, 1923-08-04
The Nations New Executive

IL ne lNdQOu S NEW Executive
1t is an extremely fortunate thing for the coun-
TRY that in the loss of Warren Harding there is a
successor in the person Of Calvin Coolidge. No
man in public life today is better fitted to take
command where the lamented Harding laid down
the burden and continue the same wise policies that
are restoring the country to normally as rapidly
as 1t is possible for human agencies to do.
Calvin Coolidge mas in truth and fact been a
part of the Harding program he has all along
been ono of the presidents most trusted advisers,
carrying into effect an early Harding promise that
the vice president would be an important part in
the administration and have a voice in council
along with department secretaries.
As the successor of Mr.. Harding, therefore, there
will be no violent departure from the established
order. 1t is understood that the cabinet members
VIII be invited to retain their portfolios and the Of
ficia1 business of the country will proceed much
after its former manner. -
The country has large faith in Calvin Coolidge.
He comes from plain, straightthinking forebears
who have been in this country since 1880.
The Coolidge family through the generations, till
ed the soil, raised livestock, produced maple syrup
and sugar, played a large part in the making of
American history, and continued always as peo-
pie of importance and influence in the community.
aft always seemed that Cal could get more
syrup out of a maple tree than any boy 1 ever
knew" his father Colonel John Calvin Coolidge
said of him once.
And that homely phrase SUMS up as well as any
phrase can the essential characteristics of his boy,
hood. If a thing was to be done, it was worth do
ing well. He worked hard, and played hard, and
laid the foundations for the rugged physique that
has carried him so we'll through the strain of later
years.
The upbringing Of Calvin Coolidge has been dupli-
Gated in the lives of thousands and thousands of
American boys, and the really great men of the
nation had no different
The school at Plymouth was a single room with
a wood stove and a bucket of spring water. On
Sunday father, mother and son were regularly in
their places in the little village church. Colonel
Coolidge was not merely farmer but rural store
keeper as well; and Calvin had a double training
under his fathers care. He plowed and dug in
the fields and he sold and figured behind tho coun-
ter. 1t would be difficult to imagine a practical
schooling better calculated to inspire the habits
of ~frugality and self-reiance and a capacity for
sustained hard work.
The mother of Calvin Coolidge died in his thir-
tenth year; his step.mother who cherished him
as though he had been her own son passed away n
year before he became the vice president. To the
influence of these two good women Calvin Coolidge
owes much that is fine and tender and sympathetic
in his nature.
His education was obtained in the country school
at Plymouth, Vermont, where he was born, at small
Town academies and at Amherst college. lie was
an industrious student, a great reader Of books, a
self contained, quiet and unassuming person en-
joying the respect and esteem of everybody with
whom he came in contact. He did not go to law
school, he lacked the money when he came out Of
college. Instead he entered a law office and alb.
sorbed the science in the old fashioned way, and
what is more mastered it In much less than two
years, and at once entered upon the practice.
His public life began almost simultaneously with
his law practice, and it has been a wide and varied
experience. Member of a city council, city attorney,
county clerk, mayor of his home town, state sena.
tor and president Of the body, lieutenant governor,
governor, vice president and now president.
Calvin Coolidge has covered all this ground in
f~ifty-one years. A remarkable fact in connection
with the public offices for which he has been n
randidate-he has never been defeated and when he
was a candidate for a second term he always re-
ceived an increased majority.
What he once told the Massachusetts senate fur
nishes a key to his attitude toward public of.
flee: ado the days work. If it be to protect the
rights Of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it
be 10 help 4 powerful corporation better to serve