San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-03
FRIDAY.
The New President Cannot
Be Hurried and He Wastes
no Words.
BY ROBERT T. SMALL.

Washington, ID. C.. Aug. 3.-"God
is in his heaven, and the government
ut Washington still lives"
The deserted Capitol of yesterday
became today the mecca of the nation
as it turned to its appointed tasks
of preparing q welcome TO new
President and arranging for the last
tribute of a great people to n faithful
servant who laid down his life in their
cause.
1t has been a day of mingled emo
tions. The death of President always
casts gloom over Washington greater
perhaps than over the country at
large, for the President here, is a dis
tinct personality. To the country at
large he may be but a figure, sym
Dol.
Yet in the sadness that is Wash
ington's, there is also the Jingle of
expectation and excitement over :he
important events 10 come.
Came as Surprise.
With the tragic climax of Thurs
day evening, the interest of the cCun-
try swept away from San Francisco.
First it searched its way into the far
away green hills of Vermont. to the
birthplace of new President, to a
little white country house where ut )
o'clock in the morning, by the glow
of a kerosene lamp, Calvin Coolidge
took the oath of office as chief nagis-
trate from the father who had reared
him in simplicity as great as any
man has ever brought to the White
House.
Today the interest swings to Wash
ington, to the arrival OF the new
President TO the long waiting for the
funeral train.
Washington meantime is trying in a
more or less dazed manner to pick up
the loose ends of Il situation foc which
it was iu-prepared. The anxiety of
last Tuesday, when Mr.. Hardings
condition was grave, had been COM
pletely lulled to rest by TIE optimis-
tic tone of the bulletins 'and inter-
views issued by the attending physi-
clans.
Government as usual was IL
progress here when the great shock
came. That it has had shattering
effect. in many quarters, there is no
doubt. President Coolidge has re-
building TASK ahead of him. But the
great government machine moves pom
dcrously ahead both here and IN the
far corners of the world where the
flag flies over embassy, legation and
consular offices. 1t must be SO. The
nation mourns. but time does not stay
its flight. The needs of the day must
be served.
A Conservative Man.
UnquestionGbly Washington IS
stunned and hurt to the quic6 by the
passing of great, true friend of the
American people, a man who tried
10 do the right as the light was given
hi,a to see the right, and man who
wanted above everythin, else to have
tie people he loved think well of him
p in return. That was the outstanding
CHARACTERISTIC of Warren Harding TO
those who knew him best-his great
desire to win the esteem Of his fellow
man.
But there are the tasks of the day,
of the days to come ahead so Wash
ington already has begun to plot the
future.
One of the first discoveries of the
day was that New England for the
first time in Z Oyears has President
of the United States. Not since Frank
lin Pierce of New Hampshire, entered
the White House in 1888 have the
little group of states at the northeast
corner of the United States sent a
man direct to the White House.
And the new President is bound up
in all the extreme conservatism Of the
environment which has claimed him
since boyhood. Only since he has been
Vice President Calvin Coolidge trav-
eled far from the New England fire
sides. All of his training. all of his
thoughts, all of his habits of mind
and speech and body are of the old
New England. The $4,000 a year he
received as Vice President was the
greatest income he had known up to
that time.
Mr.. Coolidge is bringing to the
White House brand of political con-
servatism which will make the freely
expressed views of President Harding
seem radical by comparison.
He Has Few Friends.
Mr.. Coolidge is a man of few words
and few close or intimate friends. So
far as known here he has no conf
dante. He has no Harry Daugherty,
no Harry. New. For Mr.. Coolidge is
not of the temperament that makes
warm friends. lie is too silent, too
interpretive for that. If he is to
make decisions he will make them in
II the complete silence of his own
Ythoughts. He may from time to time,
now that he is President, invite the
views of others, but he will seldom
express his own. His state papers arc
likely to be the shortest on record.
But first of all it may be stated
that Mr.. Coolidge will call no extra
session of Congress. He will not need
Congress for his own assistance before
the time for the regular session to be-
gin in December; he will not call Con-
gress at the behest of the radical sena-
tors of the West to rush the country
into new and untried fields of legis-
lation.
Don't hurry to legislate."
This is a maxim of the new Presi-
dent.
Give administration chance TO
catch up with legislation" is another
of the few quoted sayings of the new
President which can be recalled today
as pointing to his likely course in the
future. But these two phrases are sig
nificant of the man, significant of
his policies.
He Is Deliberate.
Mr.. Coolidge believes in the regu-
lar order of things. He believes that
God in his wisdom is looking after
the welfare of the United States and
of the world and he believes that
things should be done in the orderly,