Cary T. Grayson Diary

Cary T. Grayson Diary

Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938

WWP17236

1919 September 26

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

English

FRIDAY, This morning at two o’clock I was awakened from my sleep and told that the President was suffering very much. I went at once to the private car and found him unable to sleep and in a highly nervous condition, the muscles of his face were twitching, and he was extremely nauseated. The strain of the trip had at last taken its toll from him and he was very seriously ill. He had a very bad asthmatic attack – the worst that he had had on the trip. For a few minutes it looked as if he could hardly get his breath. I was obliged to give him every possible care and attention. His condition was such that I did not feel that he ought to continue the trip. Although I was reluctant to do so, I felt that it was my duty to suggest to him that he call the trip off and that we return to Washington. He begged me tnot to make any such suggestion. He said that he realized fully that his enemies would take advantage of any bandonment of the trip at present to call him a quitter, and he declared that he wanted to finish out the work that he had started, no matter what it might cost him. He told me that he wanted to continue and he hoped that he would be stronger and better before we reached Wichita. The President told me that if I were to tell him that I was going to call the trip off, it would do more harm than good. He said: “Why, if you were to tell me that, I certainly would not be able to sleep at all tonight.” I did everything possible and finally I was able to get him asleep. As soon as he had fallen into a slumber, I went back into the other car and told Secretary Tumulty that the trip must be called off. I told him that the President’s physical acondition was such that it was utterly out of the question for him to attend any meeting at Wichita. I then had him send for the train officials and told them that the train was not to be run into the station at Wichita but was to be halted in the yards outside of that city. They were not told at that time that the trip was off, that being a matter that was kept between Mrs. Wilson, Secretary Tumulty and myself. I then waited until the President woke up. As soon as I found that he was awake I went to his state-room to break the news to him that the trip was to be abandoned. I looked in through the door expecting to find him in bed, but instead I found him up and shaving. Abandoning the trip was the farthest thing from his thoughts at that particular moment. I told him that it was my judgment that he could not make any additional speeches at this time; that to do so might prove fatal. He rebelled and said that he wanted to go on, and again repeated that if he were to abandon the trip his enemies would take advantage of it to say that he had quit. I was insistent, however, and I told him that he owed it to the country, as well as to Mrs. Wilson and his children to stop now before very serious developments should occur. I made it very plain to the President that his physical strength was completely exhausted, and that he was not in any way in shape to make another speech. He finally consented and said: “If you feel that way about it, I will surrender.” As soon as I had secured the President’s consent to call the trip off I went out and got Secretary Tumulty and brought him back, telling him definitely that the President had agreed that there should be no further meetings. The President said to Secretary Tumulty: “I don’t seem to realize it, but I seem to have gone to pieces. The Doctor is right. I am not in condition to go on. I have never been in a condition like this, and I just feel as if I am going to pieces.” The President looked out of the window and he was almost overcome by his emotions. He choked and big tears fell from his eyes as he turned away. The President told Secretary Tumulty that he had planned to answer Senator Capper, of Kansas, who had declared that the Shantung settlement was the greatest crime of a century. The President was anxious to tell the people of Wichita what the situation was that Senator Capper had so glibly denounced. He asked Secretary Tumulty, therefore, to give to the press a copy of his address dealing with the Shantung problem which was a part of his Los Angeles speech. This was done, as the President was not in condition to prepare a new and more detailed statement. Immediately on leaving the President, Secretary Tumulty went to his car and sent for a stenographer. A statement which placed the responsibility for the calling off of the trip upon me was immediately prepared and issued. This statement simply recited the fact that I did not believe the President could continue. It is as follows: The train was now lying on a siding in the yards in North Wichita. The newspaper correspondents hurried to telephones and into the city to send news of the sudden ending of the trip throughout the world. Meanwhile, the President remained secluded in his car and every effort was made to keep the constantly gathering crowd from making a noise and disturbing him. One of the members of the party was sent into Wichita to notify the local committee that the trip had been abandoned. He returned shortly afterwards with the chairman and some of the officials of the committee. Abandonment of the trip was a very grievous disappointment to the city of Wichita. Fully 25,000 people had come into the city from the surrounding country to see, if they could not hear, the President. The streets of the city were jammed and the city auditorium had been filled since eight o9clock with a crowd that taxed its resources. The committee sent word to the people that the President was sick and could not speak. Meanwhile, every arrangement was being made for an immediate and speedy return to Washington. The railroad officials were busily engaged in routing the train through, so that we could get back to the White House as soon as possible. Questions as to where the President would be taken, came up but I declined to consider any suggestion, believing that when I could get him back into the While House he would be far better off than he would be anywhere else, and in Washington I would have available anything that I might require or any specialists for consultation that I might consider necessary. While we were waiting a telegram came from the committee at Oklahoma City saying that there was deep sorrow there that the President would not be able to keep his engagement to make a speech there that night. The telegram said that fully 100,000 people had gathered in the city to cheer the President. At 11:00 o’clock in the morning the train started back for Washington via Kansas City and St. Louis. The President was secluded in his state-room in the Private Car MAYFLOWER and I remained in constant attendance upon him on the homeward trip. The news of the collapse and of the abandonment of the trip created a sensation throughout the United States and there was deep sorrow for the most part among those who had watched the hard fight that the President had made in carrying his side of the Treaty controversy to the people themselves. All along the railroad enroute to Kansas City crowds gathered but they were very respectful and there was no cheering or noise of any kind. We arrived at Kansas City at 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon and remained there for an hour while the re-routing of the schedule was being perfected. Although the President was in his drawing room greatly nauseated and suffering severely, the opposition newspapers refused to accept the fact that he was the very sick man that he really was. For instance, the New York SUN, which had been consistently unfair and which had made misrepresentations about very meeting that the President had addressed on the entire trip notwithstanding the fact that it had a representative on board the special train, carried a story declaring thatthe President was not sick. It quoted one of the negro cooks on the car as saying that the President had eaten a very hearty meal for a sick man although as a matter of honest fact he had hardly eaten anything at all. The spirit of the opposition newspapers was very bitter and unfair, not only this day but until after we got back to Washington.

Diary