THE NEW
WOODROW WILSON
"I shall always believe ratification would have been possible if Wilson's health had not given way; when that tragedy occurred, not even his best friends could exercise any considerable influence on him." SENATOR GILBERT M. HITCHCOCK, December 7, 1922.
AS THE Senate, under the lash of public opinion, prepared to call up the treaty on February 10, 1920, and renew the seemingly interminable debate, Wilson began to reveal increasing evidences of a marked improvement in health.
The terribly twisted, sunken expression on his face was smoothing out. Gradually more motion returned to his withered arm, and he was able to hobble around more vigorously on his blackthorn cane, which he whimsically called his "third leg." Much of the time he spent in the sun in a wheel chair near the south portico of the White House. The Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune found him there, hooking his cane to a post, swinging his chair around in a semicircle on the stone flagging, and exclaiming delightedly, "See how strong I am getting!"
By February 10 Wilson's recovery had progressed so far that Dr. Hugh Young of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the attending physicians, could reveal through a reporter for the Baltimore Sun that Wilson had suffered an attack of cerebral thrombosis. This rather unusual departure from ordinary professional ethics may have been prompted by the White House, for the doctor's report (assuming that he was correctly quoted) was far more optimistic than the facts seem to have warranted.
By February 19 it could be announced that the President was
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Wilson and the Peacemakers:Combining Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace and Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal.
Contributors: Thomas A. Bailey - Author.
Publisher: Macmillan.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 1947.
Page number: 243.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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