Coolidge (84 page)

284   Stone replaced him: Athan G. Theoharis and John Stuart Cox,
The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988), 84.

285   “Please have an analysis”: Calvin Coolidge to Andrew Mellon, April 24, 1924, series 1, box 21, Calvin Coolidge Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

286   “I need to find”: Calvin Coolidge to Frederick Allis, May 9, 1924, Box 4 Folder 20, Coolidge Collection, Amherst College.

286   the Senate sustained: Coolidge’s veto was sustained by the Senate 53–28 on May 13, 1924. A record of all the vetoes and congressional responses can be found in “Presidential Vetoes, 1789–1988,” S. Pub. 102-12, available at online reference pages of the U.S. Senate, at senate.gov/reference.

287   the house voted 306 to 58: “Huge Votes for Exclusion,”
The New York Times
, May 16, 1924, 1.

287   “get out in the open”: “Mrs. Coolidge Submits to Treatment,”
Daily Hampshire Gazette
, May 22, 1924.

288   His position now: Calvin Coolidge,
The Mind of the President as Revealed by Himself in His Own Words: President Coolidge’s Views on Public Questions Selected and Arranged by Subjects
,
ed. C. Bascom Slemp (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1926), 222.

289     
The Wall Street Journal
: “A Tax Bill for Veto,”
The Wall Street Journal
, May 23, 1924.

289   “hazing the president”: “To put it shortly, the Senate has spent some valuable months in what can only be described as hazing the President. In the point of view of even the Republican members of his party Mr. Coolidge was the accident of an accident. . . . Mr. Coolidge is not a vindictive man, but he is too sound and competent a politician not to have a good memory.” “Hazing the President,”
The Wall Street Journal
, May 17, 1924.

290   2,517 clerks would have to be hired: “General Davis said the war department was adding 2,517 clerks.” “Asks $131,943,138 to Meet Bonus Cost,”
The New York Times,
May 31, 1924.

291   by a ratio of 250 to one: “Coolidge Beats Lodge in Poll on the Bonus,”
The New York Times
, May 26, 1924.

291   The big powers like Hearst and Ford: “Mr. Hearst wants to support Coolidge if he can. He was in favor of Mellon’s tax bill.” Hearst General Manager Frederick Dumaine, taken down by Clarence Barron on June 24, 1924, and published in Clarence Barron,
They Told Barron: Conversations and Revelations of an American Pepys in Wall Street
, ed. Arthur Pound and Samuel Taylor Moore (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1930), 254.

291   “Who Made Coolidge?”: The text of the editorial, which won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize, is in the
Boston Herald
, May 18, 1924, p. 12.

292   “without reasons”: “Text of the President’s Statement Criticizing Provisions of Tax Law,”
The New York Times
, June 3, 1924.

292   “The postal service”: The text of President Coolidge’s veto message is in “President Warns Congress,”
The New York Times
, June 8, 1924.

293   Hoover, however, fought: Hoover,
The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920–1933
, 56.

294   “Just then it seemed”: Charles G. Dawes,
Notes as Vice President, 1928–1929
(Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1935), 18.

295   “Pandemonium Breaks Loose”:
Daily Register Gazette
, July 2, 1924.

296   On June 30, John and Calvin: Typescript of Joel T. Boone’s unpublished memoir, XXI–200, Container 46, Joel T. Boone Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

296   “We are often told”:
Addresses of the President of the United States and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget at the Seventh Regular Meeting of the Business Organization of the Government at Memorial Continental Hall, June 30, 1924
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1924), 1.

296   “Our item of expense”: The text on pencils was written by his assistant director, R. O. Kloeber. The full text reads, “The bureau has given special attention to economy in this direction. Only one pencil at a time is now issued to any one and he is expected to turn in the unused portion of the last one received. The results justify the practice. Our item of expense for pencils is materially less.”
Third Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to the President of the United States, July 1, 1924
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1924), 217.

297   In the box, Calvin, Jr., smiled: Margaret Jane Fischer,
Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
(Plymouth Notch, Vt.: Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, 1981), 19.

