Inaugurating coolidge, p.10
Inaugurating Coolidge, page 10
Dr. Raymond Wilbur finally arrived at Stanford Hospital late Sunday afternoon after his emergency summons by the Hoovers. He checked in with Dr. Mehrtens, the on-call physician, for a report on the president’s condition. Mehrtens frankly told him that there was no such report, explaining that “Dr. Cooper had called up the Hotel and had been informed that everything was going well and that there was no need of consultation.”34 Mehrtens also informed Wilbur that specimens of the president’s urine and blood had been sent to the hospital and were being examined.35 Surprised that the president’s medical team had not invited Dr. Cooper to consult with them, especially in light of the urgent telegram from the evening before, Wilbur went home to bed, exhausted from his drive.
The Hoover excursion broke up in the early evening and the participants made their way back to the Palace Hotel where they arrived around 6:30 p.m. Most retired to their rooms. The workaholic Hoover busied himself with paperwork until later that evening, when he heard a knock on his door at 9:45 p.m. Upon opening it, he found Secretary Work with a stern and concerned look on his face. Work explained he had been by to see the president and Drs. Sawyer and Boone told him that Harding “was not doing so well.”36 Both doctors informed Work that they felt it desirable to call in the consulting physicians from Stanford.37
Herbert Hoover kicked into action. He waved Work into the room and immediately picked up the phone and called Dr. Wilbur. An exhausted Wilbur answered just a few minutes after he had fallen asleep. He listened intently as Hoover earnestly explained the unfolding situation at the Palace. Hoover asked Wilbur if he could leave immediately for a consultation at the hotel and to come “as rapidly as I could.”38 Checking his clock, Wilbur answered he would arrive sometime after eleven o’clock that night, and they set a consultation time for 11:30 p.m.39
Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur (later secretary of the interior under President Herbert Hoover) and wife, 1930 (Library of Congress).
After his urgent phone call with Hoover, Dr. Wilbur phoned Dr. Cooper. He repeated the instructions from Hoover and Cooper agreed to leave at once for the Palace Hotel.
Dr. Charles Miner Cooper graduated from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) in 1897 with his medical degree. He served as the president of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh before moving to the United States. In 1908, he began his tenure as an associate professor of medicine at the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco. That same year, the College was deeded to Stanford University and renamed the Stanford University Department of Medicine and Dr. Cooper went along with it. He became a popular lecturer in internal medicine, and by the end of World War I he had become one of the best known and respected doctors of cardiopulmonary pathology.40
Herbert Hoover introduced Drs. Wilbur and Cooper to Drs. Sawyer, Boone, and Work at 11:30 that evening in the drawing room of the presidential suite. Wilbur asked Sawyer for a complete history of the president’s health.
Sawyer started with the “unsatisfactory”41 recovery of the president from his bout of influenza in the spring. He explained that the president suffered from per-sistent high blood pressure and indigestion with “pain and distress,”42 along with shortness of breath. The president’s doctor also admitted Harding had suffered from chest pains, which radiated down the left arm. Sawyer deduced that the indigestion was brought on by gallstones and that he was able to relieve the president’s pain by applying pressure to the upper abdomen.43
Sawyer related that this current episode started on Wednesday, July 25, onboard the USS Henderson. The president complained about digestive troubles with pain in the stomach and bowels. “After a careful review of all the food that had been eaten, it was thought that some crab put on in Alaska might have been responsible for the difficulty,”44 Sawyer noted. He admitted that the president’s pulse and fever increased with the pain and distress. Sawyer treated Harding and some of the symptoms abated, but Harding’s weariness continued. On board the train, Harding’s pain and fever increased, as did his inability to retain food. Sawyer confessed, “His exhaustion was great.”45
The five doctors arose when Sawyer finished his summation and entered the presidential bedroom. Wilbur introduced himself to President Harding, whom he had met many years before, and began to examine the patient.
