Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
EXTENDS
AD|EU TO THR0NCS
AT WHITE HOUSE
Presidents Last Work Day
Is Marked by Tribute
of Hundreds.
BY the Associated Press.


The last work day in the White
House for Calvin Coolidge was Just
that, a day of patient, persistent work.
1t was late in the afternoon sodden
and gray with snow and rain when he
turned at last from his desk to gather
the men and women CT his cabinet fam
lily around about him at dinner and bid
them farewell.
But his plans to spend the Saturday
hours, which for Mr.. Coolidge as Presi-
dent have been almost invariably
longer than those of working days,
clearing his executive Office desk of
crowding last-minutes tasks, failed to
reckon with the esteem in which men
hold him. They came thronging over
the wet streets to gather $50 strong for
a place in the hand-shaking line at
the noon hour. 1t was the largest
group of these plain folk, without claim
to special privilege or the will to do
more than clasp his hand and wish
him Godspeed, Mr.. Coolidge has been
called upon in many months to greet
Welcomes Humble Folk.
Since he first came to the White
House Office to take up the heavy duties
thrust upon him by President Hard
ing's death, Mr.. Coolidge has felt keen
ly that his daily round of handshaking
contact with the humber folk of the
Nation is privilege OF the presl-
dency, not distaSteful necessity OF
public life. He has said that it has
meant something more than a mere
| gesture of democracy to him. 1t was
always to this last day, a pleasure 10
him. and so, even with his desk buried
under the mass of new laws that lacked
only his signature and with important
men of the official life of the Nation
waiting to bid him personal farewell,
| he found time to greet the slow moving
line and smile back his greetings.
Early among his official callers were
Gen. Summerall, chief of staff of the
Army. and Admiral Hughes, chief OF
naval operations. They have been the
chief technical advisers to President
Coolidge under the constitutional pro-
! vision that makes him commander in
| chief of both Army and Navy. Each
| came to say his own personal word tc
| the Chief whose WORK Is now nnlSIleo.
Senator Robinson Calls.
| Senator Robinson of Arkansas
| Democratic leader in the Senate, also
! came to add his own touch to this
unique, unstaged day of respectful last
! greeting to a President whose hand has
! been steady on the helm for six strenu-
Gus years. Senator Edge of New Jersey
was another caller, as was Maj. Gen
! Jadwin chief of Army Engineers.
The entire Massachusetts delegation
in Congress followed, and in all more
than two score visitors who must be
given a moment or two of precious time
crowded into this busy last work day
! All told Mr.. Coolidge met more than
500 persons at his office.
And between times, with steady ap-
plication, he bored into a pile of bills
awaiting his signature. They flowed
under his pen in an endless stream, big
matters that have been ground through
Congress in all the storm and stress OF
political controversy, and little loca
affairs like the authorization of bridge
construction.
To each the retiring President gave
the required attention without hurry
or seeming thought of the fact that
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