The presidency of Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929

what did Coolidge lack?

While the handsome Harding looked presidential, Calvin Coolidge lacked presence and one wit said he looked like someone weaned on a pickle'.

was Coolidge popular?

was a popular President: the public seemed to recognise that he was a politician of integrity and the magazine The Nation said he was just what the country needs, a quiet, simple, unobtrusive man, with no isms and no desire for any reform!

what did Coolidge promote?

Coolidge promoted tax cuts, worked hard and successfully to decrease the national debt and kept annual government expenditure at around $3 billion.

what did Coolidge tell a press confidence that made him an easy target for mockery?

that 'a little saved' in each of the government's many departments could be significant and that he saw possibilities in pencils because the cost of lead pencils to the Government per year is about $125,000'. Such statements were one of the many ways in which he proved an easy target for mockers.

what did Coolidge grow up with?

a small government and liked it that way. He said, 'If the Federal Government should go out of existence, the common run of people would not detect the difference in the affairs of their daily life for a considerable length of time!

How did Coolidge feel about farmers?

American farmers were struggling because their overproduction caused low prices, but Coolidge said farmers should help themselves - they were not the responsibility of the federal government and other taxpayers.

in what ways is the image of Calvin Coolidge as a deeply conservative 'do nothing politician’ misleading?

He had a progressive record while serving at state and local level and as President was not always averse to federal intervention in the economy and society. He supported tariffs, road building, and regulation of new industries such as radio and aviation, and (albeit reluctantly) agreed to federal aid for relief of the 1927 Mississippi floods.

what is one area that suggests a changing presidency?

innovative public relations policies. Unlike his wife Grace (known as the 'national hugger' for her warm embrace of many whom she met), Coolidge was not an outgoing personality.

how did he nevertheless work hand and successfully to relate to people while in the white house?

He was the first President to meet reporters regularly and they got on well. He invited congressmen to White House breakfasts. He greeted an average 400 callers in the White House daily.

how did he nevertheless work hand and successfully to relate to people while in the white house? - Middle America

From 1919, he was advised by Bruce Barton, one of the greatest of the early
'admen'. Barton wrote articles promoting 'Silent Cal' as the man of what would become known as Middle America.

how did he nevertheless work hand and successfully to relate to people while in the white house? - speeches

He made reassuring, statesmanlike speeches in which he never attacked his opponents and frequently cited the Bible. He ensured that many of them were broadcast on the radio.

how did he nevertheless work hand and successfully to relate to people while in the white house? - images

He recognised the importance of visual images and took great care to give crowd-pleasing photo opportunities, such as those wearing cowboy and Indian costumes. Intellectuals mocked the photographs, particularly one of him in an Indian headdress, but the public approved. In a period of rapid social and cultural change (see page 25), Americans were reassured by photographs of their President on the family farm in Vermont.

how did he nevertheless work hand and successfully to relate to people while in the white house? - humour

He did not waste words. An aide said Coolidge's reputation is built on his habit of keeping silent unless he has some definite idea to get across ... The country ... likes his silence, and it would be a dangerous thing to tear down the picture which they have built. However, he was always willing to make a joke and the public enjoyed hearing about his good sense of humour.

what was Coolidge associated with?

peace and prosperity and few doubted when he claimed, We in America are nearer today to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.

what did Coolidge’s optimism encouraged?

historians to blame him for failing to see the economic weaknesses that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

what do modern historians frequently criticise?

the three Republican Presidents for failing to regulate the economy in the 1920s, but they typified contemporary Americans in their belief in economic individualism and free enterprise and in their opposition to government regulation of the economy - unless, like the farmers who sought aid in the 1920s or the businesses that sought tariffs, it suited them.