Bedroom & Courtroom

In December 1919, Woodrow Wilson, President of the U. S., was sick. To his bedroom came a committee of U. S. Senators, appointed to inquire into the President's physical condition. A member of this committee was Albert Bacon Fall of New Mexico. Into the sick man's room marched the Senators. At them glared Dr. Sterling Ruffin, friend and physician of the President, against whose warning the visit had been permitted. The Senators eyed the sick man, some sympathetically, some suspiciously. Then to the President's bedside strode Senator Fall. He would see how sick the President was. Before indignant Dr. Ruffin could intervene, Senator Fall had dragged back the covers under which the sick President lay huddled.

In January 1924, Albert Bacon Fall was sick. He was not any longer a Senator. He had recently (March 1923) resigned as Secretary of the Interior. He was suspected of bribery and corruption in connection with the oil scandals of the Harding administration. Now a Senate Committee was investigating him, now Senators were wondering how sick he was. But the Senators of 1924 were more considerate than the Senator of 1919. In stead of invading his room, of removing his blankets, they sent a committee of doctors to report on his condition. One member of that committee was Dr. Sterling Ruffin. The doctors reported that Mr. Fall was well able to appear at the oil investigation hearings.

In the past fortnight oil investigations have again been in progress. Mr. Fall was appearing before the District of Columbia Supreme Court, still charged with having accepted a $100,000 bribe from Oilman Edward Laurence Doheny. Mr. Fall was sick again. He appeared at court but, early in the proceedings, collapsed. Again doctors were appointed to examine him. Again Dr. Sterling Ruffin was among the court's appointees. This time, Fall and his attorneys protested, so also did Dr. Ruffin. Thereupon Judge William Hitz announced that one of his medical assistants had been withdrawn for personal reasons, appointed another physician in Dr. Ruffin's place.

Whether Mr. Fall was sick or was not sick in 1924, there remained no question about his condition last week. The doctors appointed by the court agreed with Mr. Fall's own physician that Mr. Fall was in deed a sick man. His right lung was congested. He showed every symptom of bronchial pneumonia. He was in an extremely susceptible condition for catching a cold, and a cold, once caught, might well terminate fatally.

Justice Hitz apparently felt that a mistrial ruling was in order. So did Atlee Pomerene, onetime Ohio Senator (1911-23) now the government's special counsel in the oil cases. Mr. Pomerene rose in court and asked that the mistrial ruling be immediately announced. Then the door of the courtroom opened. A procession entered. It included Mr. Fall, pale, tired, bolstered by strychnine, reclining in a wheel chair. On one side of the wheel chair walked a trained nurse. Back of the wheel chair came Mr. Fall's doctor, cousin, wife, two daughters and Witness Doheny. Dr. Safford and cousin Houston Fall lifted Mr. Fall out of the wheel chair, tucked him into a big green morris chair provided for him throughout the hearing. Mr. Fall was feeling better. He did not want a mistrial declared. He wanted, said Attorney Frank J. Hogan, "to be vindicated before passing into the Great Beyond."

Undecided, Justice William Hitz looked at the prisoner, asked his attorneys if they were well aware of the doctors' report on the condition of the accused. The attorneys said they were. "I deny the Government's motion [for mistrial]," said Justice Hitz. "Call the jury.''

The most interested trial-witness was Oilman Doheny, for should Mr. Fall not be convicted of having been bribed by Mr. Doheny, the indictment of Mr. Doheny as briber would be dropped.