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Daniel Willard

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"DANIEL WILLARD (1861-), American railway official, was born at North Hartland, Vt., Jan. 28 1861. He graduated from the Windsor (Vt.) high school in 1878, studied for a year at the Mass. Agricultural College, Amherst, and in 1879 began his railway career as track labourer in Vermont. He rose to fireman, then to engineer, and for twenty years held various positions on several roads, including the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie in its early days. In 1899 he was made assistant manager of the Baltimore and Ohio R.R., and two years later assistant to the president of the Erie R.R., of which he soon became first vice-president and general manager. From 1904 to 1910 he was second vice-president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy R.R., and after 1909 was also president of the Colorado Midland and vice-president of the Colorado and Southern. In 1910 he was elected president of the Baltimore and Ohio. In Oct. 1916 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense, and the following March chairman of the commission. After America's entrance into the World War, he was appointed in July 1917 a member of the special committee of the Council of National Defense to secure mediation in case of strikes on war contracts. In Nov. 1917 he was appointed by President Wilson chairman of the War Industries Board, charged with devising and expediting means of producing the Government's industrial requirements for effective warfare. In Jan. 1918 he resigned in order to devote personal attention to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. After the Government had taken over the railways as a war measure a Federal manager displaced him as operating head of his road, but he remained president in charge of its corporate affairs, in which position he continued when the U.S. Government gave up control of the railways.