76-02-B6
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President Coolidge
TranscriptRight now we're concerned with who will be our next president. For whatever it's worth I'm going to talk about a president from the past. I'll be right back. The names of some Presidents are invoked by spokesman of both political parties as "men for all seasons," epitomizing the greatness of America, names such as Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson. Then there are presidents whose names are brought up in party circles, hailed as great but if acknowledged by the other party at all with not quite the same enthusiasm. There are also two lists of presidential names—one for each party, usually held up to view for strictly partisan purposes. Each party lists past presidents of the opposing party as examples of that party's terrible record. The Democrats, for example, get laughs by mentioning silent Cal Coolidge, and truth is many Republicans chuckle a little and go along with the idea that he was a do-nothing president. Sometimes I wonder if he really was a do-nothing, or was he a little like a lifeguard on the beach who also seems to be doing very little when there's no emergency. If you take a closer look he's quietly being watchful. Cal Coolidge is good for laughs but not all of them are at his expense. There was the press conference where a persistent reporter asked the President if he had anything to say about Prohibition. Cal said "Nope."—Any comments on the world court?—"Nope."—What about the farm situation?" And again the answer was "No." The reporter said, "You don't seem to have any comment about anything." Coolidge said, "No comment and don't quote me." Probably no president has ever lived in the White House and changed so little his previous lifestyle. Which in Coolidge's case was the simple even frugal life he'd lived on a New England farm. Shortly after he became president he sent his teenage son into the tobacco fields to work in the summer as he always had. One of the other workers surprised at this said to the young Coolidge, "If my father were president I wouldn't be out here working in the field." Young Coolidge said, "If my father were your father you would." But while "Silent Cal" seemed to be doing nothing as president the Federal budget actually went down and so did the National debt. Consumer prices fell but unemployment stayed at the figure we only dream of—three and a half percent which means that everyone who wanted a job had one. Federal taxes were cut four times. The number of automobiles on our streets and highways tripled during his years in the white house and radio sales went up 1400 percent. In just the five years from 1922 to 1927 the purchasing power of wages rose 10 percent. It was a kind of golden era in other ways. Hollywood would never again be more glamorous and there were giants in the sports arenas whose names are still legend—the Manassa Mauler Jack Dempsey, Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen, Red Grange, Babe Ruth and Big Bill Tilden. Now I'm not saying that President Coolidge was responsible for them but they were larger than life figures that went with America's place in the world. So what if he was a "do-nothing" president. Do you suppose doing nothing had something to do with reducing the budget reducing the debt and cutting taxes four times? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.
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