Dear Ed:1 Yesterday afternoon (Sunday), we had a partial reunion, limited only to brothers and their wives. Naturally all of us felt its incompleteness due to your absence.
The only real piece of news is the ill health of Arthur.2 This is something that apparently they have tried to keep secret at the insistent desire of Louise, who, as you probably know, is a Unitarian. I think that this sect believes in "faith healing" or maybe it is that with right thoughts you never get sick.3 In any event, the story, as I got it from Arthur, runs something like this: He went to New York last November and had a very trying trip with the result that he felt excessively tired. As quickly as he got back to Kansas City, he went to a hospital and they diagnosed his difficulty as an "enlarged heart" and told him to take it very easy from then on. When he told me this he said, "Please do not let on to Louise that you know this because she is very anxious that no one hear of it." However, a little later, when the ladies were absent from the room, he blurted out the same story to all the rest of the boys and failed to give the same caution to them that he had to me. As a result, when Louise rejoined the group, one of the boys spoke about this enlarged heart and she seemingly hit the roof.
Here in one of our government hospitals is probably one of the finest cardiologists in the world. In that hospital there is reserved always for the President a very splendid suite; in fact, I know of few hotel suites that are so attractive. I promptly offered to put Arthur out in this suite (he now has nothing demanding his time) and get my cardiologist friend to give him a thorough going-over. Of course there is nothing that can be done to bring him back to the condition he was in, but he is apparently completely without advice from doctors as to what kind of a life he should lead. He is uncertain in his talk and actions and looks very old indeed. I think most of us were really astonished, if not shocked, at his appearance.
My offer was indignantly rejected by Louise, who said several times, "If he will do just like I tell him, he will be all right."
I tell you all this merely as information--there is nothing whatsoever to do about it. For example, Arthur had told me personally that he would like to accept my offer. When it was repeated in Louise's presence, she turned on him and demanded in a shrill voice, "Do you want to go?" Then she frankly stated that she would neither stay here in a hotel nor go out to the hospital with him. He immediately backed off and said, "Oh no, of course not; really I feel fine."
All this conversation was brought on by the fact that he had gone yesterday afternoon to the airport to meet his grandson who was coming in. To each of the brothers there is an aide assigned, and his aide found suddenly that Arthur was showing every sign of weakness and fatigue--virtual collapse. He sat him down and rushed to a telephone to call a doctor to meet him. When they returned from the airport Arthur was feeling well enough to insist on going straight to his hotel. So the doctor never did see him.
There are some more distressing details, largely of a financial character, that Milton told me, but none of us knows whether there is any truth in them so I do not repeat them.4 The crux of these statements (as Milton understands) was that for some legal reason Arthur long ago put all his property in Louise's name and that his pension from the bank is a very meager one, out of which he has to pay alimony to his first wife.5 However, I notice that Arthur has kept his directorship on two or three companies, so I assume that he is in no financial straits at the moment. And of course it is always possible that the woman will play square with him, but I was shocked when I heard her say yesterday in such certain terms that she would merely go back to Kansas City if he should go to the hospital for three or four days.
I hope that you will not repeat any of this to Arthur or to anyone else. I merely give you as accurate a picture as I can of the impressions we got yesterday so that you will not expect too much of Arthur if you should happen to pass through Kansas City.
He apparently spends his mornings at home and his afternoons are given to bridge at the Mission Hills Club.
Today is the Inauguration and the only part about it that I really dread is the viewing of the parade that will certainly last from 2 - 1/4 to 2 - 1/2 hours. I gave orders to hold it down to two hours, but of course everybody wants to get his face into the thing if he possibly can.6
The other part that gives me a little pause is that again today I swear to do my best for another four years in working at a job that at times is nothing but frustration. We have never successfully got across to America as a whole the cold war requirements in fighting Communism. Some people simply will not wake up to the great danger inherent in inflation and most want more services from government with lower taxes.
Of course some phases of this life have their amusing aspects. For example, I hear directly or indirectly from some newspaper writers or commentators that I have gotten over resenting the duties of the office and now enjoy them. Moreover, they say that I am no longer nervous or ill at ease with the press, that I have learned to get along with them.7
As to the first of these, I have always made it a point to like my work. Even when I get angry (which I am prohibited by the doctors from doing) it is not an anger at the job but at some stupidity that creates a problem which never had to occur.8 As far as my attitude toward the job itself is concerned, it is no different than it was in 1953--indeed, before that, because I had a very accurate idea of what was involved when I finally agreed to stand for the nomination.
As for the newspaper people, they simply kid themselves. I have been meeting the press since 1941 and from the beginning I have never been conscious of any "fear" of press conferences. As a matter of fact, most of the meetings are very poor. The average newspaper man likes to ask questions about individuals and personalities, rarely does he want to talk philosophy. There is no story in that.
There are five or six individuals of the working press that I admire and respect very much. Also there are quite a few publishers that I count as my good friends.9 But I find that the average writer is more "New Dealish" in his sentiment than almost anyone else. Consequently one merely gets rather tired meeting and talking to them.
The only reason that I rather resent signing on to do my best for the next four years is that there are so many things Mamie and I have wanted to do for so long, and this time it is more difficult for me than it was in 1953 to believe that I personally had the duty of standing again for this office. Possibly I am like a woman convinced against her will.10
Yesterday morning I saw Janis and her husband when they attended the private swearing-in at the White House.11 The families and family connections, numbering about 75 or 80, stayed around a while in the State Dining Room where we had coffee and cakes of various kinds. It was a very pleasant occasion.
Give my love to Lucy, and of course I do hope that the improvement in your condition, reported to me recently by Lucy, continues steadily and surely.12 As ever
