Evening star., 1923-08-15
COOLIDGE MAKES
GOOD IMPRESSION
Strikes Observers as Execu-
tive of Common Sense and
Alert of Mind.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

a man of common sense, orderly
thinking and alertness of mind-this
was the almost universal impression
which Calvin Coolidge gave to cab
met members and scores of news
paper correspondents who scrutiniZed
his personality in his first twenty
four hours of active duty as Presi-
dent of the United States.
Explicit in his statements, adroit
without being evasive, there came
from the new President such a direct
even those who had sat at the cab
met table with him for two years
and who thought they knew their
man. The surprise was pleasant
one. for If Calvin Coolidge keeps step
with the impression he made the first
day he will indeed have risen to the
occasion and saved the American
people from the shock of change in
government affairs which might have
come with person of different tenn
permanent and impulse.
The new President is more like
Secretary of State Hughes in his
methods of handling the press than
any one else. He sees not only the
question asked him, but the possible
effect of a misunderstood answer. 1t
ever one may find reason to differ
with Calvin Coolidge's views In the
future, there will never be any dount
of what his policy Is or what he
means when he says something.
There wasn't a whole lot of infor-
nation in his first conference with
the cabinet or the press. Calvin
coolidge was really being tested by
penetrating eyes. He didn't seem con-
ecious of 1t, but went about his busi-
4.
made it difficult to believe he had not
been in the job always. The writer
talked afterward with members of the
cabinet and Congress. The most in
tereSting comment heard was that
Mr. Coolidge seemed Hvelier and
more intense. He has not become a
Roosevelt overnight, but there is a
forcefulness about the quiet dignity
of Calvin Coolidge which was un-
mistakable.
Systematic to n Fault.
The new President gave the cabi-
net more of a glimpse of the kind of
an Executive he intends to be than he
did the press. He is systematic to a
fault. He does not intend to be both
cred with detail. He will give his
cabinet officers all the latitude in the
world. but he will hold them strictly
accountable for their acts. There is
d severity ABOUT MT. COOllQSe WHICH
is in direct contrast to the manner of
his predecessor. Not that Mr.. Hard
ings geniality wasn't inspiring, for
it was one of the finest evidences of
comradeship in public office ever seen.
But Mr.. Coolidge is different-that' S
all. At this point 1t may be worth
while to say that Washington CORE
spondents who may be writing of the
outstanding characteristics of the
new President do so with the idea OF
advising the American people about
a relatively unknown quantity in the
White House and not with any pur-
pose of making invidious compari-
sons between the late President and
his successor.
1t remains for the next six months
to tell the story of whether the Cool
idge method is more effective than
the Harding method. But at the out
set it is interesting to observe that
the new President operates in an
eatirely different way. For one thing,
Tr. Harding grew up in a newspaper
office. Mr.. Coolidge is a lawyer. The
late President was a good mixer. He
was on intimate terms with almost
everybody. The new Executive has a
kind of magnetism that peers out of
friendly eyes, but he is not the po-
litical type at all. That's one reason