297   “Mac, Mac, Mac”: “M’Adoo Brings Up Reserves,”
The New York Times
, July 3, 1924.

298   Calvin, Jr., also had a fever.: XXI–200, 201 Joel T. Boone papers. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Dr. Boone’s papers convey much material about the Coolidges and their health.

299  
CALVIN STILL CRITICALLY ILL
: Telegram to Mrs. R. B. Hills, Box 18, Folder 15, Forbes Library. The telegram was sent on July 5 at 1:49
P.M
.

300  
CALVINS CONDITION STILL CRITICAL
: Telegram to Mrs. R. B. Hills, sent at 8:30
A.M.
July 7, 1924.

300   the tank exploded: XXI–207, Joel T. Boone papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

300   which Colonel Coolidge also heard: That Colonel Coolidge did listen to the announcement on the radio is referred to in a letter in Leonard Bates,
Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana
(Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 245.

300   A low moan: The reaction of the Democratic National Convention to the news of the death of Calvin, Jr., is described in a remarkable unsigned editorial in
The New York Times
: “Their sorrows are his, as he frequently testifies, but in an especial sense his are also theirs.” “The President’s Son,”
The New York Times
, July 9, 1924, p. 18.

Chapter 11: The Siege and the Spruce

301   the spruce from the old limekiln lot: The transplanting of the tree from the limekiln lot to the White House grounds, its location, and the fact that she thought of creating a plaque for it are all described by Grace in an undated letter marked “Monday” to Therese Hills, August–September 1924, Hills Collection, Box 17 MS 17–6, Forbes Library. She wrote that one could see the tree “from the president’s room.” The fate of the tree could not be discovered by the author; Grace Coolidge planted many symbolic and commemorative trees over the course of her life in Washington.

302   “When I look out”: Claude Fuess quotes Scandrett as saying this in Claude M. Fuess,
Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976), 351.

302   Had Coolidge not: Coolidge supplies this logic in his autobiography.

302   “It is hard to see”: Calvin Coolidge, “What It Means to Be a Boy Scout,” in
Foundations of the Republic: Speeches and Addresses
(New York: Scribner, 1926), 68.

303   he ordered others: In 1953, Grace wrote to John, “Father ordered his stone and Calvin’s at the time of your brother’s death and had a blank place left for the date of his own death. He also had a piece of matching granite reserved . . . for my grave,” quoted in Cynthia D. Bittinger,
Grace Coolidge: Sudden Star
, Presidential Wives Series (New York: Nova History Publications, 2005).

303   “if he had lived,” Fuess,
Calvin Coolidge
, 351.

304   “economic thumbscrews”: Nancy C. Unger,
Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 300.

304   “inexpressible disgust”: Quoted ibid., 292.

305   Young Robert La Follette: Adam R. Nelson,
Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872–1964
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), 137.

305   “but in the making”: Unger,
Fighting Bob La Follette
, 293.

306   a funny, rueful poem: John Coolidge’s poem is posted on the wall of the cheese factory site in Plymouth Notch today.

306   “If there had been no war”: This insightful statement is quoted in “Coolidge Upholds Farm Cooperation,”
The New York Times
, January 6, 1925.

307   “Made for and used”: “Coolidge Gives Ford Bucket,”
Springfield Republican
, August 21, 1924.

307   “My father had it”: Quoted in Ishbel Ross,
Grace Coolidge and Her Era: the Story of a President’s Wife
(Plymouth, Vt.: Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, 1988), 132. The story of the gift of the sap bucket was carried in many papers, including “Coolidge Gift of Sap Bucket,”
Register Gazette
, August 19, 1924.

308   Coolidge’s great-grandparents: “Site of Kin’s Graves,”
San Diego Union
, June 1, 1928. Coolidge paid for new headstones for Israel and Sally Brewer and corresponded at length in regard to the headstones; he paid for perpetual care of Lot 48, where the Brewers lay, as well. Records of Hampden town cemetery, folders 1–3, personal files 73, Forbes Library.

309   “My hearing ain’t as good”: Charles G. Dawes,
Notes as Vice President, 1928–1929
(Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1935), 24.

