by Robert Sobel
The Syracuse [N.Y.] Post-Standard observed that Coolidge “has made less change in the policy and personnel of the administration bequeathed to him than any vice president succeeding to the presidency before him.” A Washington correspondent reported, “the new president [has] assured the people that he does not contemplate any changes in the policy of his predecessor, and that honest folk can sleep o’ nights.”
Of course, not all mainstream newspapers applauded the situation and the policy of stability. The Democratic New York World warned that “in time of change no policy is so unstable as stability.” The Knoxville Sentinel, also Democratic, observed that “the maliciously minded are now saying that ‘stability’ is another way of passing the word to ‘stand pat.’” But this was rather mild criticism.
Throughout this transitional period Coolidge enjoyed widespread support in the press. The only harsh criticism of Coolidge came from the doctrinaire fringes. The New York Call, a socialist newspaper, called Coolidge “probably the man of smallest caliber who has ever been made president of the United States.” The reaction of the Nation, which rarely had anything good to say about a Republican, was typical of those who felt dismay at the thought of a Coolidge presidency, and should be viewed against a special backdrop. Editor Oswald Garrison Villard had a particular distaste for Coolidge, and wrote of him in the August 1 edition, just before Harding’s death:Take that midget statesman, Calvin Coolidge, vice president of the United States, for instance. Every honest Boston journalist knows the inwardness of the police strike and how little, if any, credit Mr. Coolidge deserves for his part in it. I happened to be sitting among the Massachusetts journalists at the Chicago convention when Mr. Coolidge was nominated as vice president. Their astonishment and their disgust were amusing to watch. Returning later to the Congress Hotel I found two of the most influential editors in New England in excited conversation about Mr. Coolidge’s nomination. Never have I heard more vigorous profanity; each sought to outdo the other in his epithets. “Never,” said the elder, “in years of political experience have I met a man in public life so despicable, so picayune, so false to his friends as Cal.”
Now that he was president the magazine ran an article entitled: “Calvin Coolidge: Made by a Myth”:And now the presidency sinks low indeed. We doubt if ever before it has fallen into the hands of a man so cold, so narrow, so reactionary, so uninspiring, and so unenlightened, or one who has done less to earn it, than Calvin Coolidge…. Every reactionary may today rejoice; in Calvin Coolidge he realizes his ideal, and every liberal may be correspondingly downcast.
But there were no reservations regarding Grace Coolidge. In this period, when the families of vice presidents were not particularly well known, she was an exception, at least in Washington. As mentioned, she was quite different from her husband. Grace Coolidge exuded warmth, was vivacious and talkative, and had a hearty, conventional sense of humor. Moreover, she was an attractive woman, and her looks and dazzling smile only added to her popularity. As was customary, she told the press that her job was to stay at home and raise the two Coolidge sons, but when Coolidge was vice president she urged him to attend plays, musicals, and other diversions. Occasionally she let it be known she wanted even more. In a 1921 interview she told a reporter:Everyone talks of the restlessness of women since the war, of their dissatisfaction to return to the old kinds of life. Of course they are restless. Soon there will not be an intelligent woman who is content to do nothing but live a social life. I should think Washington would be an excellent place to begin the change.
Grace Coolidge was not a closet feminist, but she was quite outspoken. After Coolidge’s death, she indicated that he never asked her thoughts on public matters, and that he had a low opinion of her education. She was able to laugh this off. Grace Coolidge was quite confident in her own abilities, and willing to take an independent course, which her husband approved. She was the first president’s wife to smoke cigarettes, and that was fine with him—or at least, he said nothing about it. Coolidge was known as a penurious man, but there was one area in which he didn’t mind spending money: his wife’s clothes. There was never any doubt that their marriage was very happy indeed.
Political reporters had to make do with speculation until Congress reconvened on December 6 and received Coolidge’s message. This meant that Coolidge had four months to prepare himself for command before having to joust with the legislature, which included many who considered him not only an accidental president, but an accidental nominee. In this period Coolidge would have to become the master of the Harding policies and political strategies, and ponder programs of his own. He had to learn more about foreign policy. France had recently sent its army into the Ruhr because Germany had defaulted on its reparations payments. The debate on whether or not the United States should enter the World Court continued, and the League question would not die. It was generally agreed that the Washington Naval Conference was a success, and there was pressure for another such meeting to continue the cutbacks. America’s relations with Mexico had been poor since that country’s revolution in 1911, and the United States did not have diplomatic representation in that country. Likewise, there was no official contact with the Soviet Union. While none of these issues required immediate attention, they would have to be addressed in time.
The domestic situation was another matter. A good deal of what was happening in government occurred without much in the way of input from either Harding or Coolidge. Both men believed in delegating powers, Harding because he felt some in his cabinet were smarter and better informed than he, Coolidge because this was very much in his nature. For example, in 1922 Secretary of Commerce Hoover had called a Radio Conference, and for the rest of the Harding administration and into the Coolidge years would help define this important industry, without input from either president.
