Walker Hines

Walker Downer Hines (February 2, 1870 - January 14, 1934) was an American railroad executive and second Director General of the United States Railroad Administration.

Family

Walker Downer Hines was born February 2, 1870, in Russellville, Kentucky, the son of James Madison Hines and Mary Walker Downer. He married Alice Clymer Macfarlane in 1900, they had one child.

Education

Ogden College, graduated 1888. University of Virginia, graduated 1891.

Career

In 1886, aged sixteen, he became stenographer for the Circuit Court of Warren County. In 1890 he became secretary to the assistant chief attorney of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad at Louisville, Kentucky. He was appointed assistant attorney after graduating law school, assistant chief attorney in 1897, and vice-president in 1901. Hines spent nearly ten years fighting railroad regulation in state and federal courts.

In 1906 he joined Cravath, Henderson and de Gersdoff in New York City, becoming a partner in 1907. He was with the firm for seven more years.

Hines joined the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway as general counsel, was made chair of the executive committee in 1908 and chairman of the board in 1916.

In December, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson nationalized most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration. William G. McAdoo was made director general, Hines agreed to become assistant director general. McAdoo resigned in January, 1919, and Hines stepped in as director general for the remainder of nationalization under the Railroad Administration, which ended in May, 1920.Following the end of World War I, Hines worked and traveled extensively in Europe.

In the latter half of the 1920s, Hines was a director of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a director of its subsidiary, the Colorado and Southern Railway, general counsel of one of its parent companies, the Great Northern Railway, and a partner in Hines, Rearick, Dorr, Travis and Marshall, which specialized in railroad law.

Hines died of a stroke in Merano, Italy, January 14, 1934.

Other service

Vice-president, New York City Bar Association; League of Nations.

Publications

Hines, Walker D. "Report on Danube Navigation for the League of Nations." 1925.

Hines, Walker D. "War History of the American Railroads." 1928.

Sources

*William R. Doezema, "Walter D. Hines," in "Railroads in the Age of Regulation, 1900-1980," ed. Keith L. Bryant, Jr., a volume of the Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography (1988), pp. 201-12.
*Robert T. Swaine, "The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors, 1819-1947," vol. 2 (3 vols., 1946-1948).
*" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0DEFDD1F3FE233A25756C0A9669D946796D6CF Tells of Railroad Needs,] New York Times," October 5, 1916
*" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9805E5DC1530E733A25750C0A9649C946397D6CF A Railroad Man Attacks the Commerce Commission,] New York Times," February 3, 1902
*Grasty, Charles H. " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A07EFD91239EF3ABC4850DFB1668389639EDE One Man Diplomacy,] New York Times," July 30, 1922