The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-14

-OreSt or SenilS.
 As Secretary of the Navy lived
 through those crowded months in
 the atmosphere of suppressed ex-
 citement which tx inseparabie from
 the capital of EreDt nation at
 war. friend recently asked me
 my impressions of eight years as
 Secretary of the Navy. I replied.
 "Four years of auiet--then h----
 on all sides, to make Sherman's ex-
 pression nauticaI."
 Department heads upon whose prompt and efficient action tremen- dous interests expended. had to keep their own heads amid the rumor and intrigue criticisn and conflict of ad- Vice which whispered or thundered in their ears They had to keep their heads through days and nights of anx- iety when they were sending precious lives over seas of peril and into enter prises of danger. They had 10 keep thir heads when sudden emergency de- manded instant decision and action.
 GIVES INSIDE FACTS
 nm going to tell the story of
 those thrilling days as we saw and
 
 and present some things that have
 never yet bcen told about the part
 the navy played.
 l want you to Know certain inside facts concerning the message which that dapper little man carried eo the state department, whereby he iolted Washington out of it's routine, and I am going to give you view of the mcmentous cahinst meetings which fol- lowed his visit
 ] shall tell you the story Of certain "S. w Davidson" who went to London before the United States declared war, and of the conversation l had with him before he left.
 You will recall the dispatches you read three years ago concerning the giant German gun which, from remote distance and carefully concealed base, was killing women and children in Paris. You will Ter ,mber the shock of horror you felt wf sn you read how shells had fallen in the little church of St, Gerv iise on Good Friday, 1918. turning the sacred precincts into hideous shambles. Do you know that the United States played q part in end- ing the bombardment of Paris? It will interest you to learn how our navy contributed to the relief of the she'll shaken French capital.
 NATION WITH CHILD'S HEART And will tell you a joyful tnle. America is yet n young nation.
 mud Ii has strong, elem child
 henrf. That Is why, perhaps, when 1t went to war its sniiors bnsed
 some of their code signals on nur-
 sery rhymes. Only child-hearted
 nntion would have thought of thnt.
 No German could think of such a
 thing. and in that very fact lay the of haf Qtn uIa
 were part of our intelligence
 service. Just what part will tell you before my story ends. We have heard lot about the inn portance of cables lately. and a little island. about 10 miles long, in the Pa cific, bearing the comic opera name of Tap, has assumed prominence out of all proportion to it's size and com mercial value merely because it Is convenient cable station.
 You would think from all this talk that cables are absolutely essential to the maintenance of world wide com munications. Beyond doubt they are of tremendous importance. and no nation can afford to neglect it's interests in the matter of submarine telegraphs.
 NOT DEPENDENT ON CABLES But what would you think If told you that had Germany been able to sever the
 
 linked to London and Paris and Ameri- can headquarters at Chaumont we could nevertheless have communicated almost instantly with Lloyd George or Clemen- ceau. or General Pershng? In like man Incr, although with more difficulty. we could reach every ship in the United States navy, wherever stationed from the China sea to the Bay of Biscay. The miracle which made this possible xUo fal xxyftt, in fouy we entered the war, and it's accomplish ment lifted from our shoulders one of the big anxieties which had been almost con stantly present--the fear that some en- emy raider or submarine might cut the cables, leaving us isolated from our sol diers in France, our allies and our fight ing squadrons in war zone waters. | want to tell you in some detail how this miracle was worked and about the great wireless station which can flash radio messages around the world. 1 INDIANS WIRELESS" SYSTEM 1 The early pioneer vending his way with his wagon train across our western prairies saw in the smoke signals of the Indian the earliest American attempts at communicating over long distances It is far cry from the smoke signals of the Indian to the story of this world girdling radio station. H
 Where was 1t? Who built it? Those arc questions that will be answered later on. When it comes to hunting, even Ciem- enceau. the tiger of France. hunting the tigers of India. got fewer thrills than any sob of Uncle Sam's navy on board . destroyer chasing submarines Lum- bering along through the junEle on An elephant for big cat Is tame work cori- pared with cutting the waves at a miles ar hour in pursuit of a foe whose pres ence is known to you only by the vi. brations which the water carries from his propeller.
 | We shall go on such hunt before nay story is ended, and l will tell you how | the presence Of the submarine in adjA- cent waters was detected. and how we ware able often to distinguish one tyDe
 (Ceatan.eA . rags sevsns