NOT A CANDIDATE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 29, 3 August 1927, Page 9

NOT A CANDIDATE

THE NEXT PRESIDENT

STATEMENT BY COOLIDGE

SENSATION IN AMERICA

(United Press Association.—Copyright.)

(Becoived 3rd August, 8.30 a.m.)

RAPID CITY, 2nd August. President .Coolidge has announced that he will not be a candidate for the Presidency in 1928.

(Received 3rd August, 11 a.m.)

NEW YORK:, 2nd.August. Mr. Coolidge's announcement, which was totally unexpected at this juncture, has created widespread amazement. The President called the newspapermen together after the markets closed, and his secretary Mr. Sanders, locked and guarded the door. Mr. Coolidgo handed each newspaper representative a typewritten slip reading: "I do not choose to be a candidate for President in 1928." .

The journalists asked him if he would add anything to the statement. Mr. Coolidge merely shook his head negatively. He was grave and serious, and lacked his customary smile with which he usually favours newspaper conferences.

His action has puzzled political leaders and the public alike, because his political position is now as strong as ever, and his health is excellent.

The apparent collapse of the Geneva Conference has been a deep disappointment to him, and is likely to affect the economy campaign through having to build an increased navy, but it is believed in many quarters that the real reason-for his withdrawal is out of respect to the long-standing prejudice against Presidents having a third term of office.

Without doubt Mr. Coolidge's remarkable talent as a governmental executive is the outstanding explanation of his feat in. exploding the idea that the American Presidency is "a mankiller." He sems to have a happy faculty for getting results without undue efforts. He apparently possesses the three essential qualifications of a successful

executive > — the knack of ing the right man for the right job, the ability to make the right decision at the right time, and the determination to act with merciless rigour when the occasion demands. The

President of the

_. , . , United States always has at his call innumerable speclalists to advise him in the conduct Wr w-i"* 8, °£ tbe 6overnment. Mr. Wilson would call them in and tell them what he wanted done. Mr. Harding would call them in and discuss the various aspects-of the problem .for which he was seeking a solution. - Mr Coolidge calls them in and listens, now and th,en asking a short, simple, direct question They usually leave as ignorant ofthe President's viewpoint as when they arrived. Later Mr. Ooolidee renders his decision. There is an adage to the effect that any fool can have ideas, but that it takes a smart man to pick the good ideas from the bad ones. Calvin' Coolidge is the incarnation of that adage. But, with all.his remarkable aptitude for governmental administration, Mr Coohdge could not thrive on the duties of the Presidency alone. President Goolidge has breakfast at 7, luncheon at 1, and dinner at 7. Seldom is anything permitted to interfere with this schedule of meal hours. When the President has a special breakfast for some political or other group he concedes them an extra hour by fixing the time at 8, but the tardiness is not to his hkujg. Warren Harding frequently was cislayed in his office after 2 o'clock before he was able to escape for luncheon. Not so Mr. Coolidge. The noonday meal is a function with him that nas a fixed place in his twenty-four-hour programme. The pressure drive on Mr. Coolidge is between breakfast and luncheon on each week-day. Almost invariably these hours are crowded to capacity with callers and conferences. Mr Wilson and Mr. Harding frequently chafed under this daily drive. Mr. Coolidee accepts it with his inevitable placidityAfter 1 o'clock Mr. Coolidge's time is* his own. He does with it as he pleases If he wishes to study some problem, he studies without fear of interruption. If he wishes to confer with certain advisers, he summons them to the White House. If he wishes to rest, he rests and none darea interfere. In all the six week-day afternoons he hae but one regular appointment-^-every IWday at 4 o'clock he sees the Washington newspaper correspondents. Qnite often the President takes a short nap in the afternoon. Usually such a nap is taken in the Executive Mansion, but the President has been known to lie down on the couch in Mb office and doze off, sometimes to the consternation of the office staff, which remains constant*y on.the B i er t B0 long as he is presumably at his desk.

In the life of the average man there are three .distinctive attributes—work, relaxation, and recreation. In the life of President Coolidge there are t'jt two—work and relaxation. There is no real play in the Coolidge scheme of things. Mr. Wilson played golf, more as a matter of duty towards his health, it is true, but still he playett. Mr. Harding played golf and cards, and enjoyed both. Mr. Coolidge has no games. His relaxations are walking, reading, and doing nothing. Two walks are fitted into his daily programme, one is in the morning bofore ho goes to his office and the other in the evening before dinner. Both are typical of the man.' Almost invariably they are taken alone, except for the inevitable Secret Service guard, but sometimes, when his son John is home from college, the two walk together.