Coolidge (81 page)

169   “Deeply appreciate”: John L. Blair,
The Governorship of Calvin Coolidge, 1919–1921
, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 1971, vol. 2, p. 406.

170   “If the authorities give”: “Gompers Appeals for Boston Police,”
The New York Times,
September 14, 1919.

171   “
REPLYING TO YOUR TELEGRAM
”: Blair,
The Governorship of Calvin Coolidge, 1919–1921
, vol. 2, pp. 407–408. The telegram is reprinted here with all the punctuation words; elsewhere, those are omitted.

171   The event was also a welcome home: “Coolidge, McCall, and Edwards Speak at Westfield’s 250th Anniversary,”
The Springfield Republican
, September 4, 1919.

172   “Shall we throw”: Calvin Coolidge,
Have Faith in Massachusetts
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919), 207.

Chapter 7: The Reign of Law

173   “all that noble band”: The responses of Reverend Cortland Myers, Reverend Edward Cummings, and Reverend Frank Haggard are described in “Dr. Alexander Mann Condemns Police,”
The Boston Globe
, September 15, 1919.

173   Even the Catholic priests: The responses of Father Patterson and Father Burns appear in “South Boston Priests Condemn,”
The Boston Globe
, September 15, 1919.

174   William Jennings Bryan spoke out: “Boston Riots Made William Jennings Bryan Wonder,”
The Boston Globe
, September 17, 1919, 4.

174   “I knew you would”: This letter to Elmer Slayton Newton is quoted in Robert Sobel,
Coolidge: An American Enigma
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1998), 145.

175   That, Stearns hoped: R. H. Stearns Co. advertisement,
The Boston Globe
, September 15, 1919, 16.

175   Truman later recalled: This famous quote and the circumstances of Truman’s business enterprise are described on the Harry S. Truman Library website at http://www.trumanlibrary.org/lifetimes/home.html.

175   “I want to say”: Francis Russell,
A City in Terror: 1919, the Boston Police Strike
(New York: Viking Press, 1976), 200.

175   The horse, whose name: “Pals Meet on Tremont Street: ‘Duffy’ Police Horse Gives His Old Master a Joyful Greeting,”
The Boston Globe
, September 17, 1919.

177   The laws ranged: Governor Coolidge to Herman Hormel, 6 Beacon Street, October 8, 1919, in Letters of Gov. Coolidge Compiled under the Direction of Claude Fuess, Calvin Coolidge Memorial Library, Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass.

177   “complete intellectual bankruptcy”: Harold Nicolson,
Dwight Morrow
(London: Constable & Co., 1935), 242.

177   America would be “Russianized”: “Blame Wilson for Labor’s ‘Insolence,’ ”
The Boston Globe
, September 22, 1919.

178   “quite remarkable”: Calvin Coolidge to his father, postmarked September 22, 1919, in
Your Son, Calvin Coolidge: A Selection of Letters from Calvin Coolidge to His Father
, ed. Edward Connery Lathem (Montpelier, Vt.: Vermont Historical Society, 1968), 149.

178   Grace came to Boston: Ibid.

179   To Stearns, Morrow summed up: Cited in Nicolson,
Dwight Morrow
, 243.

180   “This was a service”: Calvin Coolidge to John C. Coolidge, September 26, 1919, in Lathem, ed.,
Your Son, Calvin Coolidge
, 150.

180   “You are to blame”: Quoted in “Long Criticises Elevated Bill,”
The Boston Globe
, October 3, 1919.

180   That hurt, because: On p. 30 of his autobiography, Coolidge makes his long-standing regret on that point clear: “I have always felt that I should have called out the State Guard as soon as the police left their posts.”

181   Employers would give a lot: David Brody,
Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1965), 123.

181   “We have a petticoat government!”: Donald Young,
American Roulette: The History and Dilemma of the Vice Presidency
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), 134.

181   “a strike against the American public”: Governor Lowden is quoted saying this about a coal strike in “Governors Back the President,”
The New York Times
, October 27, 1919, 1.

182   “It is a great event”: Calvin Coolidge to John C. Coolidge, October 25, 1919, in Lathem, ed.,
Your Son, Calvin Coolidge
, 154.

182   “We are facing”: Quoted in “Law’s Supremacy,”
The Christian Science Monitor
, October 28, 1919.

