Background
Walker Downer Hines was born on February 2, 1870 in Russellville, Kentucky, United States. He was descended from Henry Hines of Campbell County, Virginia, a Revolutionary soldier, whose son Henry emigrated to Kentucky.
Walker Downer Hines was born on February 2, 1870 in Russellville, Kentucky, United States. He was descended from Henry Hines of Campbell County, Virginia, a Revolutionary soldier, whose son Henry emigrated to Kentucky.
At fourteen Hines entered Ogden College at Bowling Green, Ky. His father had died, and he worked to help pay for his education. In 1888 he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science After a few months of stenographic work in Bowling Green he went to Trinidad, Colorado, where he did legal stenography in law offices and in court. He returned to Kentucky in 1890 to work in the office of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company at Louisville. In 1892 he was given a leave of absence to study law at the University of Virginia, receiving there the degree of Bachelor of Law in the following year. He then joined the legal staff of the railroad.
Eight years later Hines became first vice-president of the railroad, holding this position from 1901 to 1904. For the next two years he was a member of the law firm of Humphrey, Hines & Humphrey, in Louisville. In 1906 he returned to the railroad field as general counsel at New York City of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway Company. He held this position from 1906 to 1918, serving at the same time as chairman of the executive committee of the Santa Fé from 1908 to 1916, and as chairman of its board of directors from 1916 to 1918. He engaged also in general law practice in New York City.
His national and international reputation began on December 31, 1917, when he was appointed assistant to Director General of Railroads William G. McAdoo. McAdoo was then organizing the United States Railroad Administration in Washington, which by proclamation of President Wilson on December 26, 1917, took over the operation of railroads and other transportation agencies as a war measure in the First World War. Hines held this position until January 11, 1919, when McAdoo resigned and he became director general. At the time that he assumed office he supported McAdoo's recommendation that federal control of railroads be continued for five years.
Later he advocated a return of the roads to the owners as soon as legislation could be enacted. His proposals included the consolidation of lines into a few large systems, government regulation and apportionment of rates, and a representation of government and labor on the directorates. Unfortunately his tenure of office came at the difficult period following the war when there was widespread criticism of government management of the roads, but it was said of Hines that "no review of his stewardship would be complete if it failed to record a tribute to his courage in adhering consistently to his conception of his responsibility to the broad and longtime interests of the nation. "
He resigned on May 15, 1920, expecting to take a vacation and then resume law practice in New York City. When he reached Europe on his vacation trip in June 1920, he was invited to arbitrate questions arising out of local and international questions of shipping on the Danube River.
Accepting the position of arbitrator, he found that his study of these questions proved to be a more extensive task than he had anticipated, and he did not return to New York City until October 1921. He resumed his practice, but collateral duties continued to crowd upon him.
In 1925 he returned to Europe to make a special study of Danube River navigation for the League of Nations. Assisting him was Brehon B. Somervell, then a major in the Corps of Engineers. Hines's Report on Danube Navigation was published in Switzerland in 1925 and distributed to members of the League of Nations. Again in the United States, Hines became president of the Cotton Textile Institute in 1926, and in 1929, chairman of its board of directors. The following year he joined the board of directors of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
In 1933 he headed a group of economic experts who visited Turkey to advise the Turkish Government. While he was on his way to Ankara for a second time, in January 1934, he became ill in Italy and died of apoplexy at Merano. He was buried in the American Cemetery at Florence.
Hines' wife was Alice Clymer Macfarlane, to whom he was married on October 24, 1900. They had a daughter.