THE NEW PRESIDENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15315, 16 August 1923, Page 2

THE NEW PRESIDENT.

COOLIDQE THE SILENT. LAWYER M GOVERNOR.' The new President, Calvin Coolidge is an outstanding personality in the American political world. As Governor of Massachusetts he has attracted nation-wide attention for his democratic legislation, his firm repression of disorder, ahd his simplo mode of life. The type of man who “talks little and says much," he has always been likened to Lincoln. He went to college a raw country

boy, with pants tucked into his bootis tops. At school he preserved the / family tradition as the hoarder or words, and was the most silent and ', unobtrusive of all the students. Yet he graduated with the highest hon- \ ours, became a barrister, and, enter- ; ing politics, was soon a power in State politics. Silence and strength ■ of character carried him through. "When he decided upon marriage he I -visited the father of Miss Grace : Goodhue and announced, "Just come over to be married to Grace." "Have

you spoken to Grace yet?" asked the father, and he answered "No, but I think I will in a couple of days." In a. week they were married. In 1918 he was elected Governor of

Massachusetts, and such was his popularity and success that two years later he was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. He still lives with, his wife and family in a twostorey house, which many an American workman would spurn. Asked

recently, why he did not induce the landlord to repaint .the place, he answered; "Might raise the rent on me." He believes in the doctrine that the

best way of being independent is "to limit your wants so strictly that you don't need much money to cover them." His favourite words, wrote a friendly critic recently, are "Yes," and "No."

Mr. Coolidge won great prominence by his work in the repression of the Boston police strike, where he took

a very firm stand in opposition to the establishment' of an organisation, and eventually won the day, compelling the strikers to resume oil his terms. He was born in the village or Plymouth, Vermont, pn July 4, 1872, his father being a storekeeper and small farmer. The new President ;.ltended the village school and in the intervals worked on the farm and in the store. He later attended secondary schools at Ludlow and St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and then went to college at Amherst, Massachusetts. He svas.'trained for the law, and on admission to* the Bar opened a practice in Northhampton. His first public offl.ee was membership of the City Council there, followed by the country clerkship and the Mayoralty. Before becoming Governor of the State he was Senator for four years and Lieutenant-Governor for three. Since his election to the Vice-Presi-dency he has taken a very small share in the affairs of the nation.