MACADAM, a modern system of road making invented by J. L. Macadam (q.v.), which consists in forming the roads out of hard materials such as granite, or basalt broken into pieces, none of which are too large to pass through an iron ring 2% inches in diameter, and then deposited evenly in a bed of from 6 to 12 inches in thickness. The bed thus laid be comes perfectly compact and smooth, and in proportion as it is worn away or cut into ruts by traffic can easily be restored by a new coat ing of materials. See ROADS AND ROAD-MAKING.
McADOO, William Gibbs, American jurist: h. near iCnoxville, Tenn., 4 April 1820; d. 1894. He was graduated in 1845 from the East Tennessee University at Knoxville, sat in the Tennessee legislature 1845 46 and served in the Mexican War in 1847. He was afterward admitted to the bar and was attorney-general of the Knoxville judicial dis trict, 1851-60. He removed to Georgia in 1862, served in the Confederate army during the Civil War and in 1871 became judge of the 20th judicial district of Georgia. He published a volume of poems and, with H. C. White, 'Ele mentary Geology of Tennessee.' McADOO, William Gibbs, American cabi net minister and railroad official: b. near Marietta, Ga., 31 Oct. 1863. Descended from a distinguished Southern family, his father, Judge William Gibbs McAdoo, a jurist and soldier of the Mexican and Civil wars, became attor ney-general of Tennessee some years after losing his wealth in the general devastation in the South caused by the Civil War. The sub ject of this sketch was educated at the Univer sity of Tennessee and admitted to the bar in 1885, notwithstanding that circumstances obliged him to leave the university in his junior year and earn his living as a clerk of the United States Circuit Court. He practised law in Chattanooga till 1892, when he came to New York and opened a law office. In 1898 he formed a law partnership with Mr. William McAdoo (a native of Ireland and no relation whatever), who since 1910 has been chief city magistrate, and was formerly Assistant Secre tary of the Treasury under President Cleveland. In his early days Mr. McAdoo had gained some practice in railroad work by running a street railway in Knoxville, an undertaking that proved a failure. His railroading propensities
revived during his first years in New York City and he conceived the plan of tunneling the Hudson. With the aid and confidence of capi talists he succeeded in carrying that great undertaking to a successful issue. In 1902 he organized the New York and New Jersey Rail road Company (now the Hudson and Manhat tan, of which he was elected president and di rector), and completed the Hudson tunnel scheme. He was vice-chairman of the Demo cratic National Committee in 1912, and in the following year Mr. Wilson, on his accession to the Presidency, invited him to take the office of Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. McAdoo sev ered his railroad connections and devoted him self to a task that was destined to become his toric in the annals of national finance. The enormous financial transactions in which the United States government was involved owing to the European War are a matter of common knowledge. The raising of huge war loans and the financing of Allied belligerents were only the more conspicuous events of Mr. McAdoo's tenure of the Treasury. He was a leading architect of the Federal Reserve System and an active promoter of the Federal Farm Loan System. Throughout the vast network of na tional finance — taxation, distribution of gov ernment funds, war-risk insurance and the in surance of soldiers and sailors, economic prob lems of trade and agriculture, etc., Mr. McAdoo handled the complex ramifications and details with remarkable facility and judgment. When the United States government took over the entire railroads of the country in January 1918 Mr. McAdoo was appointed Director-General of Railroads. Up to the end of the close of the war he performed the duties of both offices — Treasury and Railroads. He tendered his resignation to the President on 22 Nov. 1918. Mr. McAdoo was married in 1885 to Miss Sarah Fleming of Chattanooga; she died in 1912, leaving three sons and three daughters. On 7 May 1914 he married Miss Eleanor Wilson, daughter of President Wilson.