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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1923)
, - - - . 1 t 0 m ' . .) i 4 1 f. . V . : EXTRA! . I! . . : f ' EXTRA! rV SEVENTY-THIRD YEAR SALEM, OREGON, THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 2, 1923 PRICE FIVE CENTS ' j - ; . ' 1 - :-r - - v.-. i r r i t ' t- 1 1 ' i . , MMS sim EES mm Brain Ailment Gimes Upon Nation Chief I ao He Lies in Sick Bed, and Appoplexy Brings End Physician not Expecting Death-Official Unable to Be Famiiy : ScatteredL and Calld---Chief,s Career Began as Prmter. PRESIDENTIAL HEADQUARTERS, Pdace Hotel, San Francitc6, Aug. 2. (By the Associated Press)- President Harding died instantly and without warn.' in? tonight at 7:30 o'clock. I i ! r - t ; yDiath cans to the chief executive while he aas conversing with members of his fnmly end according to "en official statement issued by. physicians, was appar erJy dze to some brain development, bro cght about by apoplexy. The end came so suddenly that the members of the official party could hot be cdltd. It came after a day which had be en described by Brigadier General Saw ytr, the president's personal physician, as the most satisfactory jhere had been sic his illness began. The physicians in their formal announcement of the end tad that ''during the day he had been free from 'discomfort and there was every testification for. anticipating a prompt recovery." --"'!-, A "' - tng J-:': A hurried call for physicians was sent out by Mrs. Harding shortly after 7 o'clock tonight. 'Messengers ran in search ok doctors Work and Boone, two of the physicians attending President Harding while Brigadier Gene Sawyer, the pretident'i personal physician was in the sick chcpiber, the only medical officer at that ume on duty. i . . . - .' There was an obvious and sudden change in quietness which' had prevailed ugh the afternoon and earlv evening hours and reaort thai the nresident had buffered a sinking spell cotdd not be verified, it being impossible in the confusion. to reach those in position to know what had occurred within the sick room. The first indication that a change had occurred in the condition of Mr. Hard came shortly after 7 o'clock when Mrs. Hardin v nersonallv ooened ike 'door i t - ' - . .. . . . - : -----o r, z. r . VI n not room and called to those in the corridors to find Dr. Boone and the others quick." At that time Mrs. Harding was understood to have been reading to the president, sitting at his bedside with the evening papers and, -messages t pf sczie friends which had been received during the day. . PRESIDENTIAL HEADQUARTERS. San Fremritm. Ana. '2 fRv ihp Asn- chted PressJhIn a second official statement issued at 8:02 p. m., the statement - uz maC4 that the: death had been cause ed by a stroke of apoplexy. m ne statement saia : . . -. r .jystps, ' :.r;: - :h..- Death was apparently due to some brain development probably from apoplexy i i ! "Dtrritltr th Jnv lim hrA Aon J..... ' JLj L -- '--iT I ; ' hh,i, wt.vt.ui iiviii umiuhuuukihI itcic wui ever v iiuu I fon or approatmng recovery. ' official ' PRESIDENTIAL HEADQUARTERS, Palace Hqtel, San Francisco, Aug. ; 2. (By Associated Press.) The story of the president's tragic end was tpld officially in this way: The president died at 7:30 1, m., Mrs. Harding and the two nurses. Miss Ruth Powderly and Miss SuevDausser, were in the room at the time. Mrs.1 Harding wras reading to the president when utterly without warning a- slight shudder passed through his frame, he collapsed and. all recognized that the end had come. , V f . ; ; i J. v A stroke of apoplexy was the cause pf his death. '"Within a few" moments all of the president's party had been summoned." I ! 'Secretary Hoover was the first of the four members .of the president's cabinet Who are in San Francisco, to learn the sad news. He went into the room at once and in a few minutes came out,! obviously deeply distressed and in a low voice said to newspaper men, most of twhm did not know of the hurried call almost half an hour previously: , ,y t "Boys, I can't tell you a thin&" - ' With the passing of Mr. Harding, the .office of-president devolves upon Calvin Coolidge, vice president of the United States, a man silent in nature, but demonstrated as strong in emergencies.' He was notified of the death-of Mr. Hard ing at his home in Plymouth, Vermont. ; i C " Warren G; Harding brought to the presidency an infinite patience and kindness in dealing with public Questions and men who enabled him to handle the problems of government without the stress and worry which had handicapped many of his predecessors. i Whatever else historians may say of him, there probably will be little dispute that few chief executives came to office in peace time facing problems more complex in their nature or greater in number. ..All international affairs were un balanced as never before,. with .many principal sentiments of the great war still to be effectuated. ..At some the work of reconstruction had only just begun, with business depressed, agriculture postrate and unemployment general. How Mr. Harding measured up to the task t before him must be left to thei historian, . but his. friends said that coming to the presidency as he did with an open mind, a desire for counsel and an intimate knowledge of the pro cess of government activities in his services in senate, he was the type of man needed for the job at such a time. Preaching upon every occasion" the doctrine of Americanism, he set his face reso lutely,. : against 'entangling alli ance." -While 'thus- adhering to what he was pleased to term the principles of the founding fath ers, he nevertheless lent . the moral . assistance of the govern- WARREN m HARDING y r"- , j , ,- - ... . - t I f" i ' ' ' ' I I i I I l I " " ' - 'II - I III W . Mi MM atn,i.iwvwi I I .1 i ii iin wmmm m i I I n MMWPWWUlMlMiiiiliiiuiiuff miLmiWApS&M&i'im v " K wv 1 k. v- ..; . I : . " f. - ; V v v J rl f i v t ? S ' f - 4 ' v3, " x .3 r t j v - ; "-i jt" k. ' - I '.f'ii i Ti w - V-- " ; V , t fc x 1 - - " I i- " - - -s? , . N' ' 4 . x t , aw J V - ft' . " -I .S ;. t , 'I : V - 4 V . l ment In the efforts to bind up the wounds of the. world. Aided World Sentiment . That influence, .was once" de clared by him to be not inconsid erable and so America, under his guidance had a part, though sil ent It was in the-main, in effect ing the sentiments of the world. Its , chief contribution was the Washington arms conference, af which the principle powers ' , cov enanted to limit the size of their navies and thus lift from tax weary peoples the burden of main taining the race for naval suprem acy. , " Along with the proffer of coun sel in effecting world settlement went that American rights be recognized. In polished phrase, but with a, directness of expres sion that was not to be .miscon strued, the world was "given . to understand from the veify first of the Harding administration ' that the United States, freely respect ing the rights of the other ' na tions, asked for herself only that to which she was entitled in sim ple justice and that she could ac cept nothing .less. While in his dealings with congress,-Mr, Hard-' Ing preferred the role of coun sellor rather than dictator, he speedily removed any doubt that his gift of patience denoted any lack of purpose , once he had charted a course. Thus he told congress that soldiers' bonus bill either should carry the means of financing or be postponed, and when the legislators put aside his advice he promptly vetoed the bill they sent him. Pounded for Koform '. His tenacity of purpose was furtber exemplified in his contin ual pounding for reform in public prisons and again in his insist ence that congress pass the mer chant marine aid bill. His greatest single effort in the field of domestic legislation was in behalf of this measure. Not Infrequently Mr. Harding was caJled upon to play the role of peacemaker in governmental af fairs. He intervened in a dispute between congress and the treasury as to the form general tax revision was to take, and the program he approved was ' carried out in the main with a reduction of more than half a billion in the nation's tax burden. ...v. Likewise, his counsel settled the long controversy between .t the houco and senate. Upon signing that bill he declared it the great est, victory Th history. Mr. Harding came of hardy pioneer stock. Tie was born at Blooming Grove, Morrow, county, Ohio, November 2, I860, the, son of a country doctor, Uleorge T. Harding. Like most country boys he went country school teaching for a year, but having had a smell of printers , inpc ; .w-hile sticking type for his ; college fcaper, the lure drew brim into the newspaper; field. Publishing Ambitions .1 1 His family, meantime, had .moved to Marion, in an adjoining; county, where he obtained his first newspaper job and where hi life in' this was . centered. Mr Harding's ambition, . was - to be come publisher and it was rea lized at the age of .9, when he bid in the Marioa Star at a eher iff's sale. . The paper was pur chased under a heavy mortgage and his friends have' often said . that the struggles and hardships which were his in making, this paper a f success had much to do in fashioning his career and de veloping a broad patience and tol erance which were his character istics. Whatever his other at tainments, Mr. Harding's greatest pride was. In bis professional ac complishments and training as printer and publisher. Nor did the Interests and exacting duties of his high office serve to dull his. delight in puttering about a com posing room. On his first trio back home after his inauguration he went j to the Star office, pulled off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, borrowed a chew of tobacco and helped "make up" the paper. His luck charm.. was a printer's rule, carried always in a vest pocket. . ' 5 U's Ardent Partisan , . As his ambition had . carried him into .the ranks of publishers, so his fancy took him into' the realm of politics. From the first he was an ardent partisan and hlf Insistence upon wearing a "stove" pipe hat" the badge of support of James' O. Blaine, brought him a sharp reprimand from bis chief who held it to be inconsistent for a worker on a democratic paper to display, so prominently the symbol of his republicanism. . The future ; president's ability as a stump speaker won him early recognition from bis local party leaders. Marion county then was in the democratic column and he undertook to switch it to the re publican party, bat his first effort at office on his party ticket re-' suited in a defeat, though , he commanded an unexpected vote. Mrl Harding's first political office was that of Ohio state senator to which he was elect ed at the age of 34. He served two . terms and later was elected lieutenant-governor of his state. In 1910 he sought the governorship, but was defeated. . Four' years later he was elected to the United States senate where be served six years, much of the time as a member of the foreign relations 1 committee. From this place he was elevated to the presl- ' dency, the . first senator to be elected chief executive. I 1 Lifelong Baptist Early In his years of political service he met William McKInley to whom his close friendship most of them likened him and with whom , he bad In common a pre dominant passsion for obliteration of class and sectional lines. A friendship sprang up between the. two men. Mr. Harding also was : close Jn later day to Theodore ' Roosevelt, Senators Foraker and Penrose and i others high la hit party, counsels, rv-J 7