309   The White House did not often: Ross,
Grace Coolidge and Her Era
, 133.

309   The Coolidges were still: Calvin Coolidge,
The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge
(New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929), 208.

313   “My dear John”: Calvin Coolidge to John Coolidge, September 24, 1924, Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass.

313   several thousand druggists: Coolidge’s speech to the National Association of Retail Druggists was reported in “Coolidge Pledges Economy at Home and Peace Abroad,”
The New York Times
, September 25, 1924. The full text is in “President Pledges Aids,”
The Washington Post
, September 25, 1924.

313   The Coolidge-Dawes Caravan: “Coolidge Caravan Starts on Long Tour,”
The New York Times
, September 10, 1924.

313   “I was amazed”: This letter is quoted in Alvin Felzenberg, “Calvin Coolidge and Race,” 1988, Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation website. The controversy is also described in many newspaper articles, for example, “Coolidge to Defense of Negro Candidate,”
The Plain Dealer
(Topeka, Kansas), August 15, 1924.

314   “I want you to know”: Calvin Coolidge, “Discriminating Benevolence,” in
Foundations of the Republic
, 172.

315   “really consists of”: Harvey O’Connor,
Mellon’s Millions: The Biography of a Fortune; the Life and Times of Andrew W. Mellon
(New York: John Day Company, 1933), 173.

316   “I know you count”: Evalyn Walsh McLean,
Father Struck It Rich
(Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1936), 214.

317   “Colonel, whenever a boy”: Edmund W. Starling with Thomas Sugrue,
Starling of the White House: The Story of the Man Whose Secret Service Detail Guarded Five Presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Franklin D. Roosevelt
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 224.

317   “I cannot for a moment”: Henry Cabot Lodge to Calvin Coolidge, 29 October 1924, Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass.

318   A
Literary Digest
poll: “Coolidge Certain of Election,”
Seattle Daily Times
, October 31, 1924.

320   “What makes these things”: Will Rogers’s insightful commentary runs throughout the Coolidge presidency. “America’s Return to Wall Street,” in
Will Rogers’ Weekly Columns
, ed. James M. Smallwood and Steven K. Gragert (Claremore, Okla.: Will Rogers Memorial Museums, 2009), vol. 1, 298.

320   two-thirds of the Senate: Until 1975, ending a filibuster required a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

321   Unexpectedly, Dawes refused: “Dawes May Remain Away from Cabinet,” Associated Press story, published in
Rockford Register Gazette
, November 26, 1924. “General Dawes Will Not Sit in Cabinet,”
Boston Herald
, November 26, 1924.

321   “Coolidge knew nothing”: “Coolidge knew nothing of this or Jess Smith or Daugherty while Coolidge was vice president,” Dumaine, quoted by Barron in Clarence Barron,
They Told Barron: Conversations and Revelations of an American Pepys in Wall Street
, ed. Arthur Pound and Samuel Taylor Moore (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1930), 254.

321   “Only out of production”: “An Income Tax Reflection,”
The Wall Street Journal
, December 10, 1924.

322   The Supreme Court was deciding: “Supreme Court Gets Mal Daugherty Case,”
The New York Times
, December 6, 1924.

322   “The Harding administration scandals were so vivid”: Ira R. T. Smith,
“Dear Mr. President . . .”: The Story of Fifty Years in the White House Mail Room
(New York: Julian Messner, 1949), 131.

323   Post office bags: Those details were carried in the pages of a new magazine,
Time
, on February 25, 1925.

323   “The chief business”: The full text of Coolidge’s January 17, 1925, address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors can be found at the American Presidency Project of University of California/Santa Barbara, www.presidency.ucsb.edu.

324   Coolidge had already prepped: Alpheus Thomas Mason,
Harlan Fiske Stone: Pillar of the Law
(New York: Viking Press, 1956), 179.

324   “A Senator, acting”: “Thank God for a MAN!”
The Washington Post
, January 29, 1925, p. 6.

325   Indeed, the vice president–elect: “Dawes Runs Short of Inaugural Tickets, Has Only 18 for Clamoring Host of Friends,”
The New York Times
, February 13, 1925.