"Hysterics"

For a fortnight Washington correspondents had been plagued by queries from editors and publishers back home. All queries began alike: "Is the story true that . . . ?" The stories also had one central theme: Franklin Roosevelt was on the verge of a collapse, physical, mental or both. He had, according to the tales roaring through the country in whispers, grown mentally irresponsible. Hadn't you heard that during a Press conference he had a fit of laughter, had to be hurriedly wheeled out of the room? Why, his intimates were taking the greatest care not to have him make a spectacle of himself on public occasions. And when he heard the Supreme Court's NRA verdict, he was supposed to have succumbed to a violent fit of hysterics.

Last week Stanley Hoflund High, one-time foreign correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor, member of the staff of the Christian Herald, tried to run these evil rumors to ground in Washington. He talked to newshawks and others who had seen the President recently. He had an interview with the President at which the "whispering campaign" came up for discussion. Then Stanley High went on the air, broadcast to the U. S. the solemn news:

"I talked to at least a dozen of the leading Washington correspondents. More than half the ones I talked to were anything but pro-Roosevelt. They'd been seeing the President regularly --twice a week for months. What did they think of these rumors? With one accord--and not a little blasphemy--they branded them as pure and unadulterated bunk. Well, I tried a few questions of the same sort on Capitol Hill among the sober-headed legislators. With just as much unanimity and only a little less color, they said the same thing: 'Pure and unadulterated bunk.' Then I sprang it on a few men-about-Washington --who make it a point to be in on the know --regardless of who is President. Their vote was the same: Pure and unadulterated bunk. . . .

"It's my guess that when the President takes his forthcoming swing around the circle he'll set a pace, both mental and physical, that will wear everybody to a frazzle--everybody, that is, save the President."

Day after this rebuttal of rumors, Franklin Roosevelt faced his regular circle of newshawks. Up piped one of the President's favorite interrogators, slim boyish-looking Francis Marion ("Little Stevie") Stephenson, Associated Press correspondent at the White House: "Mr. President, there have been reports that you are in a little bad health. How do you feel?''

The President, cigaret holder in hand, sat back, puffed out his chest robustly, grinned at the newshawks. What, he demanded, did they think? The answer was a self-conscious titter.

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