Starting with the mouth, Wilbur inserted a tongue depressor and shifted his face away from Harding’s as the president’s “foul, acetone breath”46 escaped from his throat. Wilbur saw the tongue markedly coated with a white film. Wilbur observed,
the heart rate was about 120 and 130 with extra systoles from time to time. The blood pressure was about 150, the heart was enlarged both to the right and left, the lungs were clear, the respiration increased and inclined to be shallow and irregular, particular with the least repose. There was marked tenderness over the gall bladder region, which was most evident on a deep breath.47
Wilbur thanked the president for letting him perform the examination and promised to check in on him in the morning. The doctors returned to the drawing room outside of Harding’s bedroom where Hoover waited for them. This time, Dr. Wilbur spoke. From his observation, along with the analysis of the specimens taken from the president earlier in the day and sent to Stanford, he and Dr. Cooper both expressed themselves to be “at once most gravely concerned for the President’s condition.”48
Dr. Wilbur stated that, “aside from any difficulties of heart action which may have preceded the present case, the President had developed a center of infection which he believed was the gall bladder; that the toxin from this center of affection was gravely affecting the President’s heart action and might develop into pneumonia.”49
With the consultation over, Hoover stated that “it was however obvious that some bulletin should be issued to the public and in the discussion as to the nature of this bulletin, I took the position strongly that the public had a right to know exactly the President’s condition.”50
Dr. Sawyer drafted an ambiguous bulletin regarding the exact condition of the president’s health, merely stating, “Because of new symptoms having arisen during the day, indicating complications in the case of the President, a consultation of physicians has been called. After this has been concluded, bulletins will be issued regularly for the information of the public.”51
Demands were pressing in on George Christian, Jr., from all parts of southern California and beyond. The cities and towns that had spent a great deal of time and money in preparation for a visit from the president and First Lady impatiently waited for news of whether the chief executive was going to be able to visit them. Christian did not know. As of that moment, the only part of the trip that had been canceled was the visit to Yosemite. It felt as if every local and state official in California were besieging Christian for answers. He corralled Hoover and Work and the other doctors. They held a quick conference in an anteroom for a decision on the rest of the trip.
Boone and Sawyer advised against carrying out the rest of the trip. They explained that Harding suffered from near total exhaustion and they were concerned with the signs of heart problems. Privately, among this group of close Harding advisers, both medical and political, the men agreed to cancel the rest of the California trip.
Christian asked if there was any part of the trip that could be undertaken, perhaps a substitute for the California program. The doctors replied that it was too early to tell. They all agreed that Harding would have to stay in San Francisco until his health fully recovered, and no one at the conference had a clear idea of how long that would take.52 The trip back to Washington on the Henderson through the Panama Canal would also be canceled.53 After recovery, the president would want to get back to Washington as quickly as possible, and the fastest way was overland by train.
Christian drew up a statement for release to the press that night.
The President is deeply appreciative of the fact that the people of California and its great cities have planned a series of magnificent demonstrations in honor of his visit. He realizes the great inconvenience imposed on public authorities, volunteer committees and the people in general by reason of uncertainty whether the program, in which he is to have participated, can be carried out. He has been particularly concerned to avoid the possibility that many thousands would travel long distances and then be disappointed.
Accordingly, after full consideration of all circumstances, he has desired the statement made public that by advice of his physician he will not attempt to carry out the program arranged for him in San Francisco. Moreover, the President is reluctantly persuaded that it will be necessary to cancel the entire California program.54
Christian must have been devastated to release the statement. On a personal level, he had looked forward to visiting southern California and to the journey through the Panama Canal. He knew, though, having worked on Harding’s 1920 campaign, how much time and energy local folks put into a campaign visit, never mind a presidential stop. With the release of this statement, tens of thousands of ordinary people, the type of people Harding had appealed to most during the election, were going to be hugely disappointed that the rest of the trip needed to be canceled. He also knew, as an adviser and friend of the president, that the chief executive’s health was paramount in any decision and he was thankful that at least now, the president was getting the rest and medical attention he needed to recover. After showing the statement to Welliver, Christian released it to the public and press with both men fully aware of the frenzy it would create regarding the real cause of Harding’s illness. With the statement’s release, most realized that the crabmeat cover story had generally fallen apart.
Sawyer and Boone, along with Mrs. Harding, formulated a plan for a bedside vigil schedule. Dr. Work headed to his room, silently waving off several reporters who asked for a comment on Sawyer’s bulletin. Herbert Hoover returned briskly to his room in full knowledge of the weight of responsibility that now fell on his shoulders. He knew there was work to be done before he could sleep for the night. He entered his room, briefed his wife on the president’s real state of health, and quickly wrote out some memos. At 3:00 a.m., Hoover reached for the phone and asked the operator to get him in touch with the primary resident of Macsfolly Farm, just outside of Washington near Kensington, Maryland. There, the sun had risen above the Shenandoah valley, waking Washington, D.C. Hoover waited until Secretary of State Hughes answered Hoover’s call.
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (left) and Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, 1924 (Library of Congress).
Once Hughes got on the line, Hoover did not take long to explain to him that President Harding had taken a turn for the worse and that his condition was serious. Hughes listened gravely and immediately understood the situation and the increased workload the president’s illness would now put on himself. Hoover ended the call with the most important and solemn communication thus sent from anyone on the president’s staff regarding Harding’s health. “It might be desirable,” Hoover said earnestly, “for you to keep in touch with Vice-President Coolidge.”55 Hoover then hung up and, satisfied he had done everything he could to save the president after the terrible two nights on the train from Seattle, fell fast asleep.
