Evening star., 1927-05-15
Coolidge and the Third Term.

Coolidge and the Third Term. ,
Efforts to breathe life into the so.
called "third-term issue" in connec.
ton with the possible candidacy Of
President Coolidge to succeed himself
continue. Doubtless they will be per-
severed in by both Democratic and
Republican opponents Of the Presi-
dent. An attempt to obtain from the
President himself statement of his
attitude toward another term is made
in connection with report that in
1912 he signed q petition requesting
Congress to initiate a constitutional
amendment providing that ''No person
who has held the office of President
for two terms, or any part OF two
terms, whether consecutively or other
wise, shall thereafter be eligible to be
chosen to the office of President or
Vice President"
In 1912 President Coolidge was a
member of the State Senate of Massa-
chusetts. At that time Theodore Roose-
Welt was seeking the presidential nom-
ination, and a strong body of Repub-
licans in Massachusetts, was opposed
to Roosevelt and favored a second
term for the then President Taft.
Press dispatches from Worcester
quote Michael J. OShea, who has been
a Republican political worker in the
past, as saying that he obtained the
signature of Mr.. Coolidge to the Pc
tition, circulated at that time by the
National Anti-third Term League,
headed by the late Senator Blair OF
New Hampshire. O'Shea is quoted as
saying that the petition was signed
in duplicate, one list going to Wash
ington with the petition, and the other
he himself retained. So far neither
list has been produced. Indeed. the
records in the Office of the secretary
of the Senate show the petition signed
by President Blair of the Anti-third
Term League, but minus the signature
of Calvin Coolidge cor any one else.
President Coolidge is maintaining
silenoe--a silence which is particularly
irritating to those who hope to picture
him as opposing a third term" for
Roosevelt, while favoring another
term for himself. But the President
by his silence is showing not only
good taste, but political wisdom under
all the circumstances. He has never
at any time announced that he was a
candidate for reelection. If he is the
nominee of the Republican party in
1928, 1t will be because the party
wants him. The people themselves
will dispose Of the third-term issue IN
connection with Mr.. Coolidge. Any.
thing he might say about it would DO
superfluous. and the President is not
famous for superfiuity of remarks.
Indeed. the statement that he signed
a petition in duplicate has been hailed
with derision in some quarters.
What Mr.. Coolidge may have or
may not have said in connection with
the candidacy Of Col. Roosevelt for
the Presidency in 1912 is, after all. be-
yond the mark. There is nothing Ill
the Constitution of the United States
which limits a manor a woman--to
two terms or any part Of two terms
as President. Until the fundamental
law Of the land is changed in this re-
spect. 1t can scarcely be called the
will of the people that any such limi'
tation be imposed. Amendments to the
Constitution to limit the eligibility OF
persons holding the presidential OIL
flee have been proposed many, many
times since the beginning OF the Gov
ernment, but have never met with any
success.
It NAV be recalled in this connec'
t;on that Thomas Jefferson violently
opposed the re-eligibility of Presl'
dent for a second term. during the
convention which framed the Consti'
tuition in 1887. He was at that time
American Minister to France. and in
letter he expressed his denunciation
of more than one term. Yet Thomas
Jefferson himself later served as Vice
President of the United States and
then two terms Of four years each as
President. It may be recalled also
that when President Woodrow Will
son was elected in 1912 he ran on
Democratic platform which pledged
the party to a constitutional amend.
ment limiting a President to one term
of office. Mr.. Wilson, however. made
no recommendation to Congress for
the adoption of such a constitutional
amendment, nor did he oppose a sec
ond term for himself.
Opponents of another term for Mr.
Coolidge are open to the suspicion
that they are not SO much exercised
over ten years In the White House for
a Chief Executive as they are exer'
cised over the probable nomination
and reelection of President Coolidge.
--.----S-s~s->-----
Crime has become a disease. The
electric chair is the fatal elimination.
pnckef philnS0nhv.