Show presidential T ravel is aaa lor act 14 chief executive zealously guarded by secret service by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington when president truman finally an bounced that he was going to brazil he was immediately asked if he contemplated any trips across continental united states he answered in the negative A reporter piped up this year or next yeara THIS year the president replied that gave the white house press and radio conference a short inter lude of laughter for the reason that whenever a president is forced to drop his role ot of chief executive to assume the funch ons ot of cand date it is tunny funny frequently it isn t funny for the candidate especially when he has been used to the respect spontaneously and except in election years almost universally tendered his office A presidential trip may be ino many cases fun tor for the president but it isn t much fun for a lot of other people not that all presidents have had easy traveling it was an ordeal for the early heads of the nation just to get home in tn the stagecoach and tavern days president garfield was shot in a I 1 railroad station mckinley was killed by a half mad anarchist on an a trip to the pan american expo in buffalo I harding died in san francisco on his way back from a swing around that had taken him to baukhage vancouver can ada wilson suffered a stroke in his pullman theodore roosevelt was wounded while he addressed a meeting on a visit to milwaukee furthermore it has been recently revealed by the head ol 01 the secret service mike keilly reilly A in his book reilly of the white house bat that franklin roosevelt who disliked air travel nearly cracked up in malta and inight might have been assassinated in a park IB in miami had he not leaned out of his car to take a telegram mayor anton cermak of chicago nas as killed and four other persons wounded noun ded stayed within nat nations ions borders up to franklin roosevelt s time taft was the most traveled of dents and in 1901 worried all the constitutionalists un famil ar with the constitution by visiting the canal zone however he was ecru pulou sly careful to stay on board the american warship which touched only american soil it had been considered an unwritten law since george washington s time he had refused to enter rhode island until it was admitted to the union that a president to in office leave the country when woodrow wilson vent went to paris and vice pres ident thomas marshall had to pre side at cabinet meetings the vice president made it clear he was of ficia ting only at the request of signal cocq photo president truman receives tele jele type message aboard the prest dennial radio car standing by the president are 1st lt clinton G conover left maintenance of 0 beer of the array army security agency and 1st lt harvard E dudley cryptographic officer white whit house signal detachment wilson and that he didn dian t consider wilson s leaving the country ed the presidency travel has become a dent must and mr truman s trip to south america Is s just routine but it is complicated routine for a whole army of people what these people do is little known to the public especially the secret service one out of every 10 of our presidents has been assassin bated up to the tune time congress turned the job ob of protecting the chief executive over to the secret service since then no president has been assassinated theirs the secret service is a heartbreaking job and never have the details been so thoroughly re healed to the discomfiture of some of his former colleagues as by mike reilly in the book I 1 men tinned of course in wartime the job was vastly more complicated and the army and navy worked closely with the secret service A special air raid alert system was designed reilly says to protect any where in the united states when a spotter or watcher either civilian or military spotted ed an airplane he or she was unable to identify any place from greenland to the straits of magellan the information was radioed immediately to the army air force headquarters at mitchell field N Y the information was immediately evaluated and conveyed by radio and land line to the secret service communication system where men were standing a 24 hour watch this system tied together mitchell field boiling bolling field the homes offices and automobiles of various secret ice agents field offices throughout the country all secret service TOO bile units the president presidents a train shangrila Shang riLa la and the president presidents s room at hyde park president kept informed constantly but keeping the president alive is only one activity keeping him in touch with his job is another once when a bullying congress demanded of president grant which if any of his duties he performed in washington he replied that his busi ness and where he did it was his own affair now a president presidents s out of to business is a lot of people s affa rs in wartime this signal corps de tail tall had the mission of speeding the pres dent s top secret com munica eions from the highest level con ference tables to installations in the field today as major mcnally puts it wherever the pr president resi d en t travels the white house signal detachment continues its task of weaving deftly an intricate corn com net which enables the commander in chief and he might have added a travel ling candidate to keep himself constantly con standly informed and in touch with the nation this work of weaving this corn com net Is an exciting sto ry too long to recount here but let me quote major mcnally brief ly to show how continuous comma ni cation was maintained when pres ident roosevelt made one of his fre quent trips to hyde park A 50 watt frequency modulation station was modified and installed on the secret service car attached to the presidential tram train army ve hides radio equipped were spot ted at strategically plotted points along the route between washing ton and poughkeepsie so that the tram was in constant touch with the white house all the way an other FM radio link was installed in the old stable on the president presidents s estate at hyde park by means of a direct telephone line to washing ton and frequency modulation ra dio the white house was kept in formed of the president presidents s where at all times the speed with which messages could be dispatched and answers re was astounding when win ston churchill was making his sec see ond visit to hyde park he and the president who were keen campeti tors as well as close collaborators decided to maee maze a speed test on the communications facilities each sent identical messages to australia over the respective british and united states facilities the dent had an answer in less than twe two hours the prime minister got his the next day |