Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-07
PRESIDENT HOPES
To RETAIN CABINET;
NONE HAS RESIGNED
New Executive Directs Ar
fairs of Nation Quietly
From His Suite Of Rooms
in Hotel

Associated Press. )-PreSident Cool
idge today put his shoulder under
the burden of government and made
ready to carry on along the pathway
pointed out by President Harding.
His second day as president was
occupied with long succession of
official conferences in which he
gained an initial grasp of his duties
and responsibilities and made final
plans for the state funeral of his
predecessor. He signed the name of
Calvin Coolidge, president of the
United States, for the first time to
a proclamation announcing the pass.
ing Of Mr.. Harding and calling upon
the nation to observe next Friday
as a day of mourning and prayer.
Gets Down to Business
Announcements of policy were
withheld by the president, nor would
he indicate tonight whether he had
in mind an extra session of con.
gress.
Everything stands as it is" he
said to newspaper correspondents,
until you are notified to the con
trary."
This statement applied also to the
cabinet personnel, and it was
learned later that the president
hoped the present cabinet members
would not only remain to assist him,
but would refrain from presenting
even the customary formal resigna-
lions. This hope, he is said to have
expressed personally to all the cab
met officers now in Washington.
In addition to his talk with de-
partment and bureau chiefs, Mr..
Coolidge was engaged throughout
the day in conference with Colonel
Clarence o. Sheriff., White House
military aide, regarding plans for
the funeral Of President Harding.
In mourning for, his predecessor, he
were a wide band of crepe on the
sleeve of his gray suit
The first official act Of President
Coolidge as the new executive of the
nation was his signature of a proc
lamation announcing the death of
President Harding and calling upon
the country to observe next Friday,
August 10, as day of mourning
and prayer. On that day Mr.. Har-
din5's bod is to buried at Marion.
OHIO.
The proclamation was signed at
HIS a. m. 1t was brought to the
presidents hotel suite by J. Butter
Wright, third assistant secretary of
state. and then was returned to the
state department for tbs signature
OF Secretary Hughes.
President Coolidge's proclamation
follows:
By the president OF the United
states of America, a proclamation.
TO the people of the United States:
In the inscrutabIe wisdom of
Divine Providence, Warren CANA
llel Harding, twenty-ninth president
or the United States, has been taken
from us. The nation has lost q
wise and enlightened statesman and
the American people a true friend
and counsellor whose whole public
life was inspired with the desire to
promote the best interests Of the
United States and the welfare of all
its citizens. His private life was
by gentleness and brotherly
sympathy, and by the charm Of his
personality he made friends of all
who came in contact with him.
1T is meet that the deep grief
which fills the hearts of the Amer.
lean people should find fitting ex-
preston.
Now. therefore, 7. Calvin Cool
idge, president of the United States
of Am erica, do appoint Friday next,
August 10, the day on which the
BODY of the dead president will be
laid in its last earthly resting place.
as a day of mourning and prayer
throughout the United States.
earnestly recommend the people to
assemble on that day in their re-
spective places of Divine worship,
there to bow down in submission to
the will of Almighty God, and to
pay out of full hearts the homage
of love and reverence to the mem.
Dry of the great and good president,
whose death has so sorely smitten
the nation.
I'm witness I have hereunto set
my hand and caused the seal of the
United States, to be affixed.
Done at the City Of Washington,
the fourth day of August, in the
year of our Lord, one thousand nine
hundred and twenty-three, and of
the independence OF the United
States the one hundred and forty
eighth.
CALVIN COOLIDGE.
"By the President.
"CHARLES E.. HUGHES.