Coolidge, (John) Calvin

I

Introduction

Coolidge, (John) Calvin (1872-1933), 30th president of the United States, who served during the relatively prosperous and peaceful years of 1923-1929. In a rapidly changing society, he expressed traditional small-town values.

II

Early Career

Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge attended Amherst College (B.A., 1895), studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1905 he married Grace Goodhue, whose social sophistication contrasted markedly with her husband's sometimes curt manner.

Coolidge began to practise law in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he was regularly elected to local office until he became lieutenant-governor (1916-1918) and governor (1919-1920). Brought to national attention by his suppression of a police strike in Boston—with the assertion that “there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anytime, anywhere”—Coolidge was chosen by the Republican National Convention as the party's nominee for vice-president in 1920, on a ticket headed by Warren G. Harding.

III

President

Elected with Harding in a landslide, Coolidge succeeded to the presidency upon Harding's death in 1923. Having been personally untainted by the scandals that arose within the Harding administration, he was free to force the resignation of Harding's Attorney-General, Harry Daugherty, and otherwise institute needed reforms. Nominated for president in his own right in 1924, Coolidge won easily.

A

Domestic Policies

Coolidge's conception of presidential leadership differed sharply from the activism of other 20th-century US presidents. Endorsing the Jeffersonian tradition of minimal government, he believed in waiting for problems to arise before trying to solve them. Within these narrow limits, he was a competent and effective leader. He used the presidential press conference with skill, securing favourable treatment of his administration by the media of his day. Popularly known as Silent Cal, because of his refusal to engage in small talk, he could, when he chose, be a voluble and articulate speaker and writer.

Coolidge believed that “the business of America is business”, and that the business of government was to balance the budget, reduce the debt, cut taxes, make easy credit available (by means of the Federal Reserve), and otherwise not interfere with the private enterprise system. Ironically, the money saved by government thrift flowed to the financial centres in New York instead of to Washington. Thus, as the national public debt diminished, private and municipal debt expanded alarmingly with the increase in money supply.