A German official, who did not wish to be named, stated angrily: “The Palace should have been condemned after the War. Not only was it 600 years old, but its structure had been weakened by the bombings, and never properly rebuilt and reinforced. This is a terrible tragedy, and America’s loss of one of its most popular and international-minded Chief Executives in modern times is no less our loss, too.”
At the time of the fatal accident, the President had served in office two years, seven months, and six days of his elected four-year term.
Among the first to offer condolences was Premier Nikolai Kasatkin, of the U.S.S.R., who had been meeting with the United States President this past week to work out important international differences. The official spokesman for the Soviet Union told the press: “The Roemer Conference may be considered suspended, not canceled. Some progress had been made. The points being discussed, however, still remain unresolved, and the talks must be resumed if the peace of the world is to be preserved. We anxiously await announcement of the late President’s successor to the leadership of the United States. As soon as that is made known, we hope to set a date for resumption of the meetings.”
Meanwhile, the eyes of the entire world were today focused on Frankfurt’s Hauptwache Hospital, where the President’s constitutional successor, Earl MacPherson, veteran Speaker of the House of Representatives, injured in the same accident, is undergoing spinal surgery. Three German surgeons, summoned from Munich, would make no prediction as to Speaker MacPherson’s chances, but United States Ambassador to Germany Paul F. Zwinn advised assembled reporters that there was every reason for “optimism.”
There was much more to the news story, and many more similar stories on the front page, but Edna Foster had no desire to read further. Casting the newspaper aside, she realized that Wayne Talley and Tim Flannery were whispering in the doorway to her office.
Now Talley was returning, heading for Arthur Eaton. “Stand by, Edna,” he said. Then, reaching Eaton, he said, “They have an open line to Frankfurt. No word on MacPherson yet. He’s been almost three hours in surgery. Tim spoke to Ambassador Zwinn briefly. The first phase of the operation was successful, but there’s still a way to go. But everyone is feeling better. They expect to swear MacPherson in, the minute he comes out of the anesthetic. I think Tim and I better draft a press release. There are more than a thousand accredited correspondents out there baying for news.”
“Go ahead,” said Eaton disinterestedly.
Talley hesitated. “I know how-how you still feel, Arthur. I know how close T. C. was to you. I can’t get used to it myself. I’m numb. Who would have ever dreamt that such a thing-”
“Go draft that release,” said Eaton curtly. Then he added, “Let me know the second you receive any flash on Mac.”
“Okay.”
Edna saw Talley signal her. “Edna,” he said, “Tim and I need you. I know it’s tough, but we have to dictate something about MacPherson succeeding T. C. as President.”
Sorrowfully, Edna Foster nodded her assent, hating this moment of surrender, of bitter truth, when her employer would be supplanted by another. She followed the Presidential aide into her small office, shut the door behind her, and observed that Tim Flannery had already drawn up two folding chairs. Since he and Talley were sitting, she went around the desk to take her accustomed place in the walnut swivel chair. She located her shorthand pad and several sharp pencils.
Flannery waved toward the pencils. “Don’t take anything yet, Edna. Wayne and I want to talk this out first.” Flannery had already handed the aide a sheaf of papers, which Talley was studying intently.
“Everything here?” Talley inquired, still reading.
“Everything,” said Flannery. “The boys on the Judiciary Committee pitched in, and also the justices gave us material, and for the background we had the Legislative Reference Service at the Library of Congress busy. You’ll find the Presidential Succession Acts of 1792, 1886, and 1947 in full, with pertinent sections marked out. Then there’s a lot of legal and background data, all severely condensed.”
“Isn’t it amazing how you go along and never think of anything like this,” said Talley. “You’d think I’d know most of this, but I don’t. I know eight Presidents died in office, before T. C., but I never knew this, that eight Vice-Presidents died in office, also.”
“Nine Vice-Presidents, counting poor Porter ten days ago.”
Talley looked up blankly. “Christ, I forgot all about him. Today seems to have blotted everything else out.”
Half listening, Edna doodled on her pad. Then, as Talley read on, she began to print the names of the nine Presidents, including T. C., who had died in office. She printed: William Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, Warren Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and then T. C. She counted. Eight. Who was the ninth? Then she remembered, and printed the name of William McKinley between Garfield and Harding. Next, she tried to think of the Vice-Presidents who had died in office. She could think of only Elbridge Gerry, Henry Wilson, Garret Hobart, and Porter, and not another. Finally she gave up. There was no use thinking about it. She felt ill.
She heard Talley’s strained voice. “I somehow believed that almost every President who didn’t finish his term was assassinated, but it says here that not more than four were shot down.”
“Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy,” said Flannery, fingers pressing his forehead. “Harrison and Harding died, in part, of pneumonia. Taylor’s death was caused by cholera morbus. F. D. R. suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Incredible, but poor T. C. was the only one ever to be snuffed out by an accident.” He shrugged. “I suppose it had to happen to someone sometime.” Then he added wretchedly, “Only why did it have to be T. C.?”
Edna had been watching Tim Flannery as he spoke, and there was a sweetness about him, behind his whole façade of forced factuality, that she liked very much. He was a tall Irishman, with unruly rust-colored hair, and a small reddish mustache, and a wide, ingenuous florid face, now puffy and blotched by sorrow. He looked as tweedy as his suits, with their suede elbow patches, and he had been a Midwest newspaperman who had written several highly respected history books on the side. It said much for him that most of the cynical White House press corps, and her own George among them, liked Tim Flannery.
“Chrisamighty, but I’m sure not in the mood for this,” Governor Talley was saying. His one crossed eye contemplated the ceiling and then reluctantly came down to the papers in his hands. “Well, guess somebody’s got to do it. Might as well get it over with… Let me see, Tim, says here that Speaker Earl MacPherson will fill one year and five months of T. C.’s unexpired term. Is that correct?”
“Give or take a few days, yes,” said Flannery, almost inaudibly. He seemed to make an effort to pull himself together. “All the past Vice-Presidents who succeeded Presidents had over three years of unexpired terms to fill, except Fillmore, who served two years and eight months of Taylor’s term, and Coolidge, who picked up one year and seven months of Harding’s unexpired term, and Lyndon Johnson, who served one year and three months of Kennedy’s unexpired term. MacPherson will have a long enough way to go in the-in the Presidency.”
“Yes, he will,” said Talley with gravity. He touched the papers in his hand. “You say here this is the first time in our history we have ever lost both men elected to serve us for four years.”
“Never happened before,” said Tim Flannery. “But as Clinton Rossiter wrote in The American Presidency, ‘This is no guarantee for the future.’ How right he was.” Flannery pointed to the sheaf of papers. “Did you notice that other quotation from Rossiter?”