The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-10-25
PUBLIC NEED IS
FRANkNESS ABOUT
WILSON'S ILLNESS
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

Copyright 1919, by The Wheeler
Syndicate. 1ncO
WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. 25.-The
policy Of secrecy about the presidents
illness, which at first aroused gossip,
is beginning to arouse jealousy.
Even the Democrats in tn United
States senate, whispering in the cloak
rooms, are asking each other what is
the actual government of the United
States.
1t was announced last week that the
cabinet was dividing the work Of the
chief executive among them, as it
could well enough. But the senate
and that means Republicans who dis
like the president as we'll as the Dem
ocrats who affect not to dislike him,
feel uneasily that big things are going
on in the White House rather infor-
mally. This is sheer nonsense. Yet
they make no bones of saying in pri-
vate that the government Of the
United States is in an interregnum,
and that the actual government Of the
United States is in the hands of Mr..
Tumulty, DR.. Grayson and Bernard
Baruch.
That does not mean that the presi-
dent is incapable of wise decisions,
even his bitterest enemies do not be-
lieve such thing. But they feel that
he Is a sick man who naturally has
to waive many things, trusting them
to those near him, and that many
things are done with the presidents
sanction, chiefly because they have
the approval of those surrounding him.
Probably If the White House doc
tors would announce rather definitely
what they think is the matter with
the president, all this mouldy gossip
would disappear. Most of it is bred in
darkness-and fear. 1t seems to have
no basis in fact For instance: AT
the Industrial conference word went
about that the president had sent word
to the delegates to stay until they
had solved the problem; the rumor
also said that he had declared that
the conference was very much upon
his heart The question arose: Who
said he said it? No one seemed to
know. Then came the deadly follow
I'D: well, was he able to say it?"
A little frankness would have stopped
that sumise.
Candor Is Needed.
Candor is the medicine which the
public needs right now to cure 1t of
its malady. The truth is vastly better
than the flood of rumors covering the
country. Every morning a score of
hungry reporters gather at the White
House. They get bulletins, and the
bare bones of non-committal state
ments.
Each man has to write from 800 to
500 words a day; he puts meat on the
bones. He squints at the bulletins.
He interviews the doctors, reads medl-
cal books and dreams dreams. The
result is a rather dangerous condition
of public information.
A crisis in the country might make
candor come too late. And the times
are alive with crisis. Never before
in a generation has America been
moving so close to the danger line
as it is moving today. Confidence in
the situation at the White House
Rouse would be a great stabilizer.
Nothing is done by those who might
speak frankly to encourage conf
dence.
Probably 1t Is the administration
policy of secrecy that is working now
utomatically-under the momentum
of the past; possibly the momentum Is
accelerated by the president himself,
still running true to form. But what
ever it is, candor would be vastly
better for the needs of the hour.