Calvin Coolidge

COOLIDGE, CALVIN (1872-1933), 3oth President of the United States, was born at Plymouth, Vt., on July 4, 1872, the son of John C. Coolidge and Victoria J. Moor. He was descended from a long line of typical New England farmers and store keepers, living in Puritan simplicity and taking a characteristic interest in local civic affairs. His father, like others in the an. cestral line, was selectman and moderator of the town meeting; he held the office of town constable for many years, and became a member of each House of the State Legislature.

It is possible that much of the younger Coolidge's flair for practical politics was developed at an early age as he listened to the conversation that passed in his father's country store, where the Yankee democracy settled political issues over the nail and cracker barrels. His early education was characteristic of the region; he was first sent to the rural school-house, later to Black River academy and to St. Johnsbury academy, where he was prepared for Amherst college, which he entered in 1891. There he displayed the qualities which were to distinguish his later career, a dislike of ostentation, a capacity for hard work and clear thought, an ability to express his ideas in phrases that were frequently humorous and invariably terse. Such qualities did not make him a leader in his class 0895), either as scholar, social light or athlete; they did capture the admiration of a small group of the stronger men, and in senior year he was chosen "Grove Orator" for the class commencement. His interest in history had led him to prepare an essay on "Principles fought for in the War of the American Revolution," which was awarded the prize by the Sons of the Revolution in a national competition of college students.

As Lawyer and Legislator.—Upon graduation, Coolidge studied law with a Northampton firm, Hammond and Field, and two years later, in 1897, began its practice. The members of the firm were interested in local politics, and he himself soon found opportunity to follow his natural inclination. He was elected a councilman of Northampton in 1899, city solicitor in 19oo, and was appointed clerk of the courts, a county office, in 1904. He was a member of the Republican city committee. In 19°7 and 19o8 he served as a member of the general court of Massachu setts, the legislative body of the State, winning the reputation of a hard-working committeeman; he returned to Northampton to become mayor for two terms in 91 o and 1911. At the close of his second term he secured the Republican nomination for State Senator, which in his district was tantamount to election. From that time his political career in the State progressed by regular steps. In 1914 and 1915 he was chosen president of the Senate; he was elected lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts for three terms, 1916, 1917, 1918 and governor of Massachusetts for two terms, 1919 and 192o. In each case of re-election he was returned to office by an increased majority.

His success was not achieved by conventional electoral methods, for he avoided ostentatious advertising and was re garded personally as a poor "mixer," shy, taciturn and appar ently cold. Coolidge himself expressed in a characteristic phrase his conviction that electoral success ought to depend upon the candidate's devotion to official duty. "Let men in public office," he said, "substitute the light that comes from the midnight oil for the limelight." And again, "We need more of the office desk and less of the show window in politics." He translated his epi gram into action, and the success he achieved as mayor of Nor thampton and as governor of Massachusetts, in securing both economy and efficiency, explains much of his consequent recog nition at the polls. At all times he displayed a political shrewd ness which saved him from mistakes, and a dry common-sense, skilfully expressed in trenchant phrases that caught the imagina tion of his auditors.

Governor of Massachusetts.—Coolidge, as governor of Mass achusetts, proved himself an expert administrator; he was the first governor of the State to submit an executive budget for legislation and he pushed through various laws providing for the reduction in the number of administrative agencies in the State. But it is likely that his name would not have become nationally prominent if it had not been for his handling of the strike of the Boston policemen. The Boston charter provided that the police department should be under the direction of a commissioner appointed by the governor (in this case the com missioner had been chosen by Coolidge's predecessor) ; the mayor of Boston, however, may in certain contingencies take control of the police, and in "case of tumult, riot or mob," may call out such part of the State guard as is within the city of Boston; if the situation passes beyond his control he may call upon the governor to mobilize the remaining State militia.

The Boston Police.

During the first week of Sept. 1919, the Boston police threatened to go on strike because of the refusal of the commissioner to permit affiliation with the American Federation of Labor; the commissioner was steadily supported in his position by Gov. Coolidge. On the afternoon of Sept. 9, about three-fourths of the policemen left their posts; disorder in the streets commenced during the night, which became riotous the following morning. The mayor, who had been previously informed by the commissioner that he did not need the State guard, on the morning of Sept. o called out the State guard in Boston and requested the governor to send at least three regi ments of infantry. Coolidge immediately issued the order. It is possible that, thus reinforced and with the aid of young college graduates, the local authorities might have handled the situation successfully. In view, however, of a threatened general strike calculated to disorganize transportation and business activities. as well as the danger of continued rioting, Coolidge called out the entire State guard, and on Sept. I took charge of the police department. The strike was broken and order restored. Coolidge steadfastly supported the commissioner in his refusal to reinstate the striking policemen, and in a public reply to an appeal of Samuel Gompers clarified the issues involved: "The right of the police of Boston to affiliate has always been questioned, never granted, is now prohibited. . . . There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, at any time." Warned that organized labour would prevent his election to any office in the future, he replied, "It does not matter." As Vice-President.—The action and words of Coolidge in this crisis were eminently characteristic. He took no step until it seemed necessary, but then he took it decisively. The effect upon the popular mind was impressive. In the election of Nov. 1919, standing for re-election as governor, he received a majority of 125,00o. His name was at once included in the list of possible presidential nominees for the following year. Already mentioned in 1916 by a few supporters, he might have received the nomination in 192o if he had been given the solid backing of politicians from his own State. But at the National Republican Convention, where the senatorial group in control did not ap prove him, the Massachusetts delegation was divided and he did not have the support of the senior senator, Henry Cabot Lodge. He failed thus to profit by the deadlock, which was fi nally broken in favour of Warren G. Harding. But when it came to a call for vice-presidential nominees, a wave of enthusiasm for Coolidge caught the convention which, with 674i votes, nominated him on the first ballot. He was elected Vice-president of the United States in the following November, receiving with Senator Harding 404 electoral votes.

