Henderson daily dispatch., January 06, 1933, Page PAGE SEVEN, Image 7

About Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995

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Coolidge Rose From Humble Vermont Farm To Highest Office
HAD STEADY CLIMB
10 HIGHEST OFFICE
Was Man of Reticence But
of Sturdy Frugality and
Quiet Calmness
Called to the Presidency by the
death of Warren G. Harding, Calvin
Coolidge was elected to that office
a little more than a year later by
an ever greater pdurarlty than given
hi 3 predeceasor in the Republican
landslide of 1920 which oame in the
back wash of the Great War.
First inducted into office by his
aged father in the early morning
hours of August 2, 1923, by the dim
of light of an oil lamp in his father’s
home in the Vermont village of Ply
mouth, Mr. Coolidge found himself
facing within a few brief months a
situation in government which might
have tried the soul of a man lacking
his fundamental calm and belief in
the unerring judgment of the Amer
ican people.
Under a drive by the Senate that
perhaps was without precedent, re
velations of scandal in high places
rocked the nation. There first wore
disclosures as to the conduct of the
Veterans’ Bureau under the adminis
tration of harles R. Forbes, followed
quickly by a series of sensations in
the investigations of the naval oil
leases and the administration of the
Department of Justic under Harry M.
Daugherty.
Refusing to be stampeded even by
his owr pn’iical advisors, Mr. Cool
idge met each situation with a cool
deliberation, taking such action as in
his mind would best conserve the
public Interest. He quietly ordered
ordered prosecutions in the oil scan
dal, and although eventually he sent
Attorney General Daugherty into in
voluntary retirement, he passed no
judgment o nthe enate disclosure re
garding the Department of Justice,
requesting Mr. Daugherty’s resigna
tion on the ground that he was not
competent to pass upon what docu
ments in his department should be
submitted to the Senate investigators.
Whatever the merits of this con
troversy, he emerged from the welter
of investigations strongly entrenched
in the regard of the people. A few
short months after the echo of scnn
dal had died away, Mr. Coolidge was
swept back into the White House by
the greatest plurality of record —
more than 7,000,000. “Guilt is per
sonal" had become the Republican
slogan in that campaign.
While Mr. Coolidge, prior to his
election in his own right, undertook
to carry forward the policies of the
Harding administration, he centered
a great part of his own effort on the
question of economy in government
and it was on that record that he
went to the country.
Besides approving the measure ma
terially easing the tax burden from
which the country was suffering, Mr.
Coolidge in carrying out his econo
my program, vetoed the soldiers’
bonus bill and the measure to in
crease the pay of postal employes.
The bonus was passed over his veto
and subsequently the postal pay
measure went through with his ap
proval after means of providing the
revenue had been incorporated.
The Chief Executive found little
material support forthcoming, from
the constituted leaders of his party in
the two houses prior to his nomina
tion at Cleveland in June, 1924. This
absence of outspoken aid was parti
cularly noticeable in the Senate dur
ing all the long days of attacks on
the administration in connection with
the Senate investigations.
Although the President’s nomina
tion was accomplished In short or
der, a hitch developed over the selec
tion of his running mate ami it wus
there that Mr. Coolidge suffered his’
only reverse of the convention. After
former Governor Frank O. Lowden,
of Illinois, had refused to accept the
nomination as the Vice Presidential
candidate, some of the old-line lead
ers of ihe party blocked a plan to
put Herbert Hoover on the ticket with
Mr. Coolidge. anc lorcec the nomina
tion of Charles G. Dawes, of Chicago.
Opposed inthe campaign by John
W. Davis, as the Democratic nom
inee, and Senator LaFollette, running
as an Independent, the President re
mained in Washington, making but
few speeches and left active cam
paigning to his running mate.
Not only did the November elec
tion result sweep Mr. Coolidge back
into office byt it gave the adminis
tration what appeared to be a work
ing majority in bolh houses of Con
gress. The popular vote rolled up for
the Coolidge-Dawes ticket exceeded
15,000,000 —nearly twice that given the
Democratic nominees and more than
three times as great as Senator La-
Follette’s total.
In his inaugural address, delivered
from the east portico of the Capitol
on March 4, 1925 the President pledg
ed himself to a continuance of his
effort to bring about greater econo
my in government with a view to
lessening the tax burden and to the
promotion of peace through mutual
understanding with the nations of the
world.
Except for the publicity attending
the Boston police strike the country
up to that ime had litle opportunity
to know President Coolidge first be
cause he had not been in a position
to reveal his abilities outside of Mas
sachusetts and second because of his
native reticence.
And yet Mr. Coolidge probably was
better equipped by experience and
knowledge to take up his duties as
Chief Executive than any of his pre
cedessors who had been called to that
office by the death of a President.
