Coolidge Contributes

Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were never good warm friends during the five years one was President and the other Secretary of Commerce. President Coolidge had a trick of shoveling unpleasant Government jobs off on Secretary Hoover and then stepping harshly on his sensitive ego. After Mr. Hoover's election. President Coolidge was considerably irked by the public adulation of his successor. When a White House visitor asked him what he was going to do about Muscle Shoals President Coolidge snapped: "I'll leave that to the Superman " In retirement Citizen Coolidge was frequently reported to be getting a good deal of impish satisfaction out of President Hoover's troubles. Only once has he been inside the White House since he left it.*

But Calvin Coolidge puts the Republican party above personal feelings. Last week he emerged from retirement to make his campaign contribution in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden./- His appearance was staged as a major party event. The entire New York State Republican ticket was on hand. G. O. Partisans counted on the magic of his name to pack the Garden and its environs with 50,000 persons. When only about 15,000 actually attended, ushers were sent out upon the streets to coax passers-by in to fill empty seats. The only living ex-President got a two-minute ovation which he cut short by holding up his watch after the din had wasted $340 worth of paid radio time. Then, as of old, his voice went twanging out across the land from 52 broadcasting stations.

Never a gusher, Citizen Coolidge praised President Hoover with studied restraint. His review of the Hoover record was fair and logical. Because Republicans have conspired to suppress it, the name Roosevelt was not once mentioned. Gales of cheers and laughter swept the Garden as Mr. Coolidge referred briefly to his past service,"When I was in Washington. . . ."He called the Republican party "the most efficient instrument for sound popular government ever entrusted with the guidance of a great nation." He deprecated the idea of Change for Change's sake. He referred to Democrat Grover Cleveland as "a wise statesman." Excerpts:

"No government has ever yet been devised that could make the people prosperous all the time. . . . The present economic distress is worldwide . . . was brought about by forces no government could foresee and prevent. . . .

"The assurance that the pending Democratic raids on the Treasury would be defeated by a Republican victory in November would no doubt have the effect of reviving all kinds of business. An early and timely word from the Democratic candidate for President that he would reject the proposal to pay the Bonus would have been a great encouragement to business, reduced unemployment and guaranteed the integrity of the national credit. While he remained silent economic recovery was measurably impeded. . . .

"The charge is made that the Republican party does not show any solicitude for the common run of people but is interested only in promoting the interests of a few favored individuals and corporations. . . . All this is a question of method. . . . We have advocated strengthening the position of the employer that he might pay better wages to his employees. . . . The Republican party believes in encouraging business in order that the benefits from such business may minister to the welfare of the ordinary run of people. . . .

"Working for the general run of people is exactly what we should expect from President Hoover because he knows them by being one of them. He was not born to the enjoyment of generations of inherited wealth so that he could be educated by private tutors and sent through expensive schools and universities. He never was carried into political office by the way of family influence."He has always had to depend on his own name and reputation. . . . I am convinced that the public welfare requires that he should be reelected."

*Occasion: promulgation of the Pact of Paris (1929).

/-The Press erroneously reported the Coolidge speech as his first political effort in four years. In 1930 Citizen Coolidge unsuccessfully campaigned by radio for the election of his old friend William Morgan Butler as Senator from Massachusetts.

*Many a listener misunderstood Mr. Coolidge to say "Tammany influence."

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