Such was the situation when Coolidge addressed Congress on December 6, 1923. The speech was well received; according to the newspaper reports, it was interrupted many times by applause from both Democrats and Republicans. This was to have been expected; such a reaction was by way of greeting the new president and assuring him of Congress’s good will. The address contained a long list of requests, most of them familiar as part of the Harding program. Coolidge favored immigration restriction. The railroads, which were in shabby shape due to negligence during the war, needed assistance; Coolidge thought “consolidation appears to be the only feasible method for the maintenance of an adequate system of transportation,” and he supported rate increases. He also called for greater government spending for highways. Coolidge endorsed the efforts of a Senate committee seeking to develop a new reforestation program. And he asked for legislation to abolish the rights of states and municipalities to issue tax-exempt securities, arguing that new investment funneled into these securities could be better employed in the private sector.
Because of a major coal strike in Pennsylvania in September, the president asked for power to appoint commissions “to aid conciliation and voluntary arbitration.” Coolidge wanted to continue the program of governmental reorganization Harding had initiated, and he wanted reforms in the civil service, diplomatic corps, and the Justice Department. He also supported American membership in the World Court, increased military and naval appropriations, and greater federal efforts in Prohibition enforcement. Coolidge opposed American entry into the League, the proposed veteran’s bonus, and suggestions that foreign debts be canceled. “The current debt and interest due from foreign governments, exclusive of the British debt of $4.6 billion, is about $7.2 billion. I do not favor canceling this debt, but I see no objection to adjusting it in accordance with the principle adopted for the British debt.”6 He rejected recognition of the Soviet Union, and opposed tariff revision.
On many occasions, sometimes when it was politically imprudent, Coolidge spoke out for the rights of those who were then called “negroes.” Of course, in this period, most black Americans were Republicans, while the white South was solidly Democrat. But
few presidents were as outspoken on the need to protect the civil rights of black Americans as Calvin Coolidge:Numbered among our population are some twelve million colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and private duty to protect those rights. The Congress ought to exercise all its powers of prevention and punishment against the hideous crime of lynching, of which the negroes are by no means the sole sufferers, but for which they furnish a majority of the victims.
Coolidge took note of the migration of blacks to the North, and recommended a commission consisting of both blacks and whites “to formulate a better policy for mutual understanding and confidence.” He asked for an appropriation of “about half a million dollars” for Howard University “to help contribute to the education of five hundred colored doctors needed each year.”
Coolidge came out firmly against various programs for crop support. He said, “No complicated scheme of relief, no plan for government fixing of prices, no resort to the public Treasury will be of any permanent value in establishing agriculture. Simple and direct methods put into operation by the farmer himself are the only real sources for restoration.” He urged farmers to organize, as had labor, and then voluntarily cut back on acreage in order to lower production, which would boost prices. This kind of statement was necessary because by then the farm bloc had come together in support of the McNary–Haugen Bill, which was to be introduced the following month and would become one of the central battlegrounds of political debate for the next four years.
The key recommendation of Coolidge’s address, as far as many newspapers were concerned, was his call for a tax cut. The president wanted a 25 percent across-the-board decrease from the high wartime rates, and in addition he would reduce the surtax rates to begin at $10,000 rather than $6,000. To make up for some of the cuts, he would alter the capital gains tax to bring in more revenue, change deductions for interest charges, and increase the estate taxes, all of which would hit the wealthy harder than the middle class and poor taxpayers.
The federal income tax had only been instituted in 1913. The following year it produced $28 million, almost all of it coming from taxes on the very wealthy. Fewer than 360,000 of 99 million Americans paid income taxes that year. This was by design, as the progressives who pushed for an income tax saw it as a redis-tributionist measure to take the rough edges off capitalism and help the poor.
At the time, there were no large governmental spending programs. Federal expenditures in 1913 came to $715 million, having risen from $690 million the previous year. In 1914 they would go to $726 million, and in 1915, $746 million. Meanwhile, government revenues actually declined, falling from $714 million in 1913 to $683 million in 1914.
This situation changed in 1917, when Congress passed and President Wilson signed a temporary war tax measure, broadening the tax base. It also added a surtax on taxpayers with incomes of more than $6,000 (approximately $60,000 today). The additional taxes were progressive, rising to 25 percent on incomes of more than $100,000. That year 3.5 million returns were filed, bringing in $691 million, and the figure rose to $1.1 billion the following year, when the war ended. Despite peace, the tax remained in place, fetching $1.3 billion in 1919 and more than $1 billion in 1920. That election year, both parties called for an end to the wartime taxes, and tax reform was a popular issue. Wilson’s Secretary of the Treasury David Houston called for their abolition and the reduction of surtaxes in a message to Congress that year. The top bracket was 70 percent, he observed. “We are confronted with a condition, not a theory. The fact is that such rates cannot be successfully collected.” Candidate Harding agreed. Indeed, outside of some progressives, there seemed political unanimity on the subject.
