Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-08-06
COOLIDGE HAS FEW
/. INTIMATE FRIENDS
No "Inner Cabinet" of Cro-
MES Likely During His
Administration.
NJ FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


There arc not likely. to be any
inner cabinets" in the Coolidge ad-
ministration. Roosevelt had his
tennis cabinet" and Harding had his
"golfing cabinet" but Calvin Coolidge,
being addicted neither to outdoor
cliques of that sort.
The absence of presidential set"
promises to be one of the noteworthy
differences between the new and
the old administration. President
Coolfdges only political and personal
intimacies are expected to be of a
strictly official character. In a way,
the man from Massachusetts will be
complete innovation, for ever since
the days of Mckinley the master of
the White House has been surrounded
| by chosen few. sometimes from
within the cabinet and sometime s
from both within and without the
cabinet who have ranked as powers
behind the throne. 1t is apparently
not the Coolidge way. The one man
| on earth acknowledged to be a boon
companion of Calvin Coolidge-Frank
W Stearns of Boston-will not be in
Washington. limitations have already
House at the willard that both the
President and Mr.. Stearns resent the
! Mark Hanna" and Col House" sug-
gestion. Mr.. Stearns, It is declared.
! Is to remain what he always has been
merely friend. asking nothing for
himself, intruding no counsel, and
! importuned for none.
Few Friends Here.
This writer spent a considerable por-
| ton of Mr. Cooiidge's first week end
as President in an endeavor to trace
his nearest and dearest Washington con-
nectlons. As Vice President. he has
! lived here for two and q half Years He
and Mrs. Coolidge have been the most
entertained couple in the capitals mod
| ern history. They have gone eyerv-
where, met every one. and been lionized
! TO quite unprecedented degree. Yet
! II proves impossible to locate any man
entitled to the distinction of Being a
! friend of the President, in the sense.
| for instance that Joe" F'relinghuvsen,
Fred Hale. Ar Lasker. Harry New,
Harry Daugherty, Frank Kellogg How
| ard Sutherland or Ned" Mclean was
| Coolidge is not golfer He is said
to have played twice in Washington, but
! no one can remember whore, when or
with whom. He is hard smoker, with
fondness for long cigars, and derives
mat other men secure from outdoor
games. The new President has a
! bridge mind" but is not known to he
especially fond of card-playing. He
cultivated no regular companionships in
| the Senate
Backed Up Coolidge.
| The comradeship with Frank W.
Stearns, Boston department store
magnate. is as old as Calvin Cool
| idge's career In politics itself, which
means about half his life. or twenty
| hxe years. 1t is of Amherst College
origin though Stearns. who is sixty
seven years old and sixteen years
cooltdge's senior. was graduated an
Amherst in the class of 1878. while
Coolidge didn't get his degree there
until 1925. StearnS' ambition for more
than twenty years has been to land
Cal Coolidge in the White HOUSE, !"
He had an abiding faith that aspira :
tion would be realized He has sun
PIIed the sinews of war for Coolidge's
IoGaI campaigns in Massachusetts
sario OF the nationwide effort to
nominate Gov. Coolidge for rho
presidency in 1920. 1t was. Stearns
VINO commandeered the services of
90 NJ %, heShoIds. former secretary
OF the republican national committee
ana Massachusetts man, to orsanize
the Coolidge pre-convention cam
Paign three years ago. 1t was CON
quoted from elaborate headquarters
In washington hotel. Reynolds is
now vice president of the CONNIE rcial
National Bank of Washington.
True to Amherst.
Amherst ties are probably about as
near to any "chumminess" as Presi
dent Coolidge has INDUCED himself
at washington. He has been active
In the Amherst Club. being also
trustee of the college which was re-
Gently in the limelight in connection
with the troubles of President Mel
kle5ohn. Mr.. Coolidge for two years
and more has not actively attended
to his trusteeship duties, and had no
part in the Meiklejohn fracas. One
OF Lhe Pres1dents Amherst comrades