As Vice-president, Coolidge was the first who attended meet ings of the Cabinet, but he made no attempt to enlarge the functions of his office. He attended faithfully to the routine duties that went with the presidency of the Senate, consistently supported the policies of the Harding administration, and did nothing to bring himself before the public eye. Early in the morning of Aug. 3, 1923, in his father's house at Plymouth, Vt., he learned of the death of President Harding. The oath of office was administered by his father, a justice of the peace, and he immediately left for Washington.

Becomes President.

Characteristically, President Coolidge's first interest was to assure the efficiency of the public adminis tration, his second not to weaken his future position by any false step. Following four months' silence, his first presidential message, in Dec. 1923, commanded universal attention. It was brief and categorical. In it he made plain his opinion on the major problems before the country. He approved the main tenance of the tariff without frequent revision, a reduction of taxes; he disapproved the soldiers' bonus as well as any compli cated scheme of Government relief for the farmers. As regards foreign policy, he advocated co-operation without entanglement, opposing entrance into the League of Nations, but approving adherence to the World Court. The message was courageous in its lack of equivocation and attractive in its emphasis upon economic common-sense.

With its delivery Coolidge caught the admiration and con fidence of the ordinary citizen of the United States as a whole, as he had previously in Massachusetts. None the less, he faced a difficult situation in Washington. The Republican Party in Congress was broken into blocs, disinclined to accept his leader ship, torn by factional struggles to secure advantage in the coming National Convention. Congress sustained the veto of Coolidge of the Postal Salaries bill by only one vote, and passed the Bonus bill over his veto. In the spring the disclosures of the Teapot Dome leases threatened to involve his Cabinet and dis credit the Republican Party. The President met the demands for wholesale purification of the Administration with discretion and restraint ; he immediately appointed special counsel to prose cute an investigation, but refused to satisfy popular clamour by hasty dismissal of accused officials : "I do not propose to sacrifice any innocent man for my own welfare, nor do I propose to maintain in office any unfit man for my own welfare." At the Republican Convention, largely because of popular feeling in his favour, his control was unthreatened and he was nominated with ease; the vote of the convention was in many cases an un willing tribute by the party leaders to the overwhelming power of public opinion "back home." Coolidge did not take an active part in the 1924 campaign, stay ing for the most part in Washington and dealing with current problems of administration. In the few speeches which he made he reiterated the basic principles which he had already stated: economy in public affairs, efficiency of public service, abstention from the League of Nations, adherence to the World Court. He made slight effort to answer the bitter criticism passed on the Republican Party for the scandals and its reactionary attitude, by the Democratic and Third Party nominees ; he relied upon the increasing prosperity of the country under his administra tion and the widespread feeling that he embodied a shrewd common-sense in which the nation might trust. He was vindi cated by the result of the election, which gave him 382 electoral votes against 1.36 for Davis and 13 for La Follette. The popular vote was 15,700,000 for Coolidge, 8,400,000 for Davis, 4,800,000 for La Follette.

Presidential Administration.

On March 4, 1925, Coolidge was inaugurated President by virtue of election. His position in the country and the party was strong. He still met difficulties with the old Congress, in which the insurgent senators combined on occasion with the Democrats to oppose his wishes; but the back of the insurgent-radical movement seemed broken, and his control of the new Congress became solidified. Rarely has a President fulfilled so exactly the predictions that were made of Coolidge. Indeed, his popularity with business elements and the warm admiration felt for him by the common citizen largely re sulted from the fact that he was "predictable." His administration was characterized by no striking development apart from the continued maintenance of unparalleled national prosperity. In matters of policy the President depended upon the three out standing figures in his cabinet, Mellon, Hoover and Frank B. Kellogg, who on Jan. 1o, 1925 succeeded Charles E. Hughes as Secretary of State. His other cabinet appointments were sound rather than brilliant : William M. Jardine as Secretary of Agri culture, John G. Sargent as Attorney-General, Dwight F. Davis as Secretary of War, Curtis D. Wilbur as Secretary of the Navy, Dr. Hubert Work as Secretary of the Interior. For the first time in more than so years, the Senate refused to confirm a presidential nomination to a cabinet position, in the case of Mr. Charles Warren, whom Coolidge had named Attorney-General; the Presi dent avoided a constitutional issue by sending in the name of Mr. Sargent.

