New Britain herald., 1925-03-03
7WENTY,FQUR HRS. AND DINAUGURAT|ON
Simplicity and Economy Will
 Be WatChWord
By The Associated Press.

By The Associated Press.
 Washington, March S.-Twenty- four hours more and Calvin Coolidge will step into the presidency of the United States in his own right. Of all those who have to do with the Impressive ceremony which marks an inauguration. President Coolidge himself seems least concerned about 1t.
 It is business as usual at the White House today; a cabinet ses- sion; a conference with the White House newspaper correspondents; the usual run of congressional call CTS; tourists gathering for the in-
 augural ceremonies seeking a chance to shake hands with the president.
 The president and Mrs. Coolidge are, not concerned in the eleventh hour confusion of moving. As one wag put it; "Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge have renewed for four years their leases on the handsome colonial mansion at No. 1900 Penn sylvania avenue"
 For 125 years now the White House, described by a celebrated AmeHcan architect as Ia typical homs1of an American gentleman on the banks of the Potomac" has been sheltering presidents and, like every other American home, whether great or lowly, 1t has at the same time been shetering success and failure. poverty and riches, happiness and
 sorrow.
 Washington Offlciated
 George Washington laid the cor nerstone of 1t in 1792 but never lived
 there. It was finished during the administration of John Adams in 1900 just in time to let Adams live there a few months Thomas Jef- ferson was the first president to enter it fresh from the ceremonies Of Inauguration. He was one of the occupants who renewed his lease"
 Every school boy knows how it was burned by the British troops in 1914 and almost every visitor to Washington has had pointed out to him the house across LaFayette park 10 which Dolly Madison fled with the table silver. Closer students of American history know that Washington himself selected the site and that the residence of the presi- dent and the seat of government came to be located where they are as compromise between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson on the question of how the assumption of the revolutionary debt of the colonies was to be carried out by the federal government.
 The presidents home, like all stately residences of It's time 1t was painted white and in time 1t became the White House. It is kept white by being given a biennial coat of paint and an annual bath with a fire hose. Although the main structure Is practically the same as 1t was reconstructed after the fire in 1914, the White House of President Cool idge Is more extensive establish ment than the White House of Thomas Jefferson or even of William Mckinley. The executive offices which comprise the west wing were added during the administration of President Taft. as were the passages to the east which balance the archi- lecture and comprise substantially an east wing. All the presidents, up to and including Taft, did their work in the White House study in the same room where Lincoln bore the trials and tribulations of a civil war.
 Simplicity and Economy.
 But in the inaugural ceremonies of tomorrow there will be a striking reminder of the old White House at 1t was in the day of the first presi- dents. It will be the simplicity and 1 the economy and the lack of display l with which President Coolidge has insisted against all argument, that | his inaugural should be conducted. l Obviously 1t will not be as simple as in the early years of the republic | when Washington was only a vil- | lage. But 1t will be as simple, If | not more simple, that President | Harding's inauguration of four years ago.
 President Harding insisted on cutting down the size of the in- augural procession and simplifying the ceremonies generally, but Pres ident Coolidge went even further, | He enforced his demand for lack of display to such an extent. that l the local citizens committee which had planned to raise s100,00 to build reviewing stands, a court of honor in front of the White House. a display of fireworks at night and prepare other features for an old time inaugural celebration, gave up the task and announced that if would spend only about s25o. which would go for badges for dignitaries in the ceremonies.
 The West Point cadets and the midshipmen will not be seen in tomorrow's pageant because the president feels there is no war rant for spending the governments money to bring them to Washing ton. Such nearby troops and militia as can be brought by motor will march and 1t is estimated that the procession will take less than an hour to pass a given point.
 The ceremonies will be simplif1ed further by the fact that there is no president to participate in them. So far as President Coolidge Is concerned. he takes up his hat