182   “When this campaign is over”: “Coolidge Hits at Trafficking with Disorder,”
The Springfield Republican
, November 2, 1919, 2.

183   Long took the labor hotbed: John L. Blair,
The Governorship of Calvin Coolidge, 1919–1921
, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 1971, vol. 1, p. 220.

183   even in Suffolk County: Ibid., 231.

183   “victory for law and order”: The full text of the telegram reads, “Hon. Calvin Coolidge, Boston, Mass. I congratulate you upon your election as a victory for law and order. When that is the issue all Americans must stand together. Woodrow Wilson.” “Congratulations to Coolidge by Wilson,”
The Boston Globe
, November 6, 1919.

183   Governor James Goodrich of Indiana: Ibid.

184   It featured Coolidge at the helm: Arthur Fleser,
A Rhetorical Study of the Speaking of Calvin Coolidge
(Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990), 20.

184   “Catholics, Protestants and Hebrews”: “Governor Names New State Boards,”
The Boston Globe
, November 25, 1919.

184   “He shut himself away”: “Baxter Derides Coolidge Boom,”
The Boston Globe
, November 27, 1919.

185   On November 23: “Washington Is Stirred by the Hoax Perpetrated Here,”
The Atlanta Constitution
, November 25, 1919. Mention of “Nearer, My God” is in “False Report of Death,”
The Atlanta Constitution
, November 24, 1919.

186   “It sometimes seems”: Barton’s relationship with Coolidge is discussed in Kerry W. Buckley, “A President for the ‘Great Silent Majority’: Bruce Barton’s Construction of Calvin Coolidge,”
The New England Quarterly
76, no. 4 (December 2003), 593–626.

186   “an army of pompous phrases”: William G. McAdoo,
The Crowded Years: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931), 389.

187   Lodge was recognizing Calvin Coolidge: Claude M. Fuess,
Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1940), 241–242.

187   Coolidge wrote back: “Coolidge Won’t Run for Vice President: Letters Declining Candidacy Are Made Public at Boston,”
Columbus Ledger
, December 31, 1919.

187   “For present attainment”: “For Present Attainment, for Future Hope; Gov. Coolidge Proclaims Thanksgiving,”
The Boston Globe
, November 15, 1919 (display advertisement).

Chapter 8: Normalcy

189   “I have not been”: “Coolidge Says He Is Not a Candidate,”
The Boston Globe
, January 26, 1920.

189   “it took some time”: John S. Merrill, “Politics and Politicians,”
The Boston Globe
, February 1, 1920.

190   In February, John McInnes resigned: “McInnes Resigns,”
The Boston Globe
, February 23, 1920.

190   Jobs remained scarce: “Hoover Out for Republican Nomination,”
The New York Times
, March 31, 1920.

190   “relations between capital and labor”: This quote and other positions of General Wood are laid out in a letter to voters, “How Wood Stands on Current Issues,”
The New York Times
, February 25, 1920.

190   “250,000 useless jobs”: “Johnson Demands Cut in Living Cost,”
The New York Times
, February 16, 1920.

191   a budget law that would give more authority: Wilson vetoed the bill. “President Vetoes Bill as Unconstitutional,”
The New York Times
, June 5, 1920.

191   “living in a fool’s paradise”: “W. P. G. Harding Dies,”
The New York Times
, April 8, 1930.

191   “as bad as it was”: “Wilson Wants Use of Secret Service in Profiteer Hunt,”
The New York Times
, August 13, 1919.

191   “Isn’t it a strange thing”: This comment by Coolidge is cited by Bruce Barton in “The President Shouldn’t Know Too Much,”
The Real Calvin Coolidge
2 (1986), 20.

192   “caused by tariffs”: “A great and primary lesson for the United States is in a thorough understanding that this war was caused by tariffs.” Clarence Barron
, The Audacious War
(Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin), 173.

192   “Throughout these volumes”: Harold Nicolson,
Dwight Morrow
(London: Constable & Co., 1935), 244.

192   “on the whole sound”: Coolidge letter to Dwight Morrow of March 10, 1920, in Morrow Collection, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.

192   “My observation”: This quote appears and the correspondence between Coolidge and Morrow is described in Nicolson,
Dwight Morrow
, 244.

193   “the present is one”: “ ‘Thrift Only Hope,’ Gillett Declares,”
The New York Times
, February 15, 1920.

193   The federal war debt: A good source for federal debt figures from 1900 is the U.S. Treasury, http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo3.htm.

