Leahy for Standley

Not many boys raised in Iowa go to sea, fewer still become admirals. Perhaps William Daniel Leahy would today be a corn-hog farmer if his Iowan parents had not moved when he was still young to Ashland, Wis., on the shore of Lake Superior. As it was, when he graduated from high school he wangled an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy, and last week President Roosevelt announced that, effective Jan. 1 Admiral William Daniel Leahy, Commander of the Battle Force, will be Chief of Naval Operations, No. 1 U. S. sailor. He will succeed Admiral William Harrison Standley, who reaches the compulsory retirement age (64) next month.

Navy men agree that Admiral Leahy is stepping up to no soft job. After energetic Admiral Standley, who was two classes ahead of his successor at Annapolis, took over the office in 1933, he widened its scope considerably, became the Navy's No. 1 diplomat as well as its No. 1 sailor. He was a delegate to the London Disarmament Conference and the London Naval Conference. He has had to serve as Acting Secretary of the Navy during Secretary Swanson's long illness. When funds were needed for President Roosevelt's big naval program, he appeared before Congressional committees, wheedled hundreds of millions of dollars for new ships and more men.

William Daniel Leahy has served as chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and the Bureau of Navigation, had a hand in framing many a present-day naval policy. Spry and trim, he belies his 61 years, but the seams in his face are eloquent of years at sea. Navy men who admire his prodigious physical endurance swear that they are not exaggerating when they tell how he once stayed on his bridge for six weeks during fleet maneuvers, relaxing only to take short catnaps. When he takes over his new office he will be no stranger to Washington. He maintains a residence there, has gone there whenever his duties would permit. In Washington he is not active socially but he likes to go for drink and chit-chat to the swank Army & Navy Club or Chevy Chase Country Club. Like Admiral Standley and many another naval officer he has a son, Lieut. William Harrington Leahy, in the ranks below him.

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