The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-04-05
Dr.. Grayson, Physician to
President, Recalls Spring
of 1917.
FIT FOR GREAT BURDEN
Mental and Physical Condi-
ton Good.

ing back to those busy, dramatic
hours just before the declaration of
war ten years ago, Admiral Cary T.
Grayson, personal physician and
close friend of President Woodrow
Wilson, recalled today calm, sure
man who had analysed carefully just
what war would mean and had de-
cided to throw the young men Of
| America into the salient.
They were trying hours, those,
when he was making his decision,
sitting alone in his study on the
second floor of the White House,
from whose windows he could gaze
| across the gentle undulations Of the
back lawn, glimpsing the white shaft
of Washington Monument, a wrath
of the night, and beyond, the low
hills of Virginia across the Pc.
tomac.
POndered Alone
DIR. Grayson-he bore no other
title then--described how Wilson
would shut himself up in that room
on those spring nights in 1917,
often until midnight and after,
bordering the momentous problem
before him.
For he went to that room with a
confusion of counsel, and fire.
quently was called out to hear other
advice.
"The President was getting all
kinds of advice" Grayson said.
There was continual stream of
advisers There were some who
begged him not to plunge the
United States into the European
war. Many members of Congress
| came to see him at night.
Wanted Information
HE used to say to me that what
he wanted more than advice was in
formation"
Grayson smiled, grimly.
THE President was methodical.
He gathered all the information he
could. Then he took it all, studied
it, and made up his mind.
He was weighing the situation
most carefully and seriously, because
he realized the responsibility Of send
ing men to war, many Of them to
their deaths-for that is what it
meant. He did not jump into de-
cisions. He weighed all the evil
dence most carefully.
"He was undergoing greater
mental anguish then than after war
was declared"
Fit for Struggle
During those days, despite the con-
fusion and turmoil, the President
was calm mentally and in splendid
condition physically, his physician
said While he did not sleep as long
as usual, he slept well.
He would get UP early every
morning, and go out and play golf
for an hour" Grayson explained.
He was in good shape physically
When he first became President /
had started him 10 playing golf
Gradually, he had gotten into good
physical condition"
In those trying hours when he
was harried by advisers, confronted
with opposing counsel, what stands
out most prominently in the doctors
mind? r.
"He had better possession Of Him
self than any man l ever. knew" he
answered, quickly.
Discredits Tale
There came the time when Will
son sat down to write his message
to Congress, delivered at that eXcit-
ing night session on April 2, fol-
lowed four days later by the decla-
ration of war that sent 100000
young men to the training camps.
| Grayson does not credit the story
that the President sat down in a
lounging robe on a back portico and
wrote the message in long hand by
the light of the moon.
THE President" he said, did not
do things that way. When he
worked, he went into his study fully
in shorthand on a. piece of paper
often, but he wrote his messages on
a typewriter.
''EIe would go into his study and
sit before his little typewriter there.
And he would sit working until he
had finished what he was doing. Be-
fore he sat down to write, he had all
his facts in hand and knew just
what he wanted to say. Usually, it
stood Just about as he had written it,
with very few changes"
Memory is so short a thing, as
DR.. Grayson will testify.
Time Blurs
The quick parade of events in
those days-everyone of them por.
tentious and significant-hasb become
blur to him, as of many khaki.
clad soldiers passing hour after hour
in the rain. The figure Of the Presi-
dent stands out, alone there in his
study, gazing toward his native Vir-
ginia and beyond that to the coun-
try, whose sons he had decided TO
send into battle.
The world still puzzles over that
step, looking backward and forward
from this ten-year milestone.
Grayson thinks Wilson was mag
nif1cently right.