()i all the Vice-Presidents he alone
«ad sat in art cabinet meetings, thus
obtaining at first hand information
as to the varied affairs of the gov
-11 nmen t and the reasons which had
prompted President Harding in hie
decisions on major problems, domes-
Deceased Form er President
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CALVIN COOLIDGE MRS. CALVIN COOLIDGE
Son Os Farmer, Coolidge Had Agricultural Perspective
PRESERVING A FAVOPITE DID A 1 HAYING ON UK
OLD TREE A- PLYMOUTH MILKING fAR M
tic and foreign.
The fate that moulds men’s lives
had a hand in his nomination at
Chicago in 1920 as the running mate
of Warren G. Harding. Entering the
convention with a handful of dele
gates pledged to his nomination for
the Presidency, he polled no high
vote and soon almost was lost sight
of in the mad scramble between Gen
eral Wood and Governor Lowden.
After the leaders in that fight, had
collapsed and Harding had been re
turned a v/inner, Coolidge still was
lost, sight of among the leaders, but
not among the delegates.
There were nasty conferences of de
legations and much confusion as the
roll call of states proceeded. Califor
nia which was high on the list, asked
for an individual poll of its delega
tion and each delegate voted for
Coolidge. Then the name of the Mas
sachusetts governor swept the con
vention and his nomination was a
certainty long before the roll call had
been concluded.
Mr. Coolidge was a man of remark
able poise, a poise that was undis
turbed when he was aroused in the
middle of an August night in his
father’s little Vermont farm house to
be told that he was President of the
United States. He was unruffled thro
ugh that experience, walking quietly
down the stairs, greeting newspaper
correspondents, carefully obtaining an
official copy of the Presidential oath,
being sworn in by the dim lamp light
by his aged father, a notary, and
then leaving quietly for Washington,
where for many days he was to go
through a most trying experience, in
connection with the obsequies of
President Harding.
Mr. Coolidge was a great reader
and devoted much of his spare time
to works on law, government and his
tory. In fact reading was his one re
creation as he never had shown any
aptitude for athletics even during his
earliest school days. The growing na
tional passion for golf left him un
touched. After he came to the Presi
dency he did seek recreation and ex
ercise occasionally at horse back rid
ing, but generally he contented him
self with brisk early morning walks
as a means of keeping himself fit for
the arduous tasks of his office which
had broken more than one President
before him.
Calvin Coolidge was born on Inde
pendence Day, July 4, 1872, in Ply
mouth ,a country village in the Ver
mont Hills, the son John C. and Vic
toria Moor Coolidge. He was descend
ed from John and Mary Coohdge, who
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HENDERSON. (N. 0..) DAILY DISPATCH. FRIDAY, JANUARY 6 1933
t President and Wife at New Year’s Reception
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Bjiig f £ : jNSHSr <*“*':& I
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IHP& j
had settled in Watertown, Mass.,
about 1630, and his ancestry ran thro
ugh a long line of farmers who lived
in Massachusetts until his great
great grandfather moved into Ver
mont,. There the Coolidge family till
ed the soil, raised cattle, and were
among the persons of influence in
their community.
The President’s father was the vil
lage storekeeper as well as a farmer,
and so the son had a double train
ing under his father’s care, plowing
and digging in the fields and selling
and figuring behind the counter. Here
were developed in him the industry,
frugality and self-reliance which
shaped the course of his life. His
mother died when he was 13 and four
years later he lost his only sister, but
a warm bond of sympathy developed
between him and his stepmother.
Between “chores” on the farm and
in the store, the future President at
tended the ungraded school at Ply
mouth, a single room with a wood
stove. Afterward he attended the
Black River Academy at Ludlow and
the academy at St. Johnsburg before
going to Amherst College. Persistency
Widow of Form er President
§gT
V f ' eu.u.
and frugality marked his career
there. Because he was unable to find
a cheaper place, he paid $3 a week for
his board and lodging. He was a keen
student, but only in a modest way did
he enter into the activities of college
life.
Mr. Coolidge never had time to
prove to the world whether he would
have made a great lawyer for he was
drawn almost immediately into po
litics and with few intervals that
thereafter was his life work. Less
than four years after he left college
he took his seat as a member of
the common council of Northampton
and later served two years as city
solicitor. Next he was appointed city
clerk, but declined the nomination to
succeed himself.
On October 4, 1905, Mr. Coolidge
married Miss Grace A. Goodhue of
Burlington, Vermont making a home
for his bride in a two-family apart
ment house in Northampton which
they continued to occupy until Mr.
Coolidge became Vice -“President.
There were born their two sons, John
and Calvin, Jr.
A year after his marriage, Mr. Cool
idge was elected to the State Legis
lature, taking his seat the following
January. Wjuile a conscientious legis
lator, he did nothing spectacular in
the two years he sat in the House.
As his second term was ending some
of the Republican leaders in his home
town decided to run him for mayor
and he was elected.