* * *
1. Herbert Hoover, The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1958), 271.
2. Ibid.
3. Herbert Hoover, “President Harding’s Last Illness and Death (Draft),” Aug-ust 25, 1923, 9.
4. Ibid., 6.
5. “‘Hello Girls’ Busy Saying ‘He’s Improving,’” San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 1923.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Milton F. Heller, Jr., The President’s Doctor: An Insider’s View of Three First Families (New York: Vantage, 2000), 63.
10. “Harding Suite is Beautiful, Yet Restful,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 1923.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. “Secretary Hoover Greets Scores of His Old Friends Soon After Arrival Here,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 1923.
14. “Hoover is Optimistic on Harding,” San Francisco Bulletin, July 31, 1923.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Hoover, “President Harding’s Last Illness and Death (Draft),” 7.
18. Ibid.
19. “J.C. Welliver of Sun Oil Staff Dies,” Hartford Courant, April 15, 1943.
20. “Welliver Made Study of Conservation Problems,” The Indianapolis Times, January 24, 1923.
21. “Illness Laid to Copper Taint in Crab,” The San Francisco Examiner, July 30, 1923.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. “Speaker Gillett, Sans Clothes, Interviewed,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 1923.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. “The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House,” National Park Service, accessed January 1, 2021, https://www.nps.gov/places/the-lou-henry-and-herbert-hoover-house.htm.
30. “Lou Henry Hoover House,” Wiki-pedia, accessed June 19, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Henry_Hoover_House.
31. “Cabinet Officers Among Sunday Visitors,” Daily Palo Alto Times, July 30, 1923.
32. “President Harding Seriously Ill,” Alameda Daily Argus, July 30, 1923.
33. Ibid.
34. “Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Personal Memoranda of Attendance on President Harding During His Illness, July and August, 1923” (Hoover Institution Archives: Box No. 19, Folder ID President Harding Death), 1.
35. Ibid.
36. Hoover, “President Harding’s Last Illness and Death (Draft),” 7.
37. Ibid.
38. “Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Personal Memoranda of Attendance,” 2.
39. Ibid.
40. Theodore N. Pappas, MD, “President Warren G. Harding and the 5 Doctors Who Managed His Final Illness,” Annals of Surgery Open 1(2):p e006, December 2020, | DOI: 10.1097/AS9.0000000000000006.
41. “Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Personal Memoranda of Attendance,” 2.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid., 3.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Hoover, “President Harding’s Last Illness and Death (Draft),” 9.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. “President Harding Seriously Ill,” Alameda Daily Argus, July 30, 1923.
52. “President Harding Cancels Entire California Program,” The Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1923.
53. “Harding to Return to East Soon as Possible,” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, July 30, 1923.
54. “President Takes Grave Turn; Local Specialists Called,” The San Francisco Examiner, July 30, 1923.
55. Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920–1933 (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 51.
Chapter 8
“Necessary for him to have complete rest”
As his chauffeur transported him to the State Department from his summer home, Charles Evans Hughes perused his overnight dispatches and got a handle on the world. Hoover’s call added another difficult situation to a world already bound up with hundreds of them. Europe could explode any second into another war with the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr Valley. South America, almost always plagued by revolution, seethed with political and social discontent. England bullied Germany for the money that country owed them for reparations from World War I. Communist Russia remained isolated and unrecognized by the main powers of the world, and Hughes had no intent of acknowledging them. Prohibition pushed America closer to an international crisis with its European allies, as passenger ships from the European continent were being threatened by American officials with confiscation of their liquor. Now the president of the United States was sick, sick enough that one of his cabinet members had called Hughes and told him to notify the vice president.
The advancement of global peace had seemed closer just a year or two ago than it did now. President Harding desired peace and, along with that, no more war. Whenever Hughes brought up the subject of world peace with Harding, Hughes felt the emotion with which the president advocated and promoted it. When the United States Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, America remained technically still at war with Germany. Just over a month after his inauguration, Harding spoke before Congress, demanding that a peace treaty with Germany be adopted. Senator Philander C. Knox introduced a resolution the next day. A conference committee delayed the bill for several months over a reparations clause, but it finally passed on July 1, 1921. Congress sent a courier with the final, unsigned treaty, to find the president and get his signature. The courier found Harding on a golf course in Raritan, New Jersey, playing a round with Senator Joseph Frelinghuysen. Both men, and the courier, walked back to Frelinghuysen’s estate where Harding signed the treaty, thus officially ending America’s involvement in World War I.
