Evening star., 1927-05-14
COOLIDGE SILENT.
ON 1912 PETITION
Makes No Comment on Re-
port He Opposed Third
Term at That Time.
nv q. GOULD LINCOLN.

III Os UOGAiD A<AANSoA~Ns
Reports from Massachusetts, say
that President Coolidge, while a State
Senator in 1912, signed a petition
urging Congress to initiate constr
tutional amendment prohibiting
ssthird term" for any President.
President Coolidge is maintaining
complete silence regarding these re-
ports. Nor is he likely to comment
in any way upon the so-called third
term issue at this time, 1t is SAID.
He ignored recently letter addressed
to him through the Forum asking
hin, to state his views on the 'thiro'
term" tradition and to declare whethet
he intended to be q candidate 10 sue
ceed himself next year.
The President has not announced MS
candidacy for the Republlcan' holhiiia
tion next year. Nor will ne 90 SO: II
the nomination comes to him, 1t Wiii De
because the leaders of the Republlcan
Marty hacked up by the rank and
file. hand 1t to him. His friends de.
clare that under the circumstances It
would be neither good taste nor good
politics for him to discuss the thlrd
term" issue at this time.
kenOrt FTOUl Day StdtCs
A disnatch from Worcester, Mass.
has quoted Michael J. O'Shea, who IN
the past has been a Republican pont-
icaf worker, as saying that In l9Iz ne
personally obtained the signature OF
President Coolidge to petition urging
Congress to adopt a resolution propos-
ING a constitutional amendment
against a third term. O'Shea was fur
ther quoted as saying that the pet1-
ton was signed in duplicate, and that
one set of signatures was sent TO
washington and that he has retained
the other, which 'he will make public
at the proper time.
A search OF the records in the office
OF the Secretary of the Senate, to
which this petition was sent. has pro-
duced the petition, but signed only by
the late Senator Henry w. Blair or
New Hampshire. president OF the So
called Anti-Third Term League. NO
other signatures or list of signatures
has been found. So far the list re-
ported to be in the possession OF
O'Shea has not been made public.
In 1912 the petition circulated by
the National Anti-Third Term League
was directed particularly against the
nomination of former President Roose-
Welt, who was seeking the Republican
domination against President Taft. A
considerable group of Republicans in
Massachusetts, among them the late
Senator Murray Crane, was opposed
to Roosevelt and in favor OF the re-
nomination of President Taft.
Aimed at Roosevelt.
The Blair petition in one paragraph
declared:
s.No person who has held the Office
of President for terms, or any part OF
terms, whether consecutively or other
wise, shall thereafter be eligible to be
chosen to the Office of President or
Vice President"
1T is clear that it was aimed par
ticularlv at the candidacy of Col.
Roosevelt. who served three and a.
half years of the Mckinley second
term and four years in his own right.
al large number of questions, ask
ing the President If he did sign such
II petition in 1912, We're submitted at
the White House press conference
yesterday. No answer was made to
them.
Opponents of the nomination and
reelection of President Coolidge hope
to put the President s'in hole" with
the report that he opposed reelection
OF Col. Roosevelt in 1912 on the
d
Chief Executive for more than two
terms They are already asking
whether he was opposed to giving
Roosevelt another term In 1912 and Is
now ready to take another four-year
term himself. Every effort will be
made to make political capital OF the
incident, if the signature of President
Coolidge is produced by O'Shca.
Coolidge to Keep Silence.
Supporters OF President Coolidge.
who wish his reelection in 1928,
maintain that the signature of such a
petition. IL Mr.. Coolidge did sign II,
should have no real bearing on the
situation which exists today. They
point out that, Notwithstanding re-
peated efforts, the Constitution mas
never been amended so as to limit the
re-eligibility of any person to the OIL
fee of President.
They point to the most recent party
declaration on the subject. when in
1912 the Democratic national plat
form contained paragraph urging
the adoption of a constitutional
amendment, limiting President to
one term.
After the election of the late Presi-
dent Woodrow Wilson in that year
little was heard of that part OF the
Democratic platform. Mr.. Wilson was
renominated and reelected in 1916.
Republicans sought during the Wilson
administration to draw from President
Wilson some statement regarding his
own attitude on re-eligibility for the
presidential Office, but they never suc-
ceeded.
There is no indication that the
policy of silence on the part of Presi-
dent Coolidge toward the Republican
nomination in 1928 is to be broken.