193   “strike of capital”: “Strike by Capital Predicted by Bache,”
The New York Times
, June 30, 1920.

193   “the liquifaction of frozen loans”: George F. Babbitt, “ ’Round the Town,”
The Boston Globe
, May 23, 1920.

194   a college student named Whittaker Chambers: Sam Tanenhaus,
Whittaker Chambers: A Biography
(New York: Random House, 1998).

195   he had just returned:
The Vermont Tribune
, May 13, 1922, reported that Governor Coolidge had been in Plymouth a few days before. The illness of Carrie Coolidge is also discussed in
Your Son, Calvin Coolidge: A Selection of Letters from Calvin Coolidge to His Father
, ed. Edward Connery Lathem (Montpelier, Vt.: Vermont Historical Society, 1968), 158.

195   “punishing those who charge”: Quoted in “Wilson Target of G.O.P. Chiefs,”
The Boston Globe
, May 15, 1920, 1.

195   “the false economics”: This Harding line, slightly awkward, is reported ibid.

195   “If I lived in Massachusetts”: Claude M. Fuess,
Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1940), 249.

195   “America’s present need”: Frederick E. Schortemeier,
Rededicating America: Life and Recent Speeches of Warren G. Harding
(Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1920), 223–224.

196   Overall, the Missouri Lowden: “Lowden Money Paid to Delegates,”
The New York Times
, June 2, 1920.

197   Lowden, it emerged: William T. Hutchinson,
Lowden of Illinois: The Life of Frank O. Lowden
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), vol. 2, 440.

197   “Your letter of the 6th inst.”: Quoted in Lathem, ed.,
Your Son, Calvin Coolidge
, 163.

198   “Gov. Coolidge’s friends”: “Bay State Picks Delegates,”
The Boston Globe,
April 27, 1920.

198   “About his cradle”: Calvin Coolidge, “Lincoln Day Proclamation, January 30, 1919,” in
Have Faith in Massachusetts
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919), 166.

199   “bosh”: H. L. Mencken,
A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing
(New York: Vintage, 1982), 409.

199   Lodge then presided: Karl Schriftgiesser,
The Gentleman from Massachusetts: Henry Cabot Lodge
(Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press/Little, Brown, and Company, 1944), 354.

200   there was even a photo: Nicolson,
Dwight Morrow
, 246.

200   “the smoke filled room”: Raymond Clapper, the United Press reporter, is credited with the phrase in Stephen L. Vaughn, ed.,
Encyclopedia of American Journalism
(New York: Routledge, 2008)
.

201   “whose name traveled”: Quoted in Lathem, ed.,
Your Son, Calvin Coolidge
, 167.

201   “He never at any time”: James E. Watson,
As I Knew Them: Memoirs of James E. Watson, Former United States Senator from Indiana
(Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1936), 226.

201   It was as though: James Morgan, “Senator Harding’s Nomination, Sweeping Old Guard Triumph,”
The Boston Globe,
June 14, 1920.

202   “Some humble delegates”: George Wharton Pepper,
Philadelphia Lawyer: An Autobiography
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1944), 136.

202   “Those who were at Chicago”: Frank Stearns to Calvin Coolidge, March 21, 1921, Stearns Collection, Amherst College.

202   “Many of us feel however”: Quoted in Nicolson,
Dwight Morrow
, 246.

203   “I have noticed”: “Elks Make Harding a ‘Surprise’ Visit,”
The New York Times
, July 21, 1920.

203   Coolidge would soon begin:
Omaha World Herald
, September 13, 1920.

203   Cox set out: John A. Morello,
Selling the President, 1920: Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Harding
(Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001), 79.

203   “A good clean”: “Gompers Glad Cox Was Named,”
The New York Times
, July 7, 1920.

203   “Why the sneer”: “Acceptance Speech of Governor Cox,”
The Miami Herald
, August 8, 1920, p. 1.

203   “Have you harvested the fruits”: The announcement in Vanzetti’s pocket is reprinted in
The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti
, ed. Gardner Jackson (New York, Penguin, 2007), 244.

204   Charles Ponzi: The response of Coolidge, while still governor, to market manipulation foreshadows his responses later as president. Coolidge believed that the states, rather than the federal government, should handle such troubles. See “Coolidge for Curb as Ponzi Sequel,”
The New York Times
, August 19, 1920.