Two years later he was back on
“Beacon Hill” as a senator.
Few of the State House attaches
thought the quiet, unassuming sena
tor from Northampton would aspire
to the presidency of that august body,
but the senator had ideas of his own.
Hearing of Greenwood’s defeat by
telephone on election night he took
the earliest train for Boston and be
fore noon of the next day he had
lined up enough of the party leaders
to land the presidency, which was
obtained without opposition.
Another political accident which
helped to shape the career of the fu
ture President occurred in 1915. Craf
ton D. Cushing had been elected Lieu
tenant-Governor in 1914, but his run
ning mate, Samuel W. McCall had
been defeated by David I. Walsh.
Son Is Only Living Child
MW. AND MRS JOHN COOLIDGE « ,
CALVIN COOLIDGE
The Story of His Career
Told In Three Minutes
July 4,. 1872 —Bor.n i na little white
farmhouse at Plymouth, Vt., the son
of a hard-working Vermont farmer.
189tf Graduated from Amherst
College.
1897 —Admitted to the bar and hung
up his shingle in the town of North
ampton, Mass.
1899—Entered his first political of
fice by being fleeted to the Northamp
ton city council.
100-01 —Advanced a notch in the
city government by serving as city
Solicitor.
1903 — Left the city government to
become clerk of county courts.
1904 — -Won recognition for his poli
tical activities by being elected chair
man of the Northampton Republican
city committee.
Oct. 4, 1905—Married Grace A.
Goodhue of Burlington, Vt.
Cushing thought he fcould make a bet
ter run than McCall in 1915 and an
nounced his candidacy for the guber
natorial nomination.
For more than 50 years no pregfftl-,
ing officer of the Senate had been
able to rise on the political ladder.
But this did not daunt Coolidge. He
decided to run for lieutenant gover
nor. His logical opponent was the
speaker oi tpe House, but Channing
H. Cox had just taken over that of
fice and was davised by his friends
not to “rush the game,” So Coolidge
was nominated and ..elected.
It was during that year tha,t Cool
idge formed the friendship of Ftsink;
W. Stearns, a Boston merchant, which
undoubtedly helped him along the
political highway. In 1916 Stearns, in
order to learn more about politics,
attended the Republican national con
vention at Chicago. That was the
year when “dark horses” were run
ning well and it is related that thro
ughout the trip from Boston to Chi
cago, Stearns kept insisting that
Coolidge, who then was only lieute
nant governor, was as good a “dark
horse” as he had seen.
• After one term as lieutenant gov
ernor, Coolidge was reelected, some
thing that by this time had become
a habit of his political life. During
his third term he was elected gover
nor of the state. He had no opposi
tion in the primary of 1918—the war
year —and won by 17,000 plurality in
a year that saw John W. Weeks, aft
erwards secretary of war in the Hard
ing and Coolidge cabinets, yield his
seat in the United States Senate to
David I. Walsh, Democrat, by about
the same plurality.
The first naif of Mr. Coolidge’s
first term of one year as governor
was without incident. The governor
himself was scarcely known beyond
the borders of his state. Then came
the police strike. Whatever the merits
of the controversy as to whether Mr.
Coolidge obtained in that strike much
of the credit due Edwin U. Curtis, the
then Boston police commissioner,
;here is no questioning that the
ibrupt ending of the strike through
the use of the State Gu,ard turtted the
PAGE SEVEN
1907-08 —Served as a representative
in the Massachusetts legislature.
1910-11—‘Returned home and became
mayor of Northampton.
1912-13 —Served as state senator.
1914-15—ook another step upward
by becoming president of th e state
senate.
1916-18—. Elected lieutenant governor
of Massachusetts. -
1919- Served as governor of Mas
sachusetts, winning national fame by
his handling of the Boston police
strike. *,
1920- —Served as vice president of
the United States.
August 3, 1923—Became president
on the death of President Harding.
Nov. 4, 1924- -Elected president.
March 4, 1925—Inaugurated for his
i first elective term as president.
eyes of the country to the governor
of Massachusetts
Coolidge was reelected governor the
following year on the slogan, “Law
pdurality was 125,000
and bks. ,v<fte the largest ever
(i foi' gpvernor.
Mr. Coolldge'p
Koie <jttty wft^Y o preside over the Sen
ate, but Ire: -absented himself on
Tuesdays and Fridays to attend cab
inet meetings at the invitatipn of
President Harding. f • •
After Congress adjourned in March,
1923, and before Mr. Harding set fprth
on his long projected trip to Alaska,
Mr. Coolidge returned to his native
Vermont to Visit his father and to
'-engage once more in the perforihance
?of some of the “chores” of his boy
hood days on the farm. It was there
that he i eciiithe message that
death had cut' short -the career of
Warren G. Harding and thu.4s had
placed him in the most powerful po
litical office in all the world. <
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