US Presidents, Day 30: Coolidge
Joe Republic:
Calvin Coolidge
Republican
1923-1929
Discuss his presidency.
Gabu:
I can't remember whether or not it's true, but I always liked the anecdote regarding his introversion, in which a lady told him that she made a bet that she could get him to say more than two words, to which he simply replied, "You lose."
Tetro Kornbluth:
"How can you tell" - Dorothy Parker on hearing Coolidge was dead.
Dr. Cynic:
His Presidency was largely forgettable... One of my favorite Coolidge stories goes as follows:
One day after he had become Governor, Coolidge went for a haircut. He sat down in the chair, and found next to him was his doctor. So while the barber cut his hair, the doctor leaned over and asked him if he had taken the pills he perscribed him.
"Nope," was his reply.
A few more minutes passed, and the doctor looked over and spoke up again.
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yup."
There was another long pause, and the haircut finished. Coolidge got up and almost left without paying, however, the barber stopped him and politely asked for payment. Coolidge sheepishly paid the barber and said:
"I'm sorry. I was so busy gosipping with the doctor that I forgot to pay you."
PBrunsel:
On August 21, 1923, Calvin Coolidge was asleep at his father’s farm in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He was awoken by his father and told that President Harding had passed away in San Francisco of a heart attack. Coolidge woke up, put on his best suit, and had his father John Coolidge, a justice of the peace, swear him into office. He is the only president to be sworn in by his father. After becoming the most powerful man in America, Coolidge went back to bed. A sleepy presidency was awaiting the nation.
“Silent Cal” was born on July 4th and weaned on a pickle, or at least that is what Alice Roosevelt said. Coolidge, a native of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, was always known for being a little odd. He would spend hors collecting maple syrup from the great trees on his dad’s farm, and then make his own pancakes (enough for himself only) and eat them in the kitchen. When someone he did not know entered the room he would dash off with the pancakes or dash under the table. He hated meeting new people and making small talk, something that would stick with him his entire life.
When Coolidge met his wife it was through the window at their Boston apartment. Grace Goodhue, his future wife, saw Calvin shaving with a hat on. She thought it so funny she burst out laughing, and Calvin screamed back, “I have an unruly hair that flops around when I shave! Can’t you pick on someone else?” Coolidge would marry Grace, and they had an odd relationship which included a pet raccoon named Lucy. Calvin was drafted by the GOP to run for State Senator in Massachusetts, then Lieutenant Governor, and finally governor. In 1919 he gained national fame when he used force to end the Boston Police Strike. “No one has the right to strike against the public safety,” Coolidge said, and this won him the 1920 GOP Vice-Presidential nod over progressive Wisconsin Senator Irvine Lenroot. As Vice-President Coolidge enjoyed attending Hardin Cabinet meetings (the first Vice-President to be allowed to attend such meetings), being by himself, eating lunch by himself, and going to Vermont as much as he could. However, that one August night in 1923 changed his life. Suddenly John Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States.
Coolidge was a quiet president. The economy was booming, and he felt that he didn’t need to intervene with economic growth. Coolidge was to be the last of the laissez-faire Presidents. “The business of America is business,” Coolidge liked to say, and he meant that short saying with all the fiber of his being. His six year presidency would experience unbridled growth of business and a strong stock market, but not all would experience “Calvin’s Prosperity.” Farmers would experience drought and debt while sharecroppers in the South and factory workers in the East saw no changes in their wages or workload. Coolidge’s America was one of paupers and millionaires, with little middle ground.
In 1924 Coolidge defeated his hapless Democratic rival, Ambassador John Davis, as well as trouble maker Senator Bob Lafollette in the presidential contest. His domestic and foreign policies over the next four years were Conservative continuing with the theme of his first four years. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, one of the richest men in the country, drove tax cuts through congress like a hot knife through butter. The national debt was considerable reduced, as was defense spending and agricultural subsidies. The old relics of World War I were officially dead and buried, and Coolidge wanted it no other way.
Silent Cal was a xenophobic man, and he didn’t care. He thought Anglo-Saxons were superior, and did nothing to help the plight of minorities. During the Tulsa Race Riots in 1923 he didn’t send in the National Guard to restore order, and he never called for the Congress to act on President Harding’s civil rights programs. In 1925 he cut off much immigration by signing the Immigration Act of 1925 which set quotas to all immigration to the United States. Coolidge viewed most foreigners as detriments to the American way, so he stopped them from coming to America all together.
What Coolidge is known most for is being tight with both a word and a dollar. Coolidge was such a penny pincher that he would stalk the White House at night in his night gown trying to save leftovers from dinner from being thrown away. When Secretary of State Kellogg told him that the air force would need ten new planes Calvin snapped back, “Their gown men, can’t they just share a plane?” Coolidge’s dry sense of humor was also related to his reputation of never speaking. When Alice Roosevelt told him at a dinner party, “Mr. President I bet a friend I could make you say more than two words,” Coolidge dryly replied, “You lose.” On another occasion Alice asked him why he came to dinner parties that he hated going to. Coolidge replied, “Got to eat somewhere.”
When Coolidge left office in 1929 he left behind a legacy of economic growth, but also a nation on the brink of depression. Coolidge’s free wheeling business policies would bite the nation in the back by the 1930s, but Coolidge would not be in office to witness the horror. When asked by a young boy in 1932 about if he liked being president Coolidge replied, “It’s not that bad, but you always have to dress up.”
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