US. PRESIDENT’S RISE

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12022, 27 December 1924, Page 11

US. PRESIDENT’S RISE

UNIQUE IN POLITIGS STAND K3(R DAW IN BOSTON STRIKE. LEAPED INTO PBOMILN'ENCE. Galvin Coolidge, who automatically became the thirtieth President of the United States upon the death of the late Warren G. Harding, and has been chosen Iby the epoplo of the United States for a full term, is 51 years of age. Mr OoolicLge will be remembered by San Franciscans who had the pleasure of sedtng him in this city while he whs in attendance at the convention of the American Bar Association in April, 1922, as a Short, slight, boyish looking man with sandy hair, self-contained, Quiet, scholarly and unassuming. (Ete is descended’ from a sturdy line of respected and substantia! New England fanners, Puritans, who first settled at Watertown, Mass., in 1630. He was horn on a farm near Plymouth. Vt., on July 4th, 1872, and is the son of John C. and Victoria Coolidge. He worked on the farm and also attended county schools and academies until he entered Amherst College in 1891. He graduated from Amherst in 1895, with' honours, being one of the class orators. The following year he moved to Northampton, Mass., where he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1898 and opened law offices at Northampton. ENTERS POLITECB. In 1899 he entered politics and 1 was elected to the ‘Northampton City Council and progressed steadily upward through the offices of city solioitor and county clerk. In 1997, he was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts, and was elected mayor of Northampton in 1910. In 1912, he was sent to the Massachusetts State Senate, and was chosen president of that body for the last two years of his term, fl Beginning with the year 1916, Mr Coolidge served as lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts for three terms, and in 1919, was elected governor of Massachusetts by a plurality of 17,000. The following year, he was re-lected governor by a plurality of 125,000 and on November 2nd, 1902, was elected VicePresident of the United States, to serve with President Harding. During the two decades in’ which he was identified with public life, ail of his time was exclusively devoted to the problem of governmental affairs. Only incidentally did he turn to the law, although he always maintained a law offioe with an associate at Northampton. BACKED BY CRANE.

Mr Coolidge’s common sense, his clear insight into legislative tactics, and his mentality first attracted to him the attention of political leaders. It was the late Senator W. Murray Crane, a resident of Mr Ooolidge’s confreesional district, who was among the rst to recognise these qualities, and he resolved to use the first opportunity to launch Mr Coolidge Into national politics. Mr Coolidge rose by grace of hard work steadily, but it was the firm and unyielding stand he took for law and order a sgovernor of Massachusetts during the dramatic occurrences of tne Boston police strike in 1919, that focussed the eyes of the country on him and made him overnight a national figure, and for, a while talked of as a Residential possibility. . Mr Coolidge also enjoys the rare dia. finction of having been the first VicePresident of the United States to sit in with the Cabinet and take part in its This privilege was an innovation, breaking all preoedent of the late President Harding, who considered that tha Vice-President should take as active part. 'When Mr Cooildge was elected Vice-President it was in the middle of his term as Governor of Massachusetts. TRUE SIMPLICITY. The transition from. Governor to Vdoe-Presideut was accomplished with true Neiv England simplicity. After formally handing over the office to OhanninDg 11. Cox, his successor, Mr Coolidge and Mrs Coolidge boarded a train for Washington, he reading a newspaper and she knitting a sock. President Coolidge married Mias Grace A. Goodhue of Burlington, Vermont, in 1905. Prior to her marriage, Mrs Coolidge was a teacher. They bad two sons, John, aged 1.6, and Qajvin Jr., aged 15. When Coolidge visbed San Francisco a year ago he brought Mrs Coolidge and his sons with him. Several months ago Mr and Mrs Coolidge suffered the loss of their younger son who died from blood poisoning after a short illness

Graoe Goodhue Coolidge, the “first lady of the land,” is most gracious in manner, and is very popular in the Washington circles. She is said to be fond of dancing, although the 'President is not. As a hostess Mrs Coolidge has aohieved a realy reputation at the capital. Her dinners and receptions have been pronounced unusually charming. When the OooUdge family are “on a rest” they immediately go to the old Coolidge farm in the bins of Vermont, which includes 200 acres, partly wooded and partly cultivated. Here Mr Coolidge arises at 6 o’clock, puts on his grandfather’s togs, consisting of an old flannel shirt, denim trousers and old-fashioned cowhide 'boots, and 1 works in the fields.

'He also splits wood, working at a -mountainous pile in front of the house. The President's father has been town oonstable for forty years and a member of the Legislature for nearly as long.