Buddy's Operation

One icy-cold night in January 1919, eight reckless Tennessee soldiers (one of them Colonel Luke Lea. Nashville publisher who later went to jail for conspiring to defraud the Asheville, N. C. Central Bank & Trust Co. of over $1,300,000) failed in a self-appointed, harebrained attempt to kidnap Kaiser Wilhelm from his Netherlands retreat. Censured by General John J. Pershing. they swore among themselves not to tell their story for 15 years. Three weeks ago the Saturday Evening Post featured their escapade as told to Truman Hudson Alexander, veteran Nashville Teunessean columnist who had diligently tried since 1934 to ferret out the story.

Last week the Tennessean's Alexander revealed that three of the original kidnappers, now Tennessee businessmen, without consulting their five companions, broke their 18-year silence only to help Columnist Alexander raise money for expensive operations to save 12-year-old Truman Jr., an infantile paralysis victim. By last week the raid of 1919 had ended well for all concerned: Writer Alexander had received $1,500 from the Satevepost; 90-lb. Buddy Alexander, after two excruciating spinal operations and a blood transfusion from his father, was in a Manhattan hospital, encased in 125 pounds of plaster, grinning and beginning a recovery scheduled to take a year; and the ex-Kaiser was still safe in Holland.

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