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Show Presidential Travel is AAajor Project Chief Executive Zealously Guarded by Secret Service By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON. When President Truman finally announced an-nounced 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 year?" "THIS year," the President replied. That gave the White House press and radio conference a short interlude inter-lude of laughter. For the reason that whenever a president is forced to drop his role of chief executive to assume the functions of candidate, it is funny. Frequently it isn't funny for the candidate, especially when he has been used to the respect spontneously and (except in election years) almost universally, tendered his office. SET FOR NEW SPEED RECORD . . . After two years of preparations, prepara-tions, John R. Cobb of England was prepared for an attempt to drive his Railton Mobil Special to a new land speed record. Cobb's car is powered with two airplane engines. ; A presidential trip may be. in$ many cases, fun 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 the stagecoach and tavern days. President Garfield was shot in a railroad station; ii McKinley was killed by a hall- ' mad anarchist on a trip to the Pan-American Pan-American Exposition Expo-sition in Buffalo, -Harding died in San Francisco on j his way back t from a swing- around that had I raid alert system was designed, Reilly says "to protect FDR anywhere any-where in the United States." When a spotter or watcher, either civilian or military, spotted spot-ted 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 Field, the homes, offices and automobiles of various secret service serv-ice agents, field offices throughout the country, all secret service mobile mo-bile units, the President's train, Shangri-La, and the President'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 business busi-ness and where he did it was his own affair. Now a president's out-of-town business is a lot of people's affairs. In wartime this signal corps detail de-tail had the mission of speeding the President's top-secret communications communica-tions "from the highest level conference con-ference tables to installations in the field." laKen mm to Baukhage Vancouver, Canada; Can-ada; Wilson suffered a stroke in bis Pullman; Theodore Roosevelt was wounded while he addressed a meeting on a visit to Milwaukee. Furthermore, it has been recently re-cently revealed by the head of the secret service, Mike Reilly, in his book "Reilly of the White House," that Franklin Roosevelt, Roose-velt, who disliked air travel, nearly cracked up in Malta, and might have been assassinated in a park in Miami had he not leaned out of his car to take a telegram (Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago was killed and four other persons wounded). Stayed Within Nation's Borders Up to Franklin Roosevelt's time. Taft was the most traveled of presidents, presi-dents, and in 1901 worried all the constitutionalists (unfamiliar with the Constitution) by visiting the Canal Zone. However, he was scrupulously scru-pulously 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 in office couldn't leave the country. When Woodrow Wilson went to Paris and Vice President Pres-ident Thomas Marshall had to preside pre-side at cabinet meetings, the vice president made it clear he was officiating of-ficiating only at the request of Today," as Major McNally puts it, "wherever the President travels, the White House signal detachment continues its task of weaving deftly an intricate communications com-munications net, which enables the commander-in-chief (and, he might have added, a travelling travel-ling candidate) to keep himself constandly informed and in touch with the nation." This work of weaving this ''communications ''com-munications net" is an exciting story sto-ry too long to recount here, but let me quote Major McNally briefly brief-ly to show how continuous communication commu-nication was maintained when President Pres-ident Roosevelt made one of his frequent 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 train. Army vehicles, ve-hicles, radio equipped, were spotted spot-ted at strategically plotted points along the route between Washington Washing-ton and Poughkeepsie, so that the train was in constant touch with the White House all the way. Another An-other FM radio link was installed in the old stable on the President's estate at Hyde Park. By means of a direct telephone line to Washington Washing-ton and frequency modulation radio, ra-dio, the White House was kept informed in-formed of the President's whereabouts where-abouts at all times." The speed with which messages could be dispatched and answers received re-ceived was astounding. When Winston Win-ston Churchill was making his second sec-ond visit to Hyde Park, he and the President who were keen competitors competi-tors as well as close collaborators decided to make a speed test on the communications facilities. Each sent identical messages to Australia over the respective British and United States facilities. The President Presi-dent had an answer in less than two hours; the Prime Minister got his the next day. xys'f K'js 'j Sieoal Corp F'hoto President Truman receives teletype tele-type message aboard the presidential presi-dential radio car. Standing by the President are 1st Lt. Clinton G. Conover (left), maintenance officer of-ficer of the army security agency, and 1st Lt. Harvard E. Dudley, cryptographic officer. White House signal detachment. Wilson and that he didn't consider Vilson's leaving the country vacated vacat-ed the presidency. Travel has become a president presi-dent must, and Mr. Truman's trip to South America Is 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 assassl-nutcd assassl-nutcd up to the time congress turned the Job of protecting the chief executive over to the secret service. Since then no president has been assasnlnuted. Theirs (tho lecrct service) li a heartbreaking Job, and never have the details been so thoroughly revealed re-vealed (to tho discomfiture of some of his former colleagues; u by Mike Ilcllly In the book I mentioned. men-tioned. Of course In wartime the Job win var.tly more cornpllculed, and the briny ami navy worked closely with the secret service. A special air |