The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-03-03
COOLIDGE TO
TAKE OFFICE
IN OWN RIGHT
President Seems Less Con-
cerncd Over Function
Than His Associates
SIMPLE CEREMONIES
Charity Ball in Evening Will
Take Place of Usual
Formal Function


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 him
self seems least concerned about it.
Ii is business as usual at the
White House today; cabinet ses-
sion; a conference with the White
House newspaper correspondents;
the usual run of Congrcs sional call
ers; 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 lease on the handsome CO.
lonial mansion as No. 1900 Pcnnsyl-
vania Avenue"
For 1875 years now the White
House. described by celebrated
American architect as "a typical
home of an American gentleman on
the banks Of the Potomac" has been
sheltering presidents and. like every
other American home, whether great
or lowly. it has at the same time
been sheltering success and failure,
poverty and riches, happiness and
sorrow.
George Washington laid the cor
nerstone Of it in 1892 but never
lived there. 1t was finished during
the administration of John Adams in
1900 just in time to let Adams live
there few months. Thomas Jeffer-
son was the first president to enter
it fresh from the ceremonies of in
auguration. He was ono of the oc-
cupants 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
to. which Dolly Madison fled with
the table silver. Closer students of
American history know that Wash
ihEton himself selected the site and
that the residence of the president
and the seat of government came to
be located where they are as COM
promise between Alexander Hamil:...
and Thomas jefferson on the ques-
ton 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 state.
ly residences of its time was paint.
, ed white, and in time it became The
, White House. 1t is kept white by
I. being given biennial coat of paint
: and an annual bath with fire hose
Although the main structure is prac-
tically the same as it was recon.
, structed after the fire of 1914, the
White House of President Coolidge
is a more extensive establishment
than the White House of Thomas
Jefferson or even of William McKin-
ey. The executive offices which
comprise the west wing were added
during the administration of Pres.
ident Taft. as were the passages to
!; the east which balance the architcc-
ture 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 q civil war
Simple Ceremonies
. But in the inaugural ceremonies OF
tomorrow there will be a striking
reminder Of the old White House as
!. it was in the day of the first pres
mill ha ~ ~ Il
the economy and the lack Of display
with which President Coolidge has
, insisted against all argument, that
] his inaugural should be conducted
! Obviously it will not be as simple
as in the early years of the repub.
lie when Washington was only a
village. But it will be as simple, if
not more simple. than President
= Harding's Inauguration of four years
. ago.
: President Harding insisted on cut
J ting down the size Of the inaugural
process and simplifying the cere-
: monies generally, but President Coo
: lidge went even further. He enforc-
! ed his demand for a lack of dis
y play to such an extent that the local
4 citizens committee which had plan
z ned to raise 100000 to build review
!. ing stands. court of honor in front
4 Of the White House, display OF
fireworks at night and prepare other
Il features for an old time inaugural
q celebration, gave up the task and an
!. nounced that it would spend only
q $3.50, which would 60 for badges fol
s. dignitaries participating in the cere.
q monies.