RISE TO LEADERSHIP

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 88, 7 January 1933, Page 11

RISE TO LEADERSHIP

Small-town Lawyer Who Entered White House SIX YEARS IN OFFICE “A soberly-dressed gentleman in a beautifully-cut long-tailed coat and pinstriped trousers, lean of figure, with thin face, long nose, high forehead, and thinning sandy hair, looked on in grim silence as 19,000 people in Madison Square Garden burst into roars of applause as he rose to address them. Then his thin lips twisted into a wry grin ,as he took his gold watch from his pocket and held it aloft in silent reminder that the cheering thousands were just wasting the expensive radio time paid for by the Republican National Committee. The audience subsided, and Mr. Calvin Coolidge, of Plymouth, Vermont, and Northampton, Massachusetts, the only living exPresident of the United States, put on his glasses and began to read his speech. And all over the country hundreds of thousands of listeners again heard over the radio that unmistakable characteristic Yankee twang which, for six and a half years, they had associated with official utterances from the White House.” This pen picture of the late Mr. Coolidge—“ Silent Cal” was the name he earned for himself during his public career—was painted when in October he returned to the hustings to support the Presidential candidature of Mr. Hoover. Although he failed in his task, his entry into the campaign was an important and effective event. Mr. Coolidge, who, by the rule of American succession, first became President of the United States on the death of President Harding on August 3,1923, was born at Plymouth, Vermont, on the most appropriate day of the year, July 4. He graduated at Amherst College, Massachusetts, in 1895, won a law scholarship; and settled down as a member of a legal firm in Northampton. ' Busy Small-Town Lawyer. After some ten years as a busy small-town .lawyer he began his political career as a Republican member of the Massachusetts Legislature, thereafter (1909-10) was Mayor of Northampton, and in 1912 was elected to the State Senate. For two years he was Lieutenant-Governor, and in November, 1918. in the election that was fatal to President Wilson in the country, he

was elected Governor of Massachusetts.

So'far the name of Calvin Coolidge was of local celebrity only. In his own State he quickly earned the confidence of the Republican Party leaders, being an immovable party man. By the men controlling the great political and financial interests of New England he was considered a valuable ally. Moreover, it was not a drawback but a decided advantage that Mr. Coolidge had no showy qualities. He cared nothing whatever for display or even for society. He continued to live in the half of a two-family house at Northampton, the college town of Western Massachusetts in which all his personal interests were centred. Police Strike in Boston. v A Boston event, carried his name in a day from end to end of the United States. This was the Boston police strike of September, 1919, an incident from which many consequences followed. The strike was accompanied by various sensational circumstances, and there can be no doubt that the situation was greatly complicated by political feeling naturally arising at such a time between the Democratic Mayor of the city and the Republican Governor of the State. The affair was clouded in controversy, but it was the method and results associated with Mr. Coolidge that gave the affair its national significance. The Governor took the line that the police, by striking, were guilty of a crime against the State. The National Guard was called out. The policemen were discharged without hope of reinstatement. The Press gave. Governor Coolidge enormous publicity, and a sentence inro which he condensed his philosophy of the strike was treated ns a now test of constitutional holy writ: “There is no right to strike against, the public safety by anybody anywhere any time.” The impression made upon the nation bj' this affair was almost without parallel. There was a special reason for this. Public sentiment was profoundly disturbed by post-war events. There was a prevalent fear of the “Reds,” and any man in authority who gave evidence of a readiness to act sharply in behalf of the public safety was certain of national recognition. It came to Governor Coolidge in overflowing measure and from almost every .quarter, including President Wilson. Enthusiastic Election. Two months afterwards .Mr. Coolidge was re-elected in a- fervour of enthusiasm, and it was not surprising that the Republicans of New England began to think of him as their most promising candidate for the Presidency. The conservative temper and method which he was believed to embody were everywhere in evidence in America at that time, and there was at least a fair chance that the Republican Convention of 1920 would make Governor Coolidge its nominee. But no man from New England has come near the Presidency since the Civil War—hence the Vice-Presidency was offered to him and accepted in the spirit of a loyal Republican. The Vice-President has only one serious duty to fulfil; he occupies the chair of the Senate. But. President Harding, .in response to. a widely expressed public wish, took the in-

teresting step of giving Mr. Coolidge the right to be present at all meetings of the Cabinet. In striking contrast to most of his predecessors, Mr. Coolidge had no gift of eloquence, but his writings contain sentences with a ring of familiar epigram. He always says in quotable words what the average man rejoices to hear. Did “Not Choose to Run.” In 1925 Mr. Coolidge entered upon his second term of office. In 1928. when the question of his nomination again arose, he made the statement now famous for the laconic brevity: “I do not choose to run.” He retired in favour of Mr. Hoover, who was elected by a large majority. For the last five years Mr. Coolidge took little part in American national life. He returned to the district and the farm whence he cameJßand contented himself until the Republican S.O.S. in the last, election drew him forth again, with writing syndicated articles for the. press. Mrs. Coolidge was Miss Grace Goodhue. a Vermont school teacher.