Evening star., 1925-09-20
BAKERS WILD TRIP
IS LAID TO benson
Former Secretary, Hustled
About in War, Praises
Admiral at Dinner.

able share in the successful conclusion
of the World War, during which he
was head of the American Navy, by
former Secretary of War Newton d.
Baker last night at a testimonial
dinner given in honor of the sea
fighter at the Mayflower on his 10th
birthday and the 50th anniversary of
his entering the service of the United
States
To Admiral Benson in large part,
Mr.. Baker said, must be credited the
use of the convoy system for troops
and supplies and the laying of the
North Sea barrage, which finally
defeated the enemy submarines.
The former policy, according to Mr.
Baker, was continued upon Admiral
Bensons insistence after the British
admiralty had grown skeptical of its
efficiency, and the barrage long had
been considered an impossibility by
the allied navies.
Kept Services i'm Harmony
1t was largely due to the tact and
experience of Admiral Benson ac-
cordfnS to Mr.. Baker, that the Army
and Navy worked in perfect harmony
AS an instance of Admiral BenSon's S
thoroughness and efficiency Mr.. Baker
revealed hitherto unknown sidelight
on the world confiict-the circum-
stances of his own trip to Europe
through the submarine belt in the fall
Of 1918.
He had decided on the trip, he said,
and communicated his plans to Secre-
tary Daniels of the Navy The lat
ter turned over the ARA ngements to
Admiral Benson. 1t was essential
that Secretary Baker leave Washing
Ton unSuSpected by any enemy agents
who might be stationed here
was told only that on 3 o'clock of a
certain afternoon a man would call
for his hand baggage and at that
evening one would call to take him
10 the station. He was told to trust
these men implicitly, however diff
cult 1t might be to do So
Shabby Men Appear.
On the afternoon in question a
man poorly dressed and not at all
, trustworthy in appearance called for
his baggage. He handed it over with
mlsglvinSS. That evening another
man, even more suspicious looking
than the first came for him in an old
FORD car, which apparently was in
Its last stages.
For more than an hour, he said he
was driven about the poorer streets
or Washington in this old car, grow
time that somebody had made a mis-
take and that he was in the hands
OF a ruttian or q maniac. Finally, he
said, he was told to get out of the
car and taken through a supposedly
secret entrance into the train shed at
Union Station and hustled into an un-
lighted Pullman on one of the tracks.
Here his rough-looking escort left
hlm. lie sat down and waited. The
next person to accost him was a negro
porter who demanded to know how
he got into the car. told him he had
no business there and threatened to
kick him off. He said that he ex-
plained as well as he could to the
porter and advised him to see the con-
ductor. The negro hesitated SUSPECT
ously but finally complied.
AccOsted by Porter
The next Mr.. Baker knew, he said,
the train was moving, his compart-
ment still unlighted. Some time in
the middle OF the night it stopped
outside New York City and another
unknown guide came for him and led
him to the waterside. There he was
told to mount a rope ladder onto the
deck of a battleship.
Once there the officer in charge of
the deck demanded to know who he
was and what business he had sneak
ing Oh pOarO q Navy ship.
He told the officer he was the Secre-
tary of War. The statement was re-
ceiVed with considerable doubt. The
Navy man obviously was fustered.
He consulted the commander, who
evidently was the only person in the
whole chain who had any idea what
1t was all about
Mr.. Baker said he was hustled be-
low decks and not allowed to come
above for two days, spending his
nights in total darkness 1t was not
until the ship, the battle cruiser
Seattle, reached Brest that his
identity was revealed
1t was the infinite attention to such
details as this, he said, which stamped
Admiral Benson in his mind as very
great officer.
Wilbur Praises Admiral.
Secretary of the Navy Curtis D.
Wilbur paid signal tribute to the ad-
miral, speaking in place of Secretary
of Commerce Hoover, who was unable
to be present because of serious illness
in his family, one of his sons having
undergone an operation today in Bal
timore.
Secretary Wilbur spoke of the great
advances that have been made mate
rally IN the Navy since the days of
sailing ships. when Admiral Benson
first entered the service. The heroism
of the men, he said, has never changed
AMI the same spirit that inspired the
sailors on the deck of the Bon Hornme
Rtcharc was to be found in the ex-
plot of Commander John Rodgers in
the Hawaiian flight, in the men on the
Shenandoah, in the men who manned
the guns in the turret of the Missis-
sippi after the fatal explosion
sErny1, Tphr nj
Benson" he said, the same spirit of
self-sacrifice has cctuated the men of
our Navy. Thank God that at the
head Of our Navy in the last great
war was man who believed not only
IN men, but in God"
Bishop Hugh G. Boyle of PITTSBURGH
said that Admiral Benson would have
been an ideal citizen of an imaginary
Christian commonwealth, where every
citizen was imbued with the ideal of
unselfish service above all else.
Tells of Life.
Admiral Benson, in replying to the
tributes, said that whatever he had
done had been done simply. solely
from a sense of duty to the service.
He spoke of his life from the time he
entered the Naval Academy from a
Georgia plantation. with less than
ls months of actual schooling in his
life behind him. His first voyage was
on the flagship of Admiral Farragut
and his next in the Constitution on
her last voyage in active service.
He has sailed, he said, all the seas.
visited practically every country in
the world and seen a great deal of his
tory In the making. Sailing vessels
still were In service when he entered
Jne Navy. He visited Japan when
that nation was just emerging from