The Washington times., 1924-05-31
SILENCE SEEN
As COOLIDGE
HERITAGE
President a Throw-5ack to
Frontier Times, Says
William Hard
Continued from First Page.)

family in the environs Of Boston.
anecdotes about the manners and
customs--the bad manners and the
evil customs-of a neighboring dis
tinguished family. Dinner.tine was
$50 spent and the time after dinner
was so spent.
AS Coolidge and his friend got
into their motor car to return to
Boston. the friend said:
"HoW do you suppose that this
family can spend 80 much OF its
time on the subject Of that other
family?"
Coolidge said nothing. The car
rolled on. The friend said nothing.
The car arrived lin Boston. 1t ar
rived at last in front Of Coolidge's
hotel. The friend said: Good.
night" Coolidge said:
"Wimmen."
1t had taken him some time to
condense his views. but he had con-
densed them.
SiIences q Heritage.
Coolidge's silences. Coolidge's one.
word and two-word answers, Cool.
idge's conserVatisms about prop
erty, are thought peculiar. They
were characteristics Of the whole
mass of Americans among our fore
fathers, and they are characteristic
of the whole mass Of the inhab-
itAnts Of Vermont villages today.
On the point of silence and of
slow acid wit the testimony of all
European travellers who came to
our shores In the early days of the
Republic IL strongly to the effect
that the American of those days
was distinctly slow and was greatly
given to long silences punctuated
with w1tticlsms distinctly biting.
The ancient, or Coolidge, Ameri.
can sat on a cracker barrel in a
store. He whitfield. He had all
the time In the world. He chewed
tobacco gravely and Judicially and
contemplatively. He could say
nothing for hours. He broke his
silence usually for just one Of two
purposes. The first was to relate
a fact. The second was to hurl the
shaft Of a joke to somebody.
Wit Points Facts.
Coolidge's conversation consists
for the most part Of just precisely
those two things. He relates facts.
He makes jokes.
If he cannot think of a fact or
cannot think of a joke he seems
to see little reason for language.
Moreover, mis- jokes are for the
most part based on facts. They are
humorous COMBINATIONS Of facts.
A lady IL said to have urged him
to give Europe the benefit Of our
wisdom about the settlement Of Eu-
rope. He 10 said to have replied:
II see no objection to . loan Of
advice"
The early American, as can be
seen In books and as can be seen by
any student of contemporary Ver.I
mont or Of contemporary uncor.
rupted Arkansas, had q streak of
humorous cynicism. He would al.
ways rather seem cynical than SEN
timental.
Coolidge has in him precisely that
streak. The sentimentalizing, gush-
Ing American IL modern. Coolidge
In ancient.
Strenuosity and sentimentality-
those are American modernisms. Our
ancestors were slow-moving and they
were so matter of-fact that they had
no sense Of outrage when George
Washington publicly told them that
no nation could ever be trusted he.
yond the bounds of its own self.
interest and that to expect self.
sacrifice or gratitude between ma.
tons was vain.
HardihOOd Of Frontier.
Coolidge has in him a lot Of that
hardness. He also has in him a lot
Of the hardness of the ANTIQUE
American who was struggling with
the difficulties and dangers of the
frontier without any help from any
government.
That American was cold. He
was hungry. He suffered. His con.
ditions have been quite considerably
perpetuated in Vermont down to
this very hour. When anybody
comes to Vermonter and saws
that the Government must do some.
thing because somebody somewhere
is suffering, the Vermonter's native
answer (even IL he suppresses i'll
Is naturally:
What Government helped us to
tame these hills into giving US
slender. shelter and scanty food?"
Independent Of Government. slow
Of thought, sparing Of language.
decisive in action, controlled by
facts, facing hard facts without
tears, fang cynical facts with
humor--such, by all testimony. was
the antique American, and such is
Coolidge.
Some people think--and with some
reason-that when everything else
about Coolidge has been analyzed
and set forth there yet remains
something-as they say--"uncanny"
in the quality Of his appeal to his
admirers throughout the country. IL
can perhaps be suggested that this
"uncanny" part Of Coolidge's appeal
IL simply that his character awak.
ems unconscious memories of the
sort Of character that the great
mass Of old.time American men and
women had who went before us in
this country and who have left In
US q capacity to be moved-puzzled.
perhaps-but moved--by any echo
Of It..
Calvin Coolidge, Of Plymouth, ver-
mont, by no fault or. merit OF his
own Ia the echo.
Copyright. 1924. by Current News
TAatVHTAh Tnn