"He's Perfectly O.K."

"Let's not be squeamish . . ." began the arch-Republican New York Sun in a front-page editorial one day last week. "It is convention, not the Constitution . . . which forbids open comment on the possibility that a President may be succeeded by his Vice President. . . . Six Presidents . . . have died in office. . . ." By this week the rabidly anti-Roosevelt New York Daily News, which is seldom squeamish about anything, was bravely facing the facts that Tom Dewey is 42 and Franklin Roosevelt is 62. (If either were to die in office, the News added, then John Bricker is obviously a fitter successor than Harry Truman.)

The Sun and the News were saying out loud what many a citizen has wondered about: is the President too old or tired to live out Term IV? Plainly Franklin Roosevelt's health was a political issue.

It was obvious to the White House last week that a report to the U.S. people was needed. Vice Admiral Ross T. Mc-Intire, White House physician, spoke up.

Dr. Mclntire, an ophthalmologist and otolaryngologist whose specialty is sinus (Franklin Roosevelt's most nagging health problem), is a balding, relaxed Oregonian whose rosy face is younger than his 55 years. Every morning around 8:30 he parks his five-year-old Lincoln convertible in front of the White House, strolls into the Presidential bedroom, insinuates himself into the daily bedside bull session. Having done his morning chore, he becomes Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy and spends the rest of the day bossing his wartime staff of 140,000. Each afternoon, he checks up at the White House again. Admiral Mclntire told a reporter:

Franklin Roosevelt is "eight or nine pounds under his best weight [186-188 Ibs.]. He took off this weight in the spring. He was getting a little too heavy and we had him reduce. . . ." Now, proud of his flat stomach, the President doesn't want to get that bulge back. "Frankly, I wish he'd put on a few pounds. . . . Ever hear of a man who recovered his flat tummy and got proud of it?"

"He had a hard time shaking off that (cold) attack and it knocked out his reserve for a while [last winter]. As a result he had some sinus trouble and bronchitis, and the coughing wore him down a bit. . . . Now he has recovered his reserve. . . .

"He hasn't been in the pool since before going to Quebec. He had the sniffles for two or three days and since then has been in & out of town and terribly busy. But he's going to start in the pool again now. It's good for him. He is a powerful swimmer and that gives him a good workout. . . . The buoyancy of the water enables him to walk and he gets exercise there that he can't get any other way.

"Nothing wrong organically with him at all. He's perfectly O.K. . . . He does a terrific day's work. But he stands up under it amazingly. The stories that he is in bad health are understandable enough around election time, but they are not true."

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