The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-28

II Ell
II but he conIdn't Sleep Finally at
I O'Clock he got up and tried to
read Insomnia and extreme nerv-
BUSINESS were exhausting his all too
scant energy. DR.. Grayson saw
signs OF a collapse. He awakened
Secretary Tumulty and insisted that
the trip be cancelled at once. Mr.
Wilson's lips were twitching- He
was beginning to show the effects
of the terrible strain he had been
under during the war and at the
morning, the official announce
ment was made. The correspond
ents rushed in automobiles from
the railroad yards several miles
from the city of Wichita to the teIe-
graph Offices The train turned
back to Washington an hour later.
correspondents Confused.
Curiously enough, there was some
doubt among newspapermen as to
what really caused the stopping of
the trip. Some thought it was not
iII-health but lack of desire to
speak further in a. hopeless cause.
Basing their editorials on some of
these stories. some newspapers pub
licly expressed skepticism as to the
story of ilI-health and laid it to po-
liticaI reasons. There was no out
ward evidence of Mr.. Wilson's
breakdown When the train pulled
in at Washington, Mr. Wilson walk
ed briskly through the union sta
ton. The newspaper photographers
snapped him as he walked, and the
pictures are a matter of record in
local newspapers. Nevertheless the
story has persisted that Mr. Wilson
had to be carried from the speak
ing platform and that his collapse
occurred in public.
Only two or three people really
know when the climax did come. 1t
happened in the White house within
a few days after the return from
the western trip. It resulted in an
impairment of the left leg and arm.
Should He Have Resigned!
Whether Mr.. Wilson should have
resigned and turned his office over
TO the vice president will always be
a moot question. The fact is that
for more than a year the cabinet Of
ficers functioned as the heads of
their departments and Mr.. Wilson
did little else but approve or disap-
prove their recommendations on
, important matters. At no time, his
advisors say, was his mind impair
ed though, to be sure, he was kept
from doing much work by his ply
siCians. The layman's view-and it
is after all the impression made by
Mr.. Wilson upon visitors which con-
stitutes the only basis for any stOr-
les about him-is that Woodrow
Wilson is mentally the same today
as he was the day he broke down.
His mental faculties, his friends
say, have never been less keen or
discerning than they were before.
MIR Wilson is not trying to mar
age the affairs of the Democratic
p; rty He isn't taking hand in the
treaty fight at all. He is said to
have remarked to a friend that he
intended to show the Republica Es
how an ex-president could be-
have" He meant it of course in
contrast to the way former Presi--
dent Roosevelt used to torment a
Democratic president with bitter
attacks in the newspapers. Mr. VIII
son lives in Washington, but isn't
doing or saying a thing that could
possibly offend the present occu-
pant OF the White house. He has
literally taken himself out of public
life and probably will always re-
main in the same seclnsion, always
II leaving to future generations a rec
ord Of his work to be judged IN
years free from the passionate par
tisanship of the era in which he
lived