Consider that Americans of the period hadn’t any experience with income taxes prior to 1914, and those who paid them hardly could have welcomed the change. Moreover, bear in mind that what today would pass for poor and middle class Americans didn’t pay any income taxes. In 1924 a two-parent family with two children and an income of $3,200 (approximately $32,000 in current dollars) paid no tax at all, but note also that the total tax bite increased for some Americans in this period. In some states the sales tax, the gasoline tax, and other taxes rose in the 1920s, and so offset the decreases in income taxes. The matter of taxation will be addressed in detail later in this book, since it was central to the Coolidge philosophy and program.
Many Americans did not have to wait for their newspapers to arrive to know what the president had said in his address to Congress. His was the first State of the Union to be broadcast. The press response to Coolidge’s State of the Union address was generally favorable. The New York World said, “Mr. Coolidge has worked out an able message.” The New York Tribune added, “There is an unmistakable American flavor to President Coolidge’s first message to Congress.” The St. Louis Globe Democrat thought, “The outstanding feature of the message is its sound, practical common sense.” And the Philadelphia Public Ledger asserted, “The nation now knows exactly what President Coolidge thinks. He has given it a map of his mind and the country will approve the course he has charted.” The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote:No one can read the message of President Coolidge without appreciating how fully he is in sympathy and accord with every vital policy of the Harding administration. Comprehensive in scope, frank and clear in all suggestions and recommendations, dealing plainly with the most controversial issues, it is a message to all the people as well as to the Congress. In this respect it may be regarded as a Coolidge platform for 1924.
The next day brought reports that, as expected, leading Democratic legislators opposed various parts of the program. They took note of its reception, and couldn’t help but recognize that Coolidge could be a formidable figure in 1924.
Coolidge had opened his speech with a tribute to Harding, and his actions since taking office indicated a willingness to be associated with his agenda and appointments. Congress adjourned after the president’s speech out of respect to Harding’s memory, but first passed a bill providing Mrs. Harding with a $5,000 pension and franking privileges. Then, on the next evening, at the annual Gridiron Dinner, riding the crest of his popularity, Coolidge announced his candidacy for the presidency in 1924. This, too, was greeted with acclaim by the press. None of the major newspapers mentioned that by so doing, he would discourage potential rivals, but some noted that it would be difficult to deny him the nomination.
The State of the Union message may have surprised some long time Coolidge watchers. It was not cautious, but quite ambitious. If Coolidge drew his inspiration from the Harding agenda he also indicated that he wanted to be an agent of change.
Coolidge returned time and again to the need for cutting taxes. In a speech before the National Republican Club in New York on February 12, 1924, Coolidge emphasized:If we had a tax whereby on the first working day the government took 5 percent of your wages, on the second day 10 percent, on the third day 20 percent, on the fourth day 30 percent, on the fifth day 50 percent, and on the sixth day 60 percent, how many of you would continue to work on the last two days of the week? It is the same with capital. Surplus income will go into tax-exempt securities. It will refuse to take the risk incidental to embarking in business. This will raise the rate which established businesses will have to pay for new capital, and result in a marked increase in the cost of living.
But as much as he wanted to be a tax-cutter, that could only be achieved by reaching compromise legislation with Congress. Congress passed and Coolidge reluctantly signed the Simmons–Longworth Bill, which reduced the surtax to a top rate of 40 percent. In return, the estate tax was increased, and a gift tax was added. It wasn’t what he had in mind—Coolidge wanted to slash rates to their prewar level—but it was the best he could get.
Coolidge knew he was regarded with suspicion by progressives like La Follette and by Republicans who would have preferred a different candidate to lead the party. Coolidge tried to do something about this, tel
ling La Follette he would always be welcome at the White House for consultations and hoped for his support. In November he wrote to every Republican senator asking for recommendations for appointments. When Congress reconvened he regularly had legislators to breakfasts, although some who attended complained that he said so little. As much as he could, Coolidge reached out for support, friendship, and assistance. Indeed, the Coolidges did much more entertaining in the White House than the Hardings, and for that matter, any previous president, probably due in part because Harding had managed to push through Congress a measure providing his successors with an entertainment allowance. It did no good.
If Mark Sullivan, considered one of the most astute Washington correspondents, knew anything of machinations to displace Coolidge, it did not appear in his columns. Writing in November, after Coolidge had been in office three months, he said that “the presence of Congress in Washington will reveal one of Mr. Coolidge’s traits as an individual, namely the degree to which he has the inclination—and the capacity—to impress himself on Congress as its leader.”
There is evidence that Coolidge has been aware of the importance of the meeting with Congress as a dividing point in his presidency. During the four months preceding the event he has made it obviously a definite policy to refrain from public speaking and from appearing at any of the immense number of functions to which he has been invited. He has refrained also from any important declarations of policy and from any revealing of Coolidge’s purposes with respect to public questions.