PRESIDENT WILSONS HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 114, 11 November 1919, Page 8

PRESIDENT WILSONS HEALTH

MYSTERIOUS BULLETINS

SHOULD THE VICE-PRESIDENT

ACT?

(FROV OUR «W.N CORBtsrOHSEMT.)

SAN FRANCISCO, 14th October.

All sorts of rumours are flying round in regard to the real state of President Wilson's health.

An apparently authoritative announcement was made by the Providence Journal yesterday. According to this Mr. Wilson is suffering from a very dangerous cerebral hemorrhage, following two slight shocks, the first of which came at Pueblo during his Western trip, and the second on the morning of Ist October, after his return to Washington. There is partial physical paralysis and- brain lesion of such a character that he has suffered several periods of aspasia, although a high Government official says they have been less frequent in the past three days. Even if the President should show signs of improvement by the gradual absorption of the hemorrhage, any mental strain to which he would be subjected by the attempt to take up public matters would mean an immediate recurrence of the earlier symptoms and a more dangerous condition than at present exists.. It is also declared that there is no possibility that Mr. Wilson will be able to perform the functions of his office, either in the immediate or the remote future, and that while the medical bulletins state the facts, the physicians in attendance are agreed that any mental strain would plunge the patient into a condition far worse than anything that has yet resulted from cerebral hemorrhage. Officials told the Journal that the question as to the performance of the President's duties, either by Vice-President Marshall or in some other way, has become vitally urgent. An unchallenged report is that the late Secretary, of the Treasury, Mr. W G. M'Adoo, son-in-law of the President, and a picture proprietor, is directing and overseeing Government policies along lines known to have been approved in the past by the President. Colonel House is to assist Mr. M'Adoo in this work. Cabinet tentatively agreed that it should itself assume control of affairs, but the law officers of the Government have been able to find nothing in the Constitution conferring such power. A similar difficulty has arisen- in connection with the status of Vice-President Marshall, as the Consiitution is silent on the manner in which the inability of a President shall be determined.

It was persistently rumoured in Washington that steps toward bringing a suit to test the physical capacity o£ the President to perform his duties are being seriously considered. While the actual condition of the President and the question of his constitutional inability to discharge the duties of his office were being discussed by the Senate Committee on.Foreign Relations, Drs. Graysbn, Ruffin, and. Stiff issued a reassuring'bulletin, frankly intended to set at rest the setisational rumours current concerning his Jllnees, but they carefully avoided any reference to the character of his ailment. It is the suppression of the diagnosis that accounts for the rumours which have been flying thick and fast for the past ten days.

Dr. Grayson declined either to affirm the authenticity of a statement by Senator Moses that the President had a brain lesion. This .statement caused indignation at White House. It is asserted by some officials that the ■ President is transacting public business every day. The doctors expressl the utmost confidence in the ultimate recovery of the President.