In domestic affairs Coolidge, relying chiefly upon Mellon and Hoover, continued the policy already laid down in his year and a half of office : economy of administration, reduction of taxation, non-interference in industrial affairs. "Economy," he said, "is idealism in its most practical form." He demanded the reduction of the national budget and constantly supported the principle of the retirement of national indebtedness as a means of employ ing Treasury surplus. In his message of Dec. 1926 he approved the plan to reduce the income tax payments of March 15 and June 15 following, as a refund on taxes in excess of Treasury needs; but he opposed definitive tax reduction. In the case of Mississippi flood control he refused to be hurried into calling an extra ses sion of Congress for the purpose of making special appropriations, but awaited the report of the engineers, without whose expert advice he felt that no wise action could be taken. He insistently opposed the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Bill (see under "Be comes President"), as partly unconstitutional, but chiefly because he looked upon its price-fixing stipulations as economically un sound. His own solution of the farmers' problem was found in the application of the principle of co-operative marketing. His invariable conviction that the Government should not interfere in business lay behind his refusal to take action in the coal strike of 1927.

In the field of foreign relations President Coolidge laid con stant emphasis upon the traditional principles of U.S. foreign policy, especially control of the Caribbean and the devising of mechanism for settling differences between the powers by peace ful methods. He urged the desirability of American adhesion to the World Court and the necessity of progressive and reciprocal limitation of armaments. His policy in these respects was not crowned with success. On Jan. 27, 1926, the Senate voted in favour of participation in the World Court but with reservations which did not prove acceptable to the participating powers; the President thereupon announced in his Armistice Day speech at Kansas City that he did not intend to ask the Senate to modify its reservations in any further attempt to make participation in the World Court possible. In 1927 the conference of Great Britain, Japan and the United States called at Geneva for the purpose of securing further limitation of naval armaments, was unable to reach any decision because of a deadlock on the problem of cruiser tonnage. In view of this failure the President approved a programme for the increase of U.S. naval armament. The administration of foreign policy and the conduct of negotia tions he left to Secretary Kellogg. Although President Coolidge showed his interest in settling differences with Mexico by the appointment of his close friend, Dwight Morrow, as Ambassador to Mexico, responsibility for negotiations with President Calles as well as for the sending back of American marines into Nica ragua, rested upon the Secretary of State. Mr. Kellogg also con ducted the important negotiations which followed upon M. Briand's proposal, in 1927, that the United States and France sign a treaty renouncing war as an instrument of national policy; through the diplomacy of Mr. Kellogg this proposal was extended to cover a plan for a multilateral treaty of similar intent, which was accepted by all the great and most of the small States of the world. Negotiations re the debts of foreign Governments to the United States were left to Secretary Mellon. In the case of Italy, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Greece, the arrangements made by Mr. Mellon were ratified; the agreement which he negotiated with the French Ambassador was not ratified by the French Chamber, although France agreed on March 1, 1927, to pay pro visionally at the rate of $1o,000,000 a year.

Although his name was not connected with any positive policy, except perhaps that of thrift, Coolidge's prestige among the American people increased each year. The economic prosperity of the nation, combined with his refusal to embark upon any imaginative policy which people did not understand, doubtless accounts in large degree for the confidence generally placed in him. Lacking many of the conventional traits of the orator, President Coolidge proved himself a political preacher second only to Roosevelt, and the public addresses in which he set forth his views systematically, made a strong popular appeal. His speeches on economy, better local Government, the need of the spiritual element in politics, obedience to law, religious toleration and the like, were readily understood and warmly approved by the average citizen. Whatever the cause, his prestige was such that it was generally assumed that the Republican Party would disregard the third-term tradition and renominate him for the presidency. With characteristic simplicity and without any warning, President Coolidge, on Aug. 2, 1927, stated: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." The phrase, used in the New England sense, connoted a determination that could not be broken, regardless of any wealth of reason that might be brought to bear. All efforts to "draft Coolidge for President," which were continued up to the time of the Republican Convention in June 1928, proved fruitless. The President exercised no clear influence at the Con vention, but the nomination of Herbert Hoover was looked upon as an endorsement of the Coolidge administration. Upon the rec ord of that administration the Republicans rested their case most successfully in the election of 1928. President Coolidge retired on Mar. 4, 1929, and in that year published The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge. He died, Jan. 5, at Northampton, Mass.

On Oct. 4, 1905, Coolidge married Grace Anne Goodhue, of Burlington, Vt. Two sons, John and Calvin, were born on Sept. 7, 1906, and April 13, 1908, respectively. The younger died on July 7, 1924, as a result of blood poisoning. (C. SEY.)