[vg0va3]

I’ve been reading this book. It is somewhat slow
(as a book about Coolidge should be) but I am sure it will pick up soon.

[HomeAtLast]

What kilt him was that confounded Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in 1920!

[Vigilanteman]

We vacationed in Vermont in 2011. The Coolidge home and other carefully preserved town buildings in his hometown of Plymouth Notch is a must see. Well worth the admission charge and very knowledgeable guides.

Even the bicycling a**holes in spandex who thought they owned the town because it was astride their racing route on that particular day couldn't demean the legacy of one of America's great presidents.

[SE Mom]

Thanks for posting- I just got this book last week but won’t start it until I finish this John Sanford I’m reading:)

Boy could we use Coolidge NOW.

[Andy'smom]

My favorite President.

[mjp]

Herbert Hoover, all of his speechifying about “individualism” notwithstanding, was not the fiscal conservative many today make him out to be. Mr. Hoover had a strong interventionist streak in his personality. So, in many ways, he helped to turn a recession into the Great Depression.

Hoover actively intervened against a fall in wage rates, and at a series of White House conferences obtained the agreement of the leading businessmen of the country not to reduce wage rates. Hoover's intervention was reinforced by the influence of the philosophy of altruism insofar as that philosophy played a role in the decisions of businessmen. For altruism implies that employers should not take advantage of the existence of unemployment to reduce wage rates.

The effect if such interference was that the fall in wage rates took place at a much slower rate than in any previous depression. Average wage rates dropped less than 2.5% in 1930 and only about 6.5% in 1931. In contrast, Harding allowed them to drop 19% in one year in the depression of 1920-1921, which was the cause of it being extremely short lived as a result.

[SE Mom]

If there was EVER a case for term limits -

It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation, which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless or arrogant.

C. Coolidge

[Arthur McGowan]

The announcement (”I do not choose to run for President in 1928.”) took place in South Dakota, not at the White House.

[Fiji Hill]

In fact, the economic problems in the 1920-1921 Depression were actually worse in many ways than the Great Depression a decade later.

A couple of songs that reflect the hard times:

Ain't We Got Fun?--Van & Schenk (1921)

Second-Hand Rose--Vaughn De Leath (1921)