A bronze test of Bernard Baruch was presented to the National War College today by Herbert Bayard Swope before a distinguished audience including Secretary of State George C. Marshall, Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, all of whom paid high tribute to Mr. Baruch. The bust was presented in behalf of the former members of the War Industries Board on which Mr. Baruch served during World War I.
Declaring that Mr. Baruch’s record “will outlive this bronze,” Mr. Swope lauded his “sense of duty, wisdom, experience, directness and integrity…qualities which forced his return to Washington through the call of President Roosevelt.” Swope said that Baruch “was and still is, consumed by a passion for public service” and has been “used freely by Presidents, Secretaries and Governors, denying himself to none.”
Mr. Baruch expressed hope for “a world ruled by the force of law and not by the law of force,” but said that “in America it is not an army we must train for war; it is a nation.” He thanked those who have helped him in two world wars, and signaled out Mr. Swope by name as “representative of their loyalty and ability. He was always by my side,” siad Mr. Baruch, “no matter how loudly the lion roared.”
General Eisenhower praised the “genius, wisdom and leadership” of Mr. Baruch and his “unselfish, effective public service.” Secretary Marshall told how he had tapped Mr. Baruch’s “reservoir of great wisdom” before and during the war.
Among others present were Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder, British Ambassador Lord Inverchapel, former Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, Senators Claude Pepper and Joseph C. O’Mahoney. The bust was executed by Rudolph Evans.
(In New York, the Brooklyn Round Table of the National Conference of Christians and Jews presented to Mr. Baruch a scroll in tribute to his contribution to the solution of “problems consistent with the great moral principles and spiritual values” of Judaism and Christianity.)
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