Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-17
BY WILLIAM HARD.

washington DeRlnS now 10 Jnlflk Oh
Calvin Coolidge In terms Of retrospect
and of summary of his achievements.
Every President, great or small, con-
tributes something to national ten
denotes.
what has Mr.. Coolidge contributed?
This question engages Washington
even as 1t prepared to welcome Mr.
Coolidge's successor.
The thought Of the town about Mr..
Coolidge's achievements divides them
sharply into two parts. The first is
concerned with his public policies. The
second Is concerned with the conse-
quences of his special and peculiar per-
sonai private characteristics.
His public policies seem, now to
Washington, when considered in total,
to have had their chief effect upon
the relations between the Government
on the one hand and private wealth
on the other
Mr.. Coolidge's insistence upon gov
ernmental economy Is seen now to be
q thing not to be considered simply
by itself. It Is seen now to be thing
which harmonizes with larger whole.
Mfr. Coolidge has fixed the public
mind on the proposition that govern
nent shall be conducted with a view to
the discharge Of severely restricted
governmental functions and not with a
view to the sluicing of private wealth
through the public treasury into
schemes of spacious humanitarian gen.
eral welfare.
Humanitarian general welfare Mr..
Coolidge has wished to maintain, as
much as possible. among the duties OF
the private citizen in his private
capacity
Mr.. Coolidge has held that the duties
and opportunities, economic or humans
tartan. of private wealth, great or small,
should not be absorbed by government.
He has held that it Is as much among
the high trusts Of the President to
maintain private life intact as 1t IS 70
keep government efficient. He mas neid
this opinion; and he has greatly en-
larged the area of its acceptance among
the American people.
History may say, 1t is thought, that
Mr.. Coolidge has exceeded all his
predecessors in the White House on this
one point Of preserving the powers OF
the private life OF America ungovern-
mentalized. unsapped, and still capable
Of almost unbounded growth and adj
venture. He may be remembered. per-
haps, II one may so express 1t, as our
greatest private life President"
Under him, to press this point further.
the American people have extremely
generally accepted the view that 1t
would not particularly profit them to
strip the millionaire of his so-called
excess millions" through taxation.
Only a few years ago our Federal In
come tax was regarded as a means
whereby excess wealth" could be re-
distributed through the country. Under
Mr.. Coolidge, and by his pronounce
AxaA tAA Ane
been completed, which has reduced the
income tax from being a prospective
agency for laying private wealth low
into being merely an actual agency for
supporting the Federal Government in
the economy to which 1t has become
accustomed.
Similarly, and yet even more striking
ly, because less negatively, and more
positively, Mr.. Coolidges regime has
restored private wealth to its ancient
rights In the personal service of the
republic. Mr.. Coolidge's appointment of
Mr.. Dwight Morrow Of the firm of Nor
gan 81 Co. to be the Ambassador Of this
country at Mexico City swept away
with one decisive blow the whole cur
rent accumulation Of the recent sup
posed public disabilities of the men Of
the money power" The days were re-
gained when 1t was no disability what
soever to George Washington to be rich
and to belong to the set Of the rich
holders Of vested property rights. Mr..
Coolidge. through the case Of Mr.. Nor
row. went far toward reopening a full
public career to the miserable rich on
equal terms--almost-with the deserving
poor.
In sum. Mr.. Coolidgcs public pol
icies--regarded with approval by some
and regarded with Reproduction by 9TH
ers--are counted here by all as having
given him virtually unique record of
service to the absolutely unique posi-
ton Of the United States as the most
private-life, private-wealth country in
the world.
Mr.. Coolidge's private characteristics,
meanwhile have had results which seem
profoundly to have affected the popular
view Of the very nature of the presi-
Dental ONCE.
Mr.. Coolidge has wholly negatived the
theory that the American people, in that
ONCE. necessarily demand drama, or
vaudeville. or tragedy, or any other sort
OF play-acting. He has also wholly
negatived the theory that the duties of
the ONCE demand universal presidential
meddlesomenesS and thereupon presi-
dental physical collapse.
Mr.. Coolidge leaves the White House
stronger physically than he entered 1t.
He has done his chores. He has let
other people do theirs. He has felt that
the American Nation would survive the
night even II he went to bed at 10.
He has even believed that his fellow
citizens would still be all right there, in
full possession of their faculties. when
ne woke zip from a nap in the afternoon.
His life In the White House has been, In
q way, o continuous compliment to the
American people. He has not consid-
cred himself. or anybody else, indis-
| pensable to their destiny.
Consistently with this conception Of
them and Of himself and Of his ONCE,