, if effected upon the right basis, is not alone a

humane and wise provision for the men and their families, but that it will contribute immensely to the effectiveness of the Army and Navy. Whenever the fighting men are made to feel that if the worst happens to them their families will be provided for, a great load is taken off their minds. The idea appeals to me tremendously and I should like to see it carried out. It never has been done before by any nation, which is all the more reason why this great progressive nation should set the example. It is in line with what we have just done for the officers and seamen of our merchant vessels. Our War Risk Insurance Bureau is now granting insurance upon their lives and providing indemnities for injuries arising out of the war. It does not seem to me, however, wise to let any one insurance company take hold of this matter. Any one company would be glad to do what the

Insurance Com-
The advertising

pany offers to do in its letter to you. value would be tremendous. Again, I think the jealousies of other insurance companies would be aroused and it might be difficult to get their effective cooperation.

"I had in mind a plan which I am going to discuss with you for the enlargement of our present War Risk Insurance Bureau so as to permit insurance on the lives of officers and men of the Army and Navy. This is a big problem, but not too big for us to tackle. I shall not, at the moment, discuss the merits of the proposition. That can, I think, be deferred until we can take the step I now propose, namely, that you permit me to call a conference of the leading life insurance companies to meet me at the Treasury Department in Washington at an early date for a full discussion of the question of insurance upon the lives of