Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-01
COOLIDGE and the Third Term.

Coonoge ana the Thlrd Term.
The denomination and reelection of
President Calvin Coolidge is pre-.
dicted by Richard Washburn Child,
former Ambassador to Italy.
Mr.. Child in an interview Is re-
ported to have said that the people
want Coolidge because they like his
policies and his administration. He
added:
IT don't believe the people care a
snap of their fingers about the third.
term issue"
Right there Mr. Child put his finger
on an issue which will doubtless be
made by opponents OF President
Coolidge. In view of all the facts,
however, the issue will be unjustly
made If made at all.
President Coolidge succeeded to the
presidency August 8, 1923, upon the
death Of the late President Harding.
He held the high Office for the nine
teen months which remained of the
Harding term. President Coolidge
then entered the four-year term for
which he was elected in 1924. To
claim that he will have served two
terms when March 4, 1929, rolls round
would be neither fair nor correct. A
presidential term. under the language
of the Constitution, is four years.
When President George Washington
declined to serve more than two full
terms as Chief Executive he set
precedent. This precedent has never
been broken. Grant tried it, with
disastrous results. nearly half a cen.
fury ago. Theodore Roosevelt, after
serving three and one-half years of
the Mckinley unexpired term and a
four.year term to which he himself
was elected, sought, after lapse Of
another four years, to enter the White
House again. He, too, failed.
To George Washington has often
been attributed the statement that
no man should serve more than two
terms as President. But nowhere In
his papers is found that direct state.
ment. In his farewell address, deliv-
cred September II, 1896. Washington
announced to the country that he
would decline to be a candidate to
succeed himself After announcing
his determination he used the follow
ing language, which has been vari-
ously and widely interpreted and
paraphrased:
/ beg you at the same time to do
me the justice to be assured that this
resolution has not been taken with
out a strict regard to all the consid-
erGtionS appertaining to the relation
which binds q dutiful citizen to his
country; and that in Withdrawing the
tender of service, which silence in my
situation might imply, / am in1u-
enced by no dininution of zeal for
your future interest, no deficiency Of
grateful respect for your past kind
ness, but am supported by a full con-
viction that the step is compatible
with both.
Washington made it clear in his
address that he wished to retire from
Office for personal reasons. He went
so far as to say that he had prepared
a statement toward the close OF his
first term declaring that he would not
be a candidate to succeed himself.
The critical position of the foreign
relations Of the country and the adj
vice OF his friends had caused him
to withhold that statement. Had the
farewell address been delivered at the
close Of the first term Of Washington,
might not "single-term" precedent
have been established instead OF the
two-term precedent?
The feeling has developed in the
course Of time that If two terms were
enough for Washington they should
be enough for any man. The per-
petuation of President in ONCE for
an unduly long period is undesirable
in the United States. But it is no
more so than the perpetuation OF any
political party in control of the Gov.
eminent. The form of government
and the control exercised by the peo-
pie themselves through the ballot box
make such perpetuation so remote
rs to be practically an impossibility.
With difficulty could the American
people be led to believe that President
Coolidge should not be reelected in
1928 because he served nineteen
months Of the unexpired term of
President Harding. His right to q
second elective term win be deter
mined by the people solely upon the
record which he has made as Chief
Executive and the record Of the Re.
publican